Sloan’s story.
Apparently Sloan had a rough life growing up. He never said much about it but it seemed that he’d needed to ‘make do’. Sloan was very, very good at ‘making do’. He didn't’ just “think outside the box”...he was in the next room or possibly in the yard outside. Sloan was an original thinker.
During his stint in the navy where he might have been a Seal, or he might have been a SeaBee…or he might have been the pool guy for the officer’s club ...he wouldn’t say... Sloan had learned underwater welding. After he left the Navy Sloan worked for Oil Companies where he made excellent money. Due to the nature of his job he was forced to take a lot of time off.
Time off was the problem. He saw things when he was off duty that he hadn’t realized existed. The company would fly him in by helicopter to such Mecca’s as New Orleans, Houston or Miami. Sloan saw things that bothered him. He saw a great deal of human wreckage. Street people. Children who were doomed to a dreadful life.
One person couldn’t do much...but one person could do what one person could do. Sloand devised a plan then when he felt he had enough resources,... Sloan did. He set about doing something. He had accumulated a tidy nest egg in his years as a welder. Underwater welding was a young man’s game and he was getting old. He was almost thirty. He figured that if he was careful he could “make do”, and do something that mattered.
In his endeavors as a welder Sloan had worked many places and seen a great many things….underwater. He made himself familiar with maritime salvage laws and when he got out of the navy he bought himself a small workboat. He then proceeded to salvage sunken barges.
Sloan's method, as usual, was ‘outside the box’. He’d first determine why the barge had sunk. It was usually a collision of some sort...somehow a hole had been punched in the hull. That and possibly negligence regarding the integrity of waterproof compartments had led to many a barge sitting on the river bottom, or the bottom of a bay or a lake. Sloan knew where many of them were.
He’d put his welding skills to work...and patch the hull. Sometimes he’d cannibalize one barge to patch another...if there were several nearby on the bottom. When the hull was fairly watertight Sloand would then insert a large diameter hose, one at a time, into the supposedly watertight compartments. Then he would pump them full of ping-pong balls.
The barge would , eventually, float to the surface...and sloan would tow it away. He’d claim salvage rights. It was his now.
Over time he accumulated a number of barges. During this time he welded them together in several three by three matrixes. Each barge was about 200 feet (61 m) long by 35 feet (11 m) wide. That gave him a hull that was six hundred foot long by 105 foot wide….that is, about 168,000 square feet, or almost three and a half acres.
He made several such hex hulls. He welded them SOLID and filled the double hulls..with marine foam. When he was done they were like huge stout armored styrofoam ice chests….and damn near as unsinkable.
Then he began to make modifications. One hex he outfitted as a hydroponic farm...another as a living quarters…(complete with a nice house, a yard and a swimming pool)....another was for livestock...and so it went.
When it was all done, a chore which took him several years...he hired an ocean going tugboat to take him to a location in the gulf...then he went recruiting.
He looked for young street trash. He was on a mission to prevent some lives from being wasted. He found a few here and few there, off the streets of Houston, New Orleans and other gulf coast cities. He was upfront in his recruitment spiel. IF the kid agreed they went on a boat ride. IF the kid didn’t agree he left them. There were a plethora of candidates and he could only help a few. He let them self select themselves.
After a while he had a regular ‘boot camp’ for street trash…..far out to sea in the caribbean.
Interlude One.
Maine Coon: so that’s what I do. I’m the den mother for a bunch of rowdy rapscallions. Except I keep them too tired milking cows, weeding gardens, homeschooling and doing repairs to be very rowdy and we’re out on the backside of no where so they can’t get into trouble.
Bombay: excellent. No schools, no pesky rules and regulations
Maine Coon: oh they get plenty of HOMEschooling...and there’s enough of them that they socialize with each other..and they have the internet. Like a pack of wolves maybe but they are socialized. I’ve had a few of the older ones leave. Any of them can leave at any time if they want too. I pay them wages while they are there and it accumulates. If they leave they get it in one chunk.
One joined the Marines. He’s doing really good. A gunny sergeant. Him and I have engineered some surprises on the barges. One took an advanced degree in marine engineering. He visits quite often. Others have done equally well. Others are perfectly happy on the barge. It’s a good life.
Sphynx: I can see that. You have done well.
Sloan was pleased that she had said that. All out of proportion to what he should be…
Sphynx: Dave? Would you tell us your story?
Burmese: certainly dear. It all began one dark and dreary night...on interstate ten in Louisiana...