About Captain Scotty & The YJ

Welcome aboard. My name is Scott Campbell, and the Yankee Jock is my personal blog.

As you may have guessed from the name Yankee Jock, I was born and raised a Scotsman. (Not a sports underwear salesman). In my twenties, I worked in the US on cruise ships, married a New Yorker. We lived in Manhattan briefly before living in Charleston SC for enough years to have American children. We’re now back living in Scotland, but we’re very much a Yankee-Jock hybrid family.

For the Brits: Yankee means that even though we lived in the US South, since we moved there after the Civil War, we remained incomers. Living and working in the liminal space of the sea, I’m used to being an inbetweener.

I’m a small ship skipper in the British Merchant Navy. I am also the managing director of Independent Marine Ltd. We work in marine assurance, maritime technical authorship training, boat master training, and subsea construction and insurance surveys. Additionally, I am the author of Designated Security Duties, a ship security training textbook that is available for purchase on Amazon, worldwide.

As a newly re-engaged Christian, I follow the teachings of figures like Jordan B Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, Paul VanderKlay and other Christian commentators. Most of my blog is about the spiritual challenges that come with a life at sea, as a husband and father. I’m exploring the online reformation in real time.

I reflect on how the routines & rituals (liturgies) of everyday life at work, or in the family, point us to spiritual insights. My family is multi-religious and multi-cultural, so I write a lot about integrating secular and religious relationships into a practical and functional whole. To convey my ideas, I frequently use nautical metaphors, and my experience of marine adventures, to frame my explorations of culture, politics and religion.

I apologise in advance for the occasional cursing. I’m a Scottish Sailor. I try my best, but sometimes curse words are required. I do try to minimise and blur them for the more sensitive among us.

So, please, comment, subscribe, donate, or buy something to help support the conversation. I’m very happy to have you aboard. Feel free to reach out, and I’ll do my best to answer any questions as best I can.

Scott.