Under Eight Flags

About the Book

After 11 years at sea, Tony Winstanley saw little reason for staying in the British Merchant Navy. He had reached a dead end. Difficulty with passing exams, and the prospect of long absences from home cast a gloomy future. The answer was to emigrate to Canada, to make a new life for himself and his family. This meant finding a good job ashore. This second volume of memoirs is about his futile attempts to achieve this. He toiled in a fish plant, took a soul-destroying job as a salesman, even worked in an ice cream factory where he was fired for dropping the flavour of the month onto the conveyor belt. Finally he realized that the only way to support a growing family was to pursue his destiny to remain at sea. During the nine years covered by this book he sailed in cargo and passenger ships both deep sea and coastal, and did a stint inland aboard a tug on Lake Okanagan. "I had a tendency to quit jobs if I did not like them. This was hard on my wife, but we always managed to pay the bills."

About the Author

Tony Winstanley was born in London in 1920. He went to sea at 16 and served his apprenticeship with a Scottish shipping company. During the war he served as a deck officer on British and Dutch ships. In 1948, he emigrated to British Columbia, Canada with his wife and two children and continued seafaring on coastal and deep-sea ships. He gained his Master's Certificate in 1962. He has served on many different vessels including tankers, troop ships, research vessels and cruise ships. In 1973 he joined the B.C. Ferries where he worked for the next 13 years. Over a period of 55 years Tony has sailed under eight national flags. He has nine children and ten grandchildren and resides in Victoria, B.C.

Under Eight Flags Volume I Under Eight Flags Volume III