Meditations of a Great Lakes Sailor

In June of 1952 Rick Stevens, a young college student who has just finished his sophomore year, ships out on an iron ore freighter as a deckhand. He had acquired his U.S. Coast Guard card and had taken this summer job because he wanted to save money for college. This is the first full-time labor job he's ever held, and he soon learns that he may not be physically capable of doing a deckhand's job. But he is later assigned to the galley where he works as a porter, a job he can handle. He is intrigued by the work-a-day life of the sailors, and by living and working with them he comes to know how they think and feel about their lives and relationships with other people. Rick had always been searching for friends, and he strikes up two strong friendships among the sailors. Unknown to all of them, he keeps a diary which he hides under his mattress; in it he records fragments of their conversations, descriptions of the work, character sketches, and his own meditations. During ths summer of working on the lalakes, Rick learns a great deal about himself--his abilities, interests--and decides upon a course of action, his career.