Malcolm was born in the border region of England and Scotland and was brought up in the village of Wark on the banks of the North Tyne that had a population of 600.He left home at 15 years-of-age to go off to sea that included studying at Glasgow College of Nautical Studies. By the time he was 20 he had already traveled the world on various ships and at 24 was sailing as a Chief Engineer. Then he became a shipping company's trouble shooter flying around the world repairing ships while building his own marine engineering and boat building company in Scotland. After his first divorce he settled in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and started Florida Nautical Surveyors which is a top international yacht surveying company.As a boy he was tongue tied and bullied and it was not until he left home he started to find his self and although the studies and being away from home was hard he stuck at it and became very successful but how much his illegal smuggling days helped is up for debate.