The Earth God Cometh

By Ken Devey

Earth has been in the throes of destruction for thousands of years. Our Milky Way Galaxy contains many thousands of Suns containing solar systems. A group of 300+ planets populated by advanced species have formed together to create ‘The Galaxy Federation Forces’ some of whom had visited and helped earth after its creation. One particular world ‘Sernian’ is controlled by a female. ‘Queen Sernin’ with immense powers who is also the highest angel messenger for the Creator. She was informed by the Creator the coming Demise of Earth within 75 years and can be saved. An earthling child Kenny, has been chosen and later in his life, he is medically processed over a number of years into a super advanced being, exceeding 15 ft in Hight with a huge body, and capable of shape change, move beings and objects with his mind, become invisible, produce lightning powers from his eyes and hand palms. He then becomes the High Lord and leader of the Galaxy Federation Forces to accomplish his task, saving the Earth.
Nuclear Wars, terrorism, rape of the lands, world government corruption, drugs, crime, and many of the top wealthy individuals dominance in creating a New World Order to be controlled by the few for the few, are all part of the destruction. Earth is also home to many alien species that have been living here for thousands of years and working with many governments exploiting them for their planned take-over of Earth. But the governments are blind to this.
While growing up Kenny has died a number of times and been revived by his guardian angels. He is visited by the Aliens when in his mid-forties to prepare him for his pre-destined tasks.
The Lord of The Galaxy Federation Forces Lord Zusis, adopts him as his long-lost son, and after his process is completed the Galaxy leadership is transferred over to Kenny and takes his new name, Lord Zeus.
Many battles take place in space and on earth against evil warmongering aliens and world governments. Advanced medical cures are introduced to earth that have been available for many years but held back to make many of the wealthy wealthier. The Earth God, Lord Zeus intends to fight and destroy the corruption, rape and destruction of the earth’s life-giving vegetation. His first task is to deactivate and remove the thousands of nuclear warheads on earth.
A Battle of Battles with Lucifer and the fallen Angels whom are based in the depths of the Antarctic is looming and the Creator has given Lord Zeus more amazing advanced powers to help him and Queen Sernin defeat Lucifer and the Fallen Angels in the final battle.
Lord Zeus visits earth a number of times with his father’s fleet of many thousands of vessels. In his preparations to make his final major visit to earth Lord Zeus designs a mass fleet of more advanced vessels and armaments to prepare for the battles he knows will take place with the millions of aliens living on earth which he intends to deport from the face of the Earth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ken Devey
• Release date: Jul 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370448227

Book preview

THE EARTH GOD COMETH

Book One

An Earthling is chosen to save the Earth.

By

Ken Devey

THE BASIC STORY.

THE EARTH GOD COMETH

Earth has been in the throes of destruction for thousands of years. Our Milky Way Galaxy contains many thousands of Suns containing solar systems. A group of 300+ planets populated by advanced species have formed together to create ‘The Galaxy Federation Forces’ some of whom had visited and helped earth after its creation. One particular world ‘Sernian’ is controlled by a female. ‘Queen Sernin’ with immense powers who is also the highest angel messenger for the Creator. She was informed by the Creator the coming Demise of Earth within 75 years and can be saved. An earthling child Kenny, has been chosen and later in his life he is medically processed over a number of years into a super advanced being, exceeding 15 ft. in Height with a huge body, and capable of shape change, move beings and objects with his mind, become invisible, produce lightning powers from his eyes and hand palms. He then becomes the High Lord and leader of the Galaxy Federation Forces to accomplish his task, saving the Earth.

Nuclear Wars, terrorism, rape of the lands, world government corruption, drugs, crime, and many of the top wealthy individual’s dominance in creating a New World Order to be controlled by the few for the few, are all part of the destruction. Earth is also home to many alien species living here for thousands of years and working with many governments exploiting them for their planned take-over of Earth. But the governments are blind to this.

While growing up Kenny has died a number of times and been revived by his guardian angels. He is visited by the Aliens when in his mid-forties to prepare for his pre-destined tasks.

