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Steaming to Bamboola - The World of a Tramp Freighter
STEAMING TO BAMBOOLA is a story of the author's time at sea. He tells first-hand about typhoons, cargoes, smuggling, mid-ocean burials, rescues, stowaways, hard places, hard drinking and hard romance. It is the tale of a ship and her crew, men fated to wander for a living--always steaming to, but never quite reaching, Bamboola.
221 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
10 people are currently reading
232 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Buckley
102 books955 followersChristopher Buckley graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1976. He shipped out in the Merchant Marine and at age 24 became managing editor of Esquire magazine. At age 29, he became chief speechwriter to the Vice President of the United States, George H.W. Bush. Since 1989 he has been founder and editor-in-chief of Forbes Life magazine.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
He is the author of twelve books, most of them national bestsellers. They include: The White House Mess, Wet Work, Thank You For Smoking, God Is My Broker, Little Green Men, No Way To Treat a First Lady, Florence of Arabia, Boomsday and Supreme Courtship.
Mr. Buckley has contributed over 60 comic essays to The New Yorker magazine. His journalism, satire and criticism has been widely published—in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New Republic, Washington Monthly, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Esquire, and other publications. He is the recipient of the 2002 Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence. In 2004 he was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
He is the author of twelve books, most of them national bestsellers. They include: The White House Mess, Wet Work, Thank You For Smoking, God Is My Broker, Little Green Men, No Way To Treat a First Lady, Florence of Arabia, Boomsday and Supreme Courtship.
Mr. Buckley has contributed over 60 comic essays to The New Yorker magazine. His journalism, satire and criticism has been widely published—in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New Republic, Washington Monthly, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Esquire, and other publications. He is the recipient of the 2002 Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence. In 2004 he was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 9, 2021
I could have told you before reading Christopher Buckley’s book Steaming to Bamboola that I was 99% sure I wouldn’t want to work on a cargo ship, and now that I’ve finished the book, I can say that I’m 100% sure I wouldn’t want to work on a cargo ship.
Steaming to Bamboola: The World of a Tramp Freighter, chronicles a late 1979 Atlantic crossing of the cargo ship Transcolumbia. (The ship is called Columbianna in the book, as a way of protecting the identities of the ship and crew that Buckley was writing about.) The Transcolumbia was built as the USS Marine Lynx during the waning days of World War II, and it saw service as a troop ship during the Korean War. It was mothballed by the Navy in the late 1950’s, and in 1967 it was purchased by the Hudson Waterways Corporation, converted to a cargo ship, and renamed the Transcolumbia.
Steaming to Bamboola was Christopher Buckley’s first book, and it came out in April of 1982, when Buckley was 29 years old. Life aboard a cargo freighter is an unusual choice of subject matter for a first book, and certainly not what readers who are now familiar with Buckley’s political satire would expect if they ventured to explore his back catalogue.
Buckley spent a year in the Merchant Marine when he was 18, after graduating high school and before attending Yale. I would venture to guess that Buckley was the only member of his Yale graduating class to have spent time on a Norwegian freighter. Buckley has written about his year in the Merchant Marine in several of his essays.
Buckley keeps himself out of the narrative of the book, and I think that was the right decision to make. Steaming to Bamboola doesn’t read like a typical first book, where the author feels compelled to tell us absolutely everything they know about x, y, and z in order to impress the reader with their brilliance. Buckley is smart enough to simply let the narrative reveal itself to us. Information that gives the reader additional context for understanding shipping is well integrated into the book.
