The streets there were dirty and poor, reminding me of South Chicago where I grew up. I found Bledsoe on the wharf, watching the ship unloading coal on to the great hills of coal on the wharf. It was three days since I’d seen him, and he looked thinner. It was shockingly noticeable-he must have lost four kilos.
‘Martin’, I said. ‘Good to see you’
He smiled. ‘Vic! How did you find me? Do you want to watch from the ship?’ He went to his car and got another hard hat from the trunk for me. We went up on to the ‘deck and watched the coal coming up from the holds. Bledsoe was clearly uneasy, and couldn’t stand still. He caught me watching him.
‘I’m constanly worried abouth all me ship now,’ he,said. ‘It will be ten months before they can get the Lucella out of ‘the Poe Lock.’
‘Can you save the ship?’
‘Oh yes, I think so. Sheridan’s been all over it with the guys who built her. They’ll take her out inpieces, back to Toledo, and then put her together again. She should be sailing again in eighteen months.
‘Who pay to repair the lock?.
‘I don’t know, but I wasn’t responsible for that bomb.’
Suddenly we heard a loud whistle and the noise of the machinery stopped.
‘What’s wrong?’ Bledsoe called. ‘Why have you stopped?’
Shouts came from inside the hold.
I started down the ladder into the hold and Bledsoe followed.
Six or seven men were down there, looking at something in the coal. I pushed past them.