A Nice Quiet Life

This is the story of my grandfather’s life in the Merchant Navy, originally written by him during his retirement. He was a Marine Engineer from 1908 to 1945. This book describes a lifetime of adventure, hardship, and joy on all the different ships that he sailed, from grand liners to rusty hulks. He survived the two world wars, the depression of the 1930s, and at one time he even took his family to sea with him.

He sailed on the Oceanic, the Olympic, the Britannic, and almost sailed on the Titanic. During the First World War he spent some time as a volunteer tugboat engineer at the Gallipoli Landings and later saved a ship from sinking from a torpedo strike. During the Second World War he survived two shipwrecks from torpedo strikes and avoided another sinking, thanks to the Enigma code breakers. He met a whole variety of people throughout the world during his career and often gave humorous talks in many ports that he visited around the world.

This book also gives some details on the ships he sailed and a small window into the events, and the world at those times.

Robert Chicken was born in 1951, in the town of Newport, South Wales (UK). After leaving school, he attended Bath University, where he earned a degree in Engineering. He then worked in Engineering Design for ten years. After that, he moved to a technical sales support role, and then into direct sales. Following that, he set up and ran his own business.

Alongside of his career, he enjoyed scuba diving in his teenage years, and then in his 20s, he became interested in sailing, which led him to building, then sailing his own boat. At about that time, he got married and had two children who grew up experiencing the world of sailing.

In his middle age, he began to write and part of that was the collating of information for the story of his grandfather’s life in the Merchant Navy.

Now retired, he is a proud grandfather, still writes occasionally, and helps two charities.