you flew in above the landing lights on the water of the bay and got a cab from the airport and rode through the city in the back , like this night was the last night of them all , and then got waved through the gate and then drove down dark streets past the mcdonalds and then up a street toward these huge black ships in the dark on a pier and you couldnt believe that anything was so big the hulls were like mountains above the concrete piers and their masts pointed up in to the sky and the cab dropped you at the end of the pier and you walked up along side the ship smelling wet air and fuel oil and salt water and seeing steam shooting out from the hulls like a animal breathing and then up the brow and across the water to a hole in the hull where you dropped your seabag and handed your orders to the quarterdeck watch .