Raspails Last Passage

Raspail’s Last Passage Jake Stains CHARACTERS: Jerome Jerowitz – The Raspail’s cook Captain Joe W. Blanchard – Drunken Captain of the Raspail Scene – Wind howls past the mast of the Raspail, a 72 foot swordfish trawler out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. The boat rolls slowly side to side, a gentle motion that could rock a tired fisherman to sleep. The ship has a tall bridge that rises twenty feet from the bow. The Raspail’s stern is a wide, slick grey deck with four-foot high walls around the edge. The deck is moist with ocean water and is completely empty besides a few scattered bits of seaweed and fishing line, a small metal box and a dark red tarp covering something large and irregular. Jerome Jerowitz sits in front of the tarp, facing the back of the boat, picking at the dry skin between the toes of his bare feet. He is short, thin, twenty two years old, and one of two remaining crew members of the Raspail. The other four crew members have perished during the eight days the Raspail has spent stranded at sea. This tragedy was a result of human carelessness. This is only the fourth voyage for Jerome Jerowitz. Three months earlier, on his wedding day, Jerowitz quit his minimum-wage job at a local fast-food restaurant and joined the crew of the Raspail. Although Jerowitz would prefer to stay on land, his wife Marie is seven months pregnant and fishing is one of the few well paying jobs Gloucester has to offer. As he picks at his feet, Jerowitz remembers the day Marie - only seventeen years old at the time - came to him and announced that she was pregnant. He thinks about the fear and uncertainty of that day and tries to compare it to the terror he feels at the moment. Back in Gloucester he was forced to deal with the anxiety of bringing a new life into the world; now he is faced with the possibility of leaving this world, leaving Marie and their unborn child. Captain Joe Blanchard sits to the right of Jerowitz. He is drunk and swaying back and forth with an empty rum bottle hanging loosely from his left hand. Every few seconds he looks back and glances at the tarp behind him. When he catches site of the mass under the tarp, he quickly turns away and faces the stern of the boat. The Captain is shockingly tall and just as shockingly round. He is fifty-two years old but looks almost seventy. Thirty-three years of salty sea air and heavy drinking have roughened his once boyish face. He wears a constant grimace and usually looks as if he could explode in rage at any moment. In fact, on the mainland, Captain Joe Blanchard was known as a drunk and a brawler. On the average week night, the Captain would down anywhere between ten to fifteen drinks in one sitting, twice that on the weekends. He had his first drink at age twelve and has been an alcoholic since he was sixteen. When he was twenty-two, the same age Jerome Jerowitz is now, the Captain became addicted to heroin. He kicked the habit in 1987, quitting cold-turkey during a nineteen month stint in jail; punishment for stabbing a man during a fight at the Press Box Bar in Beverly. The Captain went on his first professional fishing trip when he was nineteen and

has had no other career since. He has been a crew member on the Raspail for twenty years, Captain for ten. He has never married and has few friends on the mainland. The crew members of the Raspail are his only family. Jerowitz – (sighing heavily, jaded from eight days of despair and uncertainty) That’s it, Captain. We’re out. We’ve eaten everything that hasn’t spoiled. Captain – (in angry drunkenness) No! That can’t be all! (the empty rum bottle slips from his hand and makes a loud clank as it hits the slick deck. The Captain does not notice) That hardly lasted us two days! Jerowitz – (reserved and timid, afraid of worsening the Captain’s temper) Sorry Captain, the rest is rotted and spoiled. We’re lucky to have had anything at all. If it wasn’t for Strato, we would’ve starved days ago. Anyways, I think we should get rid of Captain – (interrupting Jerowitz) Goddamnit! I’ve barely had enough to keep me full ‘till sundown! You sure there’s nothing left? Jerowitz – Yes, sir. We ate most of it. The rest is spoiled; if you try to eat it you will only get sick. (he pauses and thinks that what he is about to say might anger the Captain. He says it anyway) And that’s not gonna help improve the chances of us making it home alive. Captain – I know that, you prick! I’m no fool! Besides, I’m sick already! What we’ve done…is…is…is just not right. It’s just not right and it makes me sick! Jerowitz – (intimidated, clamoring to diffuse the Captains anger) Sorry, sir, I– Captain – (waving his massive arm through the air) Forget it! What now then? Huh? We’re still three days from Gloucester, stuck in the middle of this damned ocean and now…(stammering, as if he forgot what he was about to say) now we’re out of food! We’re running low on water too! Fuck this. Where is my rum? (he glances around the deck until his eyes land on the empty bottle. He picks it up, growls, and violently throws it off to the side. The bottle soars through the air for a split second before shattering against the hard deck. He raises his voice and screams at Jerowitz) Fool! I’m out of rum! Get me more! I am your Captain and that is an order! (Jerowitz crawls over to the metal box next to the red tarp. He opens it, moves some things around, and pulls out a large bottle of Puerto Rican Spiced rum. He crawls back over to the Captain and sits down. The Captain tears the rum from Jerowitz’s hand and gulps down nearly a third of the bottle) Ahhhhh! By god! Liquid wisdom! I’m telling you, Jerowitz, old Jerry, Jerry my boy, Jero….(stammering again, the Captain forgets what he wants to say and pauses to collect his thoughts) I tell you if anything gets us through this, it’ll be good old blessed rum! Jerowitz – (with dry sarcasm) Yeah, that and a brand new motor. Captain – (enraged, as if Jerowitz had viciously attacked his character) How dare-! I am your-! Rudeness! I am your Captain! I am your boss! I won’t have any of that sarcastic bull-shit on my boat! For Christ’s sake, I should throw you overboard right nowfeed you to the sharks! (he slams his heavy fists against the deck) You know, you’reyou’re-you’re just a damn cook! And a lousy cook at that! I don’t have to take this shit from you. You who can’t even cast a line! Jerowitz – (overcome with fear, voice trembling) I’m sorry, Captain, I didn’t mean -

Captain – (shaking with rage) Silence! Silence, silence, silence! I am speaking. Do not interrupt me while I am speaking! (he looks around, shouting) Why must I always be surrounded by stupid fools? Why is it that I’m always the only sane one on this ship? My mechanic can’t mend and my cook can’t cook! And now I’m stuck in the middle of the goddamn ocean with some kid with pudding for brains! (the Captain is no longer talking to Jerowitz. Instead, he is alternating between screaming at the sky and screaming at his feet) Damn fate! She’s always working against us. Building us up and then (he raises his fist in the air and brings it down hard on the deck) pulling us down, shattering everything we’ve worked for; everything I’ve worked for. Twenty years I’ve been on this boat. Twenty years. I may have started as some punk lineman but I worked my way up. I worked and I worked hard! (he shouts and turns to Jerowitz- their faces almost touching - yelling) Understand? I worked hard! Do…you…understand? (Jerowitz waits a few seconds before answering to make sure he does not interrupt the Captain) Jerowitz – (trying for a soothing tone, but coming off patronizing) Yes, sir, I understand. I’m sure you did work hard, and you sure do deserve to be Captain. Captain – Damn right, son. Damn right! I slaved for a good ten years! Pulling in lines, ripping up my hands…sacrificing! (voice cracking, he suddenly he seems weak) I worked so hard! And for what? So I can die here with some shit-brained kid and a half rotted corpse? (he falls silent and his shoulders drop. After a few seconds he takes a swig of rum and grimaces as he swallows. Jerowitz looks nervously around the ship, his face showing the shock he feels from the Captain’s unexpected show of emotion. For a few moments, Jerowitz grapples with how to respond. Eventually, he tries to comfort the Captain) Jerowitz – (with caution, afraid that the Captain might explode again) Captain, I don’t mean to contradict you, but I think you worry too much. You’re not going to die. (trying to sound as if he knows this for a fact, though he is not sure if he believes this himself) We’re not going to die. We can’t die. Not after what we’ve done; it can’t be all for nothing. It wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be right for…(trying not to cry, he pauses and swallows back the urge to vomit) for Strato. Not after what he’s done for us… everything he’s given us…(he pauses again and takes a deep breath, changing the subject) Besides, you’re right, you worked hard. That work taught you how to live - how to survive on the sea. The crew respects- (Jerowitz shivers at this slip; the Captain winces) respected you, and there’s a reason for that. They trusted you with their lives; they knew that you know what to do in dangerous situations. Captain, I trust you with my life. I have faith that you can get us out of here, back to Gloucester; back to my wife… She’s pregnant, you know…my first child…(losing his confidence, he starts to cry, trails off and is lost in thought for a few seconds). Captain, I have to get back. I have to. I can’t die without seeing Marie again, without touching her belly, without feeling that kid kick one last time…I can’t die before apologizing for what I’ve done…for Strato…I have to making things right…I can’t…I…I…(he pauses, collects himself, and wipes the tears from his face. He takes a deep breath and looks at the Captain, forcing confidence and optimism) But we’re not going to die. (unintentionally loud) We’re not! We can make it through all this. Things have a way of working out, and I have a feeling they will for us. But we’ll need to work together, no fights; that’ll get us nowhere. (he pauses a moment, assuring himself and the Captain,)

We are not going to die. Captain – (in a slightly optimistic –but still bitter - mood, takes a drink and looks at Jerowitz) I was like you once. Young and hopeful. That’s what I love about you young kids; somehow you can always have a positive outlook. I don’t know what it is…maybe it’s the cute wife you got back home or maybe the kid on the way. I don’t know. I know it’ll change though - that hope – it’ll fade. When you’re old like me, you start to realize that life loves to fuck with you…Life loves to fuck you and leave you in the gutter like some cheap Lynn whore …At least that’s how it’s been for me. Maybe it won’t be that way for you (he pauses and contemplates what Jerowitz has said). Hell, maybe you’re right this time, maybe we do have a chance. Jerowitz - (relived that the Captain agrees) I really think we do. We can make it. Everything thing will work out alright. But listen, what we’ve done…people might not see it like we do – Captain – (interrupting Jerowitz) We’ll deal with that when the time comes; when we know we are saved. I don’t want to hear another word about it until then, Jerowitz. Ok? Forget that all happened, it’s the best thing you can do right now. Jerowitz – (voice trembling) Captain, I’m sorry. I can’t forget. I just can’t…I can’t…believe what we’ve done. I’m alive and that should make it worth it. But…but… Captain – (firmly) Jerowitz! I said forget it! (he pauses and fills with rage) Goddamnit! It was your idea in the first place! Your goddamn idea! (Jerowitz begins to sob uncontrollably. The Captain pauses and realizes he has gone too far) Jerowitz…I’m sorry. (unconvincingly) You made the right decision…you helped keep us alive. It’s best that…It’s best that we just forget. (his voice cracks and he quickly changes the subject) Now, you could be right about us having a chance. Maybe sometimes things do work out. Jerowitz – (no longer crying but still shaken) They do Captain, I know they do. You know, God’s watching us right now, protecting us. I have faith He’ll keep us safe....and, I have faith that you’ll keep us safe. I know we can do this, Captain.Hope isn’t lost, not yet at least. Captain – Yeah, well, I’ve never been a religious man, never really believed in God. But hope…I guess I can believe in hope. So, yeah, maybe you’re right. I mean, we’ve got enough water to last two days and the weather should be clear for the next week…and we’re – (gritting his teeth, he shakes his head) we’re out of food. Hah!(he gulps down some rum and his mood changes drastically) Out of food! Ha ha! (shouting sarcastically) Maybe we do have a chance! Maybe…maybe (scathingly) God will send us manna from heaven and we’ll return to Gloucester with full bellies and a fantastic story to tell! Hah! (laughing drunkenly and pointing at Jerowitz) Oh! Oh! And maybe a pillar of smoke will come down from the sky and guide us three hundred fifty miles back home to Gloucester! Ha ha! Of course we’ll survive! Of course! Because you have faith! Because youuuu have goddamn faith! Faith in me! Of all people to have faith in! Hah! (he chugs some more rum, almost finishing the bottle) At least if I have to die, I’ll die with a laugh! (he stands and starts to stagger around the deck) You young fool! Full of hope! Full of….religion! Don’t you know, Jerowitz? There is no God! There’s only white caps and thunder! Water and death! Don’t you understand when the time is up? Don’t know when you’ve been kicked to the gutter? Don’t you know how life works? Remember that rhyme they used to say? (singing the

popular rhyme he’d heard many times back in Gloucester, dancing around the ship’s deck) Life’s a bitch, and then you die! So fuck the world and let’s get….drunk! (he laughs hard, stumbles backwards, trips over the tarp, and falls on his back. He stands back up and kicks the object under the tarp) Goddamnit! Jerowitz – (nervously) Captain, we need to let him go. We need to set him afloat. Captain – (finishing the bottle, spitting as he speaks) No! No, we won’t be doing that, Jerowitz. I’ve made my decision; the man deserves a proper burial! After all he did for us...he’s been with me for seven years! No one’s been on this ship for that long. A man like him deserves a burial. He deserves to be brought home where he can rest, not abandoned at the bottom of the sea…Abandoned! Where he’ll be eaten by flounder and crabs! (voice cracking, he falls to his knees, on the verge of tears) Oh Jerowitz! What did we do? What did we do? I know…I know I said we should forget…but I can’t! I can’t because this man…this man was Strato! Anthony Michael Strato! I’ve known him – I’ve practically lived with him for seven years! Oh, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. (Captain collapses in a heap on the ground and begins to sob. Jerowitz walks over and tries to comfort him.) Jerowitz – (his voice trembling, sickened by the thought of what they have done) Captain…forgetting would be the wrong thing to do. We should always remember what Strato has done for us, what he made possible. Because of him, I have a chance to see my wife again. A chance to raise my child! We did what we needed to do to survive, Captain. You said so yourself, we made the right decision. Captain – (shouting through tears) Bullshit! I said that to make you shut up! I should have never let you talk me into it! I’d rather be dead! I’d rather have starvedJerowitz – (shaken) Captain! You know that’s not true! Your life might