By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

Lewiston native Claude Berube recalls life aboard a Navy cruiser as he talks about his just-released book.

Claude Berube’s first hint of the devastation was a yellow sandal bobbing in the water miles off the Singapore shore.

He imagined that it was on someone’s foot before the tsunami crashed against the land.

Aboard the cruiser USS Bunker Hill, sailors watched for signs of the damage they’d heard about on TV. They spotted smoke rising above the horizon. They saw bodies and debris.

“I remember someone saying, I just saw a house,'” Berube said. It was floating with the current.

Hours later, the Lewiston native flew by helicopter over the devastated region. It was just a week or so after the tsunami struck.

“You saw the foundations of houses,” Berube said. “You saw signs of people, and that was it.”

The only buildings left standing were the mosques and the prayer houses.

“I thought back to Lewiston, to Saints Peter and Paul’s and all the stone inside,” Berube said. He thought of Holy Cross and Saint Mary’s.

The churches here would last longest, too.

For Berube, on his first U.S. Navy cruise, it was the culmination of a lifelong ambition. At 39 years old, the reservist had finally made it to sea.

It has been a tumultuous year.

Berube’s cruise was interrupted in February when his mother, longtime Maine legislator Georgette Berube, died.

The Bunker Hill had been sent to the Persian Gulf by then. After the funeral, Berube returned to the ship, where he continued to serve until it reached port in Hawaii.

Since then he has found a new job as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis – and he has published his first book.

Larger than life

“A Call to the Sea” is a historical biography of Capt. Charles Stewart, co-written by John Rodgaard.

It recalls the days when the U.S. Navy still sailed wooden ships. Stewart captained the USS Constitution, among many other ships

The publisher, Potomac Books, is selling the story as the Navy’s “real-life Jack Aubrey,” the main character of the Patrick O’Brian series that includes the novel “Master and Commander.” When the movie was made in 2003, the Aubrey character was played by Russell Crowe.

Stewart, whom Berube had been fascinated by for years, had a larger-than-life career. He served longer than any officer in U.S. naval history. He was recognized by Thomas Jefferson and served as a pallbearer for Lincoln. He had a reputation for gutsy bravado.

More than once, he attacked two ships simultaneously, records tell.

According to diaries, his wife once asked him before a battle to “bring back a frigate.”

“Stewart told her, I’ll bring you back two,'” Berube said. And he did. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”

The bravado may have changed, as has naval technology, but Berube learned at sea that there are surprising similarities.

Some nights he would stand outdoors and imagine what it must have been like. He’d listen to the silence and watch the stars.

“It’s not that different,” Berube said. “The traditions are still the same.”

Every ship still has only one captain. Enlisted crews still regard their officers with the same mix of respect and compliance.

And all bond around a common mission.

For the USS Bunker Hill, the bonding came with the tsunami’s devastation.

When helicopter crews brought back the stories of what they’d seen, shipmates gathered items for donation. They raided their own footlockers for supplies and extra clothes. Then they bought all they could from the ship’s stores.

Within 24 hours of the first call for aid, a helicopter delivered 500 pounds of donated goods to people on the ground.

“These guys gave the shirts off their backs, literally.” Berube said, smiling at the image in his head.

Somewhere in Singapore, a victim of the disaster might now be wearing a T-shirt that reads, “Go Navy.”