30 YEARS A MARINER IN THE FAR

Raised on Estonian islands in the Baltic Sea, Captain Mender worked on ships from London to ports worldwide and ended up in Vladivostok on Imperial Russia's Far Eastern Coast. Standard Oil hired him in 1919 to transport oil products on China's Yangtze River. Mender retired after surviving the bombing and sinking of his ship during the 1937 U.S.S. Panay incident. A Navy Expeditionary Medal recipient, his memoirs illuminate a nautical life of a bygone era.