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    Sail Away: Journeys of a Merchant Seaman
    Sail Away: Journeys of a Merchant Seaman
    Sail Away: Journeys of a Merchant Seaman
    Ebook109 pages57 minutes

    Sail Away: Journeys of a Merchant Seaman

    By Jack Beritzhoff

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    About this ebook

    An officer in the US Merchant Marine from World War II to the Korean War, Jack Beritzhoff sailed from the South Pacific to Casablanca to Kuwait to Liverpool to Pusan... and back. Sail Away follows him from port to port, around the globe to five continents, discovering friendship and heroism (as well as occasional cowardice and deceit), and of course the beautiful girl in every port.

    In the tradition of James Michner's Tales of the South Pacific, this memoir brings a world at war to life through a series of charming vignettes rather than sweeping battles or flying shrapnel. Sail Away is a view of epic events seen through a very human-sized, very bright window, offering glimpses of humor, humanity, and grace at the darkest of times.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStillpoint Digital Press
    Release dateJan 6, 2013
    ISBN9781938808203
    Sail Away: Journeys of a Merchant Seaman
    Author

    Jack Beritzhoff

    Jack Beritzhoff served as a member of the Merchant Marine from 1943, at the height of World War II, to 1952, at the end of the Korean War.

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      Book preview

      Sail Away - Jack Beritzhoff

      Sail Away by Jack Beritzhoff

      Sail Away

      Journeys of a

      Merchant Seaman

      by

      Jack Beritzhoff

      Stilpoint Digital Press logo (stillpointdigital.com) tillpoint/Memory

      Copyright © 2012, Jack Bertizhoff

      All rights reserved.

      Published by Stillpoint Digital Press on Smashwords

      No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Stillpoint Digital Press.

      To quote from or reprint sections of this book, contact us at publisher@stillpointdigital.com

      If you have received this book gratis, please please support the creation of books such as these by making a donation via PayPal to

      orders@stillpointdigital.com

      Let’s Face The Music And Dance by Irving Berlin

      © Copyright 1935, 1936 by Irving Berlin

      © Copyright Renewed. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission

      All images except those noted below

      Copyright © 2012, Jack Beritzhoff.

      Images on pp. 1, 17, 59, 61, 71 courtesy of US Library of Congress

      Image on p. 35 courtesy of US Army

      Image on p. 7 courtesy of Australian Natrional Library

      cc.logo.50x50.png Images by the following are used under a Creative Commons license:

      Marion Doss (p. 33), Felix O/sludgegulper (p. 83), prayitno (p. 91)

      EBOOK EDITION

      Print Source ISBN: 978-1477670910

      Print layout and ebook design by

      David Kudler and Stillpoint Digital Press

      StillpointDigital.com

      To my mother,

      who bravely waited for her three sons 

      to come home

      Merchant%20Marine%20Poster%20(loc.gov).tiff

      THE AWAKENING

      After all these years I find myself faced with an epiphany. I have at last set pen to paper in search of words that encompass a plot—a story told for one and all to critique­—for good or not. While it is true my endeavors have been simple vignettes not immune to faint appraisal, the very idea of my attempt to enter a world of prose or composition is quite curious at this late stage of my life.

      In my youth, during the Second World War and for some years afterward, I traveled the world in the service of the Merchant Marine. The globe offered itself as a canvas to be covered with sketches, drawings, and glorious paintings. The easel, oils, and brushes were all there. Sorrowfully, they were never used. I even failed to keep a journal of my wanderings. Light hearted letters to family and friends to temper their boredom were all I had to offer.

      The faint of heart, at some point in their lives, are faced with a challenge to fill a void in an otherwise complacent, quiet existence. It is true the art of conversation had never completely eluded me, however stretching it to the written page would be worth an invitation—why not accept the challenge?

      As I timidly began my journalistic journey, I found my endeavor had become less burdensome as I slowly recalled memories of my seafaring escapades. To live again all but forgotten adventures, brought forth a youthful vigor that had been lost. As I completed a sentence or paragraph, I found myself gazing off toward a horizon that I had imagined had long ago disappeared. People and places came alive. I was writing of them before it would be too late, before they would have forever vanished in a fog of old age and mental decline. For me it was an awakening.

      As to their value, whether my quest results in success or failure, my scenic tales from the road I traveled consumed the need in me to shed for a time the monotonous beat of one’s every day existence. It has broadened my newly found knowledge of the independence and fulfillment enjoyed by creators and artists in their search for an aesthetic world. If only for the writing or reading of my simple vignettes, I too, do perceive their intent and wish to join them in my own modest fashion.

      From a poet long dead to today’s artist:

      I care not if you bridge the seas,

      Or ride secure the cruel sky,

      Or build consummate palaces

      Of metal or of masonry.

      But have you wine and music still,

      And statues and a bright-eyed love,

      And foolish thoughts of good and ill,

      And prayers to them who sit above?

      Since I can never see your face,

      And never shake you by the hand,

      I send my soul through time and space

      To greet

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