Defying expectations was the course John Moynihan chose when he shipped out with the U.S. Merchant Marines during the summer of his junior year at Wesleyan University in 1980. His book, &#x93;The Voyage of the Rose City,&#x94; carries the reader along with a young man whose dreams of the sea confront the rigors of working on the SS Rose City, an oil tanker 894 feet long, 105 feet wide and 64 feet deep. </p><p>&#x93;It was a simple question of escape,&#x94; Moynihan writes. &#x93;Life at the university had become so unbearably entrenched that the only thing that mattered was to get away as far as possible.&#x94;</p><p>Ordinary Seaman Moynihan signed up to sail from Camden, N.J., to the Mediterranean for what was to be a 45-day job. But the orders changed after the Rose City set sail. Forty-five days became four months. The 20-year-old son of U.S. Sen. Patrick Moynihan was in for a far more grueling trip than he had expected. </p><p>&#x93;Not only does one see the limitless ocean before him, but behind him also. No amount of rationalization &#x97; the comforting thoughts that man&#x92;s nautical inventiveness can secure safe passage across the waters &#x97; will calm the frightening vulnerability that seizes you when you look around and realize that there is nothing for 360 degrees. As strong and steely as the supertanker SS Rose City may have been, it would have been a simple matter for the ocean to twist her into a pretzel and drag her down into the dark folds of the deep.&#x94;</p><p>The crew sensed something different about Moynihan and peppered him with questions that eventually revealed him for what he was, a college kid with a senator father. Hostility from seamen who didn&#x92;t come from advantaged backgrounds creates much of the initial drama in the book. It even causes Moynihan to wonder whether he might be thrown overboard. </p><p>&#x93;I was continually asked, &#x91;What the hell are you doing here? Go back to college and make yourself a decent living.&#x92; They didn&#x92;t see how someone who didn&#x92;t have to be a grease monkey all his life would leave college to become just that.&#x94;</p><p>Eventually, Moynihan earned the respect of the crew by his persistence and hard work &#x97; and by his ability to hold his beer and match them raunchy joke for raunchy joke. He drew distinctive sketches of individual crew members that lingered long after this well-told tale closes. </p><p>Moynihan was in his early 40s in 2004 when he died from a fatal reaction to acetaminophen. His book, written for a Wesleyan writing class, was discovered by his mother after his death. She privately published 100 copies for friends and family, and later it was picked up by the publishing house Spiegel & Grau.