Echoes From the Past

Got an email today from an old shipmate who posted this picture of the ship we sailed together on in 1968. That's me next to a forgotten general in the upper right corner (click to enlarge). I was two years older than Brent and sailing as chief mate (I only had a third mate's license with a second mate waiver). The captain fired the chief mate for drunkenness and promoted me. When I said I didn't have the license, he said: "I don't give a damn, the Coast Guard doesn't come this far east." You can find more information on the ship here and here.

I was supposed to be out there for a year but after six months I told the captain I was going to be a priest, came home and went into a Benedictine Priory in Vermont to think things over. And as they say, the rest is history.