During the Second World War, John Kingsley Cook (1911-94) served in the merchant navy as a wireless officer. He joined in 1940, and went on his first sea voyage, to the United States, in December 1940. His ship was sunk off the coast of Algeria in 1941. With meagre rations and their hopes fading, the men in the boats became lethargic, mutinous or apathetic. On board their lifeboat, the mate had organized watches, with the names of the men diligently written by Cook on the back of a piece of navigational chart. After the boat capsized, leaving no alternative but to swim in rough sea to the shore, half of them drowned – Mills, Wells, and McCafferty among them. The survivors were taken captive in algeria and held there until liberated after the Allied landing in North Africa in 1942. He resumed service after a few months recuperating at home, and was discharged in August 1945, when he joined the staff at the Edinburgh College of Art. There, he taught engraving and graphic design and lectured on the History of Art, before being appointed Head of Design in 1960. He retired in 1971.

Throughout the war, Cook drew life at sea and in captivity. He also created a number of retrospective drawings in the 1980s, when he was working on his (as yet unpublished) memoirs. 262 drawings and 2 paintings of his wartime experiences were presented by his family to the National Maritime Museum in 2012.

This list is written on the back of a fragment of a navigational chart, US Chart no.4798 'Belfast Lough, East Coast of Ireland'.