Black Company

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A01=Eric Purdon
A01=Eric St. C Purdon
African American sailors
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Eric Purdon
Author_Eric St. C Purdon
automatic-update
Black sailors
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBG
Category=HBJD
Category=HBWQ
Category=JBSL
Category=JFSL3
Category=JWCK
Category=JWF
Category=NHB
Category=NHD
Category=NHWL
Category=NHWR7
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Language_English
PA=Available
PC 1264
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
softlaunch
U.S. Navy
World War II
WWII

Product details

  • ISBN 9781557506580
  • Weight: 166g
  • Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
  • Publication Date: 12 Sep 2013
  • Publisher: Naval Institute Press
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Paperback
  • Language: English
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days

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With the launching of Subchaser 1264 in the spring of 1944, the U.S. Navy began a social experiment designed to test the ability of a group of African Americans to live, fight, and survive under wartime conditions on a small combatant. At the time blacks served only as messmen in the navy, but ships were being built faster than men could be trained so the navy desperately needed manpower. Over strong opposition, PC 1264 went to sea with a crew of fifty black enlisted men and five white officers. The ship's captain and author of this book, Eric Purdon, had only been to sea for ten days before assuming command.

Purdon tells the story of his ship as it was lived in this strangely condensed society. Filled with drama, comedy, and emotion, it is the story of a commanding officer fearful that his inexperience would jeopardise the aspirations of an entire people, of a crew quick to resent a slur but quicker to react to enemy submarines, and of a young black officer assigned to the ship in 1945 who later became the first black rear admiral in the navy. Purdon offers a play-by-play description of shipboard life, including the intensive anti-submarine convoy escort operations in which the crew amply demonstrated their abilities. With the success of PC 1264 and the USS Mason and her African-American crew, the navy was able to move more rapidly toward total integration.