Malay Waters: The story of little ships coasting out of Singapore and Penang in peace and war

“All too often, as Mr. Tomlinson says, we tend to regard our merchant ships much as we do the saving presence of sea and sky. Seafaring men are not easily moved to speak of past experiences, and in peace as well as war there is much in the annals of small ships that is worth recording but unrecorded. Few have more knowledge of life in small ships than H. M. Tomlinson, few have better acquaintance with these waters, and very few indeed have his genius for making memorable things more memorable by splendid writing. The stories of the Straits Steamship Company told in Malay Waters are true stories, with characters as living as Conrad’s. They have their humorous and tragic moments, and throughout the whole book is the spirit of British seamanship and the spirit of adventure.”    From the cover