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There is a section on my bookshelves which is full of books about the sea. It must represent some part of me that is absent in reality. I never seem to touch the books now, but I always know they are there. The titles range from 'The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket' to 'More Scottish Fishing Craft' to 'Dover Strait Pilot 1971' to stories of seagoing heroics both real and imagined.
Sea life nearly became a reality for me once. It was at a time when I was in my first year at Gravesend School, of Art. It was a small art school in my home town which had views across the Thames to Tilbury docks from the studio windows. After one particularly grey morning of life drawing I felt quite restless and hurried home at lunchtime to tell my mother of my imminent plan to go to sea. I would sign on as a cabin boy and start a new life. She reassuringly put no obstacle in my way as her own father and brother were seamen and so I left straight away for the town ferry to cross to Tilbury. Unfortunately or otherwise, I'll never know, there was a brief slump in the shipping industry at that time and after visiting a number of shipping offices there seemed to be no jobs to be had. I got much advice from well meaning shipping staff during this tour, but while waiting in the cafe for my ferry back, I saw two Royal Navy sailors who had a parrot with them in a cage. I asked them what it was like in the navy and their response was profusely negative with crushing invectives as to why I shouldn't join up. I decided to call it a day. I went back to the life room, picked up my pencil and carried on with the drawing which I had left only a few hours before.

Ron Haselden. 9th March 2000


Book List-A selection-Bibliomania
Port of London Authority 1986, Papsworth's Pendragon Press
Coastwise Navigation GG Watkins 1974, 
Nicholls and Company Ltd In The Shadow of Titanic Gegory G. Reck 1978, 
Penguin Books Boat World 1965, Business Dictionaries Ltd 
Down Tops, Hervey Benham 1951, George G. Harrap & Co Ltd
The Brendan Voyage Tim Severin 1978, Hutchinson and Co Ltd 
Hornblower and The Hotspur C.S. Forester 1968, Penguin Books 
Sailing Peter Heaton 1976, Penguin Books 
Brittania: Rowing Alone Across the Atlantic John Fairfax 1971, William Kimber and Co Ltd 
A Star for Seaman Craig Mair 1978, John Murray Ltd 
Down Channel R.T. Mc Mullen 1931, George Allen & Unwin Ltd 
Moby Dick Herman Melville Dean & Son Ltd 
Naval Occasions Bartimeus 1916, William Blackwood & Sons 
Manual of Seamanship 1908, Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd 
Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailors life at Sea R.H. Dane Peter the Whaler W.H.G Kingston 1946, The Venturer Press 
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket Edgar Allen Poe 1976, Penguin Books 
Naval Battles of the First World War Geoffrey Bennett 1974, Pan Books Ltd 
The Boy's Book of Sailing 1956, Guildford Press 
The Great Iron Ship James Dugan 1953, Hamish Hamilton Ltd 
Waterwise Gordon Fairley 1974, William Luscombe Publisher Ltd 
Once Upon a Tide Hervey Benham 1955, George G. Harrap & Co Ltd 
Along the Clipper Way Francis Chitchester 1966, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd 
Fish and Ships Stanley Pritchard Mowbray London & Oxford 
Cornish Shipwrecks Richard Larn & Clive Carter 1969, Pan Books Ltd 
Lively She Goes William Mitford 1969, Book Club Associates 
Gipsy Moth Circles the World Francis Chister 1967, World Books Ltd 
A Night to Remember Walter Lord 1976, Penguin Books Ltd 
Mr Midshipman Hornblower C.S. Forrester 1956, Penguin Books Ltd 
Darwin and The Bugle Alan Moorehead 1978, Penguin Books Ltd