While we were into Gloucester, after taking home the crew of the Ruth Ripley, our vessel was put on the ways. That was after a talk between the skipper and Mr. Duncan. There is always something that needs attending to on a fisherman, and this time it was our water-tanks. And while they were being looked after, the Johnnie was overhauled, her bottom scrubbed and topsides painted. Old Mr. Duncan, we found, was beginning to take a lot of pride in our vessel and balked at no expense to have her in trim. And now that the Ripley was lost, he would have only two vessels to represent him in the big fishermen’s race, which was then only four weeks away. “Hurry up home now,” he said to Maurice as we left the dock that time. “Hurry up, and give yourself plenty of time to tune her up and get her in trim for the race. I’ve set my heart on it. You or the Lucy Foster must win that race, and whatever else we do we’ve got to beat Withrow’s vessel, anyway.” And Miss Foster said that one of her guardian’s vessels would have to win the race, and my cousin Nell said that the Johnnie Duncan would have to win. There was a lot depending on it, she said. It meant a lot to Will Somers, I suppose Nell meant. We figured that we had time to make a Cape shore trip, and, with fair luck, to fill the Johnnie with salt mackerel and be back in time to get her in good condition for the race, which this year, because it was anniversary year in Gloucester, promised to be the greatest ever sailed. Our plans were somewhat interfered with by a rescue we made. We found a Glasgow bark, New York bound, in the Bay of Fundy, and her crew in hard straits. We stood down and after a lot of trouble took them off––Clancy and Long Steve in the dory. Billie Hurd came near being the second man in the dory, but Clancy, grabbing him as he had one foot over the rail, hauled him back with, “Way for your elders, little man,” and jumped in beside Long Steve. “Elders, but not betters,” said Hurd. “Have it your own way,” answered Clancy, “but I go in the dory.” The rescue was really a fine thing, but the important thing was that some of the rescued men had been exposed to the battering of the sea so By the time we were down the Cape shore––down Canso way––and among the fleet again, we had lost a week. Our hold was still to fill up, and only two weeks and a day to the race. Wesley Marrs, Tom O’Donnell, Sam Hollis, and the rest were then talking of going home and making ready for the race. Bottoms would have to be scrubbed, extra gear put ashore––a whole lot of things done––and a few try-outs in the Bay by way of tuning up. The race was the talk of all the fleet. Half the crews on the Cape shore wanted to be in Gloucester when the race came off, and some of the skippers of the slower vessels, which would not enter because they had no show to win, were already scheming to be home just before the race so that they could be on hand to follow it. The morning after we were back among the fleet we got a small school right from under the So this time he ordered us not to set where we were or he’d seize our vessel. Several Gloucester vessels had been confiscated just before this and the owners had to pay the fine to recover them. One owner disputed the judgment and his case was then waiting settlement. Another who refused to pay saw his vessel turned into a lightship and placed That night the forec’s’le of the Johnnie Duncan presented one of the most beatific scenes I ever saw. Everybody was in the temper of an angel. There was nothing doing––no whist at the table, no reading out of upper bunks, no love song from the peak, and no fierce argument on the lockers. We were discussing the cutters and the talk was very soothing. The cook, as usual, was finishing up a batch of dough. You might have thought he was the only man who had been working in a week, were it not for the wet oil-clothes hanging up to When Clancy dropped down for his usual mug-up before going to the mast-head for the night of course, he wasn’t going to let that get by without having a word to say about it. He leaned against the foremast and took a look around. “My soul, but it’s as if the blessed angels were fanning their wings over this forehold. There’s Brian Boru and Lord Salisbury there double-banked on the same locker, and nothing doing on any Irish question. There’s the lad that sleeps in the peak and not a single hallelujah of praise for his darling Lucille. The other one––the wild man that sings the Bobbie Burns songs––not a shriek out of him. And Bill and John no longer spoiling their eyesight on bad print. I expect it’s that little school of fish––the first in two weeks or more. The prospect must be making you all pleased. Well, it “What’s left of it, you mean, Tommie,” said George Moore from his pan of dough. “Well, yes, what’s left of it––and what I c’n borrow. Old man Duncan’ll stake me, and there’s others. I hope, though, it blows a jeesly gale. For this one, God bless her, she c’n sail, and some of them’ll find it out––when it’s too late, maybe. Sam He jammed his sou’wester hard down, and heroically waved away the remainder of the pie. “No, no. First thing I know I’ll be having dyspepsia. I never had it yet, but I might,” and then heaved himself up the companionway, humming, as he went, one of his old favorites: “Oh, the ’Liza Jane and the Maria Louise Sailed a race one day for a peck of peas. You’d hardly believe the way them two Carried sail that day––they fairly flew. People ashore they said, ‘Gee whiz! The ’Liza Jane the fastest is.’“ We could hear him scrambling, still humming, over the barrels on deck. He halted long enough by the rail to say, “How is it, boys?” to the watch on deck, and then swung himself up the rigging. Once aloft he had his work cut out, with hours of strain on brain and nerve. But Clancy never minded––he never minded anything so far as we could make out. |