This picture is of a small whimsical sign that MPK made for me to put in my rock garden. And every time I look at it I thank God for it. Because if it hadn’t been for that funny-looking little posie, there would be another sunken wreck on the bottom of Lake Michigan and most likely the loss of at least twelve lives.
I made my first rock garden here at KFC 11 or 12 years ago. A couple of years later, MPK made this sign for my garden as a joke - but I thought it was so sweet that I insisted on putting there. He made it when he was at work. He’s an ABS (Able Bodied Seaman) and works on a combination tug/barge which delivers cement to various ports around the Great Lakes. He’s one of the last of his breed…they don’t make ‘em like him any more. Now the guys are trained in class rooms to do one specific thing on a ship. And when they get on board - they find out they don’t really know a heck of a lot & they usually get their “on-the-job training” from all the other “tug-boaters”. He’s the hardest working man I’ve ever known and I have a hard time keeping up with him…just thinking about him makes me tired!
MPK cut down a small maple tree & screwed my posie to the stump. It’s my favorite thing in the garden. Although it stands about 2 feet tall - it gets completely covered with snow in the winter. I also use it as a gauge to let me know if the snow is really melting in the Spring! I just keep looking for the bright yellow to peep through the snow. (No, I didn’t say “yellow snow”!) After sitting in the garden for 4 or 5 years, it got looking a little rough so MPK decided that he’d take it to work with him about a year ago to spruce it up.
He went off to work in February & took my posie with him. He told me that a lot of the guys on the boat tried to tease him about the posie sign…but at 6 foot 3, it never bothered him. He’d been gone for a few weeks when he called me one night to tell me that my garden posie had probably saved his ship & most likely the lives of all 12 guys on it, including him! Although the crises was over at that moment, I could tell it had been serious by the strain in his voice & he seemed to be still pumped up with adrenaline. He told me that he had been working on the sign in his free time & had gotten it to the point where it was finished & he’d put about 3 coats of polyurethane on it. He said that he planned on leaving it to “cure“ while it was in an out-of-the-way place where he could leave it. He then said that they had left the port in either Green Bay or Manatowok, Wisconsin after delivering a load of cement. He’d been up for hours because he had to work overtime while they were unloading. He’d just gotten off his shift & was really tired. He said that he’d planned on going straight to the tug & to bed, but he thought, at the last minute that he’d check on the posie sign just to make sure that it didn’t need another coat of polyurethane. I’ve been on his ship countless times & he’s given me tours. To get from the deck - it’s a very long walk to the door to the engine room. There are lots of very steep stairs. You have to go through the (very loud) engine room & the ballast pump room & through a door that leads into the hull of the barge. You then have to go through a tunnel to the very front of the hull. It’s very dark & very close quarters until you get to the very front. MPK had work out equipment up there as well as his wood working tools.
Sorry - back to the story…he said that after he went below deck & the closer he got to the space where his work shop was - the louder the sound was of running water. I don’t think that I have to tell you...that’s the worst thing that a seaman could experience. He said that he could see a dent & split in the side of the hull where water was pouring into the ship! He luckily still had his radio with him & reported to the captain that they were taking on water. They tried to get the bilge pumps going but one of them failed. The captain then radioed a “May Day” to the coast guard. At the time he called me, he said the coast guard was towing them back to the port.
The cause of the split in the 2 inch thick steel hull? The day before, they’d gotten stuck in the ice trying to get into the dock & a big piece of ice pierced the metal. MPK said that if he hadn’t gone down to check on the posie, they would have never known of the split in the hull until they got out in the middle of Lake Michigan - with only one bilge pump working. And if that ship would have gone down…the human body can only last so long in those frigid waters, even with insulated life suits on.
He told me that the guys told him to tell me “Thanks”. I said, “What for?” He said that they were thanking him, but he told them it wasn’t him - it was my posie sign.” And to that - they said, “Well then, tell Cheryl we said ‘Thanks’”. Hmmm…guess that means the guys are no longer teasing him about it.
And my posie? It came through yet another Sugar Island winter looking just as bright as the day it was made. And whenever I catch sight of it in my garden, I say a prayer thanking God for giving those 12 men a little longer on this earth.
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