My story
Do you want to go to sea? Well come with me, join our first ship. Pack your bag and pack your grip - (a.k.a. Bye Bye Blackbird - Port Line version) you’ll learn that song on this voyage. We are off to New Zealand, via Canada and the U.S.A. We’ll sail up the mighty St Lawrence, into New York Harbour, past the Statue of Liberty. Loading cargo all the way, and then across the Caribbean, have a boys run ashore in raunchy Cristobal and transit the Panama Canal – this the first of several voyages. The ups and downs. Soon it’s round the world in 90 days – sail from Swansea and out through the Suez Canal, Red Sea to Aden, and then 17 days across the Indian Ocean to Adelaide. Discover if you have potential? It will definitely come in handy. Hopefully often. On to New Zealand, this is a hurry voyage. Load the lamb, swim naked in the Pacific at night and sail home across the Pacific. It is a different life, the people change, the ship’s change and, of course, you and I will change. It’s not just the change from being a boy and turning into a man.
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These people – on board and on shore, these ships and these voyages are gradually producing a seafarer. Almost despite yourself, imperceptibly, you are honing a whole range of special technical knowhow and getting razor sharp life skills. I mean, who else in your street will know how to cure a Crufts Champion dog of severe constipation.
You want more? Certainly not! Just read the bloody book.
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