When I Was in the Tartar: Twelve Years Below Decks in the Senior Service by Michael Payne
A boy of 16, Michael Payne left Northampton to Join the Navy and See the World in 1969. This is his story of 12 years in the Senior Service, mostly during the 1970s when he served in HMS Zulu, Tartar, Plymouth and Londonderry, during which time he rose to become Leading Seaman. Politically incorrect and graphically told, this is a story of the post-war navy, with no epic battles. The author recounts tales of visits to foreign places, much drinking, joking and teasing, and testing the limits of tolerance, sometimes of comrades, sometimes of those in command.