Big Ships Like Us: A Year on a Great Lakes Freighter

May 25, 2027
Nick Tabone 

"I am still a collector of sorts. A miner of memories and moments like this one—where steering the ship through the American Narrows, I looked up at the mansions that line the shore and thought of those wealthy folks up there on their opulent Italian sofas, sipping Manhattans and martinis and watching through broad bay windows the big ships. Big ships like us passing by."

Nicholas Tabone sails the Great Lakes as a wheelsman aboard the Manitoulin. He steers the massive freighter between ports, some booming, some in decay, picking up and dropping off grain, stone, coal, iron ore, and salt, from Duluth to Port-Cartier, Quebec. In his free time, he runs, back and forth, on the deck. He watches the seabirds who hitch a ride on the vessel. He drinks endless cups of Yorkshire Gold tea. Mostly he reads. And he thinks—about the nature of his life and his work, lost loved ones, the way a dog’s paw smells when you stick your nose in it. 

Tabone offers us the first book-length glimpse into the life of a modern-day sailor on the Great Lakes, told with a poet’s sensitivity and an artist’s eye for beauty. His prose echoes life on a Great Lakes freighter—the same journeys, back and forth—offering stunning new insights.

For those who are curious about and fascinated by ships, the Great Lakes, and startlingly original perspectives on the nature of work: welcome aboard. 

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Nick Tabone has worked as a wheelsman for 10 years.  Ashore he divides his time between Toronto, the UK and Malta  This is his first book.

ISBN: 9781540270429 | 5x7" | 230 pages | paperback