This is a description of life aboard "Antigone", a British Merchant Navy vessel, one of the Holt Line's "China Boats" on a voyage from Liverpool to the Far East and back again by way of the Suez in the 1960s.

To evoke the atmosphere of the voyage, the author, who has had six years' service in cargo liners, recounts the long watches of the night and details the moods of officers, men, sea and weather. He aims to capture the sights, the smells, the satisfaction and the sadness of a style of seafaring which has since been displaced by container ships and roll-on roll-off ferries.

Accounts are given of the transvestites of Singapore and the almond-eyed whores of Hong Kong, as well as the intracacies of derricks and cargo storage - human hair and hog bristle from China, liquid latex and palm oil from Malaysia.

The author has also written the Nathaniel Drinkwater series of naval historical novels.