Goddamn the weather was savage at Superior Terminals in Thunder Bay, where we were loading grain and oats.  The rain was relentless and well described the angle of the wind, which howled in off the lake sideways at 40 knots. The temperature hovered just above zero but...

The ship had already been operational for a month when I joined her at a stone dock on the St. Clair River.  There is no time of transition when you return to work on a ship. No period of grace to unpack and acclimate. It was my watch...

My doppelgänger died 15 years ago in a fire on a ship in Norway.  This information comes from Julio, another of the AB’s (abbr. for ‘able-bodied seaman’) on board.  He is from Nazare, of the big waves, Portugal.  Moved to Canada in 1980....

Nighttime, the third of November and I haven’t written a word in 46 days.  I have only recently rejoined the ship after a month off in which I had intended to work on my writing and hammer it into some kind of saleable form.  I...

Anxiety is a bear whose breath is always hot on my heels but it was a greyhound that got me.  I was enjoying a mid-morning run when the dog lunged, tore the lead from its elderly owners hand, and bit me on the back.  Some runs are so good they feel almost...

“For the beautiful is nothing other than the onset Of what is terrifying. “ Rilke I was eight years old when I killed the family dog on a warm Good Friday in early April.   The night before I’d lain in bed and said prayers in my...

“They don’t call it Marble Hell for nuthin”, the captain says as we line the ship up for a tie-up at Marblehead stone dock in Ohio. From the wheel I can see white water breaking over the pier where the load rig is situated; at the end of...