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273He was about thirty years old when he left Ireland on an English ship although his trade as a sailor was lifelong he had never climbed to another ship that was not of his nationality Although at that time the icy Nordic port had fallen prey to a terrible depression followed by a port strike and he did not want to fail the fellow navigators had to leave on the English ship because in his house there were two new twins that must be fed by a very young mother The comrades accepted without reproaches and he managed to get hired by the English he did not know a word of English but in the engine of the giant ships the language of the gears was his specialty The trip tedious at first became unbearable afterwards The Norwegian was locked in between the grease the screws the engines he did not bother to understand his English speaking companions he did not communicate practically with anyone if he needed something special he asked for it with crude signs Due to the deterioration of the ship the unforeseen scales were several Once the supplies of whiskey were over the Norwegian went down to some port in search of different spirits Without speaking mute taciturn the man went down bought his drinks and went back to work
The others seasoned seamen too shrugged their shoulders at the hostile attitude of the guy locked between the engines and the bottles Perhaps someone tried to talk to him some time but we know that he did not allow dialogue or communication He shut himself up every day more in his silence work and drinking The trip and that is part of the real story lasted almost three times what was scheduled The ship anchored in Rio de Janeiro as it was his real destiny The Norwegian went down in that harbor for his drinks but never returned to the ship The man drank and continued to do so as if punishing himself as if blaming himself he did not stop drinking in three days and three full nights When the English sailors went out to look for him because the ship was leaving when they saw him they did not recognize him the man was no longer himself He turned into a beast he broke bottles doors tables shouting in an absolutely unknown language completely out of total control he was found by the sirens of the police cars that took him away Four uniformed police man tried took him on but the Ursus of the north was like an unbreakable giant the blue eyes flared and turned them into rag dolls Then they arrived with the ambulance of the local asylum I do not know how long his state of alcoholic dementia lasted I was told that several young doctors came very close at first tried with English or French even a German persistently tried to seek understanding but the man listening to them was more locked in his obsessive way of lowering his head and not talking not gesturing nothing He closed the doors of his understanding of his ears and murmured in his language without waiting for answers He was never seen making an effort to communicate