Tin Hats, Oilskins, and Seaboots: A Naval Journey, 1938-1945

Sidney Allinson is a Victoria-based communications consultant, Canadian
news correspondent for Britain’s The Army Quarterly and Defence, and
author of The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I.

Latham Jenson is a Canadian who served aboard several famous ships,
fought in some fierce sea battles, and survived being torpedoed by a
German U-Boat in the north Atlantic. Tin Hats, Oilskins and Seaboots is
part autobiography and part documentation of service at sea aboard
warships during the Second World War.

Jenson grew up yearning to be a naval officer, fight his country’s
enemies, and visit distant lands. He tells how he achieved all these
boyhood ambitions and more, eventually retiring with the senior naval
rank of Commander. In 1938, he obtained a rare commission in the Royal
Canadian Navy (RCN) as an officer cadet. Since the then-tiny RCN had
scant room for new junior officers, Jenson was sent for training with
the British Royal Navy instead. His service began shortly before the
outbreak of the war, and he was soon in the thick of some bitter sea
battles.

Jenson writes with clarity and humor about shipboard life and the
various eccentric characters with whom he served. His tales of grimmer
experiences in combat, ship sinking, and bitter cold seas are told with
modesty but are nonetheless revealing. Jenson’s black-and-white line
drawings provide valuable reference details about naval operations,
shipboard life, weapons, and equipment used during World War II.