Asylum Seeker

Personal Statement by Paul

When this boat Esther Colleen was sold to me in 1999 she was already 60 years old, and the license fetched a million pounds, the boat was the small change. That represents 1000´s of tons of fish, the pillage of the ocean in the 20th century. She bought me from Cornwall to West Cork and was my floating home for 2 years. 7 years neglect while I got engaged, travelled across Europe and South America, before getting traumatized by the death of my fiancée and daughter in 2012 and my life went on hold. By the time I got the boat into the shipyard the machinery had seized up, rot got into the timber and the scale of the project was too deep for my pocket so shes going to the breakers. An end of an era for me, a broken dream, blood sweat and tears in the making and moments of exhilaration at sea. On her last trip to the ship yard, we lost power on a fresh morning at dawn of the deserted village of Baltimore. We were blown helplessly onto the shore, but wind and tide conspired to gently nudge her neatly onto the quay, tucked behind another trawler, as if by an unseen hand. Many times the ship spoke to me like that, my projection if you like but a living symbol working in my dreams cast on the most potent element of the sea. Paul 24-12-2016