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The Comprehensive Guide to Shipwrecks of the East Coast (two volumes) by Ron Young
The Comprehensive Guide to Shipwrecks of the East Coast (two volumes) by Ron Young
Ron Young tells me that he is not able to dive any more. His back and other joints, and an asthma attack, have told him that it is time to quit. So the waters of the east coast of Britain, which he has largely made his own as far as wreck books are concerned, will feel his fins no more. But his loss is the wreck diver's gain. It gives him more time for book research.
In Diver August 2001, I found myself reviewing two volumes of his first books, entitled The Comprehensive Guide to Shipwrecks of the North-east Coast, and I said that I admired his audacity. 'Comprehensive' indeed!
But, you know, comprehensive was pretty nearly right. Certainly his two new volumes of The Comprehensive Guide to Shipwrecks of the East Coast, which move us farther south from Robin Hood's Bay to Skegness, are even more comprehensive. Volume One covers wrecks from 1766 to 1917 and Volume Two (which follows shortly) takes us right up to 2001.
Each book reports on more than 240 wrecks - some 500 in all. Young is obviously delighted by the amount of information he has been given by divers and researchers. He describes this contribution as 'mind-boggling' and there are so many contributors that he uses several pages of his books to thank them.
Because he writes about being comprehensive, and as so many East Coast wrecks were the result of torpedoings, it is no surprise to find that his introduction is all about the U-boat war of 1914-18, and that he adds an enormous, enlightening, section at the end about the missions of various U-boats in East Coast waters.
I accused him of being a U-boat fanatic, but he doesn't disagree, saying that he always wondered what happened to the U-boats which sank the ships listed in his books.
These books are full of photographs, full of facts, and full of the sort of things divers want to know. Wreck-divers' books, without a doubt.
Kendall McDonald
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| The Comprehensive Guide to Shipwrecks of the East Coast (two volumes) by Ron Young (Tempus Publishing, ISBN 0-7524-2764-4). Softback 252pp. £17.99 each |
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