Carrying the Message

The last drunk I was on lasted eight months. I was on a ship and it was one of the kind that everyone drank on at sea and in port. If we didn't buy it we stole it from the cargo and at one time I had one hundred and sixty fifths in my room and thirty-seven cases of beer--the thought was not to run out. I had left my wife and kids and was living in a world of self-pity and bitterness. Throughout that drunk I had suicidal tendencies which I never had before in my life. And the only reason I couldn't follow through at the time was that I was too drunk to get out of my bunk.