Book Review: Storms, the way of the Mariner by Tom Schofield

 

Review

Storms: the way of the mariner is an engaging story telling of life at sea. Especially when facing the storms that have captured our minds and set our hearts thumping with fear.

I have never been on the sea, but after listening to the author Tom Schofield and Ruth Finnegan, I cannot help but newly appreciate the seven oceans, its stormy rage and strength.

Its formidable power is relentless once it finds its way to land. Causing havoc on land and leaving us defenseless to its power. Something I have learned while listening to the audible book was that it is safer at sea than on land during a storm. Your chances for survival are much better than closer to land. Where the reefs and rocks cause more devastation to ship and the lives on board.

What I liked about the narrative was that it felt as if the author was here with me, telling me a story in a calm and relaxed manner. Informing me of the dangers and life at sea in a casual and friendly manner that brings it home.

Definitely a splendid book to listen to. Especially if you are thinking of a life at sea. The valuable information is given in confidence and much authority. 

Here's how a friend (Ruth) described her experience of a hurricane. She was a passenger, not used to sea faring, in the Cenpac Rounder, a small ship that circulated round the central south Pacific, carrying trade goods from island to island. It took just seven or eight passengers each time.

As Ruth explains:

We were out to sea and that was beautiful, a little rough, but blue skies, high clouds, just a bit of wind. We were making for Tuvalu, an atoll island.

As with many of these atoll islands, you had to go into the lagoon through a very very narrow, jagged, danger-filled reef entrance. It takes a lot of skill to get through, so that ships are constantly getting wrecked on the reefs (in fact a few years after we were on the Cenpac Rounder, she was wrecked and lost on the reef off Fiji, her home port - whether her crew was saved I do not know - perhaps).

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 Excerpt

Why was I at Sea?

Well, why ...?

My background is actually different, maybe surprising. My father was in the military, not the sea at all. And I wanted to follow his footsteps into the army. That's all I ever wanted to do until I was about 16 years old.

But then on the rugby field, my fate changed. I got tackled and broke a ligament in my knee. So an army accountant then wrote to me and told me I was far too much of an insurance liability to join the military. They were worried of course that after a career in the military, I'd sue them and tell them that it was all their fault that I had got a problem on my knees.

So then a grandfather in the Navy asked why don’t I join the merchant navy?

I started looking at it. There was not a lot of information to be honest, you have to really hunt down information about seafaring. I started looking at cargo ships and tankers and things and ships full of maybe just fourteen chaps going from coast to coast.

It appealed but not quite as much as when I saw a big poster of a cruise ship, the beautiful P & O Oriana and I thought, oh, that looks wonderful.

It was poster of the Oriana so yeah, back in the day Oriana was the ship and so interesting.

Luckily there was a girl two years above me whose father knew the careers master in our school. So he was invited in and came and spoke to me and that was it. Yeah, he pointed me in the right direction. And I joined P&O on leaving school at 17.

So - straight away to sea.

To be taken on I had to have done the two big subjects you needed, maths or physics i.e A level in maths or physics, and then a spattering of other academic qualifications, but as well, of course, you know, a keen interest in being at sea.

And then there was always one more thing. You have to go away and be put through training because they sponsored you on your cadet ship and then you leave them.

So that was their unavoidable - good - way: you start off on a cadet ship and then they watch to see if after you’ve been going away for long periods of time, you give up and leave. They just want to make sure it’s the right career for you.

And was it? Absolutely.

No disappointments at all as far as I was concerned, no, absolutely not.

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