Heart of Oak

by Tristan Jones

The author depicts his sea voyages and his experiences as a sailor in the British Navy during World War II and the Korean War

Genres: History, World War II, Biography Memoir, Nonfiction, Nautical

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Arthur Jones, pen name Tristan Jones was a prolific English author and mariner. His stories, mostly about sailing, are a combination of both fact and fiction, and it is rather difficult to tell these apart.
He was an illegitimate child, and was raised mainly in orphanages. He joined the Royal Navy in 1946, and served for 14 years. After ending his career in the Navy, he bought a sailboat, became a whiskey smuggler, and scraped a living sailing the Mediterranean Sea.
After his left leg was amputated in 1982 (a result of health problems and accidents), he resumed sailing and sailed the trimaran Outward Leg from San Diego to London, then across central Europe by river and canal to the Black Sea, and then around south Asia to Thailand.
After the amputation of his right leg in 1991 he only returned briefly to sea, and he lived in Phuket, Thailand, he converted to Islam and took on the name 'Ali'.

Reviews

[Daryl Stennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time Travel is possible! The words of Tristan Jones will put you into the middle of the Second World War! While re-writing his personal history, the author conveys the feelings, sensations, and sensibilities of war-time Britain in a down-to-earth tale of the lower decks in Britain’s darkest days.
Heart of Oak, following true to the Welsh storytelling tradition of mixing truth with fiction, is written in the first person as the true story of the author’s early years in the British Navy. Mixing real dates, characters, and events with imaginary until the two are indistinguishable, he has created a convincing tale of a young, innocent welsh lad with a practical attitude and a strong instinct for survival in a not always nurturing environment.
Through brutal training conditions and brutal war realities, young Tristan matures and gains a place in a changing navy and a changing world.
Strong use of the vocabulary of the place and times: sayings, platitudes, vulgarities; attitudes, and interests, puts the reader under the deck of a WWII destroyer in the British Navy.

Heart of Oak
Tristan Jones
Macmillan of Canada, Toronto 1976
ISBN 0-7705-1391-3
199 pages

[eugene gott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to realize the reality of being on a British war ship

From the beginning the author made no apologies for how he described his life in the war. Difficult sometimes to understand the words

[Commander Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed that way more than I thought I would. Light jocular tone, some insights.

[Mark Stary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tristian Jones' Heart of Oak doesn't hold anything back in telling of the awful way RN Sailor's were treated as lower class citizens for much of their existance in the early 20th century. This really only began to change in the 60's to where we are today. Speaking as a Sailor in the Australian Navy for over 26 years, this book is a great insight into one youth's journey into manhood in the middle of World War 2. It is a gripping story and hard to put down. The only criticism I have is it is not historically accurate at times. An example is the author in a destroyer in the Bismarck Battle which was later sunk in an Altlantic convoy. This didn't happen as no destroyer escorting HMS Hood towards her doom was later lost on the QP convoys.

But I forgive the author for adding a bit of colour to the book as it's really well told, with the colorful language that sailors are renowned for. Highly recommended.

[MR. S. BEATTIE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Return after many years to Tristans books

Book written from the view of the Matlock . A book I could not put down. Confirmed much of the stories told to me in my youth by ex members of the Navy. The Andrew.

[annapi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tristan Jones was 16 when he joined the British Royal Navy (the "Andrew") during World War II in 1940. He tells the story of his time "below decks" being assigned from one ship to another, and recounts his experiences being on at least 2 ships that went down. He was eyewitness to the battle between the HMS Hood and the Bismarck, as well as the fight that brought down the Scharnhorst. His tales are peppered with the salty language of the "matelot" as the British sailors called themselves, as well as the obscure (to me) navy slang. Though he provides a glossary at the back of the book, he leaves out a lot of regular British slang that I think he presumed any reader would already know. I spent a lot of time going back to that glossary!

It was an interesting contrast to read this after Unbroken, to see WWII from the eyes of an American Army Air Force bomber, and a then British naval soldier. The life of the matelot was mostly boring, interspersed with frenetic periods of the confusion of battle. It was also interesting to learn of the differences between the lives of the different nations' seamen, as Jones observed from conversations with other allies and the rare visit to another ship.

Jones was an adventurer and a prolific writer, and this is only one of 16 autobiographical memoirs he wrote, and the only one I have read so far, though my husband has read most of his work and loved them. How much of his writing is exaggerated, no one really knows, but they are definitely entertaining!

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Revising my review substantially downward. After reading Wayward Sailor (reviewed there), I learned that this book was build on Jones fabrication and fantasy that he had served in the Royal Navy during WWII and all the exploits that followed. If he had come clean, and said up front this was historical fiction, I would respect the author and enjoy his great talent as a writer and story teller. Instead, I feel like a dupe in his con game. My father served in the US Navy at the very end of WWII and seldom talked about it. There is a special disdain for people that claim military heroics not their own. The initial thrill of discovering Jones as a new author has been irredeemably tarnished for me. Moving his books on and out of my library.

[Jonathan Beams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is there a moral in this true life account as a young 'Matelot' in the British Navy? A theme? Perhaps, or maybe it's no more than the humble offering of one man's story into that body that leads to the 'uttermost ends of the earth' in Conrad's words, that connects humankind in those of Whitman; from which Jones himself draws inspiration and companionship through his many voyages. A bottle tossed upon the sea; a companion in miniature for a sailor and literary soul.

[Shane Blackbourn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Descriptive, real and honest. Having served in the navy, so much of what Tristan Jones says rings a bell... His description of living conditions aboard, his work, his leave are excellent. A really blunt, easy read of life at sea in WW2. I would have loved more description of the sinking of the Hood, but... he can't describe what he didnt actually see... as he said he and the crew were looking at the bursts above HMS Prince of Wales at the time.

[Lynn Calvin]

Fictionwise multiformat ebook

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Dad gave me this to read when I was a kid. I remember loving it. Should read it again though, don't remember much about it.

[David]

Tristan Jones will always be on my Mount Rushmore of authors!

[R.Bruce Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a long time this was a hard to find book. Unlike his sailing adventures.

[Sharon Zink · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good memoir about being in the British Navy during WW II.