<p>
In 1986, I was Second Mate aboard a small product tanker on the Great Lakes. It was the end of December, around the 21st, and we were returning from Montreal bound for Toledo and lay-up for the season. It was an exceptionally cold early winter, and the Saint Lawrence Seaway was planning on closing by the first of the year, so all the ocean going ships, salties we called them, were in a rush to get into the Atlantic before being caught in the Lakes for the winter, as sometimes happened. </p>
<p>We were traversing the Welland Canal, which bypasses Niagara Falls, between lakes Ontario and Erie. The canal is somewhere around 40 miles, long and tedious, with nearly non-stop time on deck running the winches through the locks. In the middle of the Canal is a group of six locks, three up and three downbound, that flow right into each other, with a lift of about 50 feet per lock. As we came up to the second set of locks, there was a downbound Saltie across the lock from us. Being the smart ass I am, I would usually wave at the fellows on the other ship, to mostly blank stares. Im not sure why, perhaps the bitter cold and lack of any festive feeling, I didnt wave at the men on the after deck of the other ship, the MV Captain Torres.</p>
<p>A bad storm was brewing on Lake Erie once we got through the Canal, and we anchored for a couple of days behind Long Point on the Canadian side to wait it out. By the time we made Toledo, it was December 26th. I bought the morning paper after we tied up, and read a small article in the back about a Greek ship that had been lost on Christmas Day in the North Atlantic.</p>
<p>The Captain Torres was gone with all hands.</p>
<p>Every Christmas since, wherever I am, I think of the men on that after deck. I also think of the families of those men, the wives and the sons and the daughters, who every Christmas must be reminded of such a hopeless and terrible loss. So I have made it a tradition at the Christmas Meal to raise a glass to those men. For as their families all remember, so do I. And perhaps it is the least we can do, to raise a glass to those who go down to the sea in ships, and especially for those who do not return.</p>
<p>So to all the captains and crews of all the Matson ships, I raise a glass.</p>
<p>To you, to us, and to the memory of the men of the Captain Torres.</p>
<p>Cheers.</p>
<p>Jeff Idema MV Maunalei 16N 155E So many miles from Christmas on Lake Erie.
</p>
<p>Cheers.. and Merry Christmas to all hands.. DD1</p>