The Lord of The Galaxy Federation Forces Lord Zusis, adopts him as his long-lost son, and after his process and transferring the Galaxy leadership over to Kenny, who takes his new name, Lord Zeus.

Many battles take place in space and on earth against evil warmongering aliens and world governments. Advanced medical cures are introduced to earth that have been available for many years but held back to make many of the wealthy wealthier. The Earth God, Lord Zeus intends to fight and destroy the corruption, rape and destruction of the earth’s life-giving vegetation.

A Battle of Battles with Lucifer and the fallen Angels whom are based in the depths of the Antarctic is looming and the Creator has given Lord Zeus more amazing advanced powers to help him and Queen Sernin defeat Lucifer and the Fallen Angels in the final battle.

Lord Zeus visits earth a number of times with his father’s fleet of many thousands of vessels. In his preparations to make his final major visit to earth Lord Zeus designs a mass fleet of more advanced vessels and armaments to prepare for the battles he knows will take place with the millions of aliens living on earth which he intends to banish from the face of the Earth.

The 1st book of six adventures in a planned 4-book series.

The Earth God Cometh

By Kenneth H. Devey

Born in Birkenhead, Merseyside 8th December 1941.

Most all of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental and invented by the author.

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Copyright © Kenneth H Devey 2018

Published at Smashwords as an eBook in 2018

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Adventure One: The Visitors

Adventure Two: Abduction, Traitor, and Death

Adventure Three: The Teaching Begins

Adventure Four: Major Earth Visit and Battle

Adventure Five: The Major Battles

Adventure Six: Dominance of the Galaxy

Adventure Seven: The Galaxy Federation Forces Supremacy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I give thanks in my research to NASA, Greek mythology, and other independent public information services and Phil Schneider on the alien bases in the USA and around the world.

I also thank my lovely wife Daranee for spending over 4 years writing my first book and thanks to my son Shaun, his lovely wife my daughter-in-law and grandkids, Jazmyne and the Big Guy TJ for putting up with my working on the computer so much.

But no thanks for the sore butt sitting down for so long.

I can be contacted by E-Mail at the following address:

[e-mail]

ADVENTURE ONE.

The Visitors

It all started many years ago at my home town Birkenhead in England early one evening I was 7-8 years old, 1947/48.

It’s already getting dark, around 7 pm. I was outside playing football with my friend Joey.

We were playing headers at the side of the Liberal Club, opposite our house in the side street. I tossed the ball into the air to head it when this large circular light sped across the darkening sky at an unbelievable speed. It was a beautiful deep blue colour, it then stopped instantly without slowing down. It stayed suspended there for what I thought was a long time. I shouted to my friend and pointed.

Considering its position, I was guessing it had stopped over Bidston Hill Observatory. The observatory was built in 1866, and one of its functions was to indicate the time. At exactly 1 pm each day, a gun would be fired electronically. The building also had hundreds of small machines making a continuous tick, tick, tick noise, my dad told me that they predicted the tides around the world.

I ran and banged on the window of our house and my mum opened the front door.

Mum! Mum! I cried. It’s a flying saucer, come, and look! She looked at me as if I were crazy and told me to bugger off.

I saw it, too, Mrs Devey! My friend Joey shouted.

She didn’t come, I ran into the house and grabbed my bicycle headlight and ran back over to where Joey was. It was still there and I started to flash my light at it like Morse code. To my shock a light flashed back. In a second, it was hovering directly above me and I could see two small orange lights flicker before a green light flashed. I felt as if I’d had a little electric shock: my body felt weak.

What’s wrong? Joey asked.

I’m not sure, I replied, feeling dizzy. At that point I heard my Mum scream. Kenney. Kenny. She came out of the side entry that ran down the back of the houses, she was with our local police man Sergeant Tucker. ‘Tucker the Fucker’ as we used to call him. I was sitting on the pavement opposite our house. Mum just ran over to me, she was crying.

Where have you been, I’ve been so worried. Where did you go? She kept saying.

I haven’t been anywhere Mum, been here all the time. I said confused.

Its 10 o’clock, you’ve been gone 3 hours. Joey said you just vanished. He did not see you. She explained loudly, still crying.

