Book Review: Steaming to Bamboola: The World of a Tramp Freighter (1982) by Christopher Buckley

 

The cover of the paperback edition of Steaming to Bamboola, by Christopher Buckley, 1982. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

The ship Transcolumbia, renamed Columbianna in Steaming to Bamboola. Built in 1945 as the USS Marine Lynx, it was scrapped in 1988.

Christopher Buckley in the early 1980's.

I could have told you before reading Christopher Buckley’s book Steaming to Bamboola that I was 99% sure I wouldn’t want to work on a cargo ship, and now that I’ve finished the book, I can say that I’m 100% sure I wouldn’t want to work on a cargo ship.

Steaming to Bamboola: The World of a Tramp Freighter, chronicles a late 1979 Atlantic crossing of the cargo ship Transcolumbia. (The ship is called Columbianna in the book, as a way of protecting the identities of the ship and crew that Buckley was writing about.) The Transcolumbia was built as the USS Marine Lynx during the waning days of World War II, and it saw service as a troop ship during the Korean War. It was mothballed by the Navy in the late 1950’s, and in 1967 it was purchased by the Hudson Waterways Corporation, converted to a cargo ship, and renamed the Transcolumbia.

Steaming to Bamboola was Christopher Buckley’s first book, and it came out in April of 1982, when Buckley was 29 years old. Life aboard a cargo freighter is an unusual choice of subject matter for a first book, and certainly not what readers who are now familiar with Buckley’s political satire would expect if they ventured to explore his back catalogue.

Buckley spent a year in the Merchant Marine when he was 18, after graduating high school and before attending Yale. I would venture to guess that Buckley was the only member of his Yale graduating class to have spent time on a Norwegian freighter. Buckley has written about his year in the Merchant Marine in several of his essays.

Buckley keeps himself out of the narrative of the book, and I think that was the right decision to make. Steaming to Bamboola doesn’t read like a typical first book, where the author feels compelled to tell us absolutely everything they know about x, y, and z in order to impress the reader with their brilliance. Buckley is smart enough to simply let the narrative reveal itself to us. Information that gives the reader additional context for understanding shipping is well integrated into the book.

There is humor in Steaming to Bamboola, but it isn’t the focus of the book. Buckley still gets off some clever lines, like this description of Congressman John M. Murphy: “He was understandably anxious, inasmuch as it is inconvenient to campaign for public office while the nation is watching videotapes of you accepting a bribe from an undercover FBI agent posing as a sheik.” (p.90)

A line that wasn’t funny in 1982 but will now raise a chuckle is one describing the many jobs that the Chief Mate on the ship has held: “He’d taught O.J. Simpson how to type at a business school in San Diego.” (p.109)

The book paints vivid sketches of the crew, and the reader witnesses the mounting tensions as personalities clash. On the journey to Bremerhaven, the ship almost hit a mine left over from World War II in the English Channel. Yikes. On the return voyage, the ship must battle through a storm that is a category 12, hurricane force storm on the Beaufort wind force scale. Buckley reminds us of nature’s power as the 523-foot-long ship is battered about by the wind and waves.

Steaming to Bamboola isn’t a travel book in the traditional sense, but what it has in common with many great travel books is the message that the voyage is ultimately more important than the destination. It’s an interesting journey, and I would recommend it to anyone fascinated by the ocean.

Dave Parker: 200 Baseball Cards

 

Dave Parker was one of the coolest baseball players of the 1970’s and 1980’s. I’ve always liked Parker, and I wrote about the 2019 documentary about him “The Cobra at Twilight.” I recently bought a lot of 200 of Dave Parker’s baseball cards. There were many duplicates, but this lot helped me fill in a lot of the gaps in my Parker collection.

Listed at 6’5” and 230 pounds, Parker was an intimidating presence at the plate, and he used his powerful frame to crank out 2,712 hits, 339 home runs, and 1,493 RBIs over a 19-season MLB career. Parker had a powerful throwing arm, and he was regarded as one of the best defensive right fielders during his prime.

It fits that someone as cool as Dave Parker would also have some cool baseball cards. Here are some of my favorites from the lot I bought.

Dave Parker, 1982 Fleer Stamps. Dave is with Steve Carlton on the right.

1982 Fleer Stamps: I’ve always loved the Pirates’ hats of that era, especially with “Stargell Stars” on them. The photo of Dave and Steve Carlton is so cool. It’s most likely taken at the 1981 All-Star Game. Based on what I know about Dave Parker’s personality, he was probably ribbing Steve about something. “Hey man, how come you don’t talk to the press? I love talking to the press! I talk to them all day long!” And Steve’s probably saying, “Oh, I talk to them, I just don’t let them quote me.” I’m glad I didn’t have to pitch to Dave Parker, and I’m glad I didn’t have to bat against Steve Carlton. Two of the best players and most intense competitors of their era.

