|
|
|
|
|
|
This is an extraordinary tale of life aboard what may be one of the last American merchant ships. As the story begins, Andy Chase, who holds a license as a second mate is looking for a ship. He has convinced John McPhee to join him in his search--the outcome of which is by no means assured. In less than ten years, the United States Merchant Marine has shrunk from more than two thousand ships to fewer than four hundred, and Chase faces the scarcity of jobs from which all American merchant mariners have been suffering.
As the crew of the Stella Lykes make their ocean voyage, they tell sea stories of other runs and other ships--tales of disaster, stupidity, greed, generosity, and courage. Through the journey itself and the tales told emerge the history and character of an extraordinary calling.
|
|
Copyright ©2000
- 2003 Farrar, Straus
& Giroux |
Looking For a Ship
If Chase is lucky enough to find a ship, they will then worry about
making arrangements for McPhee to go along. The job Chase finds--second mate on the S. S.
Stella Lykes--takes them on a forty-two-day run through the Panama Canal and down the
Pacific coast of South America, with stops to unload and pick up freight at such 'ports as
Cartagena, Valparaiso, Balboa, Lima and Guayaquil--an area notorious for pirates. Pirates
are only one of the challenges facing the Stella Lykes. A container "said to contain
six thousand four hundred and eighty toilet seats" might also contain a cache of
cocaine--or stowaways, for whose unwitting transportation the ship (continued on back
flap) would be held responsible. For merchant ships worldwide, far greater
difficulties lie on the sea itself, where sudden storms can lead to a swift sinking, and
where, even in calm seas, other ships if poorly handled pose a constant risk of collision.
The Stella Lykes is blessed with Captain Paul McHenry Washburn, who in nearly fifty years
at sea has learned his seamanship from such venerable skippers as Leadline Dunn, Terrible
Terry Harmon, and Dirty Shirt George Price.