Shiprocked more ship’s log than compelling narrative

Steve Conway‘s book, Shiprocked: Life On The Waves With Radio Caroline, is an odd duck. It manages to conveigh a large amount of information regarding Conway’s time about the ship Ross Revenge as a DJ for the UK’s Radio Caroline pirate station. However, at the same time, it really doesn’t manage to evoke any sort of emotional reaction from the reader.

There was obviously a convivial atmosphere aboard the boat, as well as times of great stress and frsutration, but Conway doesn’t manage to imbue any of his prose with those emotions. He says he was worried or stressed or joyous, but only once does the author actually bring those emotions through in his writing. The emotional impact comes only at the very end of the story, when the Ross Revenge‘s anchor chain breaks, and the ship drifts into the Goodwin Sands and is grounded.