Some time past I wrote a biography titled, 'The Last Dog Watch' about my time in our Navy as a 'junior recruit', and it was terrible - the book I mean. Eventually I rewrote a much better account of time served in the aptly named 'From Seven Hills to the Seven Seas'- A Memoir of a Boy Adrift.
The last dog watch signifies the second last watch of the day, as opposed to the very last watch in a 24-hour period by way of navy speak - this is the evening watch - which will eventually see me off to the hereafter. I have given in to the fact that I am older and wiser, I hope. My only wish now is for An Evening Watch that may last a little longer.
Over the past five or six years I have written a few works of non-fiction and now this volume of eclectic short yarns penned over the same period in, I think, chronological order. My apprenticeship is all but over now; yet I am beginning to appreciate I will never be a fully-fledged tradesman in this field. More is the pity I say.
You may notice, as you read on, not all the yarns are Navy related, except for a couple I thought important. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense to write something not really relating to the title; maybe it is just my imprudence at stake here, although I hope the few tales justify the epithet.
Anyway, enjoy this book please. It contains all true stories, some of which I have told before, although not too many of you have read, I am sure, and some are somewhat exaggerated: you can decide which...
M.B.
