Hazards To Navigation
From the telling of Kendall
I'll tell you all a story of a time long years ago
When we left No Mans Island in a heavy Southeast blow.
From No Mans into Camden is almost 30 miles,
We had no Radar in those days
Just dead reckoning all the while.
We came across Penobscot Bay in a fog most awful thick,
And we knew that we could be run down
By a tanker or cargo ship.
We could hear the horns and whistles of those monsters all around,
One could ram us in that soup, and they'd never hear a sound.
The Mate was standing on the bow to get a better view,
"We're surrounded Captain!" he yelled back
What are we gonna do?"
"Throw some of them Maine potatoes, like snowballs hard as you can
And, if one of them don’t make a splash, I'll know I'd better turn."
The fog was only masthead deep, yet thick as three in a bed,
The Mate was watching an airplane, 'bout three miles overhead.
"It's odd," he said "So thick down here, up there it's clear
as day"
Says I, "Unless that engine blows apart, we ain’t goin' that
way."
We left the channel far behind, but we couldn't find" The Graves"
Our time was up and it wasn't there, and the Mate began to rave.
His wife was waiting on the shore, looking out to sea,
And the last thing in the world he wished to do,
Was to spend one more minute with me.
He'd had enough of the sea that day, so, I just let him steam,
I killed the engine and listened for that bouy off our beam.
I didn't know which way to head, I didn't know where we were,
The bell I wanted wasn't there was all I knew for sure.
Then all at once it hit me, the smell of new mown hay,
And an awful racket with it from somewhere 'cross the bay.
In that soup we didn't realize we were so close in on the shore,
A boy was out there mowing his lawn, we could hear his engine roar
"We lost our way!" I shouted "After many days at sea,
How do you get to Camden?" he said "My father takes me."
There was no help there so we came about to get her well off shore,
The fog then lifted and we saw The Graves,
It was only a mile or more.
We steamed her into Camden and all was well at last,
Brought her in beside the dock, the mooring lines were cast,
We tied her up and went ashore, it had been a long hard jog,
And we promised ourselves that never again would we sail in such a fog.
Kendall Morse (for more about Kendall, click here)