Chapter SixNORTH SEA
FEBRUARY 1914
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain
It was a day after we passed Rattray Head that the atmosphere in Lady Balgay seemed to change. I was contemplating the chipped stoneware jar of wood-bodied pens, wondering which one was least likely to blot and wondering when I had last used such archaic implements when a blast of shouted words upset my fragile concentration.
'Damn and blast and bugger! Call this a seagoing vessel? She's a b****y bathtub with a figurehead, damn her to hell!'
Welcoming the interruption, I laid down the pen. After only a few
