For most people, a summer car ferry to France is as glamorous as sea travel ever gets; as a Marconi radio officer in the 1950s, Freeman was promised as many drinks, cigarettes and women as he wanted. His experiences, during eight years at sea, form the basis for this collection of true tales, many of which were first told on RTÉ's Seascapes or in An Irishman's Diary in this newspaper. From the tale of a barber's amorous adventures with a duchess, to the 1956 All-Ireland hurling final as heard via Radio Brazzaville, Freeman's stories are bursting with all the joie de vivre of a young man seeing the world for the first time. Yet he is also realistic, acknowledging the alcoholism among crews, the sadness of those taking "the emigrant boat" and the tragedy of lives lost at sea. An entertaining and evocative memoir of a bygone era.
