In the winter of 1965/66 1 found myself on a rust bucket of a ship that was a bulk carrier having just delivered a cargo of oil from Brisbane, Australia to a small port in Southern Japan called Hemeji. Having spent the previous four years on passenger liners I was not exactly happy with this current assignment, but how that occurred is another story.

All of the officers on the ship were German with the exception of myself as Radio Officer – the crew were Filipino and for the previous 8 months we had been tramping around the world picking up and delivering oil, or bulk cargo (wheat to India).

There was a knock on my cabin door a few hours before our departure and there stood a chap who introduced himself as being from IOS. He said his name was Harold Glover, which to this day I have no idea if it was real or a code name. He spoke good American English but was in fact from Cuba — a little déjà vu as I have been working in Cuba for the past 20 plus years.

Less than an hour later I was the proud owner of a 15 year $100.00 per month Fund of Funds CAP Program and had given Mr. Glover a check for $1,300.00. I remember that I was so pleased with my purchase that I grabbed my pal, the Third Officer and told him he should do the same – which he did. What a great day for Harold, $36,000.00 in volume in just over one hour.

We set sail that night for Vancouver and had a two-week hellish ride under the Aleutian Islands – we were light ship (for you land-lubbers that means no cargo), and we rolled, pitched, and yawed all the way.

Being at sea in January in that environment is not at all pleasant and 1966 was no exception — dark and overcast for most of the 24 hours each day, with continuous storms and gale force winds. I had little to do, so busied myself by reading all of the fancy brochures that Mr. Glover had kindly left with me, and if I had not experienced “buyers remorse” prior to this time – I certainly had it on that rusty bucket south of the Aleutian’s. What on earth had I done? Not only had I given a complete stranger a check for $1,300.00, I was committed to paying a $100.00 per month for the next 15 years — what a ghastly thought. I prepared a list of questions on two pages of foolscap paper and was determined to find the answers.

Another thing that good old Harold did for me, was to give me the address of the IOS office in Vancouver, Canada, so I duly sent them a telegram advising them when the ship was arriving and that I certainly wanted to speak to their local representative. Within an hour of tying up, there was a knock on my door and when I opened it I was greeted with “Hi, my name is Ron Mahoney and I am from IOS, Canada”. After my initial surprise at this swift service I invited Ron in and over a beer or two he answered all of my questions. He then invited me to his office the next day and after donning my grey flannels and black blazer, I found the office, which was the beginning of a series of events that would change my life forever.

I was quickly introduced to the smiling David Tucker, the then local manager, who proceeded to tell me that they were starting “an orientation course” in a couple of days and perhaps I would like to sit in. I could not refuse David then, and still cannot today — he is one of my closest friends, we see each other regularly and our families are intertwined.

At the end of the orientation course I was no expert on Mutual Funds or Finance, but I did know just that little bit more than most other people.

We were soon back at sea, this time on our way to Manila in the Philippines — during that long haul across the Pacific there was not much to do but hone my marketing skills and spread forth the words of knowledge I had learnt from David in Vancouver. By the time we got to Manila I had signed up most of the German officers and mailed back to David in Vancouver a $130,000.00 of business, with attached checks or Banker’s Letters.

That was it — I was clear about what I wanted to do, I could not wait to get off the ship as I had exhausted my list of prospects. We went on to Singapore, Bombay, Bahrain, through the Suez Canal and were on our way to Montreal – however much to my relief the ship owners decided for a 24 hour stop-over in Algeciras, Spain for a bottom (hull) scraping. I jumped at the opportunity and paid in full for a relief to fly and replace me.

The Third Officer was over due to leave the ship so the company paid for his replacement – we boarded a train in Algeciras with a case of rum and two cases of coke and arrived, (I am told) in Hamburg three days later.

I went to the IOS office in Hamburg and offered my services, which they accepted and put me to work selling the Dover Plan to the British Army Of the Rhine. At 26, I never once regretted leaving the sea to which I had been closely tied since I was 13 when I joined a Royal Naval Training Ship.

The rest of my IOS career was a wonderful experience, which sadly ended in 1970. At that time I was already in Australia having helped open the Melbourne office. But in between Germany and Australia there were many stories – new clients for IOS including Overseas Development Bank (O.D.B.), International Life Insurance (I.L.I), and Industrial Development Company (INDEVCO) from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma and Hong Kong.