Honest to God Mum, I can’t remember anything, I don’t feel very well, I’ve got a terrible stomach ache, and I need to go the toilet. I told her. My tummy was twisting up like the cramps.

The Sergeant started to question me, I told him the same. My mind was spinning around in confusion. Mum lifted me up and took me in the house. Dad started to really shout. Mum shouted at him to shut up. I then rushed out to the toilet, I could not hold it any longer. When I came back in I was feeling a little better, Mum had made me a big dripping on toast butty and a glass of milk and took me up to bed. I had a good sleep Mum was lying next to me in the bed, she had slept by me all night.

For breakfast I had a soft boiled egg with my soldiers dipped in the yoke. I asked mum if I could go and see Joey. I had to talk to him about last night. I went down the entry to his back door and went in, he seen me through the window and came out.

Fuck-In-Nell Kenny, what happened to you last night, one minute you were standing there and the next minute you vanished into thin air, I shit me self and ran home. He blurt out.

I don’t know Joey, I don’t remember anything after I felt that little shock. I replied. Did you see anything? I asked. Mum said I was gone for 3 hours, can’t believe it.

When you said you felt that shock, a big flash happened and that is when you vanished. Your mum came around with Tucker the Fucker to see if you were here. She said you have been gone for a few hours.

I can’t remember nothin Joey. I’ve still got a stomach ache from last night.

A few days later when my mum was reading the paper, she asked me what the colour of the strange thing was and I pointed to a colour on a picture hanging from the wall, it was a rich blue. She said other people had seen the object in Southport.

The strange object was constantly on my mind. After the encounter, I would sit outside in our back yard on clear nights gazing into the sky. Often, I would see tiny objects moving very high up in the sky and I would wave and shout hello. I wished that one day the UFO would come back and visit me. One very clear night, I saw four small lights arranged in the shape of a kite moving across the sky: one in front two side by side, and the fourth one at the rear.

As I watched, the light at the rear moved out to the left then it switched places with the one at the front. Another time, less than a year later, I was asleep in my bedroom when I woke just as it was getting light. I was still tired, I closed my eyes and suddenly found myself travelling along a path towards a very bright light which was getting brighter and brighter the closer I got to it. I was frightened and forced my eyes open. I sat up, and the light went away. I never told my mum about it.

I left school just after my fifteenth birthday. It was the Christmas school holidays. I went searching for a job down Grange Road the main shopping area and found one delivering orders on a bicycle with a big wicker basket for Woodsons the grocery store. After three months, I was promoted to serving customers behind the counter. Two years later, I managed my first little shop for them which I did for over a year before I took up driving a large wagon, taking scrap metals to the smelting works.

One day I was driving down a steep road towards a major junction. I tried to slow down, but the brakes weren’t responding.

I started flashing my lights, and a large wagon on the main road noticed me and blocked the road off. I must have crossed the junction doing around sixty miles per hour.

I edged my wagon to the left side of the narrow road to edge along the low stone wall in an attempt to slow my speed, my front left wheel must have caught something very solid that jacked the front left of my wagon and the rear spun out across the road and I started to flip over and over, I was thrown at the steering wheel and my chest hit it so hard I heard cracks and the pain was excruciating I was thrown all over the cab as it was flipping over and, I saw flashes and flames on the outside. It came to a stop I felt like I was upside down and noticed flames surrounding the cab, it was getting very hot.

I could not move; my left leg was hurting very much. Blood was running over my eyes, I started to drift away. I saw myself walking along a path, again, towards a very bright light and I was looking down at myself in the cab, my body was lying across the seat between the gear stick, my head was down the front of the passenger seat. Then I was looking at my body rising, two figures were lifting me up. I was rising above the blazing wagon. They laid me on the road moving their hands over me, I was looking down at myself and I was sinking closer and closer towards my image and I entered my body. I heard people shouting and felt my body being shaken. I opened my eyes surrounded by people. There was an old looking man kneeling beside me, he had white hair and a long white beard, he was holding my head, I was looking at him and I was trying to lift the top half of my body up.

He spoke in a gentle voice. Stay still Kenny but his mouth did not move. I thought, how he knew my name.

