All at sea / Jack Harker.

Cover subtitle: War & peace and other skirmishes.

All at Sea is the fascinating life-story of naval sailor and radio operator Jack Harker. In his best-selling previous works, including Well Done Leander (1971) and HMNZS Achilles (1980), Jack told the story of his time aboard these famous ships in the Second World War, and was later awarded the QSM for his service in recording New Zealand naval history. Now, in All at Sea, he tells the story of his long and eventful life. Born in 1916 in Govenors Bay, his mother died in the 1918 influenza epidemic, and he survived an alcoholic stepmother and a lively childhood of getting into and out of trouble in Christchurch, to sign on as a trainee radio operator with the NZ navy. He served on a number of ships, as well as Leander and Achilles, which both saw active service in WWII. After leaving the navy, he worked in a variety of occupations, including farming in Northland, and for the NZBC, before settling on civil engineering. In 1972, he was part of the Greenpeace protest fleet sailing to Mururoa on the yacht Tamure, with Maurice Shadbolt. Now 86, Jack lives on the North Shore.