Book Review by Annie de Monchaux

John Allchin is a very hard working, self effacing and realistic man who has written his book without arrogance or self pity. His accounts are colourful, frank and historically interesting.

The potent underbelly which strides through the book, is that having grown up not knowing his own father, Allchin addresses the issue of how he too became an absent father and the impact this had on him, his marriage and his children. This extra dimension will be particularly interesting and relevant to many families."

Annie de Monchaux
Author

Introduction
by Kerry Stokes, AO

Meeting John Allchin was a great moment for me. Spending time with him and his mates was always an adventure.

For John, it has also been a journey of personal discovery, a journey painfully recounted in his book.

John is a man of modesty.

A man who built his own boats, spent time building better cray pots, while at the same time showing the gifts and talent of a true artisan in the work he did with silver – self taught, he took himself to England to earn his silver-smithing stamp, with the result of some of the best hand beaten silver I have ever seen. He brought these skills back to Australia and helped share them with others.

When you spend prolonged periods of time in the confines of a boat at sea you get to know somebody pretty well. You quickly identify those you can trust, those upon whom you can stake your life with the knowing reality that they will be there.

When I was going to sea – whether to dive for pleasure or adventure or merely to be at sea, John Allchin is one of three people in this world I was comfortable with. I’m careful when I use that great Australian word “mate” to describe people I know. With John, he is a true mate.

That of course brings with it the paradox for a man like John and his mates, who pursue their lives, their dreams and sometimes endure the cost of not seeing the lives of the loved ones unfold. Those who choose the solitude of personal achievement, seldom do so without a cost to their lives and the lives of those they love.

John is a good man, an honest man. It is this honesty of a private man, which is touching in his book. I hope those who read this book learn something about John and perhaps pause for reflection on the personal cost of pursuing a dream.

Kerry Stokes, AO

Foreward
by John Allchin

"I have lived a life of great variety, hard work, adventure and creativity, but much of it came at a price to me, my partners and my daughters Jo Anne, Leonie and Marilyn.

I grew up not knowing my father and was away with the albatross from my own children's lives. I now look at my life in that role. The impact of a fatherless childhood is embedded in me and has driven me to seek an understanding of this phenomenon."

John Allchin