The jail that went to sea - Peter Haining

How a group of regenerate hoodlums became seamen and braved both the elements and Nazi U-Boats. Not forgetting how the whole operation was nearly scuttled...In 1941 the British people had their backs to the wall in their lone fight against the might of Hitler's Germany. America was neutral, at least until the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Glasgow became the starting point for one of the most amazing and, until now, untold episodes of the war. Government officials desperate for men to sail merchant ships across the Atlantic to collect vital equipment and supplies from North America devised a plan to enlist convicts from Barlinnie Prison and use them as crew for a 25,000-ton merchantman, the George Washington. This unprecedented and dangerous operation was probably the nearest thing to press gang tactics since the days of Lord Nelson. Quite simply a choice of death or glory, this book relates the extraordinary story of those men through the accounts of two survivors, plus the log and memories of Captain David Bone and Glasgow police records and documents.