Now the Long Trick's Over : A British Merchant Seaman's Life from 1932

Captain Arthur Mathison was a merchant seaman from 1932 to 1977. He sailed with a number of British shipping companies, but he spent many years with Bolton Steamship Company of London and R.S. Dalgliesh Limited of Newcastle upon Tyne. He set sail from many of the main British ports - London, Glasgow, Hull, Cardiff, Newport, Newcastle, Middlesborough and Liverpool, plus a number of lesser locations like Workington, and he has tales from most of them. He started his career as an able-bodied seaman and desk boy on steamships, and finished it as master of ocean going motor vessels. In his own words he describes the hard times endured by pre-war merchant seaman during the Great Depression, and the subsequent challenges of the Second World War. He spent many years in the tramp steamer trade, travelling to all the continents of the world, including a great deal of time trading between Australia and New Zealand. In these pages you will find first hand stories of freak waves, convoys, on-board violence, red light districts, drunken crew members, near misses, dubious bunkering and much more. The book is a personal testament to an age of seafaring that has now vanished.