There is humor in Steaming to Bamboola, but it isn’t the focus of the book. Buckley still gets off some clever lines, like this description of Congressman John M. Murphy: “He was understandably anxious, inasmuch as it is inconvenient to campaign for public office while the nation is watching videotapes of you accepting a bribe from an undercover FBI agent posing as a sheik.” (p.90)
A line that wasn’t funny in 1982 but will now raise a chuckle is one describing the many jobs that the Chief Mate on the ship has held: “He’d taught O.J. Simpson how to type at a business school in San Diego.” (p.109)
The book paints vivid sketches of the crew, and the reader witnesses the mounting tensions as personalities clash. On the journey to Bremerhaven, the ship almost hit a mine left over from World War II in the English Channel. Yikes. On the return voyage, the ship must battle through a storm that is a category 12, hurricane force storm on the Beaufort wind force scale. Buckley reminds us of nature’s power as the 523-foot-long ship is battered about by the wind and waves.
Steaming to Bamboola isn’t a travel book in the traditional sense, but what it has in common with many great travel books is the message that the voyage is ultimately more important than the destination. It’s an interesting journey, and I would recommend it to anyone fascinated by the ocean.
Steaming to Bamboola: The World of a Tramp Freighter, chronicles a late 1979 Atlantic crossing of the cargo ship Transcolumbia. (The ship is called Columbianna in the book, as a way of protecting the identities of the ship and crew that Buckley was writing about.) The Transcolumbia was built as the USS Marine Lynx during the waning days of World War II, and it saw service as a troop ship during the Korean War. It was mothballed by the Navy in the late 1950’s, and in 1967 it was purchased by the Hudson Waterways Corporation, converted to a cargo ship, and renamed the Transcolumbia.
Steaming to Bamboola was Christopher Buckley’s first book, and it came out in April of 1982, when Buckley was 29 years old. Life aboard a cargo freighter is an unusual choice of subject matter for a first book, and certainly not what readers who are now familiar with Buckley’s political satire would expect if they ventured to explore his back catalogue.
Buckley spent a year in the Merchant Marine when he was 18, after graduating high school and before attending Yale. I would venture to guess that Buckley was the only member of his Yale graduating class to have spent time on a Norwegian freighter. Buckley has written about his year in the Merchant Marine in several of his essays.
Buckley keeps himself out of the narrative of the book, and I think that was the right decision to make. Steaming to Bamboola doesn’t read like a typical first book, where the author feels compelled to tell us absolutely everything they know about x, y, and z in order to impress the reader with their brilliance. Buckley is smart enough to simply let the narrative reveal itself to us. Information that gives the reader additional context for understanding shipping is well integrated into the book.
There is humor in Steaming to Bamboola, but it isn’t the focus of the book. Buckley still gets off some clever lines, like this description of Congressman John M. Murphy: “He was understandably anxious, inasmuch as it is inconvenient to campaign for public office while the nation is watching videotapes of you accepting a bribe from an undercover FBI agent posing as a sheik.” (p.90)
A line that wasn’t funny in 1982 but will now raise a chuckle is one describing the many jobs that the Chief Mate on the ship has held: “He’d taught O.J. Simpson how to type at a business school in San Diego.” (p.109)
The book paints vivid sketches of the crew, and the reader witnesses the mounting tensions as personalities clash. On the journey to Bremerhaven, the ship almost hit a mine left over from World War II in the English Channel. Yikes. On the return voyage, the ship must battle through a storm that is a category 12, hurricane force storm on the Beaufort wind force scale. Buckley reminds us of nature’s power as the 523-foot-long ship is battered about by the wind and waves.
Steaming to Bamboola isn’t a travel book in the traditional sense, but what it has in common with many great travel books is the message that the voyage is ultimately more important than the destination. It’s an interesting journey, and I would recommend it to anyone fascinated by the ocean.
December 31, 2012
Steaming to Bamboola is Christopher Buckley's first book, an entertaining account of his time spent as a Merchant Seaman. He shipped out in 1970 at the age of 18 as a deck boy aboard a Norwegian tramp steamer and ended up circling the globe. His pay was $20 a week and he has since remarked, "I've never since worked harder physically or felt richer." The book has been out of print for a while, but richly deserves to be brought back. If you can find it used and are a fan of Christopher Buckley and/or sailing travelogues, be sure to snap it up while you can.
