“No more risky enterprise day after day, week after week, can be conceived than that of hovering about on the sea-lanes, usually within wireless range of the British cruisers; and the narrow escapes, the coincidences, the exciting moments rival breathless fiction.”
From 1914-1918, steamship raiding proved to be a lethal, but honest form of warfare as Germany endeavoured to destroy the Royal Navy.
It was a vast campaign planned with the utmost precision and sought to destroy all forms of British sailing craft, weaving a global enterprise of spies and anti-British allies.
In this gripping narrative, Chatterton describes the journey of German-American liners across the world’s marine highways, through rough waters to Pacific islands and tropical climates followed by treacherous winds and snow-capped mountains.
He includes rare first-hand accounts and information from the British Admiralty Archives, providing unrivalled descriptions of one of the greatest and most controversial Naval adventures.
Praise for The Sea-Raiders
“Mr. Charleton’s Sea-Stories never fail to interest” — Saturday Review.
Praise for E. Keble Chatterton,
“Here, in these records of duels to death, of courage and cunning and the final rage of battle, there is the essential spirit of epic.” — Sunday Times.
“Stirring descriptions.” — Daily Mail.
“Vivid and fascinating stories that will live for all time.” — Daily Sketch.
Edward Keble Chatterton (1878-1944) was a sailor and prolific writer from Sheffield. His voyages across the English Channel, to the Netherlands, around the Mediterranean and through the French canals led to many articles and books. Joining the R.N.V.R. at the outbreak of the First World War he commanded a motor launch flotilla, leaving the service in 1919 as a Lieutenant Commander. Between the wars his output included works about model ships, juvenile novels, and narrative histories of naval events; from 1939, his writing focused upon the Second World War.