Description

It is indeed a great pity that this 'monologue', the musings of a ship's Scottish chief engineer as his ship approaches port, has never, to the best of the present writer's knowledge, ever been recorded for it is indeed one of those 'gems' that should be better known, a little 'work of genius' that not only gives us an insight into a working area of a ship normally forbidden to all but the ship's crew themselves but too in many ways, one which may cause us to reflect on our own musings about life in moments of solitude.

Here is a tale to be savoured slowly, not to be rushed, for it is spread over the four hour period of The Middle Watch, from midnight till 4 am and it is a tale best read if one can keep in mind the voice of, perhaps, the late Scottish actor Duncan Macrae.