Sloop John B. Part one.
The water was calm and cold, November runs were always the worst. The wind was light, there was barely a wave on the lake but even the slightest hint of a breeze sent the cold straight through your coat and deep into your organs. They always say you can feel it in your bones but on the lake, you first feel it in your lungs, then in the pit of your stomach, and finally in your heart.
The captain called to the engineer to start the engine. The boat shuddered momentarily and then came to life. Taking his cue from the boat below him the captain went from relaxed to tense, his knuckles went white on the wheel.
Like a bear after hibernation, the boat creaked under the duress of its forced awakening. I stepped out of the wheelhouse and felt the crisp air slowly begin to pick up speed as we moved further from the dock. Lac des Sorcieres was its name to the French fur traders, but there was nothing magical about it in November.
The big paddlewheel spun and pushed us out onto the lake. We trundled along, the captain and I sitting in the wheelhouse while the loggers wandered the deck below. The captain gave me control of the boat while he went down to chat with the loggers.
I stared into the distance, a pair of small boats were paddling out to fish but the lake wasn’t busy today. Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
“James!”
“Hey Johnny,” I waved him in, “how are things?”
“Great!” a huge smile spread across his face.
The smile suddenly disappeared as was replaced by a look of confusion.
“Look at the fog on the window, I swear that’s the Virgin Mary!” Johnny was pointing over to the starboard side of the wheelhouse.
I kept hold of the wheel while I looked over and laughed, “Maybe it's Mary Magdalene at best.”
Johnny looked angrily at me, I stared back and laughed. Slowly a smile broke over his face and he burst out laughing.
Suddenly Johnny spoke, “James, I proposed to Marie last night!”
“What?” I let go of the wheel and it started to turn on its own, I panicked and grabbed it again, “congratulations!”i don't think that was a word that they had?
The captain walked back into the wheelhouse.
“How did you do it? Did you speak with her parents?”
“I just got on one knee and asked, like I was a knight from Camelot or something,” Johnny was beaming.
“Congratulations Johnny, who’s the lucky girl?” the captain smiled.
“Thanks Sir, Marie Evans.”
I reached over and cuffed him on the shoulder, “good for you buddy.”
Johnny smiled and looked pensively out onto the lake, “one last turn in the camp then I’ll find a job in town this winter,” he smiled, “with the railway here now the business are all hiring.”
I smiled, “good for you.”
I stared out onto the lake. The peaceful little towns around the lake were getting busier with the train here now. Already the first pair of travelers from Toronto showed up in town wanting fishing guides this past summer. The north was changing.
I gave the wheel back to the captain and Johnny and I went down to the main deck talking about the news around town.
The rest of the loggers were sitting on the deck.
“Johnny! James! Come on over!”
“Johnny you proposed!”
“Yeah!”
We sat beside Zeke, one of the older loggers.
“Well done,” Zeke looked over at us, “if a man can’t love while he’s young, there’ll be no love for him when we gets old.”
“Thanks Zeke,” I laughed, “Is that what happened to you?”
“Exactly,” the laugh burst out of him, “get to it boy! Don’t end up like me!”
We talked for a bit and then I left them to their last hour of relaxation. I returned to my post and the captain and I sat and watched the water go by. The sound of the loggers below us and the paddlewheel behind us created a blanket of sounds that enveloped us, pierced only by the occasional bird’s cry. Two deadheads floated past us, roots up in the air. Like the lake held an upside-down forest. I imagined plunging under the water and walking among it. Like I was walking on the ceiling.
The boat shuddered suddenly. For a moment the paddlewheel stopped and started again, like a heart skipping a beat. There was a commotion behind us, I looked back just in time to see the fireman running toward us, he opened the door and collapsed into the room, “Captain! There’s a fire,” he paused to breathe deeply, “in the engine room.” He panted heavily and put his hands on his knees.
“Call the engine room, tell them to turn it all off now!” The captain reacted instantly.
“We oughta get off this boat,” the fireman disappeared back outside of the wheelhouse.
“We’ll be alright,” the captain spoke to me when he said it, though I think he was trying to reassure himself more.
“James, assemble everyone on the main deck,” the captain commanded. Sweat dripped off his brow.
“Aye aye sir,” I shot to my feet and ran out as fast as I could.