Who are you? I asked.

I am your Father Kenny He answered.

What are you doing here? I asked.

It is not the time for you to die. We will be back for you later in your life. You will then know what your predestined life was created for. He replied, his eyes were dominating.

I closed my eyes for a moment, when I opened them he was gone and a Police officer was kneeling beside me. He had a white cloth tapping at my forehead. I started to move and he told me to lie still, an ambulance would be here very soon.

You are a very lucky young man, you should be dead. Whoever you have up there came and brought you out of the cab, bloody miracle, I saw them, like Angels, and all the others saw them. They are all kneeling around with their hands together. He said excitedly.

Yes, I remember I was looking down at myself. I felt I knew them. Can I stand up as I feel quite good? What damage can you see I have? I asked.

Well, you had a very bad cut across your forehead but it is not there anymore. Your foot had a lot of blood around it but I cannot see any damage. Do you feel you can stand up ok? He asked.

Yes officer.

I rolled over with my knees on the ground and started to stand up. I was standing up fully and people were clapping and laughing. A few people were touching me. I heard the sirens close by, the fire engine came down the road first and had the water hoses working within a few minutes. The Ambulance and two police cars arrived. I did not want to go in the Ambulance but they and the police insisted.

I could not believe the state of the wagon it was a wreck the cab was burned to a melted clump.

I spent 3 days in the hospital with them doing mainly tests. They were baffled, they could not find any injuries not even any scratches.

Irene arrived the day after I went into the hospital. She stood over my bed and the tears where pouring down her face.

Oh Kenny. I saw the wagon on TV news I did not know it was you, until the Police came to the door. I knew then it was you. But the TV said the driver was not hurt. I couldn’t believe it with the state of the wagon burned to a cinder. How did you come out of that not hurt, I can’t believe it? she said nonstop.

Long story Love, tell you all when we get back home, how is Mum?

"Your Mum was in a very bad state, I had to call the doctor. I watched the TV and they were interviewing some people who were crying, they said they saw 2 angels with wings bringing you out of the wagon and laying you on the road, running their hands all over you, then they started too vanished.

The Police came to the house this morning and picked me up, Mum could not come the doctor had given her some sedatives. The papers and TV people are all around the house. The Vicar from the church is with Mum. He wants to see you as soon as possible."

Oh shit. I said.

Two days later I was discharged with a clean bill of health. The Police had arranged to take me home which was very thoughtful.

I arrived home and Mum flew out the house when she saw the police car. She was crying so much I threw my arms around her and we kept kissing each other. The press and TV were waiting and screaming at me asking all sorts of questions. We went into the house. Dad was there, he came over hugging me crying a little.

It’s all good Dad. I said.

Dad had got some beers in and we talked for ages after dinner and went to bed around 1 am.

We were up at 7.PM had a great breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomatoes, black pudding and fried bread. It was 8.15am I looked out the window, around 15 people were outside. I saw the BBC van and 4 cars with signs on, News of the World, The Mail, and The Guardian and the Liverpool Echo. I will see who is willing to pay me the rights to my story.

The Vicar came to the house and he was blabbering on none stop about the Angels and God. I explained to him what I saw and what happened. He was gob smacked. He left after close to 2 hours insisting I came to church this Sunday. There were more people around the house. I went out with Irene and they were shouting, I put my arms up. They went silent.

"I am willing to give my story to whoever is willing to pay the highest fee. The Mail guy shouted five hundred pounds, I moved my head from side to side, the News of the World guy shouted seven hundred, and then the Guardian guy shouted 1,000. I shouted 3,000 for the full story. The Guardian shouted with his hand up. Yes. I looked at the BBC people and asked if the can better the 3,000 they shouted 4,000 I said no, 8,000. Ok, they replied but I had to go down to London.

I did all this over 3 days with a nice 8,000 pounds. Irene and Mum could not believe it.

The boss from my works came around and asked if I would stay in the job, he had bought another wagon.

I stayed with this job for a couple of years until I was twenty-two and then I joined the Merchant Navy as an uncertified deck-hand (DHU).

