Before sunrise, I waited with my father for a minibus sent by the company to pick us up. My father was already dressed in work overalls; he used to do this three days before going on a ship. As he put it, this helped him acclimatize and prepare for the voyage. The van arrived filled with passengers, and we barely managed to fit our small suitcases, packed for the 15-day job, in the back. Luckily, there were two empty seats for us. We climbed in, said our goodbyes to our family, and left.
An older person in the back said, “Did you hear? This job is just to move the ship from this shipyard to a specialized dry dock because they need to check and clean the propellers before ignition.”
The guy sitting next to him replied, “Wait, I heard this ship came here for a retrofit. It was working before.”
The older person responded, “It was sitting for too long, and then the axles and everything got seized up. They need to remove the axles and clean any filth that would damage the water seal.”
The guy said, “No wonder, since the shipyard workers only drink and play cards for eight hours, and then they work half-drunk to get overtime.”
A bold man in the front asked, “What type of ship is it?”
The older person replied, “Half RO-RO, half container ship.”
The minibus driver drove us for a while.
My father said, “I remember my first ship when I was your age. I traveled with another boy. We had almost no money back then. We traveled by train for almost an entire day. We spent six hours at customs for the train to pass the border. I only had small change to buy us one beer. We split the beer in half.”
I said, “An entire day on just half a beer!? You couldn’t take a sandwich or something with you?”
My father replied, “Most of us lived in poverty back then. A sandwich was a luxury. Each day we would eat soup or pasta with beans.”
I said, “Now I understand why you hate pasta with beans.”
My father continued, “Anyway, when we arrived at the destination, I begged a person to give us water. The man was kind and bought us sandwiches and water. It turned out he was also going on the same ship as a telegrapher, and he took the lead.”
I asked, “Telegrapher, like a communications person!?”
My father replied, “Yes, back then, we only had telegraphs. Eventually, we arrived at the ship, and the bosun gave me the task to stay with the men painting the hull, to look and learn. The Chief Officer came by and shouted at me, asking why I was standing around. He didn’t listen to my explanation; he just yelled at me, ‘Go do something.’ I went to the bosun, and he scolded me, ‘I told you what to do. Go back there.’ I went back, and there was the Chief, screaming at me again. What a bunch of people.”
I said, “Unbelievable.”
My father continued, “In the port, I had never seen so many fishing boats. The whole sea was full of them. On the ship, we loaded beverages for half a day and then the meat. I was dead tired and felt a little sick from the stench of the meat, but the crew took me out to a bar where at least one bar fight happened every two hours. There was a beautiful waitress, and everyone was drunk, possessive, and eager to defend her. It was crazy. I got drunk and woke up in a hospital.”
I asked, “You also got in a fight in the bar!?”
My father said, “It turns out I left the bar unscathed. At the gate to the harbor, a port guard made fun of me. I hit him in the face through the glass as he was seated in the guard booth.”
I laughed and asked, “You didn’t see the glass?”
My father replied, “Apparently, I didn’t. I messed up my hand so badly I had to stay in the hospital for a long time, and the ship left. That beautiful girl from the bar visited me a few times. Imagine that, huh.”
I smiled as my father continued, “Back in those days, at the hospital, you had to pay to watch TV. Of course, some patients didn’t have money, and the TV was mostly off-limits. To pass the time, I joined other patients to play some game with cards. I teamed up with one guy, and we won all the time. Everyone was pissed and swore at me in a foreign language, but honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing with the cards. We just kept winning.”
I smiled and asked, “Did you find some new friends?”
My father replied, “Not really, there was only one guy I hung out with the most. He had a pasta factory, and he broke both of his legs.”
I asked, “How?”
My father replied, “He got drunk and jumped through a window, but instead of landing on his head, he landed on his feet.”
I laughed, and my father continued, “He was something, alright. I had a few beers under my bed, and while I was gone, he threw himself on the floor, crawled under my bed, drank all the beer, then crawled back to his bed and called for nurses to help him get back up.”
I laughed and asked, “What about that guard you hit? Did he press charges?”
My father replied, “Probably. After I got back home, I used to receive court summons from that country, but I had no money to travel there to attend court.”
I asked, “What about the next ship?”
My father replied, “It was a ship that transported wine. I advanced to helmsman within a week. The Captain called me to the bridge to start learning, and when he saw how good I was in such a short time, he promoted me. The Chief on that ship came to me before we arrived at the port with ten packs of cigars and told me to put them in my cabin. After we berthed, he told me to give them back, which was strange. But after we departed, he came by, gave me some money, and told me this was my cut. I figured out they all sell cigars in the port.”
I asked, “Who would buy cigars?”
My father said, “Back then, cigars and booze were hard to acquire.”
I said, “I see. No money, no sandwiches, no cigars, no booze. Great times.”
My father said, “We went to a bar, and some girls asked us to buy them drinks. We all looked at each other and I said, ‘Okay.’ Soon after, another round came, but the glasses were half full. The Captain said, ‘Stop, call the waiter.’ The girls and the waiter explained that in their country, it was normal to send you the next round, but at your expense. No one from the crew wanted to pay for the second round, so eventually, I did. The next day, the Captain called me into his office, refunded me the money, and warned me never to do that again.”
I said, “He paid you back. That sounds like a good Captain.”
My father said, “He said we all work, we all have families, we all drank, and it is fair that we pay our share. Never met a man like that. Back home, we would compete to see who would buy the drinks first. To think of it, there were a lot of leeches back then who never paid for anything.”
