First Ship

Set in 1969-70, this is a chronicle of a young man's flight from
the Viet Nam draft and potential arrest on unrelated charges. The
story starts in Seattle and goes to the coast of Maine, a vegetable
oil factory in New Orleans, the red light district of wartime Saigon,
and ends up with hitchhiking on Route 66 to get back to Seattle from
New Orleans.
This is the first in a collection of sea stories based upon the
author's experience working aboard 17 freighters and tankers from
1970 to 1982. John Merriam was an unlicensed seaman in the U.S.
merchant marine for those 12 years while working his way through
college and law school. Tuition for law school was paid with a
scholarship from the Seafarers International Union. Passing the bar
in 1982, he was associate and then partner at a small, general
practice firm in Seattle before starting his own firm in 1996.
Mr. Merriam now restricts his law practice to representing
individuals with claims for maritime wages or injury. He is a sole
practitioner with an office at Seattle's Fishermen's Terminal.
The author lives with his wife, Kaye Walker, in Shoreline, WA.