Every day at school, Jerry would wonder what story his grandfather would tell him that night. He was always anxious to come home so that he could see his grandfather and hear the next story. Apart from the action of each story, Jerry’s grandfather also tried to teach Jerry a life-lesson that he could apply in his life. Jerry’s grandfather often accomplished this by using analogies to compare Jerry’s life with something from that day’s story. The story that Jerry enjoyed the most was about an annual fishing trip that the Vikings made each year on a certain anniversary. In this story, the captain of a large Viking ship decided to set sail without bringing their large, heavy anchor because they did not anticipate the trip taking a long time and they wanted more room for all of the fish too because the Vikings had a strong appetite for fish.
Some of the Vikings on the ship were appalled at the decision of not bringing an anchor because of the apparent danger of not bringing one. They thought the ship was anything but safe. These men appealed to the captain of the ship and one man even wrote an anonymous letter to the king of the Vikings asking that an anchor be put on the ship, but the captain of the ship announced that they were leaving the next day. This answer annoyed several of the Viking crew, but they listened to their captain and set sail.
Not long after setting sail, the Viking ship encountered a large storm. The ship was being badly damaged and the captain felt anguish because they needed the large anchor at this moment. Soon after the storm ended, the captain apologized to his crew for not listening to them and promised to buy all of them a bottle of beer when they returned home. Although the crew of the ship was still wet and tired from the storm, they applauded when they heard the captain apologize.