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fer, Seaboard brine) of her subjects.

The style fits the subject. Rarely, during the course of work and life aboard a tugboat, are moments of drama preceded by ominous music on the soundtrack. One minute you're in the galley having coffee. The next, your cup still in hand, you're battling to save the ship.

Defying death is not the daily drill on most tug- boats - it's merely risky out there most of the time - but this book makes clear, in more than one recounting, just what the stakes can be: "He was asleep, and wasn't aware of any of the events prior to the general alarm," the author tells us. "That he heard. 'I could feel the boat backing down. I threw on my shorts, a shirt, shoes, grabbed my lifejacket and a survival suit ... ' Joe started to go out by the hatch by his room, but the heat of the fire drove him back ... 'the fire on our barge [was] probably two hundred feet high -- huge.' "'The smoke was black, black, and there were cinders, like when you poke a piece of wood on the fire. Those cinders falling on us were three feet wide — big old cinders from the rubber and paint and things on the barge. It was HOT, very hot ... I stayed back there till I couldn't stand it no more -- I knew if I didn't do something, I was gonna die -- ... so I jumped in ... and started swimming away ... Ka

POOM! I put my hands over my head, afraid metal might land on me. None did, so I started swimming again ... Then there was a whistling, more and more intense, more and more, till there was another explosion ... I could feel it go through me like noth- ing I'd never want anyone to deal with ... I covered my head again, and I thought, "I'm gonna die right here."' "One guy on the boat had had his son with him, a boy of twelve or so. In the water, the kid kept climbing on his father, who asked Joe to help him. 'Come here, Stevie,' Joe called, and then Stevie jumped on Joe's back. 'My instinct pushed him off. "Go back to your dad!" It's something I'm not proud of ...'"

The average soldier, more than the average mariner, might expect such conditions on the job.

The point being that Joe in this story, like the joes in the book's other tales of tribulation, aren't sol- diers. They're in the private sector, doing a job for a wage, two weeks on and two weeks off, and then back home to the wife and kids. The Joe in this story, when the crisis began, didn't even have his shorts on. The setting was supposed to be so homey that a shipmate could bring his kid. Think that lad will go into this business, after a day with dad at the office?

Such melodramatics in real life come up more than anyone likes, though still by far they're the exception. But even in routine work and life aboard, you've got to proceed carefully. And the perils are not just apprehensions of crybaby deckies. "It's the kiss of death if you can't see the deckhand," naval architect Bob Hill is quoted on the design of a tug- boat wheelhouse, "you go to back down, and he's still got his arm in the bight." Mr. Hill's sentiments return a few pages later: "Every once in a while it dawns on you that people are riding around in your boats in all weather -- you're responsible for these people. You hear of a casualty somewhere, and think, "There but for the grace of God ..."'"

The Seven Seas, Plus One

Besides hazardous cargoes, beyond the wrath of weather, on top of all the treacheries of the sea, the

January, 2005 MarineNews 29

On The Bookshelf

Harrison Brothers Dry Dock and Repair Yard, Inc.

Operate two fully outfitted shipyards with Dry Docks and berthing space

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Mile Marker 0 of the Mobile River • Will travel to anywhere in the world to do repairs • Large vessel, drilling rig, and platform long or short term berthing • Coating, electrical, piping, structural, and OSM/ISM services

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ALL your electrical, structural, piping, rigging, or outside/inside machinists needs. Whether it's a quick repair or a conversion we do it your way. Each yard is equipped with free storage, free office space, and free real estate to use for long term berthing or a homeport to stage a project. Both Yards can meet all your

Oil Field Fluid supplying, disposal, and pumping needs. It is within our scope to transport our Repair Plants to anywhere in the world if it is more cost effective than coming to either of our Offshore Repair Plants.

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Circle 213 on Reader Service Card

Timothy Graul marine design

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Circle 234 on Reader Service Card

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