欧宝娱乐

“It was hard for me to believe that I had graduated from High School the week before and was now a crewmember on a Dutch ship. This was my first job aboard ship and now I found myself heading down the Hudson River, past the Statue of Liberty. There wasn鈥檛 much time for sightseeing since the dinner chimes had been rung and the few passengers we had, were coming into the dining room. No one had explained my duties but I watched the other stewards and followed suit. I must have been a fast learner since amazingly enough all went well, and before I knew it the dining room was empty and it was cleanup time. I鈥檓 certain that having worked in my uncle鈥檚 restaurants helped but I鈥檓 glad I survived without any mishaps. I knew that tomorrow would go even smoother now that I understood the routine.
I really don鈥檛 know if getting a job aboard a foreign ship was easier in the 鈥�50鈥檚鈥� or was it that the ship needed another steward and I was willing to be a strike breaker? No one on the ship mentioned the strike and everyone treated me as just another member of the crew. Mostly everyone aboard spoke Dutch and amazingly enough I understood them. Dutch being a Germanic language was very similar to the German spoken in the lowlands, which included Hamburg. It didn鈥檛 take long before I was answering and then conversing with the crew鈥�. Although I was on the bottom rung of the ladder I felt right at home. My bunk was at the top of a three bunk stack in the crew鈥檚 quarters, high up against the chain locker. The bathroom, called the 鈥渉ead鈥� in English, didn鈥檛 have toilets or urinals. Instead I had to perfect my aim as I balanced myself over a hole in the deck. Fortunately there were places for my feet and handholds to help me stabilize myself in this balancing act. With no partitions for modesty I soon lost my inhibitions and became deft at this. At least they furnished the paper and considering it all, life was good!”
― Captain Hank Bracker, "Seawater One"