The Hull Truth: Chronicles Of A Cruise Ship Crew Member (Book 2)

It’d been a while since I read Joshua Kinser’s first cruise ship related book, Chronicles Of A Cruise Ship Crew Member: Answers To All The Questions Every Passenger Wants To Ask. The book was good and really did give you a behind the scenes view of life outside the passenger areas on your typical cruise ship.

As an on board musician, Kinser certainly had time to observe the goings-on both above and below the waterline. So, when it came time to finally pick up his second book in the series, The Hull Truth: Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Crew Member (Book Two), I figured the details would continue to flow.

Kinser came back to cruise life after some time off in the hills of North Carolina. This time, he came back as an art auctioneer, and he wasn’t alone. With him, as his art dealing partner, was Gertie. New job. Potential for some high jinx at sea. Sharing a very small room with a beautiful girlfriend. This should have been epic.

However, after reading, I see this as a necessary step to the lengthier third book. I would say skip book 2 all together and just move on to Chronicles Of A Cruise Ship Crew Member: Ship Of Darkness. However, there are details in the second book that you kind of need to understand the third book. But, it does beg the question of why he didn’t just put the two together as a single story? Money, perhaps? Money, for sure…

I’m not saying the book stinks. It’s short. Josh promises that the book digs even deeper into the crew only area for a behind the scenes sea voyage. But, it doesn’t, really.

The Hull Truth

Josh and Gertie are getting sick of the snow in North Carolina. Just in time, the sea calls offering them jobs as art auctioneers. They, of course, take the job and re-enter cruise ship life. The story is centered around preparing for their first art auction and really doesn’t get into much detail above life in the dark belly of the cruise ship.

We do learn that to be a great art auctioneer, you must learn the art of being a prick. Treat the poor like shit and treat the rich even worse. Entice them to the gallery with the promise of Champagne. Limit the flow of that bubbly and make it the cheapest crap you can find. Over inflate the value of the paintings available so that every winning bid looks like a bargain. In other words, act like a used car salesman from the 1980’s.

Hierarchy and politics are shown to be bad on a cruise ship. Workers are relegated to jobs based on what part of the world they come from and not by what skills they possess. There’s a lot carrot dangling in the form of promised promotions that seem to never happen. In other words, ship life is quite similar to the corporate world.

The book ends with the two arriving at dry dock in Hamburg, Germany. This is meant to be a vacation on land while the ship is maintained and overhauled. However, they receive word that they’ve been transferred to another ship. A ‘dark ship’. This is where we’re left and you must purchase Ship of Darkness to find out where things go from there.

So, do I regret buying the book for Kindle? I don’t regret it but I’m not super stoked about it. I bought both book 2 and 3 at the same time and I am glad that book 3 is considerably longer and, after the first few chapters, is looking like a much better read.

From Amazon:

THE PERFECT BOOK TO READ ON YOUR NEXT CRUISE… Climb aboard this hilarious, full-speed-ahead true story about what it’s really like to live and work on a cruise ship. From the author of Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Crew Member: Answers to All the Questions Every Passenger Wants to Ask, a #1 bestseller in Amazon’s “Cruise” and Caribbean” categories, comes this second book in the Crew Member series by Joshua Kinser, a well-published travel writer and author of twelve books. Book Two delves even deeper into the CREW ONLY area for a behind-the-scenes sea voyage that navigates through the laugh-out-loud ups and downs of a cruise ship crew member’s ship life. The nautical adventure begins in the midst of a cold, snowy winter…but then the phone rings. It’s the sea calling, and nothing sounds better than walking up that gangway one more time and climbing aboard a cruise ship that has its bow pointed toward warm breezes, cold piña coladas, and beach-lined tropical islands. This time Gertie, a beautiful brunette, is giving the captain’s orders during this port-hopping escapade that explores the often seedy and always fast-paced world of cruise ship art auctions. Grab a slice of chocolate melting cake for a deck-swabbing excursion that sails around the Caribbean and across the Atlantic Ocean to ports of call in Germany, England, and beyond. And finally get answers to your cruise ship questions such as: Do you think anyone would rescue my cruise ship manager if I threw him overboard? And, why does the champagne served at cruise ship art auctions always taste about as good as the water that shoots out of a whale’s blowhole?

Joshua Kinser

Joshua Kinser is a writer and musician who grew up in Pensacola, Florida. He is now based in Chimney Rock, North Carolina but is often on the move, traveling around the world.