CLOSE CALL AT SEA

I braced myself behind the ship cannon as the ship went up a wave which abruptly smashed on the massive wave breaker at the forward bow of the ship. A few sprinkles of seawater drip down my face as I tasted the bitter sweet salt of the ocean while cursing the officer on watch that had sent me down from the bridge to check the anchor door at the bow. It was a nasty storm and God seem angry at something or somebody that day.

I quickly went over the wave breaker and rapidly ran the ten feet to the deck hatch and turn the locking wheel of the hatch while the ship was taking another dive down the pit of another on coming wave. Quickly, I opened the hatch and jumped down the six feet hole ignoring the ladder next to me. At that same moment the water gushed down the hatch with a loud ringing that brought in about twenty buckets of water over me. Frigid water rushed inside my rubber coat seeping into my back and giving me shivers all through my bones. The chamber was scarcely thirty six square feet, just big enough for a big man to have elbow room, on a wall a dim light made the anchor door visible which was secure as it should.

I held the ladder for several minutes listening to the thunder of the waves thrashing the ship, and liked a drunken sailor, I brace myself the best I could in this oceanic dungeon. At that moment, I reflected about my young life, nineteen years old, a French speaking sailor, trying to learn a new language on this English Canadian destroyer, trying the ways of military rules, and trying to assimilate the fast pace of a busy port in a big city.

Moi, who came from a small quiet village that got disturbed only twice a week when the five o’clock train came by rapidly whistling his horn at the 1500 souls that were living in that hamlet, and where the major event of the week was the ringing of the bell from the colossal church on Sunday calling on his parishioners to gather and follow their rules.

I waited for a respite from the sea and climbed up the ladder. Once at the top, I waited for a moment, to measure the next wave and the best time to jump out onto the deck. At the right moment, I leaped out, shut the hatch and frantically ran the ten feet to the wave breaker. I gauged my leap over the four feet high breaker, when all of a sudden, to my horror, I slipped and fell. My senses suddenly were on high alert, and in an instant I heard a roar behind me has the ship started lean port side.

I got up quickly and jumped on top of the wave breaker and as I rolled on my back on top of the two feet wide wave breaker, a giant hand of sea water took me gently and carried me rapidly toward the port side of the ship. I floated down rapidly while my hands searched frantically for something to grab. Suddenly at the last possible moment before falling into the ocean my left hand hit something, which I snatched in desperation. I had grabbed the last reeling of the guardrail. I looked down and saw my feet almost touching the water, while the ship had rolled dangerously to its side. My hand was slipping slowly and I thought I was going to die lost at sea, an empty life unnoticed to the rest of the world. My fingers were becoming numb rapidly from the strain and I saw in my mind my mother crying at the news of my death. I took a deep breath and close my eyes and tried to get a better grip. I screamed and with vigor pulled myself up and was able to swing my body and seize the other rail with my right hand.

The battleship began to right itself toward the starboard side and that momentum helped me to grab the top rail with both of my hands, and bracing my feet to the side of the ship, I catapulted my body over the guardrail into safety. My heart still racing in my chest, I promptly ran to the gunner station where I sat exhausted near the cannon. I closed my eyes and relived what I had just happen to me. This had been a close call, and I couldn’t believe I had pulled through, that I had saved myself and cheated death. I realized that something had touched me while dangling over board. Something had given me the courage to want to live and I felt a strange peace deep inside of me. That my life was worth saving and that someone had been watching over me.