<P> Merchant sailors have also made a splash in the world of sport . In football, with Fred Blackburn in England and the likes of Dan Devine and Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich in the U.S. In track and field, American seamen Cornelius Johnson and Jim Thorpe both won Olympic medals, though Thorpe didn't get his until 30 years after his death . Seamen Jim Bagby, Jr. and Charlie Keller went on to Major League Baseball . Drew Bundini Brown was Muhammad Ali's assistant trainer and cornerman, and Joe Gold went on to make his fortune as the bodybuilding and fitness guru of Gold's Gym . </P> <P> Other sporting notables include Dutchman Henk de Velde known for sailing solo around the world, and Briton Matthew Webb who was the first person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aid . </P> <P> Irish Merchant Navy member Kevin McClory spent 14 days in a lifeboat and later went on to write the James Bond movies Never Say Never Again and Thunderball . Members of the American Beat Movement Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Bob Kaufman, and Herbert Huncke were all Merchant Mariners . </P> <P> It is perhaps not surprising that the writers of Moby Dick, The American Practical Navigator, and Two Years Before the Mast were Merchant Mariners . It might be surprising that the writers of Borat, A Hard Day's Night, and Cool Hand Luke were . </P>

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