CHAPTER TWO 



LEARNING THE ROPES 



THE idea of school was far removed from the idea of the sea. Jan 

 soon reahsed he had taken neither seriously. What he had ex- 

 pected was that somebody would take him aboard a ship, throw 

 a net over the side and then admire the diligence with which Jan 

 stowed the enormous catch. He had expected perhaps, to be wet 

 and cold, but he would become weatherbeaten in a few hours and 

 save the lives of the whole fleet by an adroit piece of navigation. 

 But it was not at all like that. Life is always so surprisingly 

 ordinary, even the most exotic forms of life. 



He was therefore subdued by the stuffy room with its big 

 ornate desk and the man who sat behind it, succeeding in looking 

 both woolly and immaculate as he said : 'There won't be time for 

 a complete course, you know. Our time is on the budget and 

 we've only got three months to let you fellows get the hang of the 

 trade. So it'll be hard work. And you'll have to pick up a good 

 deal when you get to sea yourself, if you ever do get to sea. But 

 there's a lot of money in trawling these days. Our chaps seem to 

 have left the sea. We hope you'll be happy. Mr Goldie here will 

 take you to the school itself.' 



And Mr Goldie did. 'You'll have to learn what a hard lie is,' 

 he whimpered somewhat obscenely, quietly, as though the words 

 were dripping from the glitter of his spectacles. 



They called him the Goldfish, Jan and the ex-schoolmaster and 

 the ex-colonel and the ex-pickpocket and all the other potential 

 trawlermen who had been swept together by the net of inter- 



