Chapter 41 I've had the hardest job in the world

I used to be a pretty bad "worry master" in the past. In the summer of 1942, something happened that made all my worries and troubles disappear—I hope forever.That experience made all the troubles in my life seem trivial. It has long been my desire to work on a fishing boat in Alaska for a while. In the summer of 1942, I was hired as I wished on a 32-foot carp trawler in Kodiak, Alaska.There are only three crew members on this ship. The captain is fully responsible for navigation and fishing, the first mate assists the captain in some specific tasks, and the other is a daily miscellaneous sailor. They are all Nordic, and so am I.

Carp trawling has to do with the tides, so we often work 24 hours a day.I used to work like this around the clock for a whole week.On board, I did jobs that no one else was willing to do—washing decks, maintaining machinery; throwing carp from one boat to another for canning; Cooking on a small stove... the heat and stench of the motor in the cabin was disgusting.I wear galoshes, and the shoes are often filled with water, and I don't even have time to pour the water out, so my feet are always soaked in water. However, the above work is nothing more than a game compared to my main task.My main job is to "pull the net", which looks very simple, just stand at the stern and pull up the buoy and sideline of the fishing net.But in fact the net was so heavy that when I tried to pull it up with all my strength, it stood still and instead pulled the boat over.The fishing net was too heavy to be dragged, so I had to use all my strength to pull it along the way.It was like this for weeks on end, and I was nearly exhausted and so sore that I wouldn't be able to recover for months.

When I finally rested, I fell asleep leaning against a makeshift cabinet.Although there was pain all over his body, he fell into a deep sleep as if he had taken sleeping pills—extreme fatigue is the best sleeping pill. I am very glad that I have suffered these hardships, it makes me no longer troubled.Today, whenever I encounter difficulties, instead of worrying, I ask myself, "Erickson, will this be harder than trawling?" I will answer, "No, there is nothing harder than it." .” So I pulled myself together and bravely accepted the challenge. It's good to try a painful experience once in a while.I'm glad I've had the hardest job in the world, and it made my daily problems seem trivial.