on her own experience of places across Australia, India, East Asia, and the Middle East. Elizabeth Ogilvie sailed on the maiden voyage of the S.S Viking with rather mixed feelings. It was not that her job, as assistant purser, was likely to set her any problems; nor was she worried at having to keep secret the fact that she was virtually related to the Chairman of the shipping line, who was also on board — travelling incognito, for reasons of his own. What had been so upsetting for Elizabeth was to discover, at the last moment, that the Captain of the ship was to be Hugh Anson, with whom she had once been in love. But although Elizabeth did not know it, there were others on board with even bigger reasons for treating the Captain with hostility. Altogether it looked like being anything but a peaceful voyage! Vivian Stuart was a British writer and during her writing career she had more than 70 books published in Australia, USA and the UK. Born in Berkshire in England, she spent most of her youth in Burma and India, and later lived in Hungary and Australia. At the age of thirty-five she began to write romantic fiction but soon devoted her attention to military and historical novels.