SERVICE FROM THE SEA
Nga Mahi No Te Moana
By Kelly Ana Morey

Published by PENGUIN GROUP
Hardback, 231 pages with illustrations
RRP $60.00

Reviewed by Gerry Wright RNZN (Rtd)

This is a well presented hardback book about the navy scoping a wide view of the subject.

Sadly, it does not appear to have been edited by a professional naval historian. For example the German, Count Von Luckner, gets a five page coverage while Lieutenant Commander Jim Macdonald, the most highly decorated New Zealand naval officer of World War II, who rose from Ordinary Seaman to Lieutenant Commander in five years and was awarded a DSO, DSC and two bars, two Mention in Dispatches and a Royal Humane Society award, is covered in just half a page. This will hopefully be rectified later this year with the publication of a book about him.

Highlighted entries are added mid sentence – one eight page insert comes between ‘New’ and ‘Zealand’.

This is not a book for naval historians but for the lay person wishing to learn about New Zealand naval history.