The Voyage of the Rose City

September 26, 2011
Home on spring break from Wesleyan College in 1980, Moynihan declared to his parents—the late senator Patrick Moynihan and his wife, Elizabeth, who lovingly shepherded her son’s book into print—that he was planning to join the Merchant Marines for the summer; at the end of the spring semester, he’s standing in line at the Seafarers’ International Union to get his papers as an Ordinary Seaman, shipping out on a Merchant Marine ship the next day. From the moment of his induction through the challenging and revealing days and nights at sea aboard the SS Rose, he kept a journal of his daily life, his sometimes frightening dreams, and his reflections on the meaning of life. Entries from his journal are woven through the narrative that is as listless as the sea in calm weather. When his shipmates discover that his father’s connections helped him to his position on the ship (thereby taking away an opportunity from the seaman next in line for the job ticket), they give him the cold shoulder. He feels alone and trapped with no friends, and many of his shipmates go out of their way to remind him that he is not one of them. Moynihan finds solace in the beauty of the sea, in the occasional marijuana joint, and in books, and he achieves his dream of sailing part of the way around the world during the 103-day voyage. Moynihan died in 2004, the result of a reaction to acetaminophen.

September 1, 2011

Occasionally self-indulgent but intriguing memoir by the now-deceased Moynihan, chronicling the time he served as a Merchant Marine aboard the Rose City.

In the author's first—and sadly, last—book, he discusses his adventures as a seaman on a brutal and unforgiving four-month journey around the world. His father, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, pulled strings to find his son a place on a ship taking what seemed to be a pleasure cruise around the Mediterranean; however, the young Moynihan was shocked when the journey turned out to be anything but a relaxing vacation. Initially advised to hide his distinguished origins, the details of his parentage quickly leaked, transforming his search for adventure into a miserable, lonely existence. The author laments his treatment at the hands of his fellow seamen and doesn't seem to ever overcome this self-pity. The second half of the book focuses on the increasingly difficult physical conditions aboard the Rose City, as well as the debauchery that occurred when the ship made port. Though the descriptions of booze, women and drunken antics may seem unnecessary and distasteful to some readers, Moynihan uses them to effectively demonstrate how, through these experiences, the disparate men bonded and became a unified crew. It makes for a sincere study of the life of a man at sea, eschewing the romanticism often associated with the lifestyle. Moynihan is a talented writer, wielding crisp and clear prose, and his emotions spill out onto the page but never overwhelm the story. He brings the narrative to a satisfying close, only marred by the fact that the author's life was cut tragically short.

An honest portrayal of a lonely life at sea, Moynihan's adventures aboard the Rose City are exciting, but it is his overwhelming desire for acceptance that will resonate most with readers.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 15, 2011
I thought I would sail out a little and see the watery part of the world. So says Ishmael in Moby-Dick, which Moynihan stowed during his enactment of a venerable literary motif. His Ishmael-like test while working on an oil tanker in summer 1980 involved gaining the crew's respect. Forgetting a union official's advice to say his father was a bartender, Moynihan revealed his true parentage (U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan), instantly earning the crew's animus. Deflecting enmity and winning over his working-class mates, especially belligerent Billy, furnishes the plot of his narrative. As the ship crosses the Atlantic to load Angolan crude, Moynihan endures verbal abuse and an occasional physical threat as he learns the ropes. Improving his job performance as the voyage progresses, Moynihan receives treatment less antagonistic, shading to convivial when Far East port calls feature booze and bordellos. Moynihan, who submitted this account for a college writing course, died in 2004, leaving sharp-eyed portraits of his shipmates that will pique the imaginations of those who dream of going to sea.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)