By Tim Jones
Copyright©Tim Jones
We come off them
square riggers in a hurry onct they shet down the whaling. We's comin' down the Bering Sea out of
the Arctic when we heard, and the Skip, well, he says, What you want to do? and
I says, well, I heard they was doin' some high-priced fishing right there in
the Aleutian Chain. But, I also
heard they was the roughest kinda sailors and I'd jest as soon head back for
home. So the Skip, right
predictable like he was, he says he's dumpin' me ashore at Adak and to go pack
my kit. He says how we done so
poorly my share don't come to passage to San Francisco, so he's tyin' her up
right there and I could just go about takin' care of myself.
So, pretty soon
there we was in Adak way out there so close we might as wella been in Siberia,
which we might as well a been in anyways by the look of things. Just a little island out there,
somethin' you could trip over if you wasn't watching, it was so small. Anyway, I bends my head into the
horizontal rain and goes alookin' for some kinda ride. Weren't too many of them square riggers
left no more and I didn't know what I was goin' to do. I jest went along hunchin' into that
wind and rain proceeding one step forward and two steps back with my slicker a
flappin' and that's when I run into Adak Charlie.
A course, nobody
runs into Adak Charlie, he more runs
over you. What I did was commence
to crawl over this little hill until I realizes its the big bulb toe of a
bigger rubber boot and I looks up and there was Charlie, well, at least there
was Charlie's knees. Well, that
man stood tall as a mainmast and just as straight and he blocked out the sun;
at least he woulda blocked out the sun if there'd a been one. The sun showed up so little out there
most folks didn't really believe there was one except now and again somebody'd
recall seein' it one time or the other.
Anyway, I crawls into Charlie's lee and looks up. Sure enough up there on toppa all that
rubber, they's a face. I yells up
Howdy and he yells down Howdy and I says is there any work for a honest sailor
around here and he yells down he thinks they need crew on his boat and I yells
up what kinda boat is it and he yells down BERING SEA CRABBER and I yells up
Good-by and he yells down Ain't man enough, huh? and I yells up, Yeah, but I
ain't stupid enough and right there he commences to look a little disturbed and
I decides this ain't the kind of man to be callin' stupid so I decides I better
ship with 'im or the whole situation could get a whole lot worse right there in
the wind and the rain and the mud.
So, me and
Charlie heads toward the wharf and I'm runnin' along in his lee while he's
amblin' along and we gets to the ship and he steps over the gunwale and I
climbs the ladder and no sooner's we aboard than I hear a engine start up
somewheres and it scares me right out of my sail trim. See, I'm a sailin' man. I ain't never been on no steamer before
and all that machinery whirlin' and growlin' kin get to a man used to the quiet
creakin' in the rigging. I'm
lookin' around for masts and canvas and the boat's moving and against the wind
and I'm wonderin' how that could be when Charlie, he points to the focs'l and
says. "Stow your gear."
Well, I walks
down the companionway and runs into the roughest lookin' bunch a thugs ever
turned a windlass. There was more
eyepatches than a herd of spotted dogs and more scars than one doctor coulda
ever sewed up in a lifetime of stitchin' and they looks at me and I looks at
them and to myself I curses the Skip real hard for leavin' me to this and then
onea these thugs points to a empty bunk and grins so hard the scar that run
from his port side ear to clear under his chin turns so bright red he looks
like he's smilin' twice.
We cleared port and heads out to sea and
Twice-smilin', that was his name I swear by St. Elmo's fire, he says sleep
some, but I ain't sleepin' with that bunch of criminals in attendance. I did lay down but I keeps one eye
cocked, but I musta dozed some 'cause I hear this big CLANK and it wakes me up
and I says what's that, and Twice-Smilin' says that's the first buoy and to hit
the deck and then there's this other big clank and he says that's the other
buoy and we goes up on deck and Twice-smilin' starts to showin' me the
lines. I says I thought you picked
little rubber buoys outta the water where the pots was and he says that's the
way most of 'em do it but that was too slow for the likes of Adak Charlie and
what he does is run with these two big magnets and when they come up on one of
his steel buoys, them buoys jest fly outta the water and clangs into them
magnets. "Saves a lotta time findin’
‘em in the dark, too," Twice-smilin' says.
Well, we's
standing there in rubber suits from head to toe and I says what's we supposed
to do and Twice-smilin' starts explainin'. He says on most boats a guy stands there by this here little
wheel pulley sort of a contraption, they call it a power block. Well, I ain't used to this power stuff
and I got to ask just how many sailors it takes to power this thing and
Twice-smilin', he shows me this know-it-all grin you save for a child, only
twice, and he says it's the engine does all that powerin'. Anyway, he says one guy usually stands
there and coils the line from the crab pot as it comes up through that block
and one guy he runs the engine controls.
I seen a guy in my mind with a whip floggin' them sailors to power that
block, that's the kinda controls we use on the square-riggers. So, when the pot comes up over the side
a coupla other guys wrassle it around and separate the crabs and put in new
bait and toss her overboard again.
I asks Twice-smilin' what I'm supposed to do and he says,
"Wrasslin'."
