YankeeJockMaster Mariner 500GT, Merchant Navy
SDPO, Chief Mate, Writer, Father, Etc.
Born to a catholic mother, turned new hippy mother, wee-free Presbyterian father. They divorced and he converted to marry a Pakistani Muslim. My brother tried Buddhism, and I married a Jew and moved to the USA for a bit. Back in Scotland now, keeping it real.
Little Green Lies No salty anecdotes for you this week, my friends. I have returned home from the sea to colder weather. Commercial duties are swapped for domestic ones, and the gloriously mundane comforts of brushing teeth, bedtime stories, and changing nappies. Home is never the same as you left it. My youngest daughter, 22 […]
It has been a peaceful, but rather dull week of decent weather offshore. With twelve hours on watch and a reasonable satellite internet signal, I’ve been trawling the depths of Twitter and Wikipedia. I finished In the Shadow of the Sword by Tom Holland, as mostly peaceful ‘diversity-riots’ spread across England. I’m looking at real […]
My first duty this week is to thank my new friend Steven Wilkinson, of the excellent Substack Pitchfork Papers and his company Good and Prosper, for his continued support and encouragement. I’ve been following his work for some time, and his kind words on Friday, when he allowed me to guest post my article ‘Half-Mast’ […]
Monarchy, Mortality, and Morality. I never met The Queen. Neither did most of you. But I’m willing to bet that every single one of you had some sort of emotional reaction to the news of her passing. For my part, I have been reading the book of revelation, and Paul’s address to the Romans, in […]
I have returned to the sea, for a three-week trip. On this occasion, I have signed on as Mate. That is second in command on this ship and entails a 12-hour night shift from 7 pm to 7 am. After the manic trip we had last time I was here, nights are a blessed relief. […]
Busy weeks appear to be the only kind I have anymore, so I’ll try to refrain from that description in future. But this one was a doozy. I completed my two weeks of City & Guilds training plumbing, passing my assessment ‘with distinction,’ after chewing through an ungodly amount of copper pipe to get my […]
This week, I’m exhausted. Although I’ve never been happier. I have a beautiful wife and three beautiful children. I’m making decent money and learning how to actually manage it for the first time in 37 years. Meeting wonderful people. Enjoying the autonomy and education of self-employment. Learning new skills and building on old ones. I […]
We work long days at sea, and Sunday is no exception. 12-hour shifts are my current minimum each day, with occasional overtime required. We got a hurried order to leave port this morning, while I was halfway through doing an inventory of the medical locker in my cabin. Despite the warm sunshine, it was quite […]
Threat detection, empiricism, relativism, and authority. It’s been a busy old week! Since joining my ship on Wednesday I’ve had nine arrivals and departures, shifted berth twice, went alongside a ship in harbour for cargo, and pushed on to so many ships and towers offshore that I’ve lost count. And I’ve been training a new […]
Why the more subtle iconoclasms of the left, affect us all. ‘Haha. So you are employee of the month? These Americans. When I was a cadet, I won Communist of the month’. I didn’t mind Pavlo (not his real name, for multiple reasons). He was a grotesquely large Ukrainian man. Seriously overweight, but strong, with […]