My first ship was a passenger liner, The Empress of Canada. It sailed out of Liverpool across the Atlantic to Quebec and Montreal. I remember one night three days out of Liverpool when I was on watch, it was compulsory on a passenger ship to have a lookout 24/7. Sailing the Atlantic, we had to keep watch in the crow’s nest high up for other vessels, and possible icebergs in the season and also migrating whales.

There was no wind, and the sea was like a sheet of glass, I was relieved after 2 hours. The sky was so thick with stars I felt I could touch them. It was spooky. I sat by the ships rails leaning against one of the air vents looking up at the stars. I was always thinking about the old man talking to me at the wagon crash wondering what he meant saying they would be back for me and that I would then know what my predestined life was created for.

I saw a group of small bright lights moving quite fast across the sky, very high up. There were six of them in two columns. I watched them for a long time until they eventually went out of view.

Many other nights on deck, I saw objects moving and changing directions in the sky. I used to talk about them in the crew mess room to comments like, You pissed again, Devey?

We would laugh, and I would say, only on Coca Cola’s guys. With a laugh.

One trip I was on, we had left Quebec heading down the river and I was on watch on the bow end. The Buson came down and asked how I was. He started to mention about one of the CP ships The Empress of Ireland on its first run down here in 1914 close to the area we were in. It was hit by a coal ship built with an ice breaking bow to get through the ice on the river in winter.

It hit the Empress of Ireland dead centre and it sank in 15 minutes with 1,000 people losing their lives. This was two years after the Titanic sinking. And he said to keep a good lookout.

I did 4 of these runs to Canada and back. It was now October on the last winter run, before the St Lawrence River started to freeze over to the point that most ships could not navigate down the river. The Empress of Canada and The Empress of England would go on 5-month cruises out of Liverpool around the Caribbean and The Mediterranean Sea. The ship I was on did the Caribbean in and out of New York on 14 to 18-day cruises. I signed up for this one. This Empress of Canada was the second one. The first Canada was in the Liverpool dock in January 1953 for its yearly service and was engulfed in a devastating fire. Fire trucks from all over the North West of England rushed to Liverpool. They poured so much water into it that it turned on its side and sank in the dock. A Lot of it was showing as the dock was not that deep. Two divers lost their lives on the salvage work. It was eventually righted and sold for scrap.

On the first cruise out of New York I lost the top of my second toe in Porto Rica when one of the steel gangways dropped onto my toe and took the tip off. The guys helped me onto the ship and the buson called the ship’s Doctor who could not come as he was in his normal state of being drunk. They took me to the chemist guy who was asleep in his cabin. He was not very happy as it was 2am.

He took my shoe and sock off and the tip of my second toe was hanging down on a piece of skin. He started to sew it back on, I said give me an injection it bloody hurts. He did and carried on. They put me into the ships hospital ward in bed. Next morning the Doctor came in, saw me in the bed and screamed at the nurse get him out of here. I got up with my foot on the ground and the pain shot into my toe, it must have been the blood rushing in.

I fell to the floor. It was 2 weeks before I could get back on duty. After 1 week my toe was starting to get very painful and had it checked, the tip had started to go Dark Green. They treated me with penicillin injections.

When the ship reached New York and I was signed off and taken to The Roosevelt Hospital, I was there for 10 days and re-joined the ship when it arrived back from its 14-day cruise. After the 5-month cruise we headed back to Liverpool and I decided to leave the Merchant Navy and get myself a job back with the old grocery company, which had then been taken over by Tesco. I was given a manager’s position in a small self-service shop and moved to a larger one after 3 months.

After 5 months in this shop I was promoted to a Supermarket Manager to a store in Lancaster.

At that time, I took up scuba diving again with my old friends. Most times we would dive off the Island of Anglesey, Wales.

On our summer holidays, my wife and I would drive to the south of England and board the ferry over to France. From there we would drive to the east coast of Spain where I went diving. I had to drive, as the airlines would not let you take diving gear on the plane.

The place I dived was at the Ills Medes, off the north-east coast of Spain. On one occasion, I booked a dive with an English guy who ran a diving school. He had an excellent dive boat.