My running didn’t matter, the fireman was already pushing everyone to abandon ship. I saw them leap over the side one by one. I froze for a minute and watched it happen. My mind couldn’t understand. Then I saw the flames leaping up from below deck. It was too late. I started to move again and reached the main deck.
“Get off the boat!” the fireman shouted at me as I ran past him. Then I saw him run off toward the back of the boat.
I looked over and saw Johnny standing on the deck. The fire was rising in huge tongues out of the engine room. He was frozen in place staring at it.
“Johnny jump for it!”
I looked back and saw a trio of people jump off the back of the boat near the paddle wheel.
I looked back and Johnny was still frozen in place. I ran over to him.
“We have to get off!” I shouted as I grabbed him around the waist launched the two of us overboard. Time seemed to slow down as we plunged off the side of the deck. As I was falling I could see back up to the wheelhouse. The captain was still there aiming the boat at the island ahead. I could feel the sweat on the captain’s brow, then we hit the water.
I landed on my back and the water rushed past, pulling my body deeper and deeper into it. Something had knocked Johnny out and he’d gone limp in my arms. I struggled to pull him up to the surface with me, the cold was deep inside me now, in my bones,
My lungs ached as I desperately crawled toward the air. I saw the farm, my first pair of skates, my father laughing and lighting a fire in the woodstove, my sisters and brothers in the field with me, us fighting in our bedrooms late at night while my mother yelled up at us. My memories looked frozen like I was watching them play in blocks of ice. Suddenly they floated up to the surface and I followed them up.
We reached the surface and the air rushed into my lungs, it hurt but I couldn’t stop it. I hauled Johnny to the surface and tried to tell if he was breathing while I trod water. My body was succumbing to the cold. I lost feeling in my hands and Johnny was starting to slip out of them, I kept repositioning him in my arms to not let him slide out.
It was taking all of my energy to keep Johnny up. I slipped under the water again. I stayed under holding Johnny as high as I could for as long as I could hold my breath. I resurfaced and gulped down more air, then slipped underneath again. I repeated this a few more times. Ten minutes later I was still going, I went under again and my strength failed. I couldn’t push Johnny back up to the surface. I held him by the shirt and pulled myself toward the surface again. I couldn’t make it.
I floated there for a moment, the cold at the pit of my stomach lit on fire. I knew what I needed to do. I didn’t want to think it. I started to sink down. There was no time to think.
I let go and pushed myself back up to the surface.
I cracked through the surface and gulped air once more. I paddled slowly in the water while tears leaked out of my eyes and down my cheeks. I kept my mind blank. Time passed, minutes, hours, days, years. All the years of my life, all the years of Johnny’s, all of Marie’s and their children’s. They all passed and I saw them and wept. It was getting so cold. I couldn’t see the boat anymore, or feel any of the heat radiating off it as it burned. It was just cold and smoky everywhere I looked. I stopped looking and stopped listening. I floated and waited for anything, I wasn’t sure exactly what.
Suddenly I felt a tug on the back of my collar, I looked up and found the face of the fireman staring into mine.
“Help me help you,” he breathed into my face, the heat of his breath warming my face. It was the
warmest thing I ever felt. I reached up and gripped the oar hanging off the side of the boat and pulled as hard as I could. I twisted and rolled into the scow to see two other frozen men huddled together taking turns sitting up and peering over the edge of the side of the boat to look for others in the water. The fireman collapsed beside me and I took the chance to peer back across the glassy surface of the lake.
Immediately I saw one of the log drivers lose his battle with the cold and slip under the surface about a dozen feet from where we were. I turned and looked back at the men across from me, they knew what I’d seen. We sat in silence for an hour not seeing any other humans until a sail appeared through the lingering smoke.
We waved to them and they picked their way over to us, finally lashing the scow to the sailboat and hauling us aboard. The lake was still calm and the rescuers floated around the scene of the wreck for another half hour searching for other survivors before they returned us to Callander. I waited there a day before I returned home. My parents fawned over me for days before I convinced my mother that I needed to return to the rooming house down by the train station or I might lose my room.
I slipped out the door of the rooming house and walked down toward the shore. I had heard that Marie had been down on the beach and docks every day looking for Johnny.
I found her on the shore and she cried in my arms.