After the Japanese surrender, Royalist helped evacuate liberated POWs from Changi Prison in Singapore. In 1945, in the Far East theatre, MacLean and Royalist saw action escorting carrier groups in operations against Japanese targets in Burma, Malaya, and Sumatra. In 1944 he and the ship served in the Mediterranean theatre as part of the invasion of southern France and in helping to sink blockade runners off Crete and bombard Milos in the Aegean. In Royalist he saw action in 1943 in the Atlantic theatre, on two Arctic convoys and escorting carrier groups in operations against Tirpitz and other targets off the Norwegian coast. From 1943, he served in HMS Royalist, a Dido-class light cruiser. He was first assigned to PS Bournemouth Queen, a converted excursion ship fitted for anti-aircraft guns, on duty off the coasts of England and Scotland. He joined the Royal Navy in 1941, serving with the ranks of Ordinary Seaman, Able Seaman, and Leading Torpedo Operator. MacLean, born 1922 and so 17 when the war started, had himself served on these convoys during the War.
It describes the ordeal of a ship on one of the notorious Murmansk conveys, taking oil, weapons, supplies to beleaguered USSR up over the top of Scandianavia, through the Arctic Ocean in one of the most pitiless and harsh environments known to man. HMS Ulysses was Maclean’s first and arguably best novel.
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