Living Silver 



none the less, he had the goodness to shoot the trawl almost single- 

 handed. When he and his heartless helpers had got most of it into 

 the water they came to the ground-rope : 'All right, chaps, you'll 

 have to give me a hand now,' he said wdth surprising mildness. 

 They heaved it up and over and watched it sink immediately 

 while the rest of the length of the trawl dangled out away from 

 them on the surface. Jan now saw why the Caroon had been turned 

 beam on to the sea. She was being carried away from the net by 

 the force of the wind. Had it been the other way round, the trawl 

 would be lying beneath her hull by this time and though it might 

 have had its temporary comfort for the crew they would have been 

 apt to complain if, when the engine started running, the net were 

 caught up in the propeller, wrapt round it and torn to shreds until, 

 finally, the weight and thickness of twine and wire held the screw 

 steady and left the vessel stranded in the middle of the sea. 



The otter boards were now allowed to drop their clattering 

 way into the water and a few fathoms of warp went after them. 

 The after warp was then stopped dead but the fore warp ran on 

 for a few yards in order to compensate for the distance between 

 the fore and aft gallows . The telegraph sounded and the ship began 

 to move slowly to port, veering towards the outstretched warps 

 until the after one was chafing against the hind end of the port 

 gunwale. The course was then straightened and she was put full 

 steam ahead. The trawl tautened out behind them, the boards 

 sometimes shearing the surface, sometimes submerging, and the 

 warps shook themselves tight. The drums of the winch unbent 

 toward the rusting wire and the bollards relaxed almost visibly 

 while the sheaves of the gallows became the first part of the ship 

 to take the strain. Red warp buzzed rapidly, almost silently, back 

 down the port side toward the stern, then up and over and into 

 the lush cold water. Far behind the ship now, the boards long 

 since submerged, the two warps from fore and aft dashed up a tiny 

 handful of spray as they disappeared slyly under the surface. They 

 went out for a long time, five minutes perhaps or seven, three 

 times as much warp as there was depth of water under the keel of 



34 



