Captain Blair: Q-Ship Commander

Blair's life intersects with Ottoman Sheikhs, gun runners, the Easter Rising, court marshals and a ship carpenter's daughter. His life was lived amidst Empires. The Ottoman, to whom he was friend, the German, against who he fought on the high seas and the British, of which most New Zealanders felt they were part until after the First World War. Selected to command an early WWI Mystery Ship Q.17, Blair would become Naval V.C William Sanders' first commanding officer. With these two men, for a brief moment, the age of sail would face off against the 20th Century U-boat. The bones of a good story lie with this researched account of the life of Andrew Dougall Blair, though it still manages to contain thrilling first hand accounts of q-ship 17s engagement with three German u-boats during World War I.