JAMES EDMOND MACDONNELL was Australia's greatest novelist of the sea, and his stories of naval warfare have since become classics of their type. As a boy, Macdonnell became determined to go to sea and read every seafaring book he could find. At age 13, while his family was still asleep, he took his brother’s bike and rode eighty miles from his hometown to Brisbane in an attempt to see ships and the sea. Fortunately, he was found and returned to his family.

Eventually, he served in the Royal Australian Navy for fourteen years, joining at age 17, advancing through all lower deck ranks, and reaching the rank of commissioned gunnery officer. He began writing books while still in active service. His first book, Fleet Destroyer – a collection of stories about life on small ships – was published by The Book Depot, Melbourne, in 1945. Macdonnell began writing full-time for Horwitz in 1956, writing an average of a dozen books a year.

Macdonnell’s naval stories feature several recurring characters – Captain “Dutchy” Holland, D.S.O., Captain Peter Bentley, V.C., Captain Bruce Sainsbury, V.C., Jim Brady, and Lieutenant Commander Robert Randall.