Below The Waterline
By Steven C. Barber
To some degree, I think many people in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand can relate to Steven C. Barber, AKA Steven Charles Wharton at least when they were in or had recently graduated from college.
Barber, a flighty bird, hatched into a gold feather-lined nest, like a chicken with his head cut off, hell-bent on blindly navigating his own flight path through the rough skies and seas of the world, out from under the protective wing of his mother and heavily-weighted, pecking bill of his father, flies the coop, off on an adventure of a lifetime.
Like a seagull, looking to consume whatever life is willing to serve up to him, with as little expelled effort as possible, he begins his adventure far from his flock, sailing the high seas. As he flies from one cruise line to another, soaring to ever higher levels of misdeeds, he discovers there is more to cruise ships, than iron, paint, wood and brass, a perfect haven for the foul acts of fowl.
There are times the pages offer up rib-splitting moments, other times his tale evokes anger, and somewhere in between a few tears are shed, for various reasons, though never shed for him. He is a man you can love to hate, or hate to love and he is a new partner with Cruise Bruise. I welcome him aboard.
You may find his behavior reckless, dangerous, immoral, unethical and even disgusting while being sprinkled high and low with acts that are illegal in most countries. No matter what you feel, Below The Waterline gives all passengers an eye-opener into the behavior of those who work aboard cruise ships.
To say it is not pretty, would be to discredit Barber's book. The fact is, the tales in this book are sinfully ugly, like a ten inch cancerous mole growing on the face of a child molesting preacher. It serves as warning to all, of the treachery within.
After reading the book, it is hard to say who you will loath more, the cruise industry as a whole, a certain cruise line, those who supervised Barber or Barber himself. You may end up just wanting to take a long hot shower, to cleanse yourself of the dirt that is eyeball deep within the pages of this book.
For those who are hungry to break as many laws in as many countries as possible, it is a how-to-guide for the masses of renegades. For those who actually thought there was a difference between a Love Boat and a Sex Boat, you will discover that there is no LOVE on any of these "Boats", but plenty of love of sex, drugs and rock and roll, if you know where to look, Below The Waterline.
Though Barber has been thrown off cruise ships nineteen times, his critique of the incidents show an overall unwillingness of the industry to turn a blind eye to misbehavior by those who work aboard their ships, depending on who is being caught and who is catching them.
Should a staff member have his assignment terminated because he received oral sex in a public area of the ship and got caught by security? I think most would say, "Yes!". But, that was not the reason Barber lost his assignment on this particular occasion. It was instead because a passenger complained to corporate about the type of music he was offering as a DJ in the ship's lounge, just not to her liking. Justice is warped on cruise ships, but without legislation it is all there is. You will get an up close and personal look at that justice, such as it is.
Barber was nailed for dancing while working as a DJ. He was dancing while he was serving up music, which was really more like bopping to the music. For that, he was raked over the coals and given "Strike One" in a " Three Strikes You're Out system. The only problem with that incident, was the fact that it was really Strike Two, after being caught having sex in a lifeboat. This particular assignment's adventures pale in comparison to some of the acts in his past stretch-the-limits lifestyle.
Whether corporate deals with a heavy hand or not when it comes to those who work aboard their vessels, one thing is clear. The ships have a reputation among crew, and it is not good from a moral standards point of view.
In one particular passage, Barber describes a conversation he had with the brother of a crew member who worked aboard a cruise ship. The man told Barber, " [he] gets more ass than a toilet seat, he does. A bloody orgy on board twenty-four seven he tells me."
His cruise ship work history includes excesses in illegal drugs, alcohol and sex, none of which is surprising to me. From all I have heard from or about western cruise ship workers, life is a party, an orgy for a fact aboard the passengers ships that sail the high seas.
Below The Waterline is the Love Boat television series, HBO version seen after 11pm at night. Just as the Love Boat crew, staff and officers went through one woman after another, so does Barber. You begin to see a pattern.
The Barber story outlines the good and bad of the industry. For some, good drugs and good "ass" make for a great cruise, while other's wouldn't take a cruise that was known for those things, if it was the last day of their life.
For families, there is an important message within the pages of Below The Waterline. Cruising on some ships is nothing more than cruising for a bruising, a place children should never be, unless you would take your children to a Las Vegas "Ranch" to meet some 'ladies' and some 'Johns'.
If you are a parent of small children or young adults, you need to read this book. Once you have, you can properly prepare your children for the snake pits that abound on cruise ships, in places you really would never expect.
Within most towns across America, what goes on in a bar, stays in a bar, away from the innocent glances of children. On a cruise ship, the bar's boundaries include every inch of a cruise ship and everything that happens within the ship as a whole, is public, and can and will be seen by children. This book illustrates that point.
If you raise your children with loose morals, I suppose any cruise ship would be perfect for you and your family. If you would not want to expose your children to the dark side of cruising, there are cruise lines to be avoided. Just from reading Barber's book and hearing his tales aboard ships from all the major cruise lines, you will discover which ships and lines to avoid and to warn others about.
Barber's book discusses various cruise lines, and their standards or lack there of with specific incident story telling. His critique of the industry is blunt, honest, to the point, with no punches pulled. He names names, full names.
While Steven Barber is telling this story, it could be told with similar details from any one of millions of men who work aboard or take vacations aboard any number of cruise ships. This is the type of man mothers warn their daughters about. You can really only do that thoroughly, if you read the book. More crew books in our Library.
If you don't turn another page this year, you'll want to open the cover of this book and take a look inside at the heart and soul of the people of Alaska. Because, while the tale is fictional, it couldn't possibly be more real.
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