Our Wonderful Navy

“I knew one ship where there were the sons of a University professor, a coal miner, a cotton spinner, and a farmer, and all these lived in one mess and worked in one boat — and all were equally good seamen.”

First published in 1919, Our Wonderful Navy tells the story of officers and common sailors during the First World War

With vivid accounts of sea battles John Margerison demonstrates how each section of the Navy came together to defeat their common enemy.

From the Falklands to the Gallipoli campaign, and from the sinking of the Emden and Konigsberg to the daring raid on Zebrugge, Our Wonderful Navy charts the Royal Navy’s contribution to the First World War.

How did the Navy combat German Sea Raiders?

What went wrong at Gallipoli?

How did the Navy support the British Army in Mesopotamia?

However, this is also an account of the men who sailed those ships.

From an officer’s beginnings in the academy to every level of sailors’ lives in the fleets, this book is rich with detail about life at sea and on land for sailors in the early Twentieth Century Royal Navy.

John S. Margerison (1887-1925) authored several books around the topic of the Royal Navy. Margerison married in 1907 and had three children. Margerison also worked as an advertising manager, travelling to Bombay, India, in the 1920 and was editor of the Netherlands Indies Review. He is the author of The Navy’s Way, The Sure Shield, Petrol Patrols, amongst many others. He died in a motorcycle incident in 1925 aged just 37.