Patience. You'll get your call.

We all wanted to work upon the water. Some would go to fishing boats, some to ships. Those that wanted to go to the tugs had a more difficult time breaking in.

There is an idea that a green hand will be a burden to the tug crew. Fish boats and ships have positions for starters but boatmen talk as if the work is too special on the decks of a tug. That one can rarely learn it as well as they have. A man needs experience before he can be hired but he'll gain no experience before he is hired. It's the Grecian Urn cycle, broken only by the desperation of a small outfit in immediate need of hands.

Then we went down to meet the men and women at the outfits.