Ship Captain's Daughter Read Online Free

which was magical. It had an amusement park that glittered at night and a beautiful beach where I learned how to swim. One afternoon, we were sitting on the beach on our blanket after eating our ship provisions of pork sandwiches and cupcakes, and suddenly Dad said, “Everyone in the water.” I loved the water, but I didn’t know how to swim. We ran in hand in hand, Mom on one side and Dad on theother, and kept running until I couldn’t touch bottom anymore. They held me up as I began to float and then suddenly, Dad put his arm under my stomach and flipped my legs up parallel to the water and let me go.
    â€œPaddle,” he shouted, and he moved his hands up and down dog-paddle style. I did, wildly, but my legs kept sinking down and down, and the water was coming up over my chin. As I was screaming and flailing, Dad rescued me, pulling my legs back up parallel to the water. Then he pushed me off again, yelling, “Kick and paddle.” I started paddling like mad, kicking at the same time, and suddenly I was swimming. We swam together all afternoon and then dried off in the late-afternoon sun.

Dad’s First Command
    The following year, 1953, started out the same. Dad left in mid-March when the lake thawed, and Mother started checking the paper again for his estimated weekly arrival times at ports near us. April went by, and May and June, and then, that July, it happened—I was no longer the daughter of a first mate. Our whole world changed. Just before my ninth birthday, my dad became a captain.
    The significance of this event is difficult to convey. Promotions were awarded strictly by seniority and the availability of ships. Ore contracts dictated how many ships were in service. The men on the officer’s track took their various licenses—weather plotting, navigational aids, piloting—and then they waited. The line of succession was long.
    When my father first realized his dream of “getting a ship to sail,” thirty-six ships made up the Interlake Steamship fleet. As of this writing, there are nine.
    It happened like this. Dad was returning to Duluth with a ship, and Mom learned that he was due to arrive at the Duluth, Mesabi, and Iron Range dock in Duluth at two a.m. She wouldn’t let me go with her to meet the ship in the middle of the night, so my grandparents came and stayed over.
    Late that night I heard Mom’s alarm clock ring. Then I heard her lock the back door and start the car. I fell back asleep. Thenext thing I heard was the refrigerator door open and close, and voices in the kitchen, and I realized Dad was able to get off the ship for a visit. They were home!

    The SS Adriatic was Dad’s first command and the ship my family remembered with enduring fondness. JIM DAN HILL MARINE ARCHIVES, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-SUPERIOR
    I got up and crept down the stairs, wanting to surprise them. But just when I came around the corner, I saw Dad pulling the cork out of a bottle of wine, and the two of them burst out laughing. I didn’t know what to do, so I just stopped and listened.
    â€œI couldn’t believe it,” Dad said. “I heard that they might, and then I heard that they weren’t going to, and then the skipper told me the news.” He sat down and started eating a cold leftover pork chop, and Mom toasted him with her glass.
    I’d better go upstairs, I thought. But just as I was turning around, Dad looked up and saw me. “I thought I heard something over there. Come here, sleepyhead, and join the party.”
    As I walked toward him, he jumped up to give me a hug, and then he surprised me by pushing me back at arm’s length. Puttinghis hands on my shoulders, he looked at me as if he meant business.
    â€œGuess what, doll? They’re pulling out another ship. They’re moving more ore this summer than they have since the war, and they’re fitting her out right now in Buffalo! And you know what?” He grinned.