By way of introduction...

A message in a bottle… an old notion. The last act, it might be said, of a desperate man, a man shipwrecked. A message consigned to the sea in the hope it might be found and the sender saved. My situation is, not so extreme. A message in a bottle might also be sent out of curiosity… ‘Is anyone out there?’… sent perhaps in a playful mood wondering if anyone might receive it. A blog, I suppose, is the modern equivalent of a message in a bottle. I was encouraged to cast this message by a man who heard my story and opened this blog in the hope it might provoke me to organise my notes and memories for whoever else might be interested, if anyone. Some messages in bottles are never found.

A few years ago, I took part in a smuggling run from Rotterdam to the Florida Coast via various ports in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It wasn’t the first such voyage I have undertaken and I doubt it will be my last. In fact, I sincerely hope it will not be my last. During the journey I kept a log, something I had never done previously as paperwork can be dangerous in our line of business. It was only once I returned to Britain that I considered writing a report on our adventures. My motive was, I suppose, a combination of vanity combined with a desire to present the facts as I experienced them rather than the biased and ill-informed reports I had read in newspapers and seen on TV. I call the exercise an act of vanity because I suppose all confessionals are attempts at self-justification, an effort to put ourselves in better light than others might have viewed us. But I don’t think that has distorted my view. None of us on board were innocents or angels but we were human, subject to the heartache and thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, and I have presented our actions as they happened, the good and the bad. The media has presented us as the modern equivalent of blood-thirsty money-hungry pirates with no opportunity to respond to the accusations.

I take this opportunity.