登陆注册
5152700000035

第35章 THE SEA-FARMER(1)

"That wull be the doctor's launch," said Captain MacElrath.

The pilot grunted, while the skipper swept on with his glass from the launch to the strip of beach and to Kingston beyond, and then slowly across the entrance to Howth Head on the northern side.

"The tide's right, and we'll have you docked in two hours," the pilot vouchsafed, with an effort at cheeriness."Ring's End Basin, is it?"This time the skipper grunted. "A dirty Dublin day."Again the skipper grunted. He was weary with the night of wind in the Irish Channel behind him, the unbroken hours of which he had spent on the bridge. And he was weary with all the voyage behind him - two years and four months between home port and home port, eight hundred and fifty days by his log.

"Proper wunter weather," he answered, after a silence. "The town is undistinct. Ut wull be rainun' guid an' hearty for the day."Captain MacElrath was a small man, just comfortably able to peep over the canvas dodger of the bridge. The pilot and third officer loomed above him, as did the man at the wheel, a bulky German, deserted from a warship, whom he had signed on in Rangoon. But his lack of inches made Captain MacElrath a no less able man. At least so the Company reckoned, and so would he have reckoned could he have had access to the carefully and minutely compiled record of him filed away in the office archives. But the Company had never given him a hint of its faith in him. It was not the way of the Company, for the Company went on the principle of never allowing an employee to think himself indispensable or even exceedingly useful; wherefore, while quick to censure, it never praised. What was Captain MacElrath, anyway, save a skipper, one skipper of the eighty-odd skippers that commanded the Company's eighty-odd freighters on all the highways and byways of the sea?

Beneath them, on the main deck, two Chinese stokers were carrying breakfast for'ard across the rusty iron plates that told their own grim storyof weight and wash of sea. A sailor was taking down the life-line that stretched from the forecastle, past the hatches and cargo-winches, to the bridge-deck ladder.

"A rough voyage," suggested the pilot.

"Aye, she was fair smokin' ot times, but not thot I minded thot so much as the lossin' of time. I hate like onythun' tull loss time."So saying, Captain MacElrath turned and glanced aft, aloft and alow, and the pilot, following his gaze, saw the mute but convincing explanation of that loss of time. The smoke-stack, buff-coloured underneath, was white with salt, while the whistle- pipe glittered crystalline in the random sunlight that broke for the instant through a cloud-rift. The port lifeboat was missing, its iron davits, twisted and wrenched, testifying to the mightiness of the blow that had been struck the old Tryapsic. The starboard davits were also empty. The shattered wreck of the lifeboat they had held lay on the fiddley beside the smashed engine-room skylight, which was covered by a tarpaulin. Below, to star-board, on the bridge deck, the pilot saw the crushed mess-room door, roughly bulkheaded against the pounding seas. Abreast of it, on the smokestack guys, and being taken down by the bos'n and a sailor, hung the huge square of rope netting which had failed to break those seas of their force.

"Twice afore I mentioned thot door tull the owners," said Captain MacElrath. "But they said ut would do. There was bug seas thot time. They was uncreditable bug. And thot buggest one dud the domage. Ut fair carried away the door an' laid ut flat on the mess table an' smashed out the chief's room.He was a but sore about ut.""It must 'a' been a big un," the pilot remarked sympathetically.

"Aye, ut was thot. Thungs was lively for a but. Ut finished the mate. He was on the brudge wuth me, an' I told hum tull take a look tull the wedges o' number one hatch. She was takin' watter freely an' I was no sure o' number one. I dudna like the look o' ut, an' I was fuggerin' maybe tull heave to tull the marn, when she took ut over abaft the brudge. My word, she was a bug one. We got a but of ut ourselves on the brudge. I dudna miss the mate ot the first, what o' routin' out Chips an' bulkheadun' thot door an' stretchun' the tarpaulin over the sky-light.Then he wasnowhere to be found. The men ot the wheel said as he seen hum goin' down the lodder just afore she hut us. We looked for'ard, we looked tull hus room, aye looked tull the engine-room, an' we looked along aft on the lower deck, and there he was, on both sides the cover to the steam-pipe runnun' tull the after-wunches."The pilot ejaculated an oath of amazement and horror.

