Running the Gauntlet: An Oral History of Canadian Merchant Seamen in World War Two

Dean F. Oliver teaches history at York University.

Oral history is difficult to critique without appearing to denigrate the
significance or heroism of the individual acts recorded therein, but
this book is a disappointment. In four cumbersome, vaguely chronological
chapters, Parker recounts his subjects’ wartime memories with little
editorial comment and no attempt to separate the essential from the
peripheral. Often engrossing, all too frequently the stories are turgid,
repetitive, and unnecessarily long. The brief introduction is well
written and informative, but a glossary and more extensive endnotes
would have helped decode nautical terminology and place the various
actions in context.

The book is worth reading for the stoic courage, endurance, and
sacrifice of its contributors. Their youth is striking. Many were in
their early teens, more often than not the products of East Coast
families with long seafaring traditions. Equally striking are the harsh
conditions of their service and the catastrophic casualties they
endured. The tales of miraculous escape and tragic death are legion, and
a goodly number recall vividly the doomed ship they almost sailed on.
The dead and wounded were hardly the only casualties. Again and again
the contributors refer to the debilitating effects of fatigue and fear
and the immense frustration at coming home to an apparently ungrateful
nation.

The life of tanker crewmen was utterly Hobbesian: nasty, brutish, and
short. Accidents on the high seas claimed numerous ships, and the
difficulties of night-time convoy maneuvres in bad weather are
highlighted in several exceptionally dramatic accounts. Scarcely anyone
liked British officers, whose professionalism was admired just as their
haughty, overbearing manners were reviled. Most seamen preferred the pay
and perks on American vessels.

Parker must not be faulted for this book’s obvious agenda: to point
out the folly of denying merchant seamen veteran’s status, and to
record their contributions before old age derails the effort. Decades of
official ignorance have left a stain on the national fabric that belated
recognition will not soon erase. The country needed a reminder.