I said, “At least on that ship, everyone was fair.”
My father replied, “Not quite. Once, we went out for dinner in the city, and one of us ate but didn’t want to pay. One of my colleagues told the waiter to bring another portion to this cheapskate. The dinner almost ended up in a fight.”
I asked, “How sober was the crew on a ship filled with wine?”
My father replied, “No one got drunk, ever, which was strange. But they drank the wine regularly. They would just lower the bucket into the tank and scoop up the wine.”
I chuckled and said, “Buckets of wine and the crew is sober. Definitely a scenario for the Twilight Zone.”
My father said, “I heard that on other ships, it was far worse. Lots of different cultures, poor conditions. Everyone had a sharpened knife at their belt; they were dressed in rags. Just like in the age of pirates.”
I said, “Some part of me would like to see that—a modern ship with pirates on board. How was the food?”
My father replied, “It was okay. But in every port, we used to catch fish. One old man taught me. He would grab small fish with a net and then attach one of them to the hook. Afterward, he would throw it further into deeper sea. We would just pull out big chunks of fish. It was incredible. Back then, fish was abundant.”
I said, “Not like today, there is less and less fish in the sea.”
The minibus stopped at an intersection, and we saw a few girls on the side of the road.
My father said, “I remember how the girls in the bars also cheated us. They would cuddle with you to get you to buy them drinks, and it would turn out to be tea. I asked one why she was cheating and drinking tea. She told me that after a couple of drinks, she would probably be lying on the floor; there is no way she could last the entire evening.”
My father stretched a little bit and said, “We used to lower the pilot ladder on the other side of the ship at night so the girls could climb aboard and have fun with us without the port officials nosing around. One of the girls was eager to sleep with our telegrapher because he had a big, crooked nose, and she thought he must have a big one in his pants. I believe she was disappointed. There was one girl...she was the most beautiful creature I ever saw. Everyone promised her everything. Even the Captain offered her a diamond necklace, and she rejected them all for me, an ordinary helmsman. Everyone was mad at me, and the Captain eventually kicked her out and forbade her from ever boarding again.”
I asked, “What happened to her?”
My father said, “We dated in the city for a month until the ship took off. In that place, when a girl picked you, that was it. I even bought a big general’s hat with her, but later, in the next port, the authorities took it away from me.”
I asked, “But why? It’s just a hat.”
My father replied, “It was a rare general's broad-brimmed, high-crowned hat. I never found another one like it.”
The minibus driver swerved sharply to avoid a cyclist and shouted, “Get off the road!”
My father said to me, “A few times, we had close encounters with fishermen and their nets. If they saw that a ship was going to go straight through their nets, they would charge forward to protect them. But some Captains would just keep their course because the ship is stronger. I dodged a few nets and fishermen without authorization. I didn’t want to have a dead fisherman on my conscience. They are just people trying to survive.”
I asked, “Did the ship hit any fishing boats?”
My father replied, “Not our ship. We just had a lot of nets and ropes around the propeller, and one of the crew said he would remove it for 50 USD. The Captain disagreed as he asked too much. No one wanted to do it for less, so the Captain called a professional diver who charged 300 USD.”
I chuckled.
My father said, “Back then, we navigated manually. A lot of times we would veer off course. There should always be two people at the bridge. If you let your mind wander, the ship will follow.”
I nodded.
My father said, “In one port, the Captain had enough and he left the ship. The company ordered the Chief to go to the next port, where another Captain would be waiting for us. The Chief was scared, and I calmed him down, telling him to relax because after we boarded the pilot, I would follow his commands. Not a big deal.”
I said, “And!?”
My father replied, “It all went fine. After we berthed, the Chief was the happiest man ever. I said to him, ‘I told you. But…’”
I interrupted my father and said, “Aha a but, I was waiting for something like that.”
My father said, “It was during the discharge of wine. We discharged it into the train, one wagon at a time. When the wagon was almost full, the man on top would shout to stop. On one wagon, he looked around, and the wine started to squirt like a geyser. The man on top grabbed the loading hose and shouted while the hose flew around with him, spraying wine all over the area.”
I laughed.
My father continued, “The next day, there was a foreman overseeing the discharge to make sure everyone was sober. The tanks were impossible to clean. We washed them three times, but you couldn’t wash out the dark wine color. We used detergents and brushes, but nothing helped. New Captain gave the order to fill up the tanks with seawater, and before the next port, the tanks were clean.”
I said, “The sea cleaned the tanks without any chemicals.”
My father replied, “Yes. The tanks were clean as the sun. After we filled the ship with another batch of wine, the Captain wanted to taste some. One night, we were caught in bad weather, and the Captain came on the bridge in shorts, drunk, half-asleep, and he managed to navigate the ship between buoys without breaking a sweat. The Chief Officer was an empty skull. Without the Captain, we would probably have hit something and sunk.”
I asked, “He got sober on the bridge!?”
My father replied, “No. He got us out and went to sleep. Although the Chief Officer gave him some bread that looked like a brick to help him sober up. The Captain tried to take a bite and then threw the brick bread at the Chief Officer. The bread hit the wall like a brick.”
I laughed.
My father continued, “The next day, I went to the cook and asked him why he didn’t use yeast for the bread. The cook had never heard of it. He just had frozen bread, and when he ran out of frozen bread, he tried to make some and baked a brick.”
I smiled as we looked through the window, passing a few children who were poking at dog poop.
Write a comment ...