Command Decision

Brady looked up and saw men fallen-in atop the destroyer's gangway and then he realised that this officer in the boat was Pelican's captain. So-what? he thought in his sick anger: the ship fits the man. As it should be. In fact, it couldn't be better, so far as he himself was concerned. A scrap-heap of a ship for a man thrown on the scrap-heap. What better berth to land in than a rust-bucket with a ramshackle crew for a man if who'd just lost all his keenness and enthusiasm and ambition?Thus Jim Brady joined the ship's company of H.M.A. Destroyer Pelican, and entered upon the experience of his life. JAMES EDMOND MACDONNELL was born in 1917 in Mackay, Queensland and became one of Australia's most prolific writers. As a boy, he 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 home town to Brisbane in an attempt to see ships and the sea. Fortunately, he was found and returned to his family. He attended the Toowoomba Grammar School from 1931 to 1932. 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.Macdonnell wrote stories for The Bulletin under the pseudonym "Macnell" and from 1948 to 1956 he was a member of The Bulletin staff. His first book, Fleet Destroyer – a collection of stories about life on the 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.After leaving the navy, Macdonnell lived in St. Ives, Sydney and pursued his writing career. In 1988, he retired to Buderim on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He died peacefully in his sleep at a Buderim hospital in 2002. He is survived by his children Beth, Jane and Peter.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. From the pen of Australia's greatest novelist of World War 2 naval adventures, come the stories featuring Jim Brady. From his fight through the ranks and the trial of being court-martialled he came from Leading Seaman to Captain. This eight book series charts his adventures.