The Fisherman and His Love of the Sea 

_ A Story by Gingy Murphy

There's a port along the southern bay that serves many ships and sailors that pass by that way.

Finley, (meaning-fair warrior) owned the local pub in Aberdeen on the South Coast of Scotland called the Wet Whistle! She loved her job and enjoyed all her usual friendly local customers and visitors  from  far and wide. They also loved her, her warm hospitality and her wild happy nature. She made many friends over the years since she had inherited the business from her parents after their tragic deaths in a car accident ten years earlier when she was twenty-nine years old.

The pub, including her home, was left to Finley by her parents in the wills, and her casual shifts behind the bar turned into a full-time business so she could keep the one last treasure remaining of her parents. She soon learnt a new meaning for having responsibilities and a respect for property, and it made her grow up and become more mature and understanding. Empathy grew in her heart, and she became more open and compassionate to her customers as some of them would have an impulsive need to pour out their burdens and stories over the bar after they had a few drinks. She learnt to become a good listener over the years and her humbleness gained her their respect. 

Being behind the bar she got to witness and be involved in some great, happy and amazing events happening in her pub and she was really glad to be part of those special moments, with so many memorable photographs covering all the walls in the place she calls her home. There were a lot of other very special moments that Finley loved and looked forward to as well. Those times were when the only one true love of her life would walk through the pub doors every couple of weeks. 

Way before Finley inherited the pub from her parents, when she was only seventeen, she would hang around at the docks and watch the fishing trawlers coming in and out, fascinated by what they did. 

Then she met Murdoch! 

He had stolen Finley’s heart from the very moment they met  on the docks of South Aberdeen, and their love had blossomed ever since. His tall rugged masculine physique, brown wavy curls and deep blue eyes was enough for Finley's heart to catch on fire, let alone the way he walked towards her on the docks every time he came home from sea. Then she'd melt in his arms once he put them around her. She was smitten with his delightful charm and playful charisma.

 Finley's beautiful, shy crimson smile is what captured Murdoch's first attention. Her gorgeous red bouncy locks and sex appeal  were an added bonus. Their eye’s had never drifted elsewhere from that moment on. 

Murdoch’s eye’s and arms were only ever for Finley but his heart and love belonged to the sea, and Finley did her best to  understand and respect that he had a great love of the sea and accepted that, sadly, that’s the way it had to be.

Murdoch was introduced to the world of fishing on the boat with his father at a very young age and decided to join his father at the age of seventeen after leaving school. He developed a great passion for fishing and travelling the sea that he just couldn’t pass up. Murdoch and his father had many  broad adventures together, with some of those adventures leading them to many lands and countries far and wide, but sadly now those journeys are made without his father since he passed on two years ago. Now the boat belongs to Murdoch and he continues the journey without his father beside him, but still wishes that they could have continued them together.

His mother passed away soon after giving birth to him but made sure she named him first. 

She said,  “You must name him Murdoch, it means-leader of the sea, sailor, he will follow in his fathers footsteps.”

 It was true to form, his mother named him well, he wore his name proudly.

 He was raised by his aunt’s and fished with his father often. They always maintained a good close relationship when his father came back home from sea every couple of weeks and he was always proudly loved by his father and still very much loved by his aunts. 

Murdoch made his living on the sea and he could be gone for weeks at a time before coming back home, so he never made any promises to anyone, and Finley was one he couldn’t promise any future to.

Lonely sailors pass their time away talking about their homes at ports far and wide where Murdoch would also join them for a drink or two, but also wanting to sell some of his produce. At these many pubs and taverns where he would quench his thirst, were many woman that would want to bed him, but there was only one port that held his interest and only one woman that lured him to her bed and she was permanently marked on his chest. 

When he walked into the Wet Whistle on his return trips home to Aberdeen, the whole pub would roar with delight as everyone was so happy for the romance that had developed between the couple over the years that Finley had owned the business and Murdoch had made it his regular pit stop when he came home. Their love affair was no secret as they displayed their affection for each other in front of everyone.

 As soon as Murdoch walked through the doors Finley dropped what she was doing and she would run into his strong outstretched arms, and he would twirl her around in his warm embraceful dance of love. Their kiss would be one they wouldn’t want to end but they would definitely continue it later in the privacy of Finley’s bedroom. The whoop’s and whistles were ear piercing but welcoming as Finley would grab Murdoch by the hand, laughing and leading him to the bar for a much needed and well deserved beverage. 

Finley would gaze into his deep blue eyes and always loved to listen intently to his amazing stories of the great adventures out at sea. 

Telling her that

“ The ocean is filled with wonder, beauty, agony and loneliness, but you can always look up to the galaxy in the night sky and see the billions of dazzling stars staring down at you and know that you are not really alone. They always take your breath away, that somehow seems to have a relaxing affect, and the moon on a clear night will light up the path ahead in the cool evenings and show you the way even without a compass. 

One day the sea can be calm and still and the next, you're fighting challenges of wind gusts and great crashing waves. If you don't tie yourself down to something quick smart, you're tossed around like a rag doll in a tumble dryer.

But nothing compares to catching, trawling and netting those fish at the end of it all.” 

No matter how many stories Murdoch told her she was always fascinated and enthralled by every single one of them, literally feeling the ocean fall and rise and seeing it's raging glory with each tale. But she could never understand how he was pulled to the ocean so much when he still had such a passionate desire for her each time he came back home to Aberdeen. 

