Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

It is1972 in the United Kingdom and the Prime Minister, Ted Heath, is declaring a three day working week and a State of Emergency as the Coalminer s Strike begins to bite. Abba are topping the charts and Monty Python s Flying Circus are offering us something completely different on BBC2. Behind the backdrop of this we follow John Caswell, a football mad 15 year old from the Midlands as he embarks on his fi nal year at Kettering Grammar School. We suffer with him as he agonizes over his O levels in the summer of 1973 culminating in mixed results and fi nds himself working in an offi ce in a Builders Merchants with little idea of how his life is going to take off. Later that year John meets and becomes totally infl uenced by his sister s boyfriend who is in the Merchant Navy. Convinced this is the life for him John then goes to the National Sea Training School in Gravesend and we follow his exciting passage through the three month Lifeboat and Effi cient Deck Hand course before embarking on his fi rst trip to sea in September 1974 onboard the Anco Empress . We then follow him on an adventure across the oceans and upon the high seas around the World, crossing the Equator, learning his new skills and transforming a shy, timid and naive young man into an adult via Rotterdam, Montreal, New York, New Orleans, Rio De Janeiro, Durban and back to Rotterdam with hilarious and embarrassing consequences as he comes to terms with his ever changing environments and the social demands of a work hard / play hard regime.