The Saga of San Demetrio

New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943. First American Edition [stated]. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good. Format is approximately 5 inches by 7.5 inches. [10], 84, [2] pages. Endpaper discolored. Cover has some wear and soiling. Contains chapters on The Ship; The Crew; The Convoy is Attacked; San Demetrio Abandoned; San Demetrio Regained; A Derelict Made Shipshape; "By Guess and By God''; ''The Living Shall Praise Thee''; Landfall; Good Tidings; and Salvage. Contains Diagram of M.V. San Demetrio on page 2. Also contains Diagrams of M.V. San Demetrio, Signal of Distress, Under her own Power, Upper Bridge Deck, and Chief Engineer's Cabin between pages 29 and 30. Fryniwyd Tennyson Jesse Harwood (born Wynifried [also recorded as Winifred] Margaret Jesse, 1 March 1888 - 6 August 1958) was an English criminologist, journalist and author (she also wrote as Wynifried Margaret Tennyson). Her most notable books include A Pin To See the Peepshow, a fictional treatment of the case of Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters, and Murder & Its Motives, which divided killers into six categories based on their motivations: those who murder for Gain, Revenge, Elimination, Jealousy, Conviction and Lust of killing. This classification of motive has remained influential. She contributed many cases to the Notable British Trials series She reported on the German attacks on Belgium in the First World War for Collier's Weekly. Her story Treasure Trove tells of the rediscovery of the 30 pieces of silver paid to Judas to betray Jesus Christ and their subsequent malign influence. The novel Tom Fool deals with a young man's experiences on ships, and describes shipboard life in some detail. During World War I, Jesse traveled to the Belgian front as a war correspondent for the Daily Mail, one of the first women so assigned. Her stories, commended as well-written and newsworthy, were later picked up by the Pall Mall Gazette. She was later assigned by the Ministry of Information to report on the Women's Army, which resulted in the book The Sword of Deborah: First Hand Impressions of the British Women's Army in France. The book, published after the war in 1919, provided an honest and unglamorous look at the role of the WAACs (Women's Auxiliary Army Corps), the FANYs (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry), and the VADs (Voluntary Aid Detachment) in the war effort. Derived from a Kirkus review: Grand tribute to the heroism of the officers and crew of the Mercantile Marine in a story of the oiler San Demetrio, one of the convoy conducted by Jervis Bay. Shelled and set on fire by the Admiral Sheer, the vessel was abandoned. Two days later, a of her survivors boarded her and effected sufficient repairs to bring her back to port with her "pool petrol" nearly intact. The plan of the ship and the roster of the men give a rounded aspect to the record, and the whole account loses nothing of the drama and epic quality of the stirring event. MV San Demetrio was a British motor tanker, notable for her service during the Second World War. She was built in 1938 for the Eagle Oil and Shipping Company. In 1940 she was damaged by enemy action in mid-Atlantic, abandoned by her crew but later re-boarded and successfully brought into harbour. She was the subject of a 1943 feature film, San Demetrio London, one of the few films that recognized the heroism of the UK Merchant Navy crews during the War.