Mechanic Salerno

"The Mechanic of Salerno" is a radio play based on the story of the same name by the Soviet writer-marinist Boris Stepanovich Zhitkov, one of the founders of Soviet children’s literature.

In the hold of an Italian steamship sailing to America, a fire begins because dangerous flammable cargo was taken on board. It is the mechanic Salerno’s fault, who, for a reward, agreed to transport barrels of berthollet salt. The situation is critical: panic may begin, there is a threat of the steamship exploding and the crew and passengers being killed.

Boris Zhitkov (1882–1938) — a Soviet writer-marinist, one of the founders of Soviet children’s literature. The story “The Mechanic of Salerno” was first published in the collection “Sea Stories” in 1925. Boris Zhitkov was an adherent of the version of the fire aboard the “Titanic.” Before Boris Zhitkov, at the insistence of his friend Korney Chukovsky, became a professional writer, he changed many professions: he was an ichthyologist, a sailing ship navigator, a metal worker, a carpenter, a naval officer and a shipbuilding engineer, the captain of a research vessel, a teacher of physics and drafting, and the head of a technical school. From this fairly long list, it’s clear that the marine element was familiar to Zhitkov firsthand. That’s why his sea stories were especially successful—beautiful narratives about sea voyages, about people devoted to the sea, and about the sea itself—so harsh sometimes, so friendly at others, but always romantic and captivating.