H. Taprell Dorling

Captain Henry Taprell Dorling (1883-1968) was a British sailor, author, and journalist who served in the Royal Navy during both world wars, giving his marine fact and fiction a notable authenticity. His Pincher Martin, O.D. (1916) is widely referenced as the source for Pincher Martin (1956) by Nobel prizewinner William Golding. He wrote under the name Taffrail.^[1]

Naval career

Dorling was born in Berwick, the second son of Colonel Francis Dorling, and named Taprell Henry, but later changed the order of his names. He entered the HMS Britannia in August 1897, his 1113 marks placing him fifty-eighth in merit among the sixty-three candidates accepted as naval cadets.^[2] By then an acting sub-lieutenant, he was in late September 1902 transferred to the seagoing training brig HMS Dolphin.^[3]

He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 31 December 1904, and commander on 31 December 1916. The following year he was appointed in command of the new R-class destroyer HMS Telemachus in her first commission.

Bibliography

• Endless Story: Being an Account of the Work of the Destroyers, Flotilla-Leaders, Torpedo-Boats, and Patrol Boats in the Great War
• Swept Channels; Being an Account of the Work of the Minesweepers in the Great War
• Blue Star Line at War, 1939-1945
• The Navy in Action
• Men O' War
• Sea Venturers of Britain
• The Sub: Being the autobiography of David Munro, sub-lieutenant, Royal Navy
• White Ensigns
• Pincher Martin, O.D.: A Story of the Inner Life of the Royal Navy
• Arctic Convoy
• Ribbons and Medals: Naval, Military, Air Force and Civil

References

External Links

• Henry Taprell Dorling on The Dreadnought Project