It takes the reader into unusual and sometimes dangerous circumstances when a ship runs aground on rocky or sandy windswept shores in many, often isolated, parts of the world. A cruise liner at anchor in Alaska with eight hundred passengers on board and three hundred crew is in a precarious, dangerous situation, when the hull plating is torn open for almost its full length and all that is keeping it afloat is the tank tops or inner bottom, which is not designed for that purpose.

J.R.Euen - in J.R.Euen's account of life in 1960s upcountry Tanzania, the readers find themselves in a world that no longer exists. East African Railways and Harbours had a network of rails and ferries covering the three East African territories, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The three territories are evolving on independence from Great Britain, but it is a transitional period, and a way of life which will be changed for ever was coming to an end. Rory MacTavish and his family are stationed in Kigoma, Tanzania, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, where East African Railways and Harbours operate...