There were about eighteen to twenty guys on the dive, and other than me and the owner, they were all German. He grouped me into a team of five, and I was nominated to be the lead diver. As we descended we followed the cliff face down. It began to get quite murky. When we reached eighty feet, I looked back to see two of the divers returning to the surface.

I continued to descend to a hundred feet. When I looked back, I saw the remaining two guys also heading up without letting me know.

I decided to carry on, as I believed it was 120 feet deep here. I was confident I could do it. The rock face tapered off, and I was in open water, it was dull but clear. I carried on a little deeper.

When I stopped, the water was very clear. There were no fish to be seen. My gauge read 150 feet. At that point, I started to feel I was not getting enough air and I was beginning to feel strange.

I turned and saw two strange figures in the distance I spun around and they were behind me. I needed more air. I began to breath faster. I had to get to the surface fast and felt an urge to rip my mouthpiece out. I remembered some of the things my dive friends had said. This is what happens when Narcosis starts to take effect due to anaesthetic effect of certain gases at high pressure. I started to rise slowly but felt I was not getting far. I could see my air bubbles rising so I knew I was going up. I dropped my weight belt and started to kick faster, I made sure to breath short and fast to keep my lungs from expanding with the speed of my ascent and the less pressure on my body, I was fighting hard not to pull my mouth piece out. I was starting to get exhausted when the 2 strange figures were right in front of me. They had no diving gear and both had a type of cape hanging from their shoulders, one of them was a male with a lot of long white hair his cape was gold coloured and a thick gold ring around his head, as he stared at me with a smile and shiny white teeth, I thought back to the time in the wagon crash, he reminded me of the old man talking to me. The other figure was female dressed similar but her cape was silver coloured, she also had long white hair, they each had one of their arms holding the top part of my arms, I started to go dizzy and sink into a path again with the very bright light at the end, my eyes started to feel very heavy and they were closing. I was then again looking down at myself when the mail figure lifted his cape over my head, I felt I was rising quite fast. The male figure put his other hand over the top of my head covered in the cape and I started to sink back into my body, the next thing I knew I was holding onto the side of a rowing boat with 2 old people in it, they were holding one of my arms. I smiled at them and started to look around.

I saw the dive boat some way off.

I raised my arms and crossed them. The dive guy saw me. He dived into the water and raced over. He forced my mouth piece back in.

What the fuck are you doing over here? It’s over 200 ft. He questioned in a raised tome.

We made our way back to the boat and climbed on board.

Can you see any of the guys that were with you? He demanded.

No… I said.

Who was part of this guy’s team! he shouted. No one opened their mouths.

You know the rules? Do not leave a diver on his own! Let him know you are going back up!

We started back to the shore. I thought you were a goner, he said. You were away a long time.

Yes, I was down around 150 ft., and started feeling strange not enough air and 2 strange figures helping me.

Narcosis mate, imaginations. He said.

I got back to our hotel and told Irene. I decided I was never going diving again. The next day I went on another dive.

I was seeing the 2 figures all the time in my head wondering if it was a dream, but it was so real to me. They saved my life for sure.

We arrived back home in England on the Sunday afternoon all safe and sound. I went out at 7pm and had a drink with my mates and told them the story. Brian said.

Fuck, you were lucky Kenny. You were always going off on your own on a dive.

I went home 10.30PM. The wife was fast asleep in bed, I made a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich, watched TV for a little while and went to bed.

After my diving scare, I always felt slightly strange when going down to 100 ft., as if I was not getting enough air.

On a dive in Malta, I had a dive in the Blue Grotto to 110 ft. I had to wrap my legs around a boulder on the bottom and rest, as my body was again feeling as if it was not getting enough air.

I figured out later that it was because I always took deep breaths and held them in longer than I should have with the mistaken idea of saving air to stay down longer.

After my fourteen years with Tesco, I fell out with my area manager after he wrongly accused me of something. I went to work for another company for six months, and we decided to immigrate to New Zealand. Unfortunately, that did not turn out well and we returned to England after a mere two months.

