I love the water. I especially enjoy the opportunity to experience water—be it rivers, lakes or oceans…. from the deck of a boat. Any type of watercraft will do, but I must admit I hold a special place in my heart for sail boats.

Recently I re-discovered a book about sailing from my youth. It once sat upon my parent’s book shelf, collecting more dust than notice. It is titled, Sail Ho and the cover of this tome is a gorgeous illustration of a 19th century tall ship set in full sail. The author is a Scotsman by the name of Sir James Bisset….who happened to be my grandfather’s cousin, as well my father’s namesake.

As the book tells his story, Sir James was a passionate sailor who began his nautical career at age 16. During his career he evolved into captainships of the Cunard Line’s Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth flagships, and eventually circled the globe a total of 5 times. Further, he was directly involved in the rescue of passengers from the ill-fated Titanic.

The beauty of finding this book at this point in my life is two fold. First, Im reasonably mature enough to appreciate its significance, not only to my family, but to the sea faring world that changed dramatically during Sir James’ career, from full rigged sailing to motorized floatillas. Second, the amazing advancements in technology now allow me to easily and fully research my long ago relative in mere seconds. And so I have discovered amazing collateral documentation about my long ago cousin, as well as photographs of Sir James and the vessels that he captained.

Sir James with Prime Minister Churchill

And I find that all of this helps to explain my great love of water and boating— and to further fan my passion to more fully explore world from the deck of a ship.