THE CAPTAIN'S BRIDGE

by Donald MacLean ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

In 1960 Captain MacLean was promoted to Commodore of the Queen Elizabeth in the Cunard service. Commanding the world's greatest passenger liner was the peak of a lifetime devotion to ships. Upon retiring in 1962 he had served aboard thirty-six different merchant ships and ten warships, and had commanded seventeen of them. He had also been in the submarine service. Captain MacLean's father was himself and old seadog and prompted him to become a deep-sea captain. In 1916 the lad shipped out on a herring fisher, which, aromatically, turned out to be a supreme test of endurance. During World War II many liners were turned to military uses and he served in The Arctic on the Murmansk run hauling material to Russia. He survived several close calls, including a torpedoing. In the postwar years Captain MacLean worked his way through cargo ship commands to a staff captaincy on the ""Lizzie"". Captain MacLean's memoirs are suave, half-social and half professional. On the one hand he describes the ships' crises as viewed from the bridge --and on the other, as viewed from the salon, through a glass, bubbly.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1965

Categories: NONFICTION