Warning, plot spoiler below for "The Shipping News", by E. Annie Proulx.
E. Annie Proulx, one of the great Canadian writers, wrote a book called "The Shipping News" which was about the culture and people of the Maritimes (Eastern Canada, think Newfoundland and Nova Scotia). Great book, I'll never forget it. It was even made into a movie starring Kevin Spacey as the protagonist 'Quoyle', although I highly recommend only watching the movie after you have read the far more vibrant book itself. From one review:
Quoyle (Kevin Spacey) lives a pointless existence as a newspaper inker who has the unfortunate luck to fall for Petal (Cate Blanchett), a good-lookin' ne'er-do-well if there ever was one. She marries him, uses and abuses him and, finally, takes off with their daughter, Bunny (Alyssa Gainer). Quoyle learns that his frequently unfaithful wife died in a car crash, but not before she sold Bunny to a black market adoption operation for $6000. Stricken, but with his daughter back, Quoyle is convinced by his Aunt Agnis (Judi Dench) to come back home to Newfoundland in Lasse Hallstrom's adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's best-selling novel, "The Shipping News."
Blockquote from
Reeling Reviews
How does this relate to the unending saga of the Carnival Cruises vessel "The Triumph" which became famous for being stranded in the gulf with the toilets backed up and the owners deciding that the passengers could wait to be towed to port?
This is truly a cursed vessel. Apparently, yesterday, it broke free from it's moorings in Mobile, Alabama and bashed about destroying other things, some news outlets are reporting one person dead or missing, and some property damage.
Which brings me back to the Shipping News, and my favourite (Yes grammar Nazi's, I'm Canadian and this is how we spell the Queens English, or at least thats what my spell checker says) and most memorable chapter therein, Chapter 13, "The Dutch Cringle".........(I'm sure this story was saved for a chapter with the number 13 associated).
I thinks it's time now for a moment of silence...........................................................................................................
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In "The Shipping News", Quoyle has landed a gig as a newspaper reporter for a small town coastal Maritime paper "the Gammy Bird", and has been blessed with writing about the shipping news (all things Marine) even though he's a landlubber with no marine knowledge. He stumbles through his job until he is blessed with the story of "Tough Baby".
Here's a link to most of that chapter from Google Books.
In the novel, 'Tough Baby', is a Dutch barge yacht that was built for Hitler during WW II as a pleasure vessel, akin to a mini-Titanic in opulence. With teak decks, an oak hull, and mahogany fixins, it was a pleasure craft for and of the 0.1%.
As the story goes, "Tough Baby" was moored in Bar Harbor, Maine during hurricane Bob. During the hurricane the boat broke free of its moorings and bashed about the harbour. Being so solidly built, it pulverized 17 boats into matchsticks and destroyed 12 beachhouses, docks and boathouses...... A truly cursed boat.
As this boat was moored in the local harbour near Killick-Claw, Quoyle penned an article for the 'Gammy Bird" titled: "Killer Yacht at Killick-Claw" which made him a legendary reporter to the locals, since everyone knows that the town of Killick-Claw is named after one of the Wooden arms of a Killick. According to the Newfie dictionary, a Killick is made from a stone and pliable sticks to anchor small boats and nets.