A sad day
Some of you may already know that our return from Palmer Station has been a
roller coaster of emotion. One of our crewmates went missing on 17
April. The ship's crew did a thorough search of the ship, to no
avail. After figuring out the last time someone saw him, we came about and
started a search grid in his last known location: 57 53' South, 64 03'
West. We searched for two days, each taking shifts on the bridge to try to
locate him in the water. We received assistance from an Argentine plane
each of those two days, but no other vessels were in the vicinity. But the
Drake Passage won again, as weather turned rough, we searched for the
second day in 40 knot winds and sea swells of 20 feet. He was not found.
Tonight, as they officially called off the search, we all put something to
remember him by in a bottle, and threw it in, to meet up with him in a
better place. While I only knew him on this cruise, many people called him
an old friend. A son. A helping hand. A killer player at Settlers of
Katan. His name was Joshua Spillane, and he will be missed.
4 Comments:
Susan,
came here today by chance from Silliman's blog -- so this is the first item I've read. It reads almost as a gripping tale told; but seems to be factual not imaginal: a sorry event, no yarn. The bottle is an astonishing collective ritual act, must say, evocative of many things.
best wishes,
d.i.
Thank you for writing such wonderful comments about my dear friend. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the efforts you all went to looking for Joshua.
~em
em, you're welcome. I didn't know him well, but he had his effect on me before we lost him. you can email me if you like at sue at allspaw dot com.
Thank you for writing this about my uncle Joshua-the more people talk about him, the longer he will be remembered. I appreciate this greatly. Thank you
~Alyssa
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