Summary

"All Hands" begins with the first person narrator, an unnamed Coast Guard, who is eating pizza. He walks down the wharf and takes in the different smells while observing a tanker that has just docked. As he enters the trailer his coworker tells him that he is the one who needs to check that new tanker. The Coast Guard boards the ship and he tries not to think of a girl that he cannot seem to get out of his head. He starts on the two-hour inspection, all the while thinking of how he does not like the ocean but how he loves it on the ship even when it is scary. Again, his thoughts turn to the girl he cannot stop thinking about. The Coast Guard has a first person flashback to six months ago when he and the girl were sitting...