"Aye," the skipper went on wearily, "an' on both sides the steam- pipe uz well. I tell ye he was in two pieces, splut clean uz a herrin'. The sea must a-caught hum on the upper brudge deck, carried hum clean across the fiddley, an' banged hum head-on tull the pipe cover. It sheered through hum like so much butter, down atween the eyes, an' along the middle of hum, so that one leg an' arm was fast tull the one piece of hum, an' one leg an' arm fast tull the other piece of hum. I tull ye ut was fair grewsome. We putt hum together an' rolled hum in canvas uz we pulled hum out."The pilot swore again.

同类推荐
  • 元始天尊说甘露升天神咒妙经

    元始天尊说甘露升天神咒妙经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上求仙定录尺素真诀玉文

    太上求仙定录尺素真诀玉文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 崇陵传信录

    崇陵传信录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 览冥训

    览冥训

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 崔东洲集

    崔东洲集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 婴语

    婴语

    所谓“婴语”,就是婴儿的“语言”,指的是婴儿通过自己的身体和行为,向外界传递信息的一种方式。分为声音、表情、动作、身体征兆等等,用词汇表的形式进行归纳,来帮助现代80后的妈妈们了解和掌握孩子的需要,以及提升孩子的各项能力。
  • 张庄僖文集

    张庄僖文集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 夕阳的我们

    夕阳的我们

    四个女孩相遇相识的故事.四个女孩每个人都是主角.以顾陌为主偶尔会写到其他女孩的视角.
  • 佛说人本欲生经

    佛说人本欲生经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 达成交易的完美谈判

    达成交易的完美谈判

    现实生活中,每个人都是谈判者,大家同坐在社会这一巨大的谈判桌前。小到针头线脑,大到金融巨资;平凡到家庭主妇跟售货员讨价还价,卓越到商业巨子在商场上挥斥方遒。所有人都在经历着谈判、感受着谈判。但是,并不是每一个人都能够成为谈判大师,只有那些有心之人,才会从这本书中找到一条成功之路。
  • 心仪天地

    心仪天地

    出了旅游局再来写游记,更觉得游记难写了。难在若是写不出新意,还不如不写。干脆换个招数,将人生感慨融进去,将历史沧桑揉进去,写了《相思太行山》,再写《东临碣石观沧桑》,积累起来竟够一本书了,起个名《心仪天地》。不管内文如何,对这个名字我是不无满意。常人是四十而不惑,我是六十而多惑,才觉得天地之道不是过去自己学习、贩卖的那道,是道可道,非常道。因而才心仪天地,师法自然,恭恭敬敬从头学起。权且用《心仪天地》表达我迟到的醒悟吧!
  • 超越星辰变:霸决

    超越星辰变:霸决

    本物天下霸唱是什么?是一把刀?是一柄剑?还是一本修仙练圣的真诀?…………一个名叫楚烟寒的少年尚未出世,就已胎死腹中,一股怨气不灭,幸被灵鹫峰长老说不得大师所救,带回灵鹫峰,后以蚩尤之魂,刑天之魄,聚练重生,以魔道修习佛法,,一时间惹起修真道无数腥风血雨,异世大陆,修真界诸多高手争霸天下,树下野狐,唐家三少,断刃天涯,黯然销魂,梦入神机,静官,撒冷,血红,鬼雨,斩空,赤虎,傲无常……齐出江湖,最后谁能问鼎?请看拙作霸决2009最值得期待的玄幻仙侠传奇!
  • 佛说尊胜大明王经

    佛说尊胜大明王经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 青梅请hold住

    青梅请hold住

    【本文爆笑重生文】他是当红歌星离一,再次睁开双眸,发现竟是女儿身!而且还是兄弟最宠爱的未婚妻!这也算了,为什么还是小女孩的模样!这什么情况?为什么墨瞑深这么矮?我怀疑是不是我拿错剧本了……没事儿,既然来了就顺其自然,谁叫我生存能力强大!可她只想安安静静地长大,没想到有只小狼狗一直粘着自己。安酒玖一个激灵:我们好好相处,别动不动看我可以吗?——因缘而起,以爱相守。
  • 三国之建筑塔防系统

    三国之建筑塔防系统

    吕布之勇无人可敌?我有塔防!诸葛亮智如妖?我有塔防!雄兵百万来袭?我还是有塔防!