Looking increasingly as if he needs to go into dry dock for a scrape and a coating of anti-foul instead of prowling about the waterfront frightening power-walkers, our scruffy Shipping Reporter has been haunting op shops and other joints in search of nautical flotsam and jetsam.
In a dump shop near the endangered Great Barrier Reef he let out a scream of delight and a salty oath when he came to grips with the Kraken from Shaun Micallef's Mad As Hell ABC satirical show, the monster shown below plotting with the Australian Navy to attack Chinese spy ships.
Actually, it was a battered and tattered 1964 reprint of John Wyndham's science fiction novel, The Kraken Wakes , from the Castlemaine High School Library .
From the same dump shop , he found the scuffed following Australian volume with tips about bumming your way el cheapo aboard container ships - not those huge luxury cruise liners, like the Ruby Princess , many of which are being scrapped due to the pandemic .
