Tramp to Queen

by John Treasure Jones

Born and raised on a small farm in Pembrokeshire, Wales, John Treasure Jones went to sea when he was fifteen. For the first four years he was indentured as an apprentice, surviving the ocean's in a small tramp steamer. Slowly, however, he worked his way up to become Captain of the most famous ocean liner afloat, Cunard's RMS Queen Mary. During the Second World War, as a Commander in the Royal Navy Reserve, he was torpedoed in the Atlantic and mentioned twice in Despatches. In the post-war years he mixed with film stars and royalty, commanding several of the famous Cunard liners, such as the Saxonia, Mauretania and Queen Elizabeth. In 1967 he took his final command - Queen Mary on her last voyage - a 12,000 - mile trip from Southampton to her retirement home in Long Beach, California.Captain Treasure Jones dies in 1993, but his manuscript was recently found and has been edited by his son-on-law to be reproduced here for the first time.

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Jbondandrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had hoped that John Treasure Jones would have been able to have written about himself rather than his son-in-law, whose minor own additions were in my opinion not necessary, but it was not to be. However some of the biography were interesting particularly the start of his naval career but some parts a bit dull.

[Yasmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you ever wanted to read a life of a ship's captain this is the book for you. It's even better when the captain writes about seafaring life and nothing else, nothing else whatsoever. This is not sarcasm, this is how it is. John Treasure Jones does add in anecdotes about things other than seafaring life and it really doesn't suit him. Here is a man who climbed the tall steep ladder in the navy, in the period of the depression, when he was out of a job. Although at one point he says money isn't everything, one gets the impression it is second best to being on a ship most of his life. He was on a ship most of his life and his wife may have been steady and true rather like his favourite ships it was hard on her. Not that the reader gets any inside on his personal life, it is a job to read between the lines. I chose this book for the only purpose that I am distantly related to John Treasure Jones on my father's side. Had life gone differently for John Treasure Jones and he had the time to amend his book and have it published himself who knows what kind of outcome for this book there would have been. I am of course of the opinion that the readers would have been no further ahead into the lives of his wife and children or his relationships with others personal or otherwise. He mentions he had life long friends, but only by name and in some instances locations. Not how he met them, when or where or anything else for that matter.