Golightly Adrift by Pike, Geoff - 1977

Angus & Robertson, 1977. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 5.5" X 8.5. h/b 250 pages, condition is very good. Henry Golightly, young adventurous English sailor, is lured to sea on the Caribbean Hunter, the last of the Hunter Line, a small, rust-riddled coal-burner, more commonly known as the Rustbucket, by tales of love and riches in distant ports. Yarns from Seashells, the biggest and most colourful man Henry had ever seen or heard of, with a face as rich and brown as milk chocolate. The destination is Punto Paraiso, a Venezuelan fishing village flourishing in a post-war oil boom, and Mammy Bong's Copacabana, the most famous house of pleasure in the south seas. Henry adrift with a crew "as dodgy as a wagon load of Barbary apes"* Bradley Hunter, the playboy owner, "thinks of nothing but his belly and what hangs to it"; Benjamin Thaddeus Beacher, the bible-bashing bosun; Ted Shreeve, the spooky Second Mate, sneaking and creeping the deck, gun poised in search of rats; "the Martian", the radio operator, hibernating among his anodes and cathodes and girly pictures. All barmy in the opinion of Goat, the poacher's son from Herefordshire. "Nutters from start to finish.,. Adventure and excitement along the way - Henry and Seashells stealing a pig from stores so they can pay for Goat, who had just not got around to losing his virginity, to taste the pleasures of one of the luscious ladies in the Seven Seas (more commonly known as Sweaty Mary's) - an Eskimo, no less. Attempted murder and mayhem when Shreeve, the Second Mate finally cracks up and holds the crew to ransom with his rifle as they frolic in the sea during an engine break-down. Shreeve picking off targets as the terrified crew frantically cling to the fraying rope ladder with killer sharks sweeping around their naked, dangling legs, drawn by the blood from one of their number taken when one of Shreeve's bullets found its mark.