Back in the UK, we only had £2,200 and no house. We moved in with my wife’s mother, my first priority was to find work. I considered applying for a job back at Tesco, but I always believed that you do not get rich working for someone else and I started thinking what we could do. I found a fruit and veg business for sale in the Rock Ferry area. I paid £1800 for the business lease, £180 for his small truck and £60 for the solicitor. That left me with £160 pounds for the fruit and vegetable market. On the Monday morning at 5 am. The guy from whom I bought the shop lease from met me, and I followed him to the market where he introduced me to the farmers he dealt with. I bought what I thought I needed, with his advice, at a cost of £85 leaving me with £75.

My wife was waiting at the shop for me when I returned from the market and made a great display with the produce at the front of the shop. When we closed at 5.30 pm we counted our takings: £92, which was not too bad for a Monday, the previous owner said. We had quite a bit of stock left over for the following day. Within six months we had saved enough for a deposit on a small house.

Eight months later, we leased a second shop further up the road. Our takings tripled in the first four weeks, and I ended my lease on the first shop.

A year later, I bought another shop. I fitted it out with shelving and made a wide window display for the fruit and vegies. Over a couple of years, we also built a reputation for selling Christmas trees.

We would tie them to the lamp poles along the pavement. It began on a small scale around 100 trees every Christmas and we always ran out. One year when I went into the market early December and saw the wagons coming in with trees. I noticed one wagon with what looked like lovely quality trees and went over.

How many trees you got? I asked this guy.

1400, he replied.

What price for the lot? I asked.

What all of them?

Yes all of them. We negotiated a price of four pounds per tree. His prices started at three pounds for 3 ft. trees up to fifteen pounds reaching 18 ft. so I did a good deal as long as we sold them all.

It was 8 am when I arrived at the shop with the tree guy following me in his wagon. All the girls were there. The look on their faces when we pulled up with this wagon full of trees, I’ll never forget. We stacked them at the back of both shops and the garden area of our new house.

When we closed the shops at 5.30 PM on the 24th of December, we had one tree left, only because the top was snapped. We went on a holiday to Florida at the end of January with part of the profits from the trees. During this time I decided I wanted to fly a plane and joined a flying club. I received my license after flying as pilot for 11 hours.

For twelve years, six days a week, my wife Irene and I worked hard in these two shops. I would be up at 4 am every morning six days a week to get to the markets. Once I had all the fruit and veg I needed, I would go over to the fish market, as we also sold fresh fish. I would normally arrive back at the shops around 8 am. Irene would be there with all the display boxes setup, with wooden sheets covered with imitation grass ready to set up the displays.

She had a great knack for this.

We would party a lot in those days: go to friends’ houses for dinners and would all take turns to do dinner parties, often we’d go out with friends to restaurants. We would drink and dance a lot.

One of those evenings we had the dinner party at our house, I was doing a jive dance with my wife, and had our best friend Christine on my shoulders when I felt a tightness and pain in my chest. I stopped dancing and went into the bathroom. My chest felt as if I needed to do a huge belch, so I started to bang my chest, but the sensation wouldn’t go away. I looked at myself in the mirror. Jeez, am I having a heart attack? speaking to myself.

I went over to Bobby. Take me up to the hospital, Mate. I think I’m having a heart attack. He literally picked me up, threw me into his car and drove like crazy to the hospital. The doctor organised an ECG and an X-ray. He gave me a tablet for angina but the pain and tightness didn’t go away. They determined I’d had a mild heart attack. I remained in the ward for three days.

I took it easy for a few weeks and did a lot of thinking about what I wanted from my life. Not long after that my mate Dave came up to the house and we got talking. I said to him that I’d love to retire, buy a boat and go live in Spain.

Dave was one of these guys that knew where everything and anything was for sale.

