Chain Locker by Bob Chaulk

asked.
    â€œI suppose somebody decided that maybe I had learned something in the Navy.”
    â€œHe was so good they begged him to come back when the Great War started, right Simeon?” Darmy chimed in.
    â€œI’m sure the Royal Navy could get along all right without me, Darmy. But, yes, I was a petty officer before the war. When I came back home and was at the ice, one of the skippers asked me if I wanted to be a master watch and I been doin’ it ever since. When the war started they contacted some retired petty officers—not just me—and asked if we wanted to join back up. It’s the petty officers that keep the ships runnin’ smooth, you see. I almost went, but by then I had a family to provide for, so I thought it was right to put them first.”
    â€œYou been sailing for a good while then, I guess, eh?” said Selb.
    â€œYep, a fair while. I’ll soon be fifty and I been at sea since I was fifteen. This summer, if I survive, I’ll make my twenty-second trip to the Labrador and I been to the Grand Banks three times.”
    â€œEver been overseas—I mean other than with the Navy?”
    â€œWhen I was younger than you I signed on to a steamer in St. John’s and ended up in England, where three of us signed up for the Navy. They don’t pamper you there, I’ll tell you. The only thing worse is some of the sealing ships—although they’re better than they used to be.”
    Darmy grinned at Selb and winked. There were few things he enjoyed as much as one of Simeon’s sea stories.
    â€œAfter that, I made a few trips out of Twillingate on the Annie B. Hathaway taking fish to Spain and coming back with a load of salt. She was a fine vessel, a big three-master, built up in the Green Bay. The last trip in her was rough, though. We got into a vicious hurricane that beat her to pieces. After three days of pounding, her planks started to open up. It got so bad that you couldn’t go on deck because the deck boards would spread open so much you could get your foot stuck between them. They’d cut your foot cut clean off when they closed up again.”
    â€œDid it happen to anybody?” Dorman asked.
    â€œNo. We had to stay inside at the pumps because she was leakin’ like a basket by then. On the fourth day a steamer came by and got us off just before she went down. The worst of it, though, was that the steamer was going to the Mediterranean and we couldn’t get off her until we got to the Suez Canal. It took us six months from the time we left Twillingate until we worked our way back home. Everybody thought we was dead!”
    â€œI told you, Selb!” Darmy declared triumphantly. “This one got more stories in his head than there is rocks in Fox’s dock. Tell us another one, Simeon.”
    â€œMaybe later. I think I’ll catch up to Henry and see how he’s gettin’ on.”
    Darmy nattered on to Selb. “You’re goin’ to find workin’ on a big sealer a lot different from gettin’ a few seals out the back door, Selb. Oh, yes, my son, and this bit of walkin’ we’re doin’ now is nothin’ compared to the walkin’ once we’re into the seals. And the draggin’, oh the work, the work! Selb, my son, ’tis pure doggery when you gets a tow of pelts on and you got to scote them for miles to the vessel. Mister, I’m telling you, then you’ll be earnin’ your keep!”
    Selb listened with impatience, leaning his weight into towing the sleigh with his belongings. “Darm, will you quit lecturin’ me! I’ve hauled my share of seals over the years.”
    â€œAnd the hummocky ice,” Dorman rambled on. “That’s the killer. All rifted in with big sheets on top of one another and you havin’ to somehow get your way over it, with your gear and your sculps. It’s not easy, no sir, ’tis not. You got no nicks or cuts on your