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IT took 78-year-old John Martin of Bergvliet ten years to write the story of his life - but he lost it in a heartbeat.

And what a story it is, tracing Martin's life from a childhood on the banks of the Liesbeek River to narrow escapes on a boat anchored off the West Coast of Africa.

But his gripping story would, after a decade of painstaking wri?ting and compilation, eventually end in tragedy.

Martin met an already published author from Kalk Bay through a neighbour. The man offered to help him get his handwritten notes and priceless photos published.

But, just under a year ago, the man disappeared ? with the completed handwritten manuscript and photos. Martin does not have any copies.

The man, whose identity is known to People's Post, has all but disappeared.

Some say he has gone to England. Others say he is back in Fish Hoek.

No-one seems to know where to find him, and his house in Upper Quarterdeck Road in Kalk Bay has been sold. This man is also said to have ano?ther completed script and photos in his possession ? these belonging to a woman who wrote a story about the history of Muizenberg.

"Look, here he is," says Martin, as he points to the man's photo in the book of which he is the co-author: "A traditional way of life ? the story of the Kalk Bay Fishermen".

Martin and the missing man had even decided on a possible title for Martin's book, "Paradise on Earth", in reference to Paradise Road in Newlands, where Martin grew up.

This, he reminisces, is where it all started.

"After my mother died, I left one night in December and went straight to the boats," recounts Martin. "Living was hard," he says, "and at times, dangerous."

He spent much of his career on the I&J deep sea trawlers, and was also based along the West Coast of Africa.

"I had such beautiful photos."

Highlights of his story include his working time on the "floating factory" boat, L'Interpeche, off the coast of Walvis Bay, then part of South West Africa.

"I was stationed on the Zuider Ster 3 the night that the shooting started."

Martin says 12 boats lay anchored just off the coast of Mauritania when Polizario Arabs attacked them late at night.

"A chappie by the name of Grate was in the wheelhouse, and put a call out on the radio that they'd been shot up."

Ten of the crew of the Zuider Ster 6, including the captain, were killed.

They were apparently caught up in fishing quota disputes between Morocco and Mauritania. Martin says he and shipmate Straf Dubba went over from their boat and saved the remaining three men.

This is just a snippet of what would have been in Martin's book. "Maybe," he says, "I should just start writing it over again."

Please phone People's Post on (021) 713-9447 if you think you can help John Martin.

petro.kotze@peoplespost.co.za

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