Sam McAughtry was born in a fiercely loyalist area of Belfast. He was an award-winning broadcaster and journalist, and was known particularly for his work for the Irish Times and for the programme Sunday Miscellany. He was a Life Member of the Irish Writer's Union, was named as Irish Columnist of the Year in 1986, and in 1988 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the National University of Ireland. He was a key member of the Peace Train Organisation and an influential trade union activist. In 1996, he was elected to the Irish Senate, the first person from Northern Ireland to hold this honour. He is the author of a number of books, including The Sinking of the Kenbane Head, a memoir about his much-loved brother, Mart, who died when his ship, the Kenbane Head, was sunk by the German battleship Admiral Scheer on 5 November 1940. He died in March 2014.

There have been many books about personal wartime experiences, but this one is different. It is not easy to write again of the stories of such warships as the Scheer and the Hipper, the Rawalpindi and the Jervis Bay. Yet Mr McAughtry does so with freshness and commendable historical accuracy. And in his descriptions of school and family life in pre-war Belfast he proves himself a natural storyteller. I hope others will enjoy his book has much as I have done.