SWEPT CHANNELS : Being an Account of the Work of the Minesweepers in the Great War by Taffrail ( Dorling, Captain Taprell ) - 1935

392 pp. including six appendices, index, 23 photographic plates, 11 maps and diagrams in text. Taffrail was the pseudonym of Captain Henry Taprell Dorling who served in the Royal Navy during World War I and II; he was a prolific writer of naval fiction and non-fiction. Presentation copy with author's inscription to front free endpaper: "His Royal Highness, The Master of the Merchant Navy and of the Fishing Fleets, with the respectful duty of the author Taprell Dorling. September 1935." With sales plate on front pastedown, from Sotheby's Duke and Duchess of Windsor New York auction (11-19 September 1997).In two world wars starving Britain by cutting her shipping supply lines was a prime objective of enemy navies. In the First World War (1914-18) the mine was a comparatively new maritime weapon and little in the way of specilised counter-measures equipment or training was available to the RN. This is the story of the "minesweepers war", how naval ships were developed to carry out the work, while fishing… Read More

London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1938. Blue cloth on boards with soft rubbing, small scratch and small areas of shelf-sunned. Edges: light browning and few only foxing. Spine: thin bumping to head & foot. Eps: fep foot with small booksellers sticker; ffep with small name stamp to head and inscribed 1940; dj shadownig. Slight hinge splitting between ffep & half-title page. Frontis: b/w photo of A Mine Explosion. Clean content. B/w illustrations. Binding is VG. 388p. Reprint. Hb. VG/None.

London Hodder and Stoughton Limited 1938. Second reprint. 388 pages. Light blue boards with title to spine and front in good, clean condition. Dustwrapper is complete with some small loss on bottom spine and some staining on back. Otherwise good. Pages are clean and in good condition with some photographic plates. Very SCARCE in complete dustwrapper

London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1935. Book. Fair. Hardcover. First Edition. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. 388 pages. Index. Short bibliography. Numerous black and white photographic plates. Maps. Diagrams. "During WWI the Germans laid 43,636 mines in all parts of the world, though principally in the North Sea round about the British Isles. The bulk of the minesweeping fell upon Britain. At one period one minesweeper was lost for every two mines swept up, while each time a sweeper was sunk half her crew were killed or drowned. In all, we lost 214 Minesweepers during the four years and three months that the war lasted." - Introduction. Above-average wear. Backstrip loose but present. Hinges intact. Dust jacket not included. A worthy reading copy. Bibliographic reference: Enser p.223..