Book Review: Last Voyage of the Henry Bacon

Over the years, every naval engagement of the Second World War has found its books and scholars. In contrast, the merchant convoys across the Atlantic have found favor with few historians. Yet every convoy took the same risks of sudden death and destruction, even compounded by their slow speed, lack of armament, and thin hulls. Almost every convoy was a protracted battle between hidden predators and slow targets. But few writers have measured the cost and told the tales.

This scarcity makes The Last Voyage of the SS Henry Bacon all the more a delight to read. Authors Foxvog and Alotta tell many stories: Norwegians fleeing Nazi scorched earth tactics, first-time sailors experiencing the gloom of Murmansk, desperate Soviet stowaways summarily returned to Stalinist captors, and indefatigable British officers searching for survivors amid submarine and airborne German menace. The authors score a major success with their skillful integration of so many narrative threads.

The basic story is straightforward. Early in 1945, the Liberty ship SS Henry Bacon traveled in convoy to Murmansk with supplies for the Soviet war effort. At the same time, British warships rescued Norwegian civilians left to die by the retreating Nazis. At Murmansk the supplies were unloaded, civilians transferred to the empty cargo ships, and the convoy returned. En route home, severe weather, hardware problems, and poor ballast separated Henry Bacon from the rest of the convoy. With navigational equipment carried away by the storm, the ship strayed north as the convoy steamed south. In this isolated condition it fell prey to a German air attack force.

Alone the crew of merchantmen and Navy gunners fought more than two dozen German attack aircraft, downing at least five before succumbing to a torpedo. Here the story-telling skill of the authors is especially strong. Norwegian civilians were given first place in the few undamaged lifeboats, and the crew survived as best they could in small rafts, and improvised floats. By the time rescuing British vessels arrived two hours later, many of the crew, including senior officers, had died from exposure or gone down with their ship.

Nearly sixty years later, there are still lessons from the events of this book: the tight cohesion of the Navy and merchant marine crew in the face of threats and war, the British commitment to allies in need, the casual callousness of the retreating Germans, and the complex relations between allies as different as Soviets and Americans. The moral of these stories, magnified by wartime drama amid nature’s fury, is how ordinary men become extraordinary in the face of crisis.

This by itself would be a great story. Yet much more than these adventures make this book so rewarding. The authors’ exhaustive research recounts incidents among crewmembers before and after their last trip, and brings terse ship records to vivid life. You feel the world of Depression-era men looking for adventure and a better life; some ended it in glory, others in the bars of distant lands. But the self-sacrifice, ingenuity, and persistence of these men was their defining quality

The Last Voyage of the SS Henry Bacon is absolutely compelling reading for anyone interested in WWII or sea adventure. It is rich in detail, deeply researched, well-told, and crammed with personal stories and riveting action. I can only hope that it comes to the attention of a film producer.