In today's world of container shipping the days of the tramp steamer are all but gone, but they live on in this raucous account of life on the high seas. We meet rebellious deckhands, nosy room stewards, and an ornery bosun from Alabama who openly says he shot a man but did jail time for something else he refuses to reveal. There is the ex-submariner from Kentucky money who can quote Shakespeare, suspect cooks who routinely miss lifeboat drills because of bouts of the DTs, and a captain and chief engineer who have been sailing together for over a decade yet utterly despise each other. If you have ever spent time on a ship you have probably run into colorful characters like these. We endure horrible storms with them and even worse on-board entertainment. We head ashore with them in foreign ports of call, hang out with them in seedy seamen's clubs and barely roll back up the gangplank in time for the next leg of the trip bruised, battered, and barely conscious. Some may call these men misfits while ashore, but at sea they have no equal.
In one especially interesting part of the book we hear amazing stories from the past in Sailor's Snug Harbor, a home for retired mariners in Sea Level, North Carolina. Several residents of Snug Harbor have over 50 years of sea time. It is here that we encounter fascinating accounts of the man who was blown into the smokestack when his ship was torpedoed off the coast of South America in 1942, the story of the captain of the first ship sunk in WWII, and more.
At just over 200 pages, Steaming to Bamboola is a quick read with fun insight into the world of the Merchant Marine and the long gone tramp steamer. Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley Jr., is a good writer and does a terrific job with this, his first book. If you have spent time on ships, are interested in life at sea, or are simply a travel junkie like me, definitely pick this one up if you can find it.
Special note: Steaming to Bamboola is a good companion volume to John McPhee's Looking For A Ship (1990), another enjoyable firsthand account of the life of merchant seamen on tramp steamers.
In today's world of container shipping the days of the tramp steamer are all but gone, but they live on in this raucous account of life on the high seas. We meet rebellious deckhands, nosy room stewards, and an ornery bosun from Alabama who openly says he shot a man but did jail time for something else he refuses to reveal. There is the ex-submariner from Kentucky money who can quote Shakespeare, suspect cooks who routinely miss lifeboat drills because of bouts of the DTs, and a captain and chief engineer who have been sailing together for over a decade yet utterly despise each other. If you have ever spent time on a ship you have probably run into colorful characters like these. We endure horrible storms with them and even worse on-board entertainment. We head ashore with them in foreign ports of call, hang out with them in seedy seamen's clubs and barely roll back up the gangplank in time for the next leg of the trip bruised, battered, and barely conscious. Some may call these men misfits while ashore, but at sea they have no equal.
In one especially interesting part of the book we hear amazing stories from the past in Sailor's Snug Harbor, a home for retired mariners in Sea Level, North Carolina. Several residents of Snug Harbor have over 50 years of sea time. It is here that we encounter fascinating accounts of the man who was blown into the smokestack when his ship was torpedoed off the coast of South America in 1942, the story of the captain of the first ship sunk in WWII, and more.
At just over 200 pages, Steaming to Bamboola is a quick read with fun insight into the world of the Merchant Marine and the long gone tramp steamer. Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley Jr., is a good writer and does a terrific job with this, his first book. If you have spent time on ships, are interested in life at sea, or are simply a travel junkie like me, definitely pick this one up if you can find it.
Special note: Steaming to Bamboola is a good companion volume to John McPhee's Looking For A Ship (1990), another enjoyable firsthand account of the life of merchant seamen on tramp steamers.
August 25, 2016
Some days I go to work and think "this is OK." Some days I go to work and want to set things on fire. This is an entertaining read for those of us who have wanted to set things on fire and go live on the high seas. I mean, this book'll probably cure you of that. But it's still fun.
