Expelled from his grammar school in 1971, the author desperately sought an escape from the direction that life was taking him. The threat of working hard in an Israeli kibbutz without pay for the next year didn't appeal, but an advertisement in a Sunday newspaper did. The British Shipping Federation was offering opportunities to make a career in the Merchant Navy.
Experiencing life aboard all types of merchant ship, including a spell on Queen Elizabeth Two, there was always adventure on hand. This account is a chronological description of those experiences, compiled from contemporary records, letters, documents and photographs.
The author's career culminated in an audacious quest to venture behind the Iron Curtain in an attempt to marry a Soviet citizen. An unlikely, and ill-advised, relationship had developed during visits to the U.S.S.R.
