Dust Upon the Sea by W.E. Benyon-Tinker was published by Hodder in 1947. I didn’t have access to a copy when I was researching Uncommon Courage but I’ve read it since and can thoroughly recommend it - even though it was written by a maritime ‘Pongo’ and not a member of the RNVR. Benyon-Tinker does not include his own photo among the many valuable images in the book and I think my next research challenge must be to discover more about him. All I know currently is that he was known as Nick or Nicky, was a close friend of Seligman and was married to Valerie, who helped the flotilla with shore based admin. I’d love to discover that they took up sailing after the war…

‘Pink Gin time’: Adrian Seligman and Commander Freddy Hallaghan RN on LS8

The title Dust Upon the Sea sounds as if it should be a quotation from something in Homer. Perhaps it is – if so, I’d be glad if someone would point me to the source. There are occasional eloquent passages late in the book where the author reflects on the centuries of maritime predation and strife in the historic waters of the Eastern Mediterranean, ‘the wine-dark Aegean’. He describes the seas as ‘haunted’. It’s a thought that certainly occurred to other, classically-educated WW2 combatants finding themselves fighting in areas that they had previously considered the cradle of civilisation, haunt of gods and heroes. Geoffrey Kirk, future Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge, who had joined the RNVR from university, did not hesitate to offer an impromptu lecture on the Temple of Apollo at Didyma, even to the captors who’d just been deciding whether he should be executed.

That was a tale from Adrian Seligman’s War in the Islands, an excellent but frustrating book in which Seligman collects later reflections from 13 unidentified authors who served with his Levant Schooner Flotilla, 1943-4. He presents them in Chaucerian fashion as The Professors Tale, the Bank Manager’s Tale etc – a clever and effective idea but one which left me frustrated at not actually knowing who was who and which caique they commanded. Dust on the Sea has brought me closer to a list of commands but I’m not there yet. There were frequent changes as the flotilla expanded from the original three caiques but also suffered losses along the way. Seligman commanded LS2, then LS8. Andre Londos of the Royal Hellenic Navy commanded LS1 & LS7, Alex McLeod RNVR LS2, Charles Bradbeer RNVR LS3 (later Fairmile 862), Robert Ballantyne RNVR LS3, ‘Nudge’ Phillips RANVR LS4 (lost), Duncan Gorton RNVR LS5 (lost), Skipper Stipetic RNR LS7, Lt Clifton LS7, Brian Coleman RNVR LS8, Noel Clegg RNVR LS8 (abandoned) LS9 a Greek Skipper, Banner RNVR LS10, Geoffrey Kirk AHS 12,

A future job must be a cross referencing to the post war occupations listed in War in the Islands.

Benyon-Tinker was in the unusual position of being a ‘pongo’ (Army officer) seconded to the Levant Schooner Flotilla as an Intelligence and Gunnery officer. He travelled with a camera and a portable typewriter which gives a marvellous level of detail and authenticity to his memoir, written 1945-6, published in 1947. his is a good-natured tale, not ignoring the hardships, the futilities, the occasional incomprehensibility of ‘irregular’ combat, but also celebrating its triumphs and the quality of their companionship. He’s full of admiration for Seligman himself, as a personality and as a leader: ‘Coolly determined and skilful, his heart and soul were in his job. He had led his flotilla for all these months without ever asking a newly fledged and junior officer to undertake and operation on an island he was not prepared to visit first. He thought offensively. His one desire was to engage the enemy ever closer, and neither the hazards of weather or of circumstance was allowed to interfere with this.’ From one officer and friend to another, that’s a significant accolade.

There’s no index to the book. Here are the names of RNVR officers mentioned, other than those listed above. . When I’m uncertain whether they were RNVR or RN I’ve included the name anyway.

Sam Bauday, Norman Broad (k I a), Terry Brown (ML 356) Frank Coulter (HDML 1283), Bill Croxton, Dongray (ML357) Robin Fletcher, Vic Harfield (HDML 1046), Ken Lloyd (Fairmile 356), Eric Lukis RNVR (Commandant Domine), Paul Jenkins, Lt Murgatroyde (ML 308), Philip Nicholls, Mike Poore (ML354), Albert Priestley, Frank Ramseyer. Dougie Russell, Alec Thwaites, Sub Lt Tuckey (k i a), Gordon Wiley (ML 350), Ramsey Wilson (HDML 1083, Fairmile 350), Geoffrey Whittam (ML359), Vladimir Wolfson, Chick Young (HDML 1381 captured)