Read
August 13, 2023solid reportage in a jos. mitchell up-in-the-old-hotel kinda mode... what seemed a shame is that the part that most came alive (talking to old salts in the sailors' home @ snug harbor) was relegated to a single chapter near the end... you almost get the sense that c-buck wished he woulda just hung out w/ them rather than embarking on the tramp steamer. still a lot better at EOD than you'd expect from a speechwriter for george w bush
April 7, 2021
A maritime classic as the last book of the day! The once relatively unknown son of William Buckley, Christopher Buckley, published an account of sailing as an observer on a US flagged tramp steamer in the late 70’s. When the book finally appeared, Buckley was a full-time speech writer for Vice President George Bush. Far from the lofty yet disreputable oval office of the Reagan White House, Buckley, a few years prior, sailed with more common everyday derelicts in the Seafarers International Union (SIU, an acronym playfully bastardized as Scumbags, Indigents and Undesirables by those who rose from its rank and file or who still deal with its scowling members).
Well before the era of random drug screens, breathalyzers and monolithic, generic container ports, tramp steamers used to roam the oceans looking for cargo in faraway, outlandish places like the fictional Bamboola. Boisterous crewmembers were begging for a fight every port and GPS didn’t even exist. Nevertheless, the characters and scenarios are utterly archetypal to anyone who has ever done time in the merchant marine. The Captain and Chief Engineer detest one another. The steward ignores basic hygiene and manages to carry three cups of coffee to the bridge by keeping the contents of one cup in his mouth while climbing the ladderwell so he doesn’t spill any. Most memorably, illicit, repeated use of an inflatable fuck doll leads to transmission of STD’s amongst the crew. Buckley, nonplussed, chronicles it all. One is loath to even suggest that he exaggerates. From talking to old timers, I’m apt to believe he reported faithfully.
I often give “Steaming to Bamboola” as a gift to maritime friends who somehow haven’t read it, so I am always looking for an extra copy.
“Steaming to Bamboola” is among the best accounts of a voyage in the merchant marine. Unlike John McPhee, whose “Looking for a Ship” is mediocre and suffers from mate worship and an incredulous author believing flagrant sea stories, Buckley immersed himself in unlicensed crew and reports with trenchant sociological accuracy. The result is a superior book. The back jacket has a blurb by James Dickey, comparing Buckley’s first novel to Conrad’s “Youth” and Malcolm Lowry’s “Ultramarine.".
December 13, 2011
I liked it but not as much as I had hoped to based on other reviews I had read. I did get some insight into the world of the merchant marine - enough to make me want to stay away from the docks - anytime, anywhere. Buckley clearly inherited a gift with words.
May 27, 2009
I certainly liked it at the time, esp. the story of the sailor who caught that clap off of an inflatable doll!
November 16, 2020
Christopher is a funny writer. Son of WF Buckley. Great sea stories.
March 17, 2023
Hysterical
July 5, 2024
This book was written over 40 years ago and did not age well. I read it because a colleague who liked it gifted me a copy.
July 11, 2024
Read this years ago. It was a fun read as I recall.
July 21, 2025
A series of vignettes about life on a cargo ship in 1979.
February 5, 2015
Not a fan right from the beginning, but then I warmed up to it. And then I lost interest again. And then I finished reading it. This could be expressed more easily by a series of various shrugs, facial expressions and sound effects, but I'm not going to record a video clip. So words it is!
Buckley weaves the personal origin stories of crew members into this voyage--the characters are the story, and the freighter's trip fades to the background. A third-person narrative was an interesting choice, forcing Buckley to artificially absent himself from the story, transforming apparent dialogues into monologues (further underscoring the famed loquacious nature of seafarers?).
I'm glad Buckley included a visit to Sailor's Snug Harbor, a retirement home for "aged, decrepit and worn-out" seamen. Delightful.
