New on the book shelf: Salvage, A personal odyssey.

I received an interesting book for Christmas that you might like. SALVAGE, A personal odyssey by Captain Ian Tew. From the back cover:

Ian Tew joined Selco Salvage of Singapore in 1974, and spent over a decade on the front line. Already an experienced master mariner, he learnt the salvage trade in the busy waters of the Far East before rising to command some of the world's largest supertugs, eventually becoming a roving salvage master. In his odyssey he roamed the world, from the coast of Cornwall to the Southern Ocean, from the Gulf of Suez to the dangerous reefs of the South China Sea.

This is not a "how to" book by any means. Instead, this is a fairly interesting and well written account of Captain Tew's experiences during a his career as a salvage master. Each chapter is a narrative focused around the events of a particular salvage; what happened, who was involved and how it turned out. Captain Tew deals with foreign officials, bad weather, open forms, drunken crews, and reluctant salvage boat engines.

Captain Tew's memoir leaves you with a good sense of the life of a big ship salvage master; the excitement, travel and adventure and people involved, and his personal satisfaction of completing some very challenging jobs.