After a stint in the dole queue, Magnus’s receives a new job offer. His potential employer was one of the biggest whaling companies in the world, with a blubber rendering slaughterhouse on the isolated island of South Georgia. This icy and windswept hell was located in the South Atlantic Ocean approximated due east of Cape Horn and a mere 12 degrees of latitude north of the Antarctic Circle.

For Magnus, working in a ship’s engine room was akin to going on a country drive whilst cooped up under the bonnet of the car with only an unbearably noisy engine for company.