Don't Go Into Town, Tonto!

Born just prior to the outbreak of World War II and inspired by his hero, a Captain of a firefighting vessel, the author joined the Royal Navy at 15 years of age, purely to experience the life at sea as told by his hero and the great wide mysterious world depicted in the Encyclopaedia.

Hugh shares the rigours of the training ship “Ganges”, the excitement of his first war ship in the Mediterranean and several other drafts including being present at the Cyprus Emergency and the infamous Suez Crisis. This was also the time of his coming of age, the pain of unrequited love and the bewildering initiation by an older woman who should have known better.

Life as a merchant seaman followed, expanding his horizons even further, eventually merging with the diaspora of eager sunseekers to Australia in 1963. Worked in a copper mine in Queensland before the sea beckoned once more. Then south to Tasmania and enjoyed a different sea life as a lobster fisherman.

The author shared many unexpected encounters with colourful characters and events which taught him life lessons in an entertaining, humorous and honest manner.

A lusty account of a young recalcitrant, desperate to become a worthy human.

This is the first book by an ex-sailor, fisherman and farmer, in his early eighties, who on leaving school at the age of fifteen joined the Royal Navy. An interesting and often hilarious few years, followed by the Merchant Navy and emigration to Australia where he travelled extensively. Working in a copper mine, various labouring jobs and back to sea again on a Tasmanian lobster boat. In later years he worked in Aboriginal communities in the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Red Centre. Currently settled in a quiet coastal town on 90 Mile Beach in Gippsland, Victoria, where he is surrounded by the sea.