Murdoch would patiently wait for Finley to finish her nights work and happily sit there admiring her beautiful deep red locks of curls. He loved the way they fell around her sweet face and bounced on her shoulders and down her back while she expertly  worked laying whisky down, pouring beer, brandy and wine. She was like a steam engine when she worked and didn't take no shit from anyone. But she still had that gentle side to her when she was always there for you if you needed a lending ear and a kind heart.

Finley’s dwelling was above the pub. It wasn’t huge but it was big enough for her and she was happy and comfortable in her space. On all his return trips home Murdoch would spend his time with Finley in the privacy of her home.  After their sensual erotic worked up shower together, they would make mad passionate love... and afterwards lay in each others arms until they drifted off to sleep.

 Each time they came together their love was a crazy wild love, one that could never be tamed, and the sheets would always end up a crumpled mess on the floor by the time they were sated and spent. Their love making was very special and would use up a lot of the time that Murdoch had while he was on land, but he didn’t care for he had nothing else he cared to do and no other place he'd prefer to be,  because he was with the one special person that meant the world to him. Whenever he was with Finley he was always loving, caring, considerate and gentle with her. He put her needs first and told her that she is, and always will be, the only woman he will ever want. 

Three days with Finley was never enough time to spend with her, but he would always make an effort to visit his aunts on his last day taking Finley with him as he was very proud to let them know that she was his woman, and he was happy for them to know her.  They always made the day a very special one, packing it full of fun with a planed appetising picnic. Murdoch's aunts warmly welcomed Finley into their family as they could see that the two of them were very happy, and that's all they ever wanted for Murdoch. 

“Finley you will forever be my only woman, but my life, my love, and my lady is the sea, and it will always keep calling me!” were sadly Murdoch's words of departure every time he was to leave, and Finley would never be able to contain her tears every time he sailed away as she knew he loved the sea more than he loved her. Finley knew her love wasn’t strong enough to keep Murdoch’s feet on dry land for too long, but she was still content to have his love every time he came home to her. 

Years would come and years would go but their love would still stand the test of time. Murdoch had permanently branded his heart with a tattoo of Finley’s name on his chest, and Finley always wore a braided chain of the finest silver from the north of Spain that Murdoch gifted her around her neck with a locket that bears his name. It was a symbol for each of them to hang on each others hearts while they were apart. Their burning desire for each other continued on for many long years and it was just as strong as the day it started. Finley’s heart only belonged to Murdoch. She had no interest in anyone else even though there were advances and proposals towards her many times, being told that she would make a fine wife. They even promised to stand beside her everyday and not sail away. She would want nothing to do with them as she could think of nobody else but Murdoch every night  when she was alone in her bed or during the day whenever she had a moment to spare in her head. Finley's desire was that strong for Murdoch she would fall asleep every night clutching her locket knowing that he would always come back to her.

Age was taking it’s toll on Murdoch and he was finding the ocean was getting too hard on his ageing body. He was now at the good old age of seventy and still loved the challenge the ocean lay out on the table for him, but he just couldn’t keep up with it all, like he used to. They weren’t bringing in as big of a haul as they did years ago, as the ocean was getting trawled out by a lot more boats these days. 

As he was thinking it was now time for him to hang up his fisherman's cap and find some other job fit for him to do, scary large looming waves had come lashing at their boat, threatening to smash it to pieces. He didn't even see where the dark storm had come from; it had literally appeared from nowhere. 

They had to bunker down fast and quick smart. Murdoch wasn’t sure he had the strength to hold his ground through this ugly beast of a storm. He was using every ounce of energy he had trying to hold on! As he hadn't had time to tie himself down he felt like he was getting nowhere, the wind and rain were lashing at him from every angle, he lost his balance and his grip and that was the last thing he remembered. 

His crew had obviously taken him into the safety of his berth. He was thankful to be waking up in his bunk some time later, although he had a massive headache from the blow he received. With the boat nevertheless still thrashing and swaying in the storm going on outside, he tried to get up to help out his fellow crewmen... but he was unable to because his head was still spinning.

 He knew his crew had things under control. It was now time for him to rest. 

Finley heard the distressing weather forecasts over the radio news and when she was outside, could see in the far distance out at sea all the dark gloomy storms, and prayed that Murdoch wasn't caught in those terrible storms that were travelling through as she knew that storms could be raging savages out at sea. The storms were felt bad enough at home at Aberdeen . They would be ten times worse out there. 

She was very worried and concerned for Murdoch's safety now as he was getting on in years. At the age of sixty-one, Finley still enjoyed her job and happily kept working, although she knew she was slowing down. However it made her wonder how Murdoch kept going, when his job was much more physically strenuous and brutally challenging. And he was nine years older than she was! 

Murdoch was thankful that the storm had passed without causing too much more havoc and they made the journey home safely! This time his mind was made up!  Sadly, he knew it was time to say goodbye to the sea.

He walked off his boat for the last time.

His reunion with Finley was a very different one this time around as he had some exciting news for her that he knew she would be happy about. 

When Finley saw Murdoch she was shocked at the huge bruise on the side of his forehead and she was bracing herself for the story that would follow with the explanation. He held her in his arms with a big smile on his face and said, “That story can wait my love, I have something better to tell you!” 

Murdoch told Finley  “I am selling my boat and retiring from the fishing field!”

 Finley couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had the biggest smile on her face and happy tears in her eyes. She thought “I must be the happiest woman in Aberdeen! The love of my life has finely come home to stay!” 

Later when they were in the privacy of their home, Murdoch hung his fisherman’s cap up on the hook and said, “That won’t be going sailing anytime soon. I have come home to live out the rest of my life with my one and final true love and my lady!”

Author : Gingy Murphy 

My story was inspired by the song : Brandy (You’re a fine girl) by Looking Glass