Michael Thomas Price:
A Life in The Ocean

I crossed the Pacific Ocean when I was one year old. My father was an army officer serving in post WWII occupied Japan. Of course, I do not remember that voyage, but perhaps it was the beginning of my lifelong quest to be in, on, or near the ocean, like my third-great-grandfather, Matthew. After growing up in the Midwest, I joined the Navy when I was eighteen, and my first duty station was San Diego. There, I loved gazing at the vast Pacific Ocean.

After serving as a sailor for a year on a destroyer, I was in the Underwater Demolition Teams, now SEAL Team. My training included learning how to scuba dive in Key West, Florida. In Key West and many of the other oceanside places we visited, when I was not diving or snorkeling for the Navy, I was walking the beaches or snorkeling for the pleasure of being one with the ocean.

When I left the Navy, I came to Houston, Texas, where I purchased a recreational scuba diving business. For many years, I taught scuba diving and underwater photography, and I was the trip leader on diving trips throughout the world.

After leaving the scuba business, I decided to be an outdoor photographer, but I soon learned that magazines and newspapers wanted articles to accompany photos. So, I started writing saltwater fishing articles. I am a passionate saltwater kayak fisherman. One of the people I wrote about was Eddie Douglas, a colorful character living in Bay City, near the middle Texas coast. Eddie was a fisherman, dog trainer, and hunter. In addition to drafting a magazine article about Eddie, I ghostwrote his memoir, A Hand on Your Shoulder.

Then I wanted to author a book in my favorite genre, Historical Fiction. Sitting on our bookshelf was a book called Uncle Barney, written by my great-great-grandfather, George Barnabus Price. Uncle Barney is the story of George Barnabus’s life. In the book, he tells family tales about his father, Matthew Price, who was a maritime sea captain. After reading Uncle Barney many times, I decided that I would write the story of Matthew’s challenging life as a man of the sea in the age of sail, when danger lurked beyond every wave.