A Perilous Contentment: Memoirs of a Chief Garmentier
an excerpt

His name was Russ Uman and he was a Chief Garmentier. As far as he knew, and as far as anyone he had ever spoken with knew, he was the only Chief Garmentier there was. In fact, barring the remote possibility of a forgotten regime of Garmentiers in one of the seafaring cultures of antiquity, he was the only Chief Garmentier that had ever been.

There were young garmentiers that had come up under his tutlelage. None had yet to reach the rank of chief of course! But 5 young garmentiers served proudly on the frigates of the English privateers and one stalwart fellow, Johnny "Bonnie" Driscoll, was called First Garmentier on the Frankish Cross, the ship captained by the great French pirate Le Vache que Lutte.

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He walked the plank.

And as he fell into the icy drink, these memories flooded him with a poignancy that cut quicker than the icy water.