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Julian Blatchley

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United Kingdom

Website

https://www.julianblatchley.com

Genre

Humor and Comedy, Travel, Historical Fiction

Member Since

October 2017

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Julian Blatchley grew up around water, mostly at Windermere and the River Thames, and cannot remember when or where he first went afloat. Starting with the works of Arthur Ransome he devoured seafaring literature and put what he learned into practice on hire boats, dinghies, offshore racing yachts, work-boats, and even the Windermere Ferry. Leaving school after a youth dominated by sailing and Sea Cadet voyages around the European coast he entered the Merchant Navy as a navigating officer cadet in 1977.

After about ten years of tramp shipping, during which he gained his Second Mate's and Mate's 'tickets', he was forced to change to tankers and rose to be come Master of VLCCs (otherwise known as supertankers) before becoming an oil-field off Julian Blatchley grew up around water, mostly at Windermere and the River Thames, and cannot remember when or where he first went afloat. Starting with the works of Arthur Ransome he devoured seafaring literature and put what he learned into practice on hire boats, dinghies, offshore racing yachts, work-boats, and even the Windermere Ferry. Leaving school after a youth dominated by sailing and Sea Cadet voyages around the European coast he entered the Merchant Navy as a navigating officer cadet in 1977.

After about ten years of tramp shipping, during which he gained his Second Mate's and Mate's 'tickets', he was forced to change to tankers and rose to be come Master of VLCCs (otherwise known as supertankers) before becoming an oil-field offshore manager. When he tired of the politics in this world after some time, he turned to pilotage and spent over a decade berthing large tankers at offshore terminals.

As a young bachelor Julian tended to take leave wherever ships set him down, resulting in semi-official residences in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and the Pacific islands. In 1984 he took an accidental sailing holiday in the Saronic Gulf of Greece which slightly over-ran... booking for 2 weeks, he stayed 30 years. His first book, 'Adjacent To The Argonauts', describes how this came about, and in 'The Trojan Walrus' he describes his initiation into the Aegean yachting scene. Told in a light-hearted way, these books are informed by considerable experience in the area which has led to them being described as guides as much as entertainments.

Parallel with his love of seafaring and ships Julian has always been an avid amateur historian, with highly indiscriminate tastes for periods but perhaps focussing more on the Napoleonic period than any other. His current writing project is a humorous historical romp through this period which is now looking for a publisher and which he freely admits has been massively influenced by Patrick O'Brian.

He returned to Brtain in 2014, ten days before the 30th anniversary of his arrival in Greece, to live in his native Cumbria where, in 2019, he became the manager of Steam Yacht Gondola at Coniston Water. He greatly enjoys the mixture of historical research, conservation and operation one of Britain's very few scheduled steam passenger vessels.

Julian continues to write, and since 2020 has been a regular contributor to the Marine Quarterly magazine, where he writes articles on his seagoing experiences. ...more

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Julian Blatchley’s books

Average rating: 4.33 · 12 ratings · 3 reviews · 2 distinct works

	Adjacent to the Argonauts 4.22 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2010 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Trojan Walrus: A Stout English Sailor Infiltrates the Aegean Sea 4.17 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars