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on whose seamanship he modelled his own. They were not his only icons. He had plenty of admiration for Herbert P. High Pressure Erwin, for Clean Shirt George Price, and for Rebel Frazier. He even learned from Wacky Wacker. He had less affection for Jake the Snake Jacobs, Tanktop Evans, and Wild Buck Newsome. With the exception of Tanktop, who was an engineer, all were skippers. Some were still mates when Washburn sailed with them.
He sailed on Liberty ships. He sailed with the International Freighting Corporation, the Luckenbach Steamship Company, the United Fruit Company, the Mystic Steamship Company, the South Atlantic Mail Line. He sailed with Lykes Brothers Steamship Company. Dirty Shirt George Price and Clean Shirt George Price were not related. Each man, as it happened, was named George F. Price, Jr. Harmon was Terrible Terry when he was a first mate. Later, he renamed himself Harmless Harmon. Washburn says, “He was called Terrible Terry because of his personality. He was his own worst enemy. But he knew the sea. He knew ships.” Leadline (whose nickname rhymed with “deadline”) was actually John Dunn. Among these first-class seamen, Dirty Shirt and Terrible Terry were especially gifted in the art of stowage and also had high reputations for “protecting ships and protecting people.” Their example became Washburn’s fixed priorities, which he lists as
    1. people
    2. ship
    3. cargo.
    When he himself became a master, and a difficult situation came up, he would think of the old skippers. He would think, If they threw this at Dirty Shirt, what would he do?
    Dirty Shirt was a short man with “inky-black hair and cold dark direct eyes,” as Washburn describes him. “Two hours after he shaved he looked like he needed a shave; he was of small stature but commanding, no less a man than
a man six-four.” Leadline had legs like beer kegs. “Rebel Frazier was a husky six-footer, dark visaged—he scowled. The closest thing to a smile was just not a scowl. He laughed once a month. He was not hostile, but there was no friendship in him. He was an excellent ship’s master. He knew the sea. He knew ships. He knew cargo. He knew weather. He had that instinct for dead reckoning that the old-timers had to have, because if you didn’t have it you didn’t make it.” Dirty Shirt, Rebel, and Leadline instilled in Washburn the importance of confidence in your own dead reckoning: “Never doubt it. Never—as in do not ever—doubt it. Leadline came up in the twenties, when you didn’t have a lot of navigation things to help you. You did it on your own or you fell by the wayside.” Washburn went on to say, “The old skippers did all their own piloting, docking, and undocking. They were their own agents. They did all the ship’s business. They’d go up to the customhouse to enter a ship and clear a ship. They did the manifests. Each was a one-man floating industry. Leadline had a sixth sense as to what types of wave action and sky action hint at coming weather. I learned to read the sky from him. From him I learned things not to do. Leadline was an aggressor in dealing with people. A steamship master—while he’s there— is the master. Leadline and Dirty Shirt and Terrible Terry—they did not back off from anyone. I learned from them to maintain a gulf between yourself and the other officers. I learned, Never cross that gulf. I learned, Don’t act like the other officers, dress like them, or socialize with them. I learned, Don’t be like them. Whatever they are, be different. Never
waver in your dealings with them. Don’t vacillate. I learned, Never chastise people in public, even if they have earned it. I learned, Don’t alibi, don’t complain.”
    Tell it to the ship.
    Now sixty-five years old, the captain began as an ordinary seaman in a Merchant Marine of fewer than a thousand ships and saw it rise above