A Lad Of The Lagan

About the Book

A Lad of the Lagan is about a young boy living in Belfast during the most arduous years of the Second World War and the wearisome years after the war. His love of the sea and his attempts to join the Merchant Navy which he eventually does. His experiences as a young officer home on leave and his first experience with young ladies. His trips to South Africa and the Spanish Main as a junior officer are most enlighting.

About the Author

Ralph Potts was evacuated during the Second World War to the little Co.Down fishing village of Ardglass in Northern Ireland. It was those early years playing on fishing boats and having the occasional trips to sea on them from time to time which kindled his interest in seafaring. Realizing his educational short-comings through leaving school at 14 years of age, Ralph went to night school at the Belfast College of Technology and a private week-end college in Belfast at Duncairn Gardens. He joined the Sea Cadet Corps where he excelled in his training and was eventually accepted into the new Northern Ireland cadet College. At sixteen years of age he was given a cadetship by the Esso Transportation Company. He served in tankers, coasters, cargo liners, tramps and ocean liners trading throughout the world. Eighteen years of his life at sea was spent in command of bulk carriers. For a period of time he operated his own Shipping Company trading largely to the Baltic and the Indian Ocean. When he discovered he was a better seaman than a businessman he returned to the sea. Since retirement he has written three books on his years at sea and in business.

Other Trafford titles available by this author:
The Master
Portrait of a Voyage