Books
Signed Copy of Ambushed Under the Southern Cross, By George Duffy
- Item Number
- P120
- Estimated Value
- 37 USD
- Sold
- 35 USD to dminassian
- Number of Bids
- 5 - Bid History
Item Description
Bid exclusively online for this book!
Ambushed Under the Southern Cross: The Making of an American Merchant Marine Officer and His Ensuing Saga of Courage and Survival
Local historian, George Duffy, relates the events that led up to him becoming an American Merchant Marine Officer. The book follows George from his graduation from the Massachusetts Nautical School (MNS) in 1941, to the sinking of his ship, the American Leader, by a German commerce raider. The book goes on to relate the story of George's three years as a prisoner in two German warships and 10 Japanese labor camps scattered over the southeast Asian islands of Java, Singapore, and Sumatra. This book is a treasure for any historian's library.
classmates graduated from the
Massachusetts Nautical School (MNS) on
September 23, 1941, an era came to an end.
Never again would the three-masted barque
Nantucket go to sea in her role as a sail
training vessel for future merchant marine
officers. They, also, became the last class to
make two summer sail training cruises aboard,
thus marking the end of the school’s tradition
extending back to 1891.
Those hardened young sailors were immediately
recruited as deck and engineering officers
into a rapidly growing United States merchant
marine. Not quite a year after graduating from
MNS, and just ten months into World War
Two, George Duffy’s good fortune came to
an abrupt end, when his ship, the American
Leader, was sunk by a German commerce
raider. George and forty-six of his shipmates
were plucked out of the South Atlantic Ocean
and taken prisoner.
This book relates his two spartan years in the
Nantucket, the next rewarding year in the
American Leader, and over three years as
prisoner in two German warships, and ten
Japanese labor camps scattered over the
southeast Asian islands of Java, Singapore,
and Sumatra.
In addition, a parallel tale recounts the life
and career of a young German naval officer,
Konrad Hoppe, who served in George’s
nemesis, the Hsk Michel. Many years after
the war they met in Germany in, as Konrad
expressed it, “Great delight that the fateful
enmity has changed into a sincere friendship.”
George and his wife Margaret have been
married fifty six years, and currently reside
in Exeter, New Hampshire. They have two
daughters, one in Exeter and the other
nearby, and five granddaughters of college
age and older.
Item Special Note
Book will be signed and shipped from author via USPS in the continental U.S. only. A personal note can also be added to the signing.
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