Captain of the Queens.
Grattidge, Captain Harry.
Place Published: London:
Publisher: Oldbourne Press,
Date Published: 1956.
Description: 313 pages in book. This book is in VERY GOOD condition. Very clean cloth boards but bumped front corners and bump to front edge of board. The ffep has inscription. Dust jacket is in VERY GOOD condition with some chipping and close tearing to edges. JMVintage specializes in books, magazines, and treasures related to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor...and other curious people. Autobiography of Captain Harry Grattidge, former Commodore of the Cunard Line as told to Richard Collier, with photos;, personal observations of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Queen Elizabeth-the Queen Mother, and other famous people. Dust jacket reads: This richly entertaining story of a 50-year career on the high seas-a career which began in the sunset days of sailing ships, saw the development of great ocean liners, was shadowed by tragedy and danger in both World Wars, and culminated in the proudest post in the British Merchant Marine. There is hardly a Cunard liner that Captain Grattidge has not served on-from Laconia, the old Mauretania, and the Berengaria to the two great Queens. And there is hardly an eminent world traveler about whom he does not have fascinating stories-the Duchess of Windsor, Field Marshal Montgomery, Ezio Pinza, Bernard Baruch, Bing Crosby, Gertrude Lawrence, H.G. Wells, Lord Mountbatten, Lawrence of Arab, the Emir Feisal, Bob Hope and scores of others. Renowned figures move familiarly through these pages, often in unfamiliar poses. There was the affair of the Russian cigars and Churchill's largeminded disregard of British customs regulations. There was the episode of Lana Turner's hairdo which the Captain impishly asked her to change in the middle of an evening as a joke on passengers who were slavishly imitating her. There was the astonishing moment when Captain Grattidge heard the strains of a band playing on a supposedly empty ship and discovered that the leader was the then Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII. Here, too, are moments of high drama-as in the terrible disaster of the sinking of the Lancastria off St. Nazaire with nearly 6,000 aboard and more than 2,500 soldiers lost. Or the time during world War I when Captain Grattidge's torpedoed ship titled so monstrously that he could see the moon through a hole in her side. Or the tense meeting between Eden and Molotov on board the Franconia, temporary headquarters for the British delegation during the Yalta conference. A captain of the great Cunarders must be more than an expert seaman, he must also take all passengers, high and low, under his care for the duration of a voyage. Because people have the duration of a voyage. Because people have the habit of shedding restraints on an ocean trip, Grattidge has had to cope with every king of human problem from straightening out the affairs of a lovesick teenager to assisting the plans of a Captain of Industry. Grattidge's sympathetic and acute knowledge of both sides of his job gives his personal story its fascination and unique human quality. -----------
Edition: First editionBinding: Hard Cover
Condition: Very Good in Very Good dj
Book Id: 13006
Price: $45.00
