Learning the Ropes 



There were other ropes, Hke the quarter-ropes, that joined the 

 corners of the bosom and the wings to the otter boards, but these 

 were not important at the moment since he could hardly envisage 

 their use until he had seen a trawl in action. And there were false 

 bellies of thick close meshing that lay beneath the belly and the 

 cod-end and protected them from the chafing of the ground 

 across which they had to travel. And then he had to learn the 

 way of protecting the sisal from the corrosive action of the salt 

 water in the sea itself. Tar was used by some people, but tar 

 made the twine brittle. Buchan seemed to think it was almost as 

 bad a corrosive as brine. There was creosote and copper naph- 

 thalene, and there seemed to be a hundred and one other possi- 

 bilities, and each of them had something wrong with it. Too 

 expensive, it might be, or maybe it was only a temporary pre- 

 servative. Jan finally chose creosote. It had been the first thing 

 to occur to him and he had a superstitious belief in the validity of 

 first thoughts. At the same time he had confirmed that creosote 

 was cheap, reasonably durable, and not, in itself, too damaging. 



He now began to feel that he knew all there was to be known 

 about the trawl and to look forward to the time when he could 

 practice his precepts on the open sea. But Buchan seemed in no 

 hurry. The rest of the class was lagging far behind. There were 

 all kinds of refinements to learn and many pieces of simple sea- 

 manlike knowledge to be acquired. It was not until his first 

 experimental day on a trawler was within wishing distance that 

 he first saw Buchan splicing a wire, and it was not until two days 

 and six sore fingers later that he himself succeeded in forming a 

 tolerable loop. 



Yet he was hopeful. He knew the trawl. He knew about 

 trawling. The fact that he had not yet been aboard a ship seemed 

 comparatively insignificant. 



2^ 



