“Ship me somewheres (sic) east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there aren’t no Ten Commandments an’ a man can raise a thirst …” (Mandalay Rudyard Kipling)
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We're approaching Port Said. First sign is gas rigs off the Egyptian coast.
A Filipino crewman puts down his brush and studies a rig: "If I had just one ..." His voice drifts off and he returns to painting.
One Croatian officer plays with a plan during tedious hours on the bridge. Someday, a little vacation house in the Canadian woods, a long, long way from the sea, but with some water for fishing. No four hour watches, no being a stranger to his family, no pirates and all the other &$@#! And he'll have some tame squirrels.
Shipping lanes from across the Mediterranean are converging. All headed for Suez.
