If ever there was a ‘damp, drizzly November in my soul’, this was it… The first sentence of Nick Tabone’s next personal essay appeared in his head as he stood a-deck the MV M_______ and watched the taconite pellets slide out of cargo hold three...
On Christmas evening they came down from the ship into a fresh fall of snow and walked on the narrow path between the high walls of the grain elevator and the ships side, treading carefully in the footprints of those who’d gone before to...
Some time ago I found myself in a spot of financial bother from which the esteemed halls of academia and the pittance afforded a newly appointed assistant professor could not raise me. I had been an avid sailor in my youth, and paid my way...
They gathered on the quarter deck at the change of watch. The wind had come down for the first time in weeks and above them the vast rigging hemmed and hawed as if in a state of quandary. Two days ago they’d lost Jackson as he went aloft to...
A late frost had left a thin carapace of ice on the deck, and the gathered crew trod carefully on the slippery steel in the chill of an April morning. We drank our teas and coffees in the half-light and some smoked cigarettes as we waited for the tugboat...
In the late afternoon they went ashore to gather wood. He nosed the zodiac up onto the bank and when they heard the familiar scrape of sand and gravel beneath its hull the others jumped ashore. ‘There’s nothing to tie the painter...
She said she saw the devil, in the vacant lot on Chandlers Row. ‘It’s true mummy,’ she said tearfully as she kicked off her shoes in the front hallway and shucked her book bag on the living room floor. ‘He had a funny hat. And his smile wasn’t nice it was mean. And...
(Partly truth, partly fiction) “Occupying a magnificent chosen position in this lovely old-world village in the Amber Valley. Weathered stone facing South West within a beautiful landscaped garden and having superb views over most lovely unspoilt country about mid-way...