In October 1953 I went to sea as a cadet on a cargo ship called La Pampa.   After eight months on the La Pampa I was Apprentice on a succession of other ships also owned by Buries Markes of London, becoming third mate in January 1957.   Buries Markes were a subsidiary of the Paris based grain trader and shipowners Louis Dreyfus.   Whilst on La Pampa I read through her cargo book and have more recently been able to find out more about the ship's life, which I have summarized on page five.

After gaining my Second Mate's certificate I joined United Baltic Corporation as Third Mate and remained with them for five years, becoming Chief Officer.  I have added a page about this company. After a year ashore I joined the salvage ship Droxford of Risdon Beazley Ltd, Southampton and I have included several pages about that company.  I moved to the RB management team in 1969 and, in 1979, was transferred to Singapore to become Managing Director of Smit International South East Asia.  With my friend and colleague Lyle Craigie-Halkett I have written an expanded history of the Risdon Beazley companies, this was published in December 2006.  There are pages about the company on this site.

On 21st December 2008 a Chinese organisation lifted a shipwreck that they called the Nan Hai No 1, they say is 800 years old.  This wreck was discovered in 1987 by a team from Maritime Exploration & Recoveries PLC, the company that we operated at the time.  New page added  30 Dec 2007.

I am at present writing a book about the crucial part that merchant ships  played iupporting landings and evacuations during World War 2.   The book is provisionally titled Ebb and Flow