Dave Parker, 1982 Topps All-Star. Those Pirates uniforms were so cool.

1982 Topps All-Star: This card shows Parker giving an interview, as we can see the microphone he’s speaking into. As a kid, I always found these cards where you can see players being interviewed interesting. I guess what intrigued me is that these cards hint at the larger world—there are other people besides the Topps photographer who want to talk to this baseball player. What’s cool about Parker’s 1982 card is that you can see his pierced ear. Woah, it’s 1982 and this dude has a pierced ear?? That’s bad ass.

Dave Parker, 1987 Fleer Mini and regular size. I really like that the Minis featured different photos than the base cards.

The back of Parker's 1987 Fleer cards. The full size card says he's a "dead pull hitter," while the mini card correctly says he's a "power hitter."

1987 Fleer mini and regular size: By the time these cards came out, Parker had suffered through a few years in the wilderness in the early 1980’s, marred by drug addiction and diminishing power. When Parker became a free agent after the 1983 season, the Pirates made little effort to re-sign him. The consensus was that Parker was overpaid, as he was making a hefty $1 million dollars a year. Parker signed with his hometown Cincinnati Reds and turned his career around. Parker posted career highs in home runs and RBIs in 1985, and finished 2^nd in the MVP vote. The Cobra was back. Fleer made 120-card mini versions of their sets for 3 years: 1986, 1987, and 1988. To me, what makes the mini-Fleers so cool is that they used a different photo of the player than the full-sized card. It shows that some extra thought went into them. I love the 1987 Fleer design, with the blue borders. Although now that I look at these cards, I wonder why they faded the border to white on the bottom half of the card, rather than keeping it that same blue all the way around. For 1987, Fleer classified batters as “singles hitters,” “spray hitters,” which we all knew was just another term for “singles hitters,” “dead pull hitters,” whatever that was, and “power hitters,” which we all knew was the best category. What’s interesting is that Dave Parker has two different classifications. On the full-size card, he’s listed as a “dead pull hitter.” But the mini card knows what’s up and changed Parker’s classification to “power hitter.” That’s more like it.

Dave Parker, 1987 Fleer Award Winners. Dave won the "Sports Writers Batting Award," otherwise known as a Silver Slugger.

1987 Fleer Award Winners: This is one of those cards from the 1980’s that I missed at the time. Fleer Award Winners was a 44-card set distributed at 7-11 stores. It features a great picture of a smiling Parker and informs us that he won something called the “Sports Writers Batting Award.” I think this must refer to Parker being named a Silver Slugger for 1986. Other players in the set won the “Sports Writers Fielding Award,” which means they won a Gold Glove. Fleer must not have paid for the rights to use the trademarked name for the awards.

1991 Upper Deck. Dave Parker swinging a sledgehammer would be very intimidating.

1991 Upper Deck: Parker spent 1988 and 1989 with the Oakland A’s and made it to 2 World Series with them. During the 1989 off-season, Parker was signed as a free agent by the Milwaukee Brewers. Parker played only one year with the Brewers, but he had a fine season in 1990, rapping out 176 hits, slugging 21 home runs, and driving in 92 runs. Parker was named to the All-Star team and won the Silver Slugger award at DH. During spring training in 1991, Parker was dealt from the Brewers to the Angels. Parker’s Upper Deck card shows him in the on-deck circle, swinging a sledgehammer. As though a 6’5” Parker swinging a wooden bat wasn’t a terrifying enough sight for pitchers to behold.

1992 Upper Deck. This was Parker's last baseball card, and the only card that shows him with the Blue Jays.

1992 Upper Deck: Parker’s production finally fell off during 1991, his age 40 season. Through 501 plate appearances with the Angels, Parker was hitting a dismal .232 with only 11 home runs when they released him on September 7^th. A week later, Parker was picked up by the Blue Jays. It was too late to add Parker to the post-season roster, but he still provided some punch down the stretch, as he banged out 12 hits over his 13 games with the Blue Jays, good for a .333 batting average and a .400 OBP. That would prove to be the end of Dave Parker’s MLB career. A free agent once the season ended, he got an offer from the Phillies to be a part-time player but chose to retire. Upper Deck was the only card company to give Parker a card for 1992, and it’s a cool card, even if it’s slightly jarring to see Parker as a Blue Jay.