海角大神

Castine, Maine

Bess MacArthur鈥檚 father was calling from work. So Bess and her first- and second-grade classmates 鈥� all six of them 鈥� walked down the hall to the laptop computer to say hello. Dad is on the screen, wearing headphones and his bright orange coveralls in his office: the chart room of the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit West Taurus. Location: 18潞 57.6鈥� S 58潞 55.4鈥� E. and steaming west to Mauritius.

His words had a slight time delay; the picture was grainy, and the satellite dropped the call once. But it wasn鈥檛 a bad connection given the distance: Gordon 鈥淢ac鈥� MacArthur was calling from the southern Indian Ocean.

Bess and her classmates were at the 60-student Adams School here, where it was noon. On the West Taurus it was 10 p.m. Maine: cold. Southern Indian Ocean: balmy.

Castine is on Penobscot Bay in the Gulf of Maine, the granite-shored region at the heart of shipbuilding and seafaring in the Age of Sail during the 1800s, when sea captains from nearby Searsport and Belfast spent years away from their families moving cargo across the world鈥檚 oceans.

At any given time, there are half a dozen Adams School parents on ships the world over. Two dads are on their research vessel in the Bahamas. Morgan鈥檚 dad is chief mate on a grain carrier; Liam and Amelia鈥檚 dad is on a product tanker between California and Alaska; Drake and India鈥檚 dad works on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Others work at the Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) in town, teaching another generation of captains and engineers. And a dozen of Mac鈥檚 crewmates on the West Taurus are MMA graduates who call Downeast Maine home.

A Vermont native, Mac attended the MMA hoping to be a naval aviator, then fell in love with ships. He spent eight years in the Coast Guard 鈥� 鈥渂etween my sophomore and junior years鈥� 鈥� and worked on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil for the past eight. He鈥檚 a licensed Second Mate. On the West Taurus, he is the dynamic positioning officer.

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This region had an industrial heartbeat 150 years ago. Bangor, Maine, The Lumber Capital of the World in the age of sail, is 15 miles up the Penobscot River from Castine. Down the bay, Stonington quarries and numerous coastal brickyards supplied Eastern cities with brownstone homes and granite statehouses. Fish canneries, ropewalks, and boatyards flourished.

Over several generations, the age of steam took the wind out of sailing ships; steel replaced granite and brick; fisheries collapsed or went far offshore to factory vessels. Maine still has lobster 鈥� selling now at 1970s prices. And it still has sea captains and marine engineers who can live in tiny coastal towns and earn a living on drilling rigs sailing from Singapore to Brazil, blogging to the kids at the local school.

Mac writes to the kids about fuel consumption, navigation, distance/speed calculations, voltage, watts and megawatts, cranes, pipes, anchors, latitude and longitude, and hydro-acoustic positioning while drilling exploratory oil wells off of Brazil. The kids ask questions about lifeboats, laundry, time zone changes, weather and currents, pirates in the notorious Straits of Malacca, water spouts, crew quarters, and onboard food. Oil is the whole point of moving West Taurus 鈥� a huge floating factory 鈥� from its shipyard birthplace in Singapore to the southern Atlantic via the Indian Ocean and around the Horn of Africa. Distance traveled from Singapore: 3,259 nautical miles. Average speed: 5.9 knots. Distance left to Brazil: 6,555 nautical miles. Are we there yet?

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鈥淗ow鈥檚 Leon?鈥� ask the online students. In Mac鈥檚 latest blog, one photo shows a frustrated chief engineer scowling at the camera. Technical difficulties: No. 2 engine keeps quitting.

鈥淗e鈥檚 doing well, but still can鈥檛 figure out the problem,鈥� answers Mac.

The kids wanted to know more about pirates, too. 鈥淲hat would you do if you were attacked?鈥� asks a third grader.

鈥淲e鈥檇 close all the doors and hide in a safe place,鈥� answers Mac. 鈥淎nd use the fire hoses on 鈥檈m.鈥� Mac鈥檚 ship may have traveled some of the world鈥檚 most notorious waters for piracy, but they aren鈥檛 carrying any attractive cargo.

By January, the West Taurus will be in place off of Brazil for six years. After more months of system testing, drilling will begin in earnest. At that point, Mac鈥檚 job will be to control the rig and keep it moored above the wellhead. When will oil start flowing? Ten years.

Aside from the lore of going to sea, Mac鈥檚 blog is loaded with good curriculum. 鈥淲hen I was in school, I never liked math and I never got very good math grades,鈥� Mac wrote. 鈥淚 was missing a way to make math seem useful.鈥�

He has supplied the school kids back home with some pretty practical problems. The seventh graders have tried homework from Mac: 鈥淲hat speed do we have to average to travel 2,480 nautical miles in 18 days?鈥� The West Taurus travels nine meters on a gallon of fuel. Not bad for a 36,000-ton vessel with eight 6300-horsepower engines. Better, in fact, than the family car going to the mall, adjusted for weight. Mac offers calculations for proof.

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Capt. Andy Chase, professor of Marine Transportation at MMA, says that the new connectivity of mariners and their families isn鈥檛 necessarily a good thing.

鈥淲hen I was at sea regularly [1979 to 1987],鈥� says Captain Chase, 鈥渃ommunication didn鈥檛 exist when you were out at sea, except on extremely rare occasions. You got mail in port, which was often two weeks to two months behind. If you were overseas, telephone calls would cost so much that you didn鈥檛 normally make them.鈥�

Staying in touch with home while shipping can be a distraction. 鈥淲hen the septic tank overflows and the furnace dies [back home], you have to participate in the solution,鈥� says Chase. 鈥淲hen emotional things are happening at home, they can distract you significantly from your work on the ship.鈥� Like fixing No. 2 engine.

Chase was MacArthur鈥檚 navigation professor at MMA, and has a daughter in the Adams School sixth grade. He is the subject of John McPhee鈥檚 book about merchant mariners, 鈥淟ooking for a Ship.鈥�

A dozen MMA graduates work on West Taurus, including Leon, who lives in nearby Bar Harbor.

In his last dispatch from the rig on Dec. 5, Mac wrote: 鈥淏y the time I get home, I will have traveled over 20,000 miles by air and 3,371 miles by sea; been in the countries of Japan, Singapore, Mauritius, United Arab Emirates and the good old USA. Thank you all for transiting the Malacca Strait and the Indian Ocean with me over the last few weeks.鈥� He was heading for the airport.

Two days later, Mac was positioned at 44-23.2 N, 068-47.7W 鈥� back in Castine.

Still sporting the same orange Seadrill shirt from all of the blog photos, he walked into Bess鈥檚 school on Dec. 9 fresh from an airline voyage from Mauritius, via Dubai and New York.

In a month, he鈥檒l rejoin the West Taurus in Namibia for the trans-Atlantic leg of its voyage. Next time he鈥檒l fly home from Rio de Janeiro. He drops by Bess鈥檚 classroom for a photo, and by afternoon, he鈥檚 building snowmen in the front yard with Bess and her brother, Will.