She’s sailed the seas from the peaceful fjords of Norway to the Whale Wars of the Antarctic’s frigid waters.
She’s faced angry Japanese whalers and mean Canadian Coast Guard cutters. (Mean Canadians? Hard to believe, but there are, indeed, five or six of them.)
(The Farley Mowat in her Sea Shepherd days)
But when we tramped about the Farley Mowat on a chill, steel-grey Halifax morning, the ship was cold and quiet and dark. She’d committed the unforgivable crime of driving near the Canadian seal hunt while green. This created the potential for all manner of danger and loss of life and limb, so the Canadian Fisheries Minister, wishing to avoid an unpleasant scene, had her boarded, her Sea Shepherds’ crew arrested, and the ship impounded and towed to Nova Scotia.
That’s where we found her almost two years later. Her great motors stilled, her generators silent, she’s been sitting dockside, waiting.
Waiting, as it turned out, for TENTHMIL owner Steve Munson. He’d always dreamed of trading in his horse and saddle for a ship and cap’n’s chair, and when he heard the Canadian Government was auctioning off the Farley, he leaped at the chance.
Now he was seeing his 180-foot, 657-ton purchase for the first time – stem to stern, engine room to captain’s quarters. And while things looked a bit chaotic – spare parts strewn in random piles across the galley tables; dust and trash through the crew’s berths – he found the ship in sound shape, if not yet seaworthy.
“She’s looking good,” he said, surveying the deck from the bridge of his vessel. “There’s a little rust, and the wiring is a mess, but the engines are in good shape.”
That’s good, because by summer he wants the Farley Mowat back on the ocean – this time refitted as a research vessel.
The Farley Mowat mobilizes against illegal Japanese whalers:
(Originally appeared at TenthMil.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment