David's father was a young man of seventeen when he joined the Merchant Navy in the early spring of 1939. He may well have been imagining a new life of excitement, and long voyages overseas to faraway places. Within six months of him beginning work as a 'bellboy' on the grand P & O luxury liner, Strathallan, Britain found itself at war with Germany once again. This story centres around his experiences of this long hard conflict. Along the way, memories of war operations in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean are all recounted; and then of course, there was that Arctic convoy, PQ.17. He was very fortunate to serve on one of the few vessels to make it safely back home, the little rescue ship, Zamalek. Accounts of Zamalek's experiences on that Russian bound convoy (PQ.17), time spent stranded in Archangel, and the return passage (QP.14) are a central feature of the story, and so they should be.