Life At Sea 1971-1979

48 years ago, a teenager at sea: On the MV Westminster Bridge, anchored off Dampier, Western Australia for almost three weeks, blistering...

I first visited Hiroshima in November 1972. I was a catering boy on the Westminster Bridge a British Merchant ship carrying iron ore that...

This was the last yacht I worked on and my last job as a chef. I was on the Sharon S for six months, based in Miami, Florida from 1978-79...

I loved visiting my grandma's when I was a child. especially routing around in her cellar to find the old photo albums of my granddad, wh...

I used to have a very good set of teeth, until the dentist at Gravesend Sea School got hold of me and drilled so many holes in my teeth t...

All in all I think the best ships I sailed on were the coasters, small ships that sailed around Britain, Ireland and the neighbouring Eur...

After months at sea on tankers, rarely setting foot ashore, I got some great pay-offs. I bought my first car in 1973 when I left the Engl...

Anyone ever get a sunburn so bad that you should be in hospital, and yet had to go to work the next day? I did, on my first afternoon of...

This might seem strange nowadays, but I never knew watermelons existed until I arrived into Caracas Bay, Curacao in January 1972 on my fi...

I joined the British Merchant Navy because I had a dream of visiting the Amazon. One company, Booth Line, went a couple of thousand mile...