My grandfather, James McKay, died in 1914 two months after World War 1 began. His Royal Navy cruiser HMS Pathfinder was the first warship to be torpedoed by a submarine. He was among nearly 400 crew who died. During the tense years leading up to the war he served for two years as an Engine Room Artificer on board HMS Lancaster stationed in the Mediterranean. His diary of this experience led me to the ports and people he so vividly described. This book integrates his observations with mine and details how I came to know and to love him.