{"product_id":"half-pass-six-half-pass-six-paperback","title":"Half Pass Six: Half Pass Six - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eBarbara Lockhart\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBremerhaven, Germany, 1919. A young, desperately poor German father leaves his small family to seek treatment for the poison gas that scalded his lungs on the battlefields of World War I. He never returns. Only his last, blood-stained pillowcase remains. His family is bereft. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBrooklyn, 1925. That dead father's son, Willi Rohrbein, illegal, without papers, sneaks into New York harbor on a ship from Bremerhaven where he has been stowed away by friends of his uncle. He reunites with his mother and older sister, who had already come to the U.S. legally, only to be shoved out the door after a few days. His detection could bring the whole family down once again. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSargasso Sea and Galapagos Islands, 1925. Willi, now sixteen, finds himself usefully employed as a mess boy on one of the most celebrated voyages of the day - a scientific expedition to discover and catalog thousands of new specimens, explore the ocean depths with mile-long nets, and help seal the case for Darwin's theory of evolution. Willi knows how to peel potatoes and wash pots and pans, but he is mystified by the marine biology happening all around him. He understands very little English. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLong Island, 1958. William Rohrbein, established in his own home, supporting his own family, long-since legal in his documentation, receives a Christmas gift from his oldest daughter that bewilders him at first. It is a beautiful original edition of The Arcturus Adventure, a bestseller published in 1926 by William Beebe, the Jacques Cousteau of his day. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWilli has always admired, almost worshipped Beebe, but had little comprehension of the scientific breakthroughs happening on a weekly, sometimes daily and hourly, basis, in the Galapagos expedition that Beebe led and Willi served as mess boy.\u003cbr\u003eNow Willi gets it, as he spends his evenings reading slowly chapter by chapter, reliving old sights and episodes as if they had happened only yesterday and realizing for the first time why they were significant. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWilli has succeeded in his life by being extremely hard-working. He does not talk much. He is often gruff. For the first time in her life, his daughter feels that she has managed to break through his reserve - however briefly - and appeal to his emotions. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this unusual narrative - part biography, part natural history, part obliquely written memoir -- Barbara Rohrbein Lockhart, Willi's daughter, peels back layers of time with the artistry of a novelist and the tenacity of someone who is still trying to plumb her own origins. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe result is Half Pass Six - a haunting account of an age now past, and a fugitive immigrant boy who found his own American dream, while memory and artifice are still able to summon them back into being.\u003cbr\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 220\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 8.47 x 5.61 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 23, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43154109235263,"sku":"9798998961106","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0105\/8226\/1823\/files\/lpctwgFcCX9798998961106.webp?v=1776953808","url":"https:\/\/dhlswag.com\/products\/half-pass-six-half-pass-six-paperback","provider":"BBB","version":"1.0","type":"link"}