The voyage of the Rose City

the long version

When John Moynihan decided to ship out in the Merchant Marine during the summer of his junior year, his father, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, was not enthusiastic, but his mother, an avid sailor, liked the idea. John was urged not to tell the crew that his father was a senator. The job ticket read "45 days from Camden, N.J., to the Mediterranean on the Rose City," a supertanker. But the orders changed, and 45 days became four months--across the equator, around Africa, across the Indian Ocean, and up to Japan--a far more perilous voyage than anyone had imagined. The physical labor was grueling, and outdated equipment jeopardized the lives of the crew. But it was also the trip of a lifetime: John reveled in the natural world around him and gradually proved himself to the old timers. A talented artist, he drew and kept a journal that he turned into his senior thesis. After John died in his early forties, his mother found the manuscript and decided to publish it.--From publisher description.