My Life From Antarctica To The Yukon - John A. Shannon

My Life From Antarctica To The Yukon - John A. Shannon

Softcover rubbed edges and bumped to bottom of spine.

The author of this book is John Shannon, a New Zealander born and bred in Dunedin, his grand-father having worked in the Central Otago goldfields after jumping ship in Australia from the well known sailing vessel 'Cutty Sark'.

John's life has taken many exciting turns following his school days and upbringing in Mornington, Dunedin during the 'Great Depression' years. The early part of this book describes what life was like during those times. The beginning of John's adventures started during WW2 whilst serving on ships of the Royal NZ Navy, including the notable HMNZS ACHILLES. He later joined the research vessel RRS DISCOVERY II in Sydney and kept a daily journal during a winter circumnavigation around Antarctica in 1951 commencing after departing Otago Harbour and concluding after reaching Plymouth, England in December of the same year. This journal was transcribed and is included in a section of the book.

More of John's adventures continued with accounts of his travels on both sides of the Atlantic aboard large oil tankers before his sea-going life came to an end. He then embarked on a long sojourn to Canada where he worked on road maintenance in the summer months for the great Alaskan Highway from British Colombia up through the Yukon. During the winter months John was able to get work with oil-drilling companies. In the early '60s he decided to return home to Dunedin, New Zealand and was booked onto the almost new SS CANBERRA, a P & O ocean liner from San Francisco to Auckland via Hawaii.

John married Betty, the widow of one of his old shipmates from his WW2 days, and moved to Timaru later becoming a co-director of the business Pages Paint Centre