be shitty, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth living it! Every life is beautiful, regardless of the pain, regardless of the memories! We did this to live. We did it so…so my son – my kid – won’t have grow up without a Dad…like I did. Strato would have wanted us to. He would have wanted us to rather than have us die like he did. He’d understand, Captain. (assuring himself) He would understand… Captain – (interrupting Jerowitz, not hearing anything he’s said) He…he had two kids. A wife! I-I- (The Captain covers his mouth, runs to the side of the deck, and vomits off the edge. He shakes his head side to side and moans) No! Oh No, no, no! I have eaten flesh…Strato’s flesh! And I’ve wasted it! It’s all gone! Jerowitz (walking over to the Captain) - We ate to survive! Only to survive… Captain (still drunk) – Well, it’s no use now. I’ve damned myself to hell…and I was willing to if it meant I’d live another day. But now I have an empty stomach; I’ve thrown everything up overboard. I’ve doomed myself! There’s no way I’ll make it another day without anything to eat. If only we had started trawling before the motor blew! Then we’d have fish to eat! If only I thought to check the ship’s oil, the engine wouldn’t have caught fire and we wouldn’t be here right now! We’d be back in Gloucester, and I’d be getting drunk at Blackburn’s Tavern with the crew! I should have never trusted Strato with such an important task! That wasn’t the first time he’s forgotten something like that, you know, but I always noticed before anything bad happened. Strato was a good man, but always a lousy mechanic. I should’ve known better! Jerowitz – It’s not your fault, Captain. There was nothing you could have done. It was a stupid fucking oversight on Strato’s part. If he had checked the oil like he was

supposed to…If he had done his job…Then we wouldn’t be here right now. We wouldn’t be stranded in the Atlantic, forced to eat from his body. It’s his fault we’ve been pushed to do this. He decided his fate…and ours. If Strato had only remembered…(he trails off, suddenly feeling guilty for blaming their actions on the man whose body has kept them alive) Captain – (voice and body shaking) No, no, no! It’s not Strato’s fault! He forgot about the engine, sure. But I am the Captain of this vessel. Anything that happens on this boat is my responsibility. Every person, every life that sets food on this boat is my responsibility, not Strato’s. I’ve been Captain for ten years now, Captain of the Raspail, and I’ve failed it. I let most of its crew die and we’re not far behind. Jerowitz – (angry at the Captain’s pessimism) Stop! We are not going to die! I told you, things have a way of working out. I know they do! Now let’s look at the situation we’re in. We’re about three hundred fifty or so miles from Gloucester, but probably only about… seventy five from the shore of Newfoundland. If we were to drift about thirty miles southeast we’d be right in the Gulf Stream! Captain – (skeptically) Yeah? So what? Jeroswitz – (suddenly filled with energetic optimism) So, the Gulf Stream runs ten miles from the coast of Newfoundland! It could carry the Raspail right into the path of other ships that could save us! We could still have a chance; we could make it to Gloucester! I could see my wife again and be there when my child is born! Captain (beginning hope) – The Gulf Stream! You’re right! Shit, my man, we might actually have a chance to live! I am your Captain and I am obligated to do whatever I can to save you. It is my duty to keep you alive, to bring you back to your wife and the child she’s carrying. Let’s hope to God we drift in that direction. If we get close to the coast, maybe I could figure out some way to signal other ships. A fire or something! Jerowitz – Yes! That could work! This is good! (with apprehension) But there is one other thing we have to consider; although I know you’re opposed to it. Captain – Yeah? Jerowitz – Strato’s body. (the Captain frowns and shakes his head) We can’t bring him ashore with us; they’ll know what we did! We’ll go to jail! We’ll be outcasts… pariahs! I’m sorry, but we have to throw him over board. I can’t lay that burden on my family. Captain – (infuriated) No! I said no and that is not going to change! I am the Captain and I will not let that happen! Strato was my friend and my crewman. We’re bringing him back and he’ll be buried. He deserves it. His family deserves it. Jerowitz – (growing angry, no longer fearing the Captain’s wrath) His family? What about my family? My wife is only eighteen years old and seven months pregnant! She’s had to deal with enough shame already! Her parents only recently forgave her and people in town still gossip about her when she’s not around. The last thing she needs is a…a…(shouting) cannibal for a husband! A cannibal! That’s how they will see me! That’s how they will see us! Captain – (bellowing) Well? Isn’t that what we are? We consumed human flesh to save ourselves! We’ve eaten another man! And this man, this man Strato, my friend, he kept us alive! And now you want to toss him overboard so the fish can finish off what we couldn’t? I won’t allow it. His wife deserves closure; she deserves to bury her husband.

Jerowitz – (shouting) Fuck his wife! (Captain slaps Jerowitz across the face. Jerowitz is silent, stunned) Captain – How dare you! She has nothing to do with this and has as much a right to see her husband come home as your wife does. She may not be pregnant, but she has to take care of two kids. Two kids that Strato supported by fishing; that was their only income! And now he’s dead! Jerowitz – (apologetic) I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that…Still, we can’t have him on here. I can’t go to jail! Captain – (drunk and mad, stomping around the deck, waving his hands in the air) Jail? Jail! What do you know about jail? I know about jail, I’ve been there! I stabbed a man in a bar in Beverly back in 87. Stabbed with a six inch blade! They gave me nineteen months. And you know what? It’s not so bad. It gave me time to reflect, to see where I was in my life. It helped me quit my heroin addiction…an addiction I quit coldturkey and haven’t gone to back to since! Maybe it’d give you some time to reflect too. Time to reflect on your selfishness and – Jerowitz – (angry, upset, and crying) I will not go to jail! Not for him! It’s his fault were in this mess in the first place! If the dumbass had remembered to change the oil we’d be fine! We’d be on our way to Gloucester right now with a boat full of fish and a crew that’s not dead! I don’t care what you say. I am throwing him over. Captain – (furious, the angriest he’s been all day) No, you are not! I won’t let you! Jerowitz – (defiant) Fuck you, I’m doing it. (he walks over to the tarp covered corpse and drags it over to the edge of the boat. He grunts as he lifts it up and places it against the four foot wall) Captain – (screaming) Stop! Stop it right now! I’ll hurt you if you don’t! (Jerowitz tries to hoist the body overboard, but it is too heavy for him. He tries again) Goddammnit, I said stop! (the Captain grabs Jerowitz by the shoulder and throws him to the ground. Jerowitz stands up and punches the Captain in the face. The Captain is stunned and takes a few seconds to recover. When he recovers, Jerowitz is again trying to lift the body over the edge of the boat. The Captain hits Jerowitz in the side, causing him to scream in pain. Jerowitz spins around and knees the Captain in the gut. The two men fall to the ground and exchange punches. At first, it seems as if the Captain is winning the fight, but Jerowitz manages to get on top of the Captain and pin him down. The Captain can’t move as Jerowitz repeatedly punches him in the face. Feeling around for something to hit Jerowitz with, the Captain finds a shard of the broken rum bottle. Without thinking, he brings the shard up in the air and plunges it into Jerowitz neck. Jerowitz screams and falls off the Captain, dead.) No! Jerowitz! Jerowitz! (he shakes Jerowitz, searching for some sign of life) No! I’m so sorry! Please don’t be dead! Please! Jerowitz! (the Captain scurries backwards, terrified by what he’s done) Oh, God! I’ve killed him! Now I’ll have to die alone. Die from starvation! Alone, counting down the minutes ‘till I’m sent to hell! Oh God, I never believed you were real, but now…now for some reason I am sure. I am sure you’re watching me. Oh, Please forgive me for what you’ve seen! I’ve destroyed a life and eaten the flesh of man! I’ve… I’ve eaten Strato… and he will forever remain in me. The meat is gone, but his soul…his soul’s still there. Oh God, I can’t live with that burden! (Captain walks over to the side of the boat and climbs on top of the wall. Standing with his right arm outstretched, he puts the shard of

glass in his left hand against his neck and cries) Forgive me! (the Captain pushes down on the glass in order to slit his own throat, but is stopped by the sound of a ship’s foghorn. He pauses and glances around. The foghorn sounds again and a bright spotlight from another boat shines in his face, making him squint. Tears roll from his eyes.) Curtain