I am privileged to know Tom Henry personally, a man who has devoted much of his amazing life to the art of seafaring. His remarkable story of a young mansetting out on a traditional maritime career and then spending a great deal of his life at sea is sure to fascinate those addicted to old fashioned mariner's tales. It is a charming story of a once-common lifestyle that has now almost entirely disappeared. I recommend it highly.
Joseph Balkoski, author of Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944
"Life at sea is always a fascinating subject. With charm, wit, and a story teller's skill, Henry brings alive his decades long career as a merchant seaman with great stories about people, exotic places and the day to day business of a ship's officer at work and play. It is a tale that only an old sailor could tell. A terrific read for sea buffs and 'landlubbers' alike."
Raymond J. Batvinis, PhD, author of The Origins of FBI Counter Intelligence
Thomas E. Henry was born and raised on the south shore of Long Island, New York. There he attended the local Babylon schools until March 1945, when he left at age seventeen to serve on active duty in the U.S. Naval Reserve. During his year and a half in the Navy he achieved the rank of gunners's mate third class. Following his discharge from the service he attended, on the 'GI Bill' the Cathedral Scholl of Saint Paul, in Garden City, New York. He graduated in June 1947 with his high school diploma.
In 1951 he graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, which scholl readied him for a life in the United States Merchant Mariner.
In 1985, at age fifty seven, and after thirty three years of service he retired. He had sailed as aship's master with the United States Lines Company. For the following three years he served on periods of active duty in the Naval Reserve as a ship handling instructor at Little Creek, Virginia.
He and Barbara, his devoted wife of over thirty years, reside in Stuart Florida, where Captain Henry is presently employed as an instructed at the well-known Chapman School of Seamanship.
Overview
I am privileged to know Tom Henry personally, a man who has devoted much of his amazing life to the art of seafaring. His remarkable story of a young mansetting out on a traditional maritime career and then spending a great deal of his life at sea is sure to fascinate those addicted to old fashioned mariner's tales. It is a charming story of a once-common lifestyle that has now almost entirely disappeared. I recommend it highly.
Joseph Balkoski, author of Omaha Beach: D-Day, ...