It is1972 in the United Kingdom and the Prime Minister, Ted Heath, is declaring athree day working week and a State of Emergency as the Coalminers Strike beginsto bite. Abba are topping the charts and Monty Pythons Flying Circus are offering ussomething completely different on BBC2.Behind the backdrop of this we follow John Caswell, a football mad 15 year old fromthe Midlands as he embarks on his fi nal year at Kettering Grammar School.We suffer with him as he agonizes over his O levels in the summer of 1973 culminatingin mixed results and fi nds himself working in an offi ce in a Builders Merchants withlittle idea of how his life is going to take off.Later that year John meets and becomes totally infl uenced by his sisters boyfriendwho is in the Merchant Navy. Convinced this is the life for him John then goes tothe National Sea Training School in Gravesend and we follow his exciting passagethrough the three month Lifeboat and Effi cient Deck Hand course before embarking onhis fi rst trip to sea in September 1974 onboard the Anco Empress.We then follow him on an adventure across the oceans and upon the high seas aroundthe World, crossing the Equator, learning his new skills and transforming a shy, timidand nave young man into an adult via Rotterdam, Montreal, New York, New Orleans,Rio De Janeiro, Durban and back to Rotterdam with hilarious and embarrassingconsequences as he comes to terms with his ever changing environments and the socialdemands of a work hard / play hard regime.
