S.S. Nerissa, the final crossing : the amazing true story of the loss of a Canadian troopship in the North Atlantic /by William Dziadyk, Lieutenant Commander, R.C.N. (retired).

"There are so many stories, of Canada's heroic participation in the Second World War, that are yet to be told. This is one of those stories. The S.S. Nerissa was the only ship transporting Canadian Army troops which was lost to enemy action during the entire war. The details were highly classified until almost 50 years after the sinking. The tragic loss of this ship on 30 April 1941, resulted in the third largest loss of life for a ship sunk by U-boats in the approaches to the British Isles. The deaths of 81 Merchant Navy seamen; 83 Canadian, 12 British, and 3 Norwegian military personnel; 11 Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) American pilots; and 17 civilian passengers touched not only Canadian families at the time, but also many families in the allied nations and the neutral United States. Yet, the loss of the Nerissa is hardly mentioned in official war records or by historians [...] and the tragic human losses are largely unknown to our current generation. Nerissa usually sailed independently, not in escorted convoys. This book focuses on her final wartime crossing of the North Atlantic. Documented are: events that led up to the sinking by U-552 (Erich Topp) [...] and the survivors' deadly 10 hour struggle in the open ocean awaiting rescue. (Of the ship's 8 lifeboats, only 1 was successfully launched, 1 was upright but flooded, 4 were capsized and 2 sank with the ship). The circumstances of the sinking of a troopship caused a public relations dilemma on the Canadian home-front. The book includes eye-witness accounts from many of the 84 survivors and some stories of those that perished. After so many years, their stories still deserve to be told. Much of the material is based on analysis of: testimony, recollections and/or official reports taken from survivors; and Canadian, British and German source documents which have since been declassified."--Provided by the publisher.