I was with the P & O Shipping line at this time and every officer was given a book, "Business in Great Waters", a history of this Company when it lost nearly every one of it's cargo ships during the war. I sailed with many of these Engineers, a great friend was Mr. Dow who was decorated as he was the last one to leave the sinking ship and he kept the pumps and the generators running to the last minute which enabled the crew to board the lifeboats. (What actually happened was, he did not hear the "abandon ship" or he said he would have been one of the first in the life boats).
We were also given a Coronation coin, a crown, in a very decorative little box with the coloured P & O emblem on the cover.