There’s a boat down at the four bridges docks that’s up for grabs, he informed me. We went down to see it. The owner was a scrap merchant called Barry. Most people called him ‘Barry No Shoes’ because he always wore wooden clogs. The boat was tied up to the quay and Barry showed us around the boat: named Bacardi. It was fifty-eight feet with a steel hull and twin Volvo F-86 diesel engines. It was in a right mess but just what I was looking for. It had been sunk in the dock due to the seacock tubes being cut. I learned that it had been under water for a full day before being lifted out by a mobile crane. I bought it and spent eighteen months refurbishing it. I had the boat re-wired by a marine electrician who also fitted a radar system and an auto-pilot system. I managed to get a very good diesel engineer who stripped the engines and brought them up to perfect working order.

Inside all the cabins were a mess. I rebuilt the woodwork myself, in mahogany: the beds, cupboards, drawers and cabin doors. Once varnished to a high gloss, it looked like new.

The last project on the boat was to paint it. I had the hull sand blasted by a friend who was in that business. I decided the hull and deck would be white to reflect the heat from the sun, and the hull and fly bridge lines a nice RED. I thought it looked beautiful. When people came to see it, they couldn’t believe what I had achieved.

I went to night-school for over a year and received my skipper’s ticket and a radio licence, for which I had to sign a secrecy document in case I heard some confidential military stuff.

We sold our house and belongings.

I was a snotty-nosed kid from the back streets of Birkenhead and never dreamt I would end up sailing the oceans in a boat like this.

I asked a few of my close friends if they would like to come along for the ride and help me take it to Spain.

Laurie and Mike volunteered and at the last minute, Mike invited his friend John with his girlfriend. There were seven of us in total, including Irene, our son Shaun and myself. I was thinking hard on a new name for the boat to get it registered and came up with Shaurene. I took the last letter from Shaun name which left SHAU and then took the first letter from Irene name which left RENE and came up with ‘SHAURENE.’ I had the name put on the Port and Starboard sides on the bow, in gold leaf. It stood out very nice.

There was a flotilla of tall sailing ships due to arrive in the River Mersey from a number of countries, and they would be berthing in the Liverpool and Birkenhead Docks. We decided to leave on the same day the tall ships were leaving.

On the eve of our departure, thirty of our friends came down to the boat and we had a few drinks and quite a few laughs. Many of the girls had a bit of a crying match about our leaving.

Mallorca’s not far. Come over in the summer. We’ll cruise around the island, I said.

Around 8 pm they left, and we began to check everything was ready for departure before getting a little shut-eye. The tall ships were preparing to leave and moving down towards the main locks. We were scheduled to move into the lock around 3 am with the last tall ships. We tied up in the lock with our ropes on a slip-coil.

They started to pump the water out of the lock, and the boat started to slowly drop down.

It took ten minutes or so to drop around twelve to fifteen feet. The tall ship was instructed to leave first, and we were given the go-ahead to follow once it was clear.

I had already started our engines. We pushed off the quay wall and slowly moved out into the Mersey. We were on our way. I increased speed to 8 knots, following the tall ship, but it was moving faster than we were and eventually disappeared from our view. We passed through the Mersey Bar into the Irish Sea. My boat was heavy displacement and max speed was 9 knots.

The wind was getting quite strong, and sea conditions getting rougher. The waves were around two metres and short, making the boat lift and drop. After around one hour, the speedboat on the twin hangers was bouncing around despite having been tied securely whilst in the dock. Someone may have loosened one of the ropes one of the kids probably. It was difficult to secure it as it was getting rougher the further we moved into the Irish Sea.

I decided to head into Anglesey’s main port where the ferries berth. I located the entrance lights and passed through into the berthing area, but we were told to leave by the harbour master. I radioed him and explained that we had a small emergency: the boat hanging on the derricks being very loose and dangerous. Thankfully, he directed us to a berthing quay.

We spent thirty minutes securing the small boat and the harbour master came around and agreed we could stay overnight. At this point, Irene said that she wanted to return home and meet us in Mallorca. She did not like the rough seas.

I awoke the next morning around 5 am and shouted everyone up. After a very satisfying breakfast of bacon, eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes, Irene changed her mind:

I’m coming with you. She said.

Good on you Love. I said.

We let our ropes go and moved out towards the harbour entrance. The seas had not calmed down. We cleared Anglesey point and headed out into the Irish Sea on a course set for the tip to Land’s End off Cornwall.

It was getting dark when I picked