Franks Tale
Franklin L. Sherman is a Canadian living in Chilliwack British Columbia
. Nobody in the crew, outside of Sam and me could stomach the galley, and Sam being the Captain certainly wasn’t expected to cook, so rather than starve I assigned the job of chief cook and bottle washer to myself, needles to say there was no resistance. My first meal was breakfast consisting of bacon eggs and hotcakes. The stovetop was loaded with enough food for eight men and the dining table set. Suddenly we were blind sided from a rogue wave and the entire meal was thrown to the galley floor. I had failed to put the gates up. The process was repeated and the crew where called to dine. By this time they were starving and behaved like animals at the trough. Frustrated from the cooking error and now unbecoming conduct, I insisted we behave like officer cadets and not pirates, Sam agreed. My actions gained respect but little to my seaman knowledge l was now Quartermaster.
A week after arriving in St. Thomas it was clear that Curlew wouldn’t survive the economic conditions set forth by Yacht Haven. The rotation system could take weeks before a charter would become available and the crew had
no access to a banana plantation.
At the same time I’d received a letter from my brother who was stationed in Centralia Ontario. He was Officer Cadet in jet fighter training with the Royal Canadian Air force. A viral attack on his ear upset his balance and grounded him so he decided to return to Calgary and marry Judy, his high school sweetheart.
For me there was no alternative but to return home where my dad and I began construction on a summer home near
Banff, Alberta.
