Ringing 



flat that you'd think it had been to the dry cleaner's, and a drifter 

 skipper to find the fish for them to steal.' 



But George was already lost to reproach, his eyes glazed with 

 those deep reminiscences that sometimes cover an old man from 

 the exigencies of the present. He was wrapped in a warm shawl 

 of memories now, and no cold words could chill him. He was 

 remembering not one thing or another but fifty simultaneous years 

 of straining against the haphazards of the sea and the unexpected 

 weaknesses of faulty gear. For, as Ian knew better than most, ring- 

 netting was as far from being a pleasure jaunt as any other kind of 

 commercial fishing, though it was necessarily carried out in waters 

 somewhat more sheltered than those off the Suffolk coast. 



*Well now, Johnny, since you're going to call the tune, you 

 may as well pay the piper. What about another pint of that awful 

 stuff they call bitter. Oh, for a pint of good Scotch beer.' 



For once Ian was with him and, of course, it was Jan's round. 

 But when they were all settled over their new-drawn pints the old 

 man began again as mysteriously as though he had never uttered a 

 word in his life before. 



*I suppose you know that you need two boats, quite small boats. 

 You could almost manage with largish lobster boats, and they both 

 need a crew of at least four men. And both boats must have a 

 derrick, a bit like the gilson of a trawler, with a spar that can jut 

 out over the rail. And then, of course, you need a net, quite a 

 complicated net, not just any old sheet of lint, the way you man- 

 age on a drifter. And I think you need a stretch of wire, fine 

 wire, fifty fathom, say, with a wee lead weight at the end of it, a 

 two pound weight. They all say I'm old-fashioned and ought to 

 keep up with the times but you know, Teddy, that I can read an 

 echo-sounder with the best of them. And an echo-sounder's all 

 very well when it comes to drifting. But, for ring-netting, you've 

 got to be able to locate the little shoals. Quite literally, you've 

 got to be able to put your finger on them. That's what the wire's 

 for. You trail it out behind you and, when a herring touches it, 

 it shivers. When you've been at it for a long time, like me, you 



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