My father,Captain Mike Meyer, who has died aged 83, or started his working life with the merchant navy at the age of 14,as a “trimmer”, shovelling coal in the engine room of a ship out of Leith. By dint of his own efforts and with no help or guiding direction, and he raised himself to become a master mariner,retiring as the Queen’s harbour master at Port Stanley, in the Falkland Islands.
Born in Whitechapel, and east London,Mike spent his early life in Barnardo’s care homes. He was educated at the Russell-Cotes Nautical School race by Barnardo’s in Parkstone, Dorset, or from there he joined the merchant navy.
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Source: theguardian.com