THE TALE OF TWO SHIPS BY HARRY

When a man has divorced, he becomes more or less like an outcast, a desolate and wandering soul, looking for heaven. So we are, we, boys and men.

It was many years ago, never mind how many precisely, at that time, there were three miserable things, all of them occurred by the riverside, and were tied together by accident, or by fate, there were the ship, the girl, and me.

The ship laid alongside the wharf by the riverside, and she seemed been laid up for some months.

I had been sitting on a bench on the opposite bank of the river, watching the ship. It was a ramshackle vessel, a coaster by size, with a high poop deck and flat wheelhouse. The name on her bows could be seen, it was a woman's name, like, 'Leila.

A Great deal of water has flowed past her broadsides and was still flowing, for, the river was running down to the sea.

The day turned into the afternoon, it was the middle of Mars, and the air raw. I had been sitting and smoking for a while feeling quite homeless no job in hand nor much money in my pockets. Things had gone wrong and worse for a couple of months during which I had lost a great deal of my weight getting my slim body back.

There was a rumour concerning the ship, and of her owners, the things had also gone wrong with the vessel and the shipping business, the owners now nearly bankrupt. The company has been just two men, one of them a taxi driver, and the other feller told to making his living by working as a gardener. Both of the company men with feeble knowledge about the shipping business and the only reason they had given birth to the idea become seamen and the commanders on board the ship - wasn't anything but the great enthusiasm for the maritime business.

The idea had taken hold of them, flooded them, the first time the idea become sailors appeared at the table of a pub, they wanted to follow the sea, as had done some of their ancestors. Indeed, some of those ancestors of the seafarings had sent many men to the sea, and very many ashore too, this seemed to be the case with these company men. After dealing with the vessel by a loan from the local bank, they soon faced the problem to get the vessel adequately manned, and surveyed, they had not ticketed, nor any certificates required to be seamen onboard a cargo-carrying vessel. After all, they had no more dreams about the cheap tax-free cigarettes and whiskies, nor a jolly party in the ship's saloon and the good incomes of shipping were running out.

The first trip went with the shore crew under the command of a very drunken captain. The voyage went no good, and it took two months to get the ship home and paid the crew off with a big minus on their credit. After that trip, the ship has set laid up and secured at Riverside for sale. No more such a venture, the other owner took his tax driving job back, and the gardener went on planting in the garden with the daily injury of the bank's manager, who wanted to know, what they are going to do with the vessel.

I got to know all this from the drunkards and bums hanging around the beach. They were fellows who knew all about that sort of news, according to the rumours the company had been looking for someone to come by, one who could be ready to take the vessel over with all the economic responsibilities. I first heard of the matter from a blond-haired mucker named Frisco; he said: " There could be a keen requirement to make a deal with the first who come by, they have boiled with the matter. No one will purchase that sort of vessel by cash. He also gave the phone number, and using one of those phone boxes In the park; I called the number. There were two long toot on the line and then, a lick, and a voice said, " Halloo."

"This is Mr, Samson speaking, I said. "Is the vessel still for sale there on the river?"

"Yes, she is still there for sale. Are you interest to have her? "

"I would like to have viewed her," I said.

"You are welcome to view her. Unfortunately, I am on duty and not able to guide you up. There is the key, under the first step of the ladder leading up to poop. Go aboard and find the key and go to view the ship. In the wheelhouse, you will find the company way down below. I will be down there after five o clock right away.

I promised to do that; then I walked over the bridge and along the riverside.

I found the key and opened the door to the wheelhouse which was a large windowed room all around, and with the brass shining, apparatus there and here. The electric supply was from ashore, and a weak lamp was burning down below in the quarter. There was a significant mess room combined with the small galley. The smell of an old vessel came to my nose; there was a smell as there always should be; it's the customary smell of a ship, particular in an old ship, a tiny electric heater kept up some warm wind in the interior. A narrow passage ran forwards in the middle of the quarter. All doors were wide open, and one of them was open into the skipper saloon, the atmosphere was dim and raw, and all rooms reeked, and there was the captain's cabin with worn out of furniture, an opal-shaped table in the middle of the room.

You know, a conventionally way to see the business, and deal, the market is based on the belief that there always exist wealthy people to deal. Every businessperson is expected to be well dressed in a good suit and should drive by their shining, good looking cars giving an impression of the wealthy and liable person.

That very moment reminds me of an event in my youth, I, and my friend Stani had beachcombing in Saigon and were standing on the quay by a big Norwegian ship, and when I saw a sailor coming down the gangway, I asked him to have a meal aboard. " Go in on pisa", was the answer in the way of the comrade of the sea sailor.

When you have spent your night there and here, in your clothes and not well shaved for a while, then you cannot give an image of a wealthy man, nor a sign of a well-off citizen either.

I wore a shabby outfit and my worn-out shoes could give more an image of a bum than a wheaty businessman,

There must have been something wrong to be dealing with a bum. In this time the question was not just of a meal but the whole ship.

By six o'clock, there was a sound of footsteps on the deck above, and a pair of feet appeared in company way, and the whole man dropped himself down onto the foot of the ladder.