Excerpts:
"He had run away from home at thirteen, after feeding all his schoolbooks to the landlady's goats. He grew up in what is now Spanish Harlem in New York City. He had scattered his seed all over the world but had never come back for the harvest." (66)
"When he was a child, his grandfather used to take him to public executions as a reward for being good." (110)
"Butts was deep into the beers, yet unsatisfied. A few shots of whiskey would do it. He had a fine-tuned sense of his blood chemistry, balancing beer (for bulk) and whiskey (for kick) until the desired level of toxicity had been reached, somewhere between Unconscious and Fatal." (134)
Buckley weaves the personal origin stories of crew members into this voyage--the characters are the story, and the freighter's trip fades to the background. A third-person narrative was an interesting choice, forcing Buckley to artificially absent himself from the story, transforming apparent dialogues into monologues (further underscoring the famed loquacious nature of seafarers?).
I'm glad Buckley included a visit to Sailor's Snug Harbor, a retirement home for "aged, decrepit and worn-out" seamen. Delightful.
Excerpts:
"He had run away from home at thirteen, after feeding all his schoolbooks to the landlady's goats. He grew up in what is now Spanish Harlem in New York City. He had scattered his seed all over the world but had never come back for the harvest." (66)
"When he was a child, his grandfather used to take him to public executions as a reward for being good." (110)
"Butts was deep into the beers, yet unsatisfied. A few shots of whiskey would do it. He had a fine-tuned sense of his blood chemistry, balancing beer (for bulk) and whiskey (for kick) until the desired level of toxicity had been reached, somewhere between Unconscious and Fatal." (134)
February 26, 2016
More a collection of anecdotes and character sketches than a cohesive book; but it's hard to imagine there is a reader who won't find it interesting on some level. He keeps the tone right on the edge of comic and tragic as he describes the various merchant sailors, chronicles their interactions, and lets them relate their perhaps embroidered tall tales. He makes you yearn to be aboard at some points and horrified at the thought of being aboard at others.
April 3, 2012
A tramp steamer’s crossing of the Atlantic as seen by a passenger, who as a young man was a deckhand, but now a recognized journalist. He knew where to look for the on-board humor and how to interpret the whacky crew’s behavior where as others might have missed it. Familiarity breeds contempt…and everything else imaginable on this slow passage to a seedy port in Europe.
May 3, 2015
This early book of Buckley's was published in 1982 and features
his trip on an old steamer built in 1934. In the winter of 1979
they steamed out of Charleston and ended up circuitously in
Bremerhaven; then they went back to New Orleans. A nearly
6000 mile journey. A wild, colorful crew and bad weather and
politics caused quite the stir. Very entertaining.
his trip on an old steamer built in 1934. In the winter of 1979
they steamed out of Charleston and ended up circuitously in
Bremerhaven; then they went back to New Orleans. A nearly
6000 mile journey. A wild, colorful crew and bad weather and
politics caused quite the stir. Very entertaining.
November 26, 2010
Wonderful example of how truth can be stranger than fiction. The author lets these merchant sailors tell their tales, and what tales they are. The stories of the disturbing Mr. Fogarty alone are worth a read, if only to ask yourself, how would I react if I were about to be raped by a hobo?
January 1, 2016
Entertaining and insightful romp through the life of a dying (if not already dead) occupation - the merchant marine sailor.
If you are drawn to tales of the sea and life aboard a working ship, add this book to your list. An easy read written in a narrative style at a fast clip. Fun.
If you are drawn to tales of the sea and life aboard a working ship, add this book to your list. An easy read written in a narrative style at a fast clip. Fun.
January 4, 2008
Buckley boards a tramp steamer and sails the seas with the lowest of the low.
July 4, 2008
Christopher Buckley's first -- and nonfiction. I was hooked.
January 28, 2010
i classic of the tramp steamer genre. even though that buckley guy is suspiciously back bay brahmin. great book, takes place mainly in north atlantic.
August 16, 2011
A stack of interesting anecdotes. Doesn't really coalesce into a book.
November 21, 2015
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was funny, witty, well-paced with no nonsense characters and I picked this up from a free books bin in a charity shop. FREE BOOKS Y'ALL! !!!!
November 2, 2008
Dad and I read. OK presentation of life on a tramp steamer in 1970s.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews