Net Overboard 



to find a buyer. Here they were boiled under pressure, their oils 

 removed, and the rest of their bodies ground down to fertiliser 

 or fish-meal. On a Monday morning, when the machinery was 

 cleaned out and the garbage dumped, the whole city would get 

 a whiff of this obstinate stink if the wind were from the sea, but 

 here the smell was almost impenetrable. He found it difficult to 

 breathe and only the greatest resolution permitted him to put 

 one foot in front of another in the silent reverberating alley. If 

 it were worse than this on the inside of the buildings, then, 

 surely, it would be impossible for a human being to work in them. 

 But after only half a mile of it he had reached the quay. Sodden 

 wdth wet coaldust and lacquered with a skin of dirty oil, it was 

 hardly a welcoming prospect at six o'clock on a chilly morning. 

 The Caroon was there however, only her masts and funnel show- 

 ing above the edge of the dock. The tide was low all right, and 

 it was a damned slippery greasy steel ladder he would have to go 

 dowTi if he were going to get a foot to her gunwale. The Gold- 

 fish hallooed him with a sparkling whimper from the bridge. He 

 got the idea and threw his sea-boots and sandwiches down to the 

 deck where one boot, wobbling drunkenly, managed to keep its 

 footing while the other collapsed beside it. Then he turned to 

 the ladder that lay in a vertical niche of the quay wall. He tried 

 to dismiss the sullen black stare of the mixture of water and oil 

 that lay directly below him but vertigo supervened. Every step 

 seemed a slip and then, when he was finally level with the gun- 

 whale, he realised that it was a full four feet off from the wall. 

 It crept slowly nearer, keeling slightly upwards as it did so, then 

 hesitated, and Jan jumped blindly backwards, slipped on its inner 

 edge and tumbled akimbo onto the deck. 'Aye, aye,' giggled the 

 Goldfish, 'many the good man has broken his back in coming 

 aboard the Caroon. But I didn't think you were a drinking man, 

 Johnny. And at this time in the morning. It's a plain disgrace.' 

 'Go to Hell,' yelled Jan. And he picked up his sea-boots and 

 sandwiches and made for the fo'c'sle. 



Most of the chaps had slept aboard. They were drowning their 



27 



