Farewell Shipmates

It worried him to be in trouble with the captain as he had never caused a problem before but he could not foresee any enormous deal as some morons, well five of the deck hands, were continuously fighting in bars and being arrested and bailed out. The captain said they were good crew and were worth the effort cause they worked hard for him. Armaan was a steward and cleaned the officer’s cabins and did duties as assigned, like helping the mechanic once,  helping in the galley and had started to learn navigation on the bridge. He had thought he was valuable enough for forgiveness even if he was late getting back as it was eight am.

When he came to the place where the ship should have been there was an empty berth and no trace of the ship left. Armaan thought he had the wrong berth and checked his docking pass… Nope right place. He thought maybe it moved to a maintenance berth for repairs as the Captain had mentioned propeller imbalance at one point and went to the Dock Master’s office to confirm. When he got there the person at the desk confirmed through a computer that the ship was not in a maintenance berth and had actually been taken out at six forty-five am that morning. Armaan was furious and thought the Captain had abandoned him. He asked if they could contact the ship because he thought that the Captain owed him an explanation even though the usually prompt Captain had obviously delayed the ship by forty-five minutes.

When the radio operator aboard the vessel replied, Armaan recognized the voice and was passed the microphone to talk. He explained the incident from the previous night and was told it was too late; They were ten nautical miles out to sea already. Armaan would be on the hook for a helicopter and that would cost hundreds of dollars out of his pay. The Captain personally apologized and thanked Armaan for radioing to explain but he couldn’t turn back; They were already behind schedule and would have to plunge ahead at a brisk pace due to the tropical storm they had to go around last month. Armaan was out of luck and would have to play his skills at the job market board looking for a position on another ship.

Armaan thanked the man in the office and left to go figure out his next move. He thought he would easily find a position on a new ship with the skills that his former Captain had taught him. He could apprentice as a mechanic, could operate the radar, could even reprise his role as a steward and clean cabins, and when put down to it could cook food pretty well. He asked the guy in the Dock Master’s office where the job board was and the Dock Master’s Office referred to the clubhouse just up the way. Armaan took his leave and walked up the pier a little ways and looked for the clubhouse, which he easily found. He thought things would look up for him soon enough. He had found a ship in his home port quick enough, so he thought he would find one here quickly too, and he had enough money saved to last for a month or two if needed. He thought misfortune looked more like fate now that he had come out of the daze of being left behind.