User:Douglas McDonnell/sandbox

= Douglas McDonnell = Douglas Thorfinn McDonnell was born on November 22 1958 to Bernard and Katherine McDonnell, the youngest of three brothers. His unusual middle name, originating from the Orkney Islands, was inspired by his father’s love of Norse mythology.

Early life
‘Dougie’, as he is known, grew up on the family cattle farm, near Humbie, a small parish about 30 minutes south-east of Edinburgh. From an early age there was the expectation that he would continue the tradition of his older siblings and help his parents run the  farm. However, he was more interested in studying and excelled in maths and the sciences at school. The refusal to follow the family path caused a rift between him and his father which was never fully resolved, ultimately resulting in Dougie receiving a smaller share of the family inheritance.

Career
Following a first in marine engineering at Aberdeen University, Dougie relocated to Southampton to work as a Marine Surveyor for the British Government, inspecting and auditing ships and ports. He gained a reputation as having an eye for detail and earned the nickname Brains (after Thunderbirds), amongst his colleagues in the department, a moniker he actively encouraged.

It was during his time as a marine surveyor that he became interested in merchant shipping, intrigued by the tales of various Captains he encountered. He subsequently joined the merchant navy in 1987, starting as second mate for MSC.

In 1991 he raised concerns about systematic short fuelling during bunker stem operations in a number of Asian ports. This lead to MSC bringing successful prosecution against three ports and sacking of two of its Masters. Dougie was promoted to Master a few months later.

In 1993 he joined Hapag-Lloyd where he focused on European and African routes. Though away at sea for the majority of each year, Dougie maintained a number of interests and hobbies. These included writing jokes for Christmas cracker companies, speed chess and, just to amuse himself, submitting fake problems to agony aunt columns.

He retired from being a Master at 59, taking up the position of lead accident investigator at Sirius, a P&I Club headquartered in London.

Controversy
In 2003, his laptop was mistakenly taken for repair whilst in dock at Rotterdam. Hundreds of videos of animal cruelty were found. Though it alerted the attention of senior management at Hapag-Lloyd, Dougie explained it was research for a friend of his specialising in the psychology of animal cruelty.

Personal life
He married Lynette (née Richards) in 1984. They had met in Southampton where she worked in an administrative role in Dougie’s surveying department. They have two children, David, 33 and working in IT systems and Deborah, 30, a data analyst.

Dougie and Lynette still live in the home they purchased in 1989, a large cottage near Beaulieu, Hampshire. Since moving back to land, Dougie has been able to attend more quiz nights at The Lord Nelson, where he delighted in being awarded ‘Quizzer of the Year’ in 2018, 2019 and 2020. He also runs an online club for amateur mathematicians working to become the first people to discover the formula for predicting prime numbers.