1 st draft
Jared nic
Have you ever felt like a super hero. That period of your life were you feel invincible. I wasn’t goin to write about it but a few people said that it is something that they would like to read about. To paint a picture for you I was just out of high school and parting was my major. Im from a long line of scallopers. All fisherman, hardworking men who made the big bucks. I was sitting home on a beautiful august morning when I got the call. My brother just got in from a week trip. Being his brother I went to pick him up. To my surprise they were going right back out and my bro was taking a trip off. I got my chance that day when the captain asked if Ive ever been out before. I lied and said “yes twice”. I was told that I had two hours to get my gear and clothes and to get back to the boat and to get back to the boat. On our steam out to sea I see a group of porpuses {small midatlantic dophines} follow off the starboard side of the boat{right side}. The ocean looked so nice from a distance. Land was shrinking by the moment, until it was nothing but a dot on the horizing. Then it was like getting hit in the head with a ton of bricks. I didn’t know what to expect because ive never been out before.
We set out the drag{what catches the scallops}. About a half hour later this ten ton piece of weilded bar and iron comes out of the water and comes onto the deck. I ran over and pulled the tailchain,and unhooked the tailchain from the drag. “ Put the tacker hook on the tailchain” a guy shouted. The drag gleamed in the sun and emptied out and a mound of scallops burst on deck as if an unstoppable force. After doing this to both sides. Two big piles of scallops layed on deck like two mountains. It was quick about ten minutes from start to finish. First watch all the guys were up so all six of us went out on deck and started picking. I was trying so hard and I had a hard time keeping up. Eveyone was picking three to my one bushel. This took about fifteen minutes to do. Then we carried all the bushels into the cutting box. They weighted about fifty pounds a piece. Forty bushels got carried in, it within itself was tiresome. Now we had an hour to cut as many bushels as possible. We did this to cut out the meats into a clean black bucket. This is all happening in the cutting boxes. I started to cut. Having no clue at what im doin the guys started to laugh. They told me that they knew that I was a greenhorn. One of the guys took sometime and taught me how to cut. You run the edge of your knife against the top shell. Getting it as clean as possible.Then you slide the knife under the membrane until its under the belly. Finally using your thumb as aguideyou open the top shell. I did it to my amaement. Every hour the drag arises from the depth and it started all over again. The day has came and gone and I begin to get really tired. After a twelve hour shift I get four hours to eat and get some sleep. See there are seven men. Two watches consisting of three guys a piece. And a captain to man the wheel house. So our watches overlap by six hours. Three hours in the beginning of watch and three hours at the end of watch. Those middle four hours seemed the longest and the piles seemed to get bigger. I hear the captain” Go to sleep kid you going to need your sleep’’. Five days go by and im improving but im feeling the pain. I couldn’t feel my back at all. The right shoulder was the worst and the cramps in my legs were almost unbearable. But if my brother can do it , so can i. So I shut my mouth and work. They don’t care if your hurting cause they are feeling the pain too. By the seventh day I was dead. The captain comes down and says” Bring them on and shake them out”. With a big smile I survived the trip. We cleaned the boat down real good so there is no smell. The shells and guts all got washed overboard. I had a great feeling , like I was UNBREAKABLE….