In the summer of 1964, 16-year-old Philip Saul fulfils his boyhood ambition of going to sea when he joins the famous Merseyside shipping company, the Blue Funnel Line. Skinning Out follows this shy, naïve catering boy as he embarks on a British Merchant Navy career, first sailing to the Far East, then with British Rail Holyhead ferries plying the Irish Sea, and later with the New Zealand Shipping Co. and Federal Steam Navigation Co. sailing to the Antipodes.

Along the way, he loses his virginity in Rotterdam, is trapped on the front line in the Great Bitter Lakes of the Suez Canal during the 1967 Arab/Israeli Six Day War and jumps ship in New Zealand.

These were the closing years of a golden age in British merchant shipping, which would soon be changed by containerisation, competition and new labour practices. Skinning Out is an authentic 'warts 'n all' memoir of that time, told from a lower-deck perspective with refreshing bluntness, humour and honesty.