The Seiners Part 2

IV

LITTLE JOHNNIE DUNCAN STANDS EXAMINATION

By this time I should have gone home, I suppose, and had something to eat--it was getting on into the afternoon--but I didn't want to have a talk with my mother yet awhile, and so kept on to Crow's Nest, where I found half a dozen good-natured loafers. Not all were loafers exactly--three or four were simply waiting around before s.h.i.+pping on some seiner for the mackerel season. It promised to shower at the time, too, and of course the gentlemen who formed old Peter's staff could not think of venturing out in threatening weather.

And there they were, with Peter Hines, the paid man in charge of Crow's Nest, keeping a benevolent eye on them. Yarning, arguing, skylarking, advising Peter, and having fun with little Johnnie Duncan they were when I entered. Johnnie was the grandson of the head of the Duncan firm, a fine, clear-eyed boy, that n.o.body could help liking. He thought fishermen were the greatest people in the world. Whatever a fisherman did was all right to Johnnie.

I had got all the news at Crow's Nest and was just thinking of moving along toward home when Tommie Clancy popped in. Of course that made a difference. I wasn't going to move while Clancy was around.

"My soul, but here's where the real gentlemen are," he had to say first, and then, "Anybody seen Maurice to-day?"

I told him I had, and where.

"Anybody with him?"

"Well, not with him exactly." I shook my head, and said nothing of Minnie Arkell, nor of Sam Hollis, although Clancy, looking at me, I could see, guessed that there was something else; and he might have asked me something more only for the crowd and little Johnnie Duncan.

Johnnie was trying to climb up onto Clancy, and so Clancy, turning from me, took Johnnie up and gave him a toss that all but hit his head against the roof. "And how's she heading, Johnnie-boy?" and taking a seat stood Johnnie up beside him.

"East-s'uth-east, and a fair, fair wind," answered Johnnie.

"East-s'uth-east--my, but you said that fine. And a fair wind? Must be bound Georges Bank way. And how long will you hold that course?"

"From Eastern Point--a hundred and thirty-five mile."

"Yes--and then?"

"Then you throw her up and heave the lead."

"And heave the lead--sure enough. And then?"

"And then, if you find you're clear of the North Shoal, you put her to the s'uth'ard and west'ard till you're in onto the Bank."

"S'uth'ard and west'ard--that's the boy. Man, but I'll live to see you going to the Custom House and taking out your master's papers yet."

"And can I join the Master Mariners then?"

"That's what you can, and walk down Main Street with a swing to your shoulders, too. And now you're up on the Bank and twenty-five fathom of water and the right bottom--and you're a hand-liner, say, after cod--what then?"

"Let go her chain and begin fis.h.i.+ng."

"And would you give her a short or a long string of cable?"

"M-m--I'm not sure. A long string you'd hang on better, but a short scope and you could get out faster in case you were dragging and going onto the shoals. What would you do, Captain Clancy? You never told me that, did you?"

"Well, it would depend, too, though handliners generally calculate on hanging on, blow how it will. But never mind that; suppose your anchor dragged or parted and into the shoal water you went in a gale, an easterly, say--and the bank right under your lee--wind sixty or seventy or eighty mile an hour--what would you do?"

"Anchor not hold? M-m--Then I'd--give her the second one."

"And if that dragged, too--or parted?"

"Both of 'em? M-m"--Johnnie was taking deep breaths now--"why, then I'd have to put sail to her----"

"What sail?"

"Why, jib, jumbo, fore and main."

"And the wind blowing eighty mile an hour?"

"Why, yes, if she'd stand it."

"My, but she'd have to be an able vessel that--all four lowers and the wind blowing eighty mile an hour. Man, but you're a dog! Suppose she couldn't stand it?"

"Then I'd reef the mains'l."

"And if that was too much--what then?"

"Reef it again."

"And too much yet?"

"Balance-reef it--maybe take it in altogether--and the jib with it, and get out the riding-sail."

"And would you do nothing to the fores'l?"

"M-m--I dunno--with some vessels maybe I'd reef that, too--maybe take it in altogether."

"My, but you're cert'nly a dog. And what then?"

"Why, then I'd try to work her out."

"And would you be doing anything with the lead?"

"Oh, we'd be keeping the lead going all the time, for banging her across and back like that you wouldn't know where you were just."

"And would you come clear, d'y' think?"

"Yes, sir--if the gear held and with an able vessel we ought to."

"If the gear held--that's it. Be sure, Johnnie-boy, you see that the gear is all right before ever you leave port. And with an able vessel, you say? With that new one of your gran'pa's--would you come clear with her?"

"Oh, she'd come clear--built to go fresh halibuting next winter, that one."

"Yes--and seining this spring. But suppose now you were haddocking--trawling--eight or ten dories, and you just arrived on the grounds, picked out a good spot, and there you are--you're all baited up and ready?"

"Winter time?"

"Winter time, yes."