In 1974 I worked my passage on the German owned, German officered, Cape Verde Islander crewed MV Wesersand from Dakar in Senegal as the cook's mate. For the first few days on the bulk carrier, I was so seasick I survived on coffee and ships' biscuits. But by the time we passed through the Bay of Biscay in a force seven storm, I had found my sealegs.

As we came up the Channel, the engineer's mate shouted to me as he was going down to the engine room: "Ja, Eric! Rolling home to England?" And, boy, were we rolling - 22 degrees to starboard, followed by 22 degrees to port. Our cargo - ilmenite ore - filled only the very bottom of the hold, so it acted like a pendulum. And the bunks were across the ship, making lying in them like being on a fairground swingboat.