No Ordinary Seaman is a memoir of the author’s days
at sea in the Norwegian Merchant Marine, 1965-67

Synopsis

In the mid-1960’s a young man, fresh out of high school in Vancouver, crews on a Norwegian deep-sea freighter in the hopes that it will take him to Norway, the land of his ancestors. His voyages on the Havkatt, across the Pacific Ocean to Japan, through the Panama Canal, and north to New York, are filled with personal explorations, adventure, and danger. He eventually arrives in Norway, and satisfies his dreams of finding his roots. But he is driven back to the sea.

This memoir takes the reader on the author’s journeys of discovery. His second ship travels routes from Northern Europe to Africa, the Suez Canal, the Persian Gulf, across the Equator, then over the Atlantic, back home to North America. The sea stories are filled with facts about the maritime industry of the day, and idiosyncrasies of the lives of sailors. The book is full of tales of rough waters and placid bays, all salted with wit and humour. It is a book that unravels some of the unfathomable mystery of ships and the lives of sailors at sea and in ports. The reader, at every turn of the page, will discover what it is like to be no ordinary seaman.

The accounts of life on two merchant ships are factual – they are based on daily entries in the young diarist’s journal. The jottings in the male teenager’s diary are recounted in 40 chapters, expanded and dramatized by the older story teller.

This is creative non-fiction

The reader will be at sea, and in port with No Ordinary Seaman Karlsen. Perch on his shoulder and take a ride with a good boy, a bad boy – a brave young man who is an adventurous soul on a personal odyssey that many of us have dreamed about, but few have embarked upon.

Left: Deckhand Karlsen flexes his muscles on the Havkatt, October, 1965. Right: Gary Karlsen today, Vancouver, BC.

The infamous voyages of the cocky young mariner
are recounted half a century later by the wise old salty dog.

The purpose of this blog is not to tell the stories in No Ordinary Seaman, for that would be giving things away; rather it is to introduce the book, to try to get people’s attention should they wish  to  buy it when it becomes available.

Leading up to the publication date, targeted for April 2018, I will post some samples of what will be found in the book. These posts will also include:

• some ancestral background information: Vikings, seafarers, a Norwegian-Canadian immigrant
• the context of the mid-1960’s culture, political economic climate
• an inside view of what it was like working and living on a deep -sea freighter (in the mid-1960’s)
• a glimpse of the Norwegians – well, I must be careful here – let’s say, a light-hearted assortment of observations of some of the Norse sailors of the day

The first 10 Chapter titles:

The M/S HAVKATT

Ch 1 The Havkatt
Ch 2 Seasick
Ch 3 Harbo and Bosun
Ch 4 A New Helmsman
Ch 5 Jack and the International Date Line
Ch 6 Sparky
Ch 7 Tokyo
Ch 8 Tokyo and Yokohama
Ch 9 Hell in the Holds
Ch 10 Back to B.C.

For this purpose, I determined to keep an account of the voyage,
and to write down practically everything I’ve performed
or saw from day to day as will hereafter appear.

– Christopher Columbus –