The entry was as if an outlook of a submarine was dropping himself down from the cone dower. He was a tall, slim man with an uncleared beard, and he offered a firm handshake.

"Welcome aboard," The man said, then added. " You have got see and surveyed the ship, I supposed."

"Yes, I have seen the places. What about the engine.?"

" Engine. I don't know much about it. I just know it's Max by her name, I guess it's ok, there is no problem with it."

The gardener peeped through the doorways of the cabins, then went along the alleyway to aft, " Here is the steering unit with the hydraulic, " he said over his shoulder, there could see a dim shine of the skin of oiled iron and shine of piston of some kind. The gardener turned. " You are the skipper. Aren't you?

Yes, I'm, with the master ticket.

" Professionalist. So, I think you know better all this."

" I think I know something about the shipping business," I said.

" Nice to hear a real man speaking".

"It's late. I said, " Mind if I will stay here overnight and we will talk about the details tomorrow. "Suit well, the gardener said, then asked, " Are you sure you will stay here aboard overnight. It's quite cold here."

"Never mind. It will not bother me. "I said,

The next morning brought the other company man aboard. I heard his footsteps on the deck above as he embarked, and a tiny man dropped himself through the company way appeared like a Jack in the box. This company man wore a short black leather jacket, and he had no hat, and he went directly to the point "Do you have any hint of cargo? He asked. " I have my connections. I said."

"And the crew? Have them too?"

"Yes, I have. "

The taxi man said nothing for a while, and then he said.

"If you really could fix the cargo on and take care of the mustering the crew on and looking after the ship and all the things, we will agree like a charter ".

I promised to do that all.

A Little bit more down by the river was an abandoned plant area with the red-bricked buildings of the former rope factory. A large part of these buildings was eaten away by time and years; There still exist some facilities in quite a good shape yet without a proper heating system. These facilities, with rooms, were occupied by a group of young idealist. The group consisted of girls and boys, some were students who had left their schools, and some had just a dream of freedom and wanted to become an artist or a journalist. You could find a single member of this group is engaged in many volunteer business, and you could see a few of them bicycling, towing a cart full of gears, they wore cheap, colourful clothes from the flea, they picked up their food from garbage outside the shops. They had a great idea to build up a sailing ship for the charity then start to carry out aid, cargoes like bicycles and sewing machines for Africa. They wanted this all to be done by themselves and from the material they could have found or get begging up.

I regard all them no seamen nor sea women, just landsmen and sissies with their childlike dreams.

Still had no choice, so I went over there. There were a sizeable stone-floored room and a long wooden table in the middle of the room and long wooden benches, and it was cold as in a winter stable. A young pale-faced woman was sitting at the table. She wore a light blue blouse and pair of wor out dungaree; she was sitting by herself, she had blonde hair the hair hang right down and not reached her shoulder. A door was open into a smaller room and I could see lots of papers, the room was full of paper, all sort of paper, like posters on the wall for clarity and poverty. A young man sat in this room, and as he saw me enter he told me to take a cup of tea from a big pot on the long table, I poured tea, it was lukewarm and grey as was the environment.

"Are there anyone willing to sail onboard a vessel, I asked?" the young man popped out of his room. " Our boys are looking for some job. What ship this is ?"

"That one, laying up there down the river, I said with no more explanation."

" And you? will you come? I asked the girl."

"What to be doing there?"

"To be a cook on board."

"I haven's any paper for it",

"There is no need. Just the passport ." the girl didn't say anything.

Later in the evening when I was cooking up tea and looking for something to eat in the ship stoppages I heard footsteps on the companionway, and the girl descended. She sat down on the bench in the mess room. Saying not a word she sat with a petrified expression on her face.

I found some goat to eat. " You know, the galley is empty now, try makes you, " I spoke at the same time as I made my task with the cooking. The woman took out a passport; it was blue covered Finnish passport with a lion's coat on its cover. I took it when open there was the same petrified face looking out of the photo. Her name printed beneath

" Are you from a noble family? I asked to see the name Irin von Lord.

"It's from my ex-husband."

"He's Germany"

"No. I don't know where from come to the name."

"Do you live in this city?"

"No, I'm not living here, she said and told me that she arrived in the city a couple of days ago and had bought a local map and by the guide by a local chart she has gone up and down on the streets till finding the idealist plant. Those idealists have fed her to and asked her to join the group.

I had a task with the cooking; it was good to have some to do with at the same time talking with that phlegmatic woman, the light task made me free to speak without any particular means such as single chat-like how costly could be the Schram which I found on the list of a storekeeper. 200D per kilogramme.

"Oh," said the girl on the bench, " Very costly", and that was all that she said.

The night we spent in the captain's bunk, on raw and cold and when in the morning it felt if as I aroused from a trench, cold and raw.

The women vanished, I don't know where I started to pick up the empty bottles, there were plenty of flasks, I fount then laying in cabins and bunks, soon I got a bag full of bottles, and was just to get carried those loaded bags to the nearest grocery to have some money for the phone when a man-made his way on the gangway, " You are short of a sailor? The man asked. " Sure, we will need a couple of able hands, if not more. I said. The men looked at me then at the bags full of bottles, said not a word just then turned and hurried ashore.

I got the flasks and changes for the Telefon.