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By Root 3118 0

ships he'd sailed. He also believed in common sense, but even that wasn't his strongest belief. Above all else, Albert Madsen believed in fellowship. As far as he knew, those who believed in God had no proof that He existed. But Albert had proof of his own belief in fellowship—and it was a solid reality. He saw it every morning when he looked out of his gable window, past the broker's office in Prinsegade, and he could see it from the bay window of his office below too: in fact, it was the reason he'd added the window to the house. And when he descended the three stone steps at his front door and turned right down Prinsegade toward the harbor, there it was again, laid out before him.

The mighty breakwater had taken the town forty years to build. It lay in the middle of the bay, more than a thousand meters long and four meters high, built from boulders each weighing several tons. Like the Egyptians with their pyramids, we'd built a vast monument of stone. Ours, though, was not meant to preserve the memory of the dead, but to protect the living. Which made us wiser than them. The breakwater was the work of a pharaoh, Albert told us: a pharaoh with many faces. Together they represented what he called fellowship.

This was Albert's morning worship: his sailor's eyes would roam the sky and its cloud formations, full of messages for those who could read them, and then settle on the breakwater. It brought him a feeling of serenity. There it lay, a dormant power stronger than the sea, capable of calming the tides beyond it and providing shelter for the ships: living proof of human fellowship. We don't sail because the sea is there. We sail because there's a harbor. We don't start by heading for distant shores. We seek protection first.

Albert rarely went to church. But he attended services on festival days and special occasions because the church too was part of man's fellowship, and he didn't want to be isolated from it. He had no particular respect for the ritual. But a church is like a ship. Certain rules apply and once you come on board, you have to adhere to them. And if you can't, you should stay away.

For years a succession of ministers had complained that the church was badly maintained. But when Pastor Abildgaard, with whom Albert was on otherwise good terms, went so far as to argue that money earmarked for the school should be spent on the church's façade, he was given short shrift. When it came to choosing between education and religion, Albert said, he'd choose education every time. The school represented young people and the future—and the church didn't. If the school in Vestergade was bigger than the church, so much the better. Any town that believed in the future should take note.

"But what about issues of morality?" Abildgaard objected. "Where I will the child learn about those if not in the church?"

"On board his ship," Albert replied tersely.

"And in foreign ports, perhaps?" the pastor retorted.

Albert said nothing.

Where life at sea was concerned, Albert had no illusions. He'd lived the unprotected life of a cabin boy, working like a dog and being treated worse, as he put it. However, times had changed. Living conditions on board ship had improved and become more humane. The children were better taught, and in time they became better skippers. Albert believed in progress. He also believed in a sailor's sense of honor. Fellowship stemmed from that. On a ship, one man's negligence could have fatal consequences for everyone. A sailor was quick to see that. The minister called it morality. Albert called it honor. In the church you were accountable to God. On a ship you were accountable to everyone. That made a ship a better place to learn.

In his experience, ultimately everything came down to the captain. The captain knew the function of everything on board, down to the last sail and rope, and so did the crew. By the same token, each man also had his function, and if the captain failed to make the role of each and every one clear from the start, the crew would settle it among themselves by fighting. And