Man Overboard

                                          The French saying "Chercher la femme"
Crude oil from Australia's Botany Bay,
via Sumatra and Japan,
                                [we'll carry it to LA...

We are being pushed
                  [by the strong Kuroshio Current
suddenly two whistles were heard recurrent,
simultaneous with my order,
                     "Wheel hard to Port."
The ship shakes and comes short ....

Same time the radio operator
                             [sends a report.
 It goes out to all ships in the area,
                                      [while a sailor,
throws a lifeline
               [from an approaching whaler.

The cry of "Man Overboard"
                                 [caused this alert ..


My first thought was for the man
                                     [not to be hurt,

so I turned the wheel

                     [to clear the propeller
from endangering Mike, the yeller,

Flash I remembered

                 [something I learned in school
in a course I found very boring....the fool,
the "curve Boutakov"

                      [a valuable navigation [tool...
So I told the helmsman to notify me
when the ship turned sixty degrees

                              [to the left will be...

Right on the spot, he cried with anxiety,
because the crew is as a family,

                                     [as small society....

Engines "Dead Slow"

             [and the wheel starboard, I ordered,

realizing that I was there where

                             [life with death bordered...

Head it I said......... 

  [when the compass showed the opposite course,
dangerously approaching a rocky coast as Corse*                                    *Corsica

Now the ship was sailing slowly

                                [to the point where Mike fell.

Unfortunately I don't have

                           [something pleasant or good to tell...

Mike the yeller was never found.

Later a rumor

      [was being discussed around....
The French saying

              [“chercher la femme”, again,
said a friend of Mike

              [who was handling the crane...

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* Extract from "The Broken Mooring Line", an experiential
poetic work // page c38 // e-mail: pmataragas@yahoo.com //
Texts and Narration: Odysseus Heavilayias - ROTTERDAM //
Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis - CHICAGO//
Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS//
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notes:

* Butakov turn is a maneuver used to bring a ship or boat back to a point it previously passed through, often for the purpose of recovering a man overboard, an emergency situation in almost all circumstances.

___________________________________________

*Corse (Corsica) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to France. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the Italian island of Sardinia. Mountains make up two-thirds of the island, forming a single chain.


*Port and starboard are nautical and aeronautical terms which refer to the left and right sides, respectively, of a waterborne vessel or aircraft as perceived by a person on board facing the front of the craft. An easy way to remember this is that port and left are both four-letter words, which only leaves starboard as the opposite side.



the tales of a Greek Sailor