Net Overboard 



his throat clear of the froth that kept rising in it. But whenever 

 he coughed his stomach turned over and his viscera began to 

 w^ork themselves free of their moorings. If only the ship w^ould 

 stop, if only for ten minutes, long enough for him to clear his 

 throat of the rising phlegm. But then, as he w^as w^orrying a knot 

 loose from around the net, the ship did stop. Jan leaned over the 

 gunw^ale and vomited. 



He hung there, wretched, for perhaps tw^o minutes, uncon- 

 scious of everything but the vertigo in his bowels. A hard slap in 

 the face awoke him. The wet sea had hit him, a motherly re- 

 proof. Water was pouring down the back of his neck. His whole 

 body had become one tumultuous shiver. He managed to straight 

 himself enough to look at the sea. It was coming towards him 

 again and the Coroon was descending towards it. He jumped back, 

 just in time to let the water break around his knees. The cold 

 shock had cleared his head. He no longer felt sick. He realised 

 that the ship was lying athwart the wind and the swell. The wave 

 that had hit him had been aimed like a broadside at her whole 

 length and its height had been magnified by the fact that the Caroon 

 was reversing to a stop and therefore could not ride it as well as 

 she might have done had she been moving evenly or completely at 

 a standstill. 



Already the winch was grating and barking and squealing and 

 groaning, as though her ballbearings had been made of cinders. 

 The trawl doors banged up till they were hard against the top 

 sheave of the gallows. They were edged over the top of the gun- 

 wale and slowly allowed to droop dovsTi outside it before the 

 brakes were jammed down on the winch, suspending the boards 

 in mid-air. The whole school of potential trawl ermen was then 

 forced to the nets. There were far too many of them and, if they 

 had all been active, they would have tied one another in knots 

 instead of freeing the trawl. But more than half of them were in 

 a worse way even than Jan and they could do no more than gaze 

 unbelievingly at the water and try not to get wet. Finch cursed 

 them for the laziest set of swine he had ever seen in his life, but 



33 



