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As a young boy
I had always wanted to run away to sea. The opportunity came for me at the
age of 16 when I applied for service in the Merchant Navy. Very shortly
after my application, I was on my way to the Vindicatrix, just one of a
chain of National Sea Training Schools around the country at the time. Although I wasn't aware of it then, the British Merchant Navy was in a state of decline by the time I joined, and I feel privileged to have been able to have been a part of an industry that had so much history, and to have met many of the men who had served on the convoys of WWII. Whenever "old salts" get together and
begin swapping stories of the old days, it's like being back at sea with
the lamps swinging in the gimbols. |