We have seen how Herman Melville waxed lyrical about the prodigious skills of the Nantucket men who navigated the world’s oceans in search of the oil of the sperm whale, likening them to Alexander the Great. We have also seen that he wrote of their exploits in the novel Moby Dick, the story of Captain …

I arrived in Suva in early February at the height of a very severe outbreak of dengue fever. Hospitals and medical centres across the country were struggling to treat those affected and calls for blood donors were a regular occurrence. Forewarned, I had brought my can of DEET repellent from Brisbane but found I could …