There
once was a sailor returning to his ship. Just as he approached
the edge of the dock, he slipped and fell into the water between
ship and dockside. As he hit the water, the ship began to swing
toward the harbour wall, and he would have been crushed to death
had not a little man, with great presence of mind, thrown a rope
and hauled him to safety.
"Whew, thanks!" said the sailor. "You saved my life. Tell me,
is there anything I can do for you in return?"
"Well actually," said the man, "there is something. I'd dearly
like to work aboard ship and, in fact, I was just on my way to
look for a job when I saw you in the water. If you could put in
a word for me. I'd be greatly obliged."
"Done!" said the sailor. He took the little man on board and tracked
down his immediate superior. "This man saved my life just now,
and he really would very much like to have a job on the ship."
"Well, I don't know," said the Petty Officer. "We have a full
ship's complement, but I'll certainly put in a word on his behalf
to my superior. What does he do?"
"I'm a Gloop Maker," said the little man eagerly.
Not wishing to appear ignorant in front of his subordinate, the
Petty Officer didn't like to ask what exactly a Gloop Maker was,
so he went to see the Chief Petty Officer.
"This man saved the life of one of my seamen," he told the
Chief. "Do you think we could find him a job aboard? He's a
Gloop Maker."
Not wishing to appear ignorant in front of his subordinate, the
Chief asked the Warrant Officer, who asked the Sub-Lieutenant and
so on, all the way through the chain of command until the request
reached the Captain.
After congratulating the little man, the Captain, not wanting
to appear ignorant, named him ship's Gloop Maker and ordered the
Supply Officer to provide whatever materials were necessary for
work to commence.
The little man asked for a strong block and tackle fitted up on
the afterdeck, a small stool, a hammer and chisel, a portable
furnace, a lump of iron measuring four metres by four metres,
several kilograms of copper and several more of silver.
As the ship sailed, the little man set his stool alongside the
huge chunk of iron, lit the furnace and began to melt down the
copper and silver.
Then, with much hammering and chiselling, he began to add blobs
of copper and curlicues of silver to the sides of the lump of iron.
Each day crew members stopped and stared at the wondrously strange
thing taking shape at the ship's stern. But not wishing to appear
ignorant, nobody asked the Gloop Maker what he actually was making.
"Coming along nicely," said the captain as he made his daily rounds.
"Any idea precisely when it will be --ah-- ready?"
"Oh yes," said the man. "At 1400 hrs. on July 15 we shall sail
through the centre of the Bermuda Triangle. That's when it'll
be ready, and I'd like the crew assembled on deck at that hour,
if you please, sir."
And so, the great day dawned, the men assembled and the Gloop
Maker put down his hammer and chisel.
Proudly he stood back and indicated that the block and tackle should
be lowered onto his masterpiece, whose copper and silver curlicues
gleamed in the sun. Carefully he directed it to be lifted from the
deck and swung round until it hung over the sea at the ship's stern.
"Ready, steady, go!" he cried, and he cut it free.
And, as it fell into the deep blue waters of the Atlantic, it went,
"GLOOP!"
