Deep Seas and Tall Ships

The author's story begins in 1946. He recalls a UK canalside cottage and an early family crisis. He moves rapidly onwards to his sporting school years and forward to his active service at sea from age 16. His narrative includes accounts of early worldwide voyages as a Cadet Officer in the British Merchant Navy. Here is an 'all oceans' story. The author credits his own survival to 'the Grace of God and the kindness of strangers'. His account also refers in verse to the inspiring endurance of an albatross, first observed as a 17-year-old officer in training during a 1963 wild-ocean voyage to South Africa. 'Deep Seas and Tall Ships': A title inspired by the author's first 14-month deep ocean voyages and his long service in UK Tall Ships. Sea service was to mould six decades of the author's active life. He made regular voyages in Atlantic hurricanes and ice. His mid-life BA degree was supported financially by regular employment on worldwide subsea cable projects. The author splices in his salt-stained verse, employing his award-winning poetic style. He includes his recent war poem recalling the daylight bombing of RFA ships during the 1982 Falklands war entitled: 'Sir Galahad - a Lament'. His 25-year span of service in UK Tall Ships ended in 2015.

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