The Wild Clear Call of the Sea (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

Captain J. A. Heenan was just a boy when he first heard "the call of the sea." He could not have imagined where it would take him.

A teenage apprentice aboard a four-masted sailing ship, he would ride bareback on a blue whale, batlle gale-force winds around Cape Horn as his captain lay dying, and narrowly escape being dashed on the rocks off Vancouver Island.

During the First World War, as an officer in the Royal Navy, he patrolled the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. He met Lawrence of Arabia, fired the flare that signalled the beginning of the Arab Revolt, and witnessed the dramatic surrender of the German fleet in the North Sea.

He went on to serve as navigator on the great ocean liners of the White Star Line, where he encountered some of the most memorable figures of his age, including writers like Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, and Sinclair Lewis, performers like Leslie Howard an dAl Jolson, and the composer Irving Berlin. He even faced down armed smugglers as they tried to unload contraband alcohol in Prohibition-era New York.

His remarable climax came to a climax during the Second World War when, as a captain in the Royal Canadian Navy, he commanded a fleet of motor launches that helped to keep Canadian coastal waters safe from enemy submarines. After the war, he became a passionate advocate of managing a strong Canadian navy and merchant marine.

The Wild Clear Call of the Sea brings to life a world that has largely disappeared, when the globe was still criss-crossed by sail and steam and a young sailor could set out to sea and find himself at the centre of hisory. It is at once an unforgettable scafaring memoir, a remarkable portrait of the twentieth century, and a testament to one man's lifelong devotion to the sea.