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WELDON (Capt. L.B., MC)
"Hard Lying"; Eastern Mediterranean 1914-1919.
2nd Imp., ix+246pp., portrait frontis., 22 plates, fldg. map. Jenkins.
1925
#61095
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![[HLMainPic]](booksThumbs/61095.jpg "Click on the left or right of the image for more images")
Author commanded a captured German 'prize' used in the defence of Egypt & as a 'parent ship' for French seaplanes during the Dardanelles campaign. Prior to this he was at the initial Gallipoli landing aboard HMS 'Euryalus' &c. In January 1917 he was informed by Military Intelligence at Port Said that "they had procured a yacht - the Managem - for the spy business..." Weldon joined her, insisting, successfully, that the Egyptian crew would be unreliable & having her complement replaced by an RN crew. From May 1917 the vessel was commanded by Alan Cain RNR: "A first-class man... He had been in 'sail' & afterwards, just before the war, had been the skipper of a New Zealand Union Steamship Co. steamer. He had an extra-Master's certificate & was a real stout-hearted fellow." Of Weldon's work in the war, following Gallipoli, Falls states: "He also had a good deal of touchy secret service work in landing & re-embarking agents on the coast of Asia Minor & Syria. His story is not well written but it is very readable & at times humorous." - Falls. Orig. apple green cloth, titled in black, very nice copy with an association presentation inscrip., "Dr. Isobel Mitchell from Alan Cain January 1927." Note: In the author's Foreword, in which he regrets that "there only appears to be one person of importance in it" [i.e. himself] he adds: "There is, however, one person who merits all & more than he was awarded, Lt.-Commander Alan Cain, R.N.R., D.S.C.... When I mention in my diary how I went ashore on dark nights in a boat from the 'Managem' to a correct position off a coast bereft of lights & in many cases badly charted; this, however, was successfully accomplished by Captain Cain on every occasion during the two years I was in his ship." The recipient is presumed to be the Scottish doctor Isobel Mitchell who served with Irish Protestant Missions in the East. There is a small snapshot of the Sydney Harbour bridge loosely inserted with an ink note to the rear "Sydney Harbour where Alan died in March 1927." Nice association copy. See illustration on our website.
£225
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