The author is a Scot from the small (two shop) village of Whins of Milton, two miles south of the Royal Burgh of Stirling. He has always loved the sea and ships, and was master of the first Australian flag anchor handler, operating in offshore oilfields around Australia. The book covers a wheen o' topicsgrowing up in the Whins, then living in Australia, to which he emigrated in 1968 with his wife and family, to his wanderings in thecountries of thePacific Basin.Later, it also makessome commentson Australians, their characterandcontentment (and pride) as to who they are as a race of people, living under the Southern Cross. Ships and the sea are never far away.Also part of this story is the Greek Tragedy of the demise of Alfred Holt, the author having been indentured to that heroic and exemplary Liverpool company as a deck apprentice in 1957. The note, Welcome to Country, says it all as to his worldview of Australians, an attitude almost Caledonian in its sense of directness and curiosity, particularly regarding the workings of the vast world which is all around us.