About me
V.B. John — Ship Captain | Author | Storyteller
Since 2005 I have navigated the world’s oceans, progressing from cadet at Eurotech Maritime Academy to Captain, with training from Indian Maritime University (Second Mate) and Solent University (Chief Mate / Captain ).The sea shaped my professional discipline and provided a steady source of story material,an impulse well captured by John Masefield’s line, “I must down to the seas again…” Today I am based in Northumberland, translating maritime experience into fiction and nonfiction that foregrounds the rhythms, risks and beauty of life at sea.I am trying to curate stories that only a mariner could tell.
I bring to my work a captain’s navigational clarity, attention to delicate detail, and willingness to explore new routes—each piece of writing guided by the twin compasses of craft and curiosity.The inspiration from powerful movement of oceans that steered my ships now steers my pen and continue to develop craft through reading, travel and the same rigor that served me at sea.
Though armed with a Diploma in Creative Writing (Writers Bureau), I remain that “little boy on a small coracle sailing through the mighty ocean of literature.” But this boy trusts his compass: eighteen years of storms, stars, and uncharted waters. I’ve left the safe harbour. The trade winds are filling my sails.
“I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by”—(John Mansfield)
V B John 