The Home Run 



but they all seemed to have only one main effect. They denuded 

 the grounds even more effectively than before. It became still 

 harder to catch fish. So back to the long distance fisheries, back 

 to the position of greatest risk : for w^here there w^as no risk there 

 were no fish either. Jan watched from the gale-swept Roost 

 between Orkney and Shetland as a big Hull trawler dipped 

 heavily north eastwards into the bullying sea. She was off" to 

 Bear Island. But no, her stem slewed round towards the west. 

 Yes, she was changing course and making now for the Iceland 

 waters. She must have received a message from a sister ship re- 

 porting the Bear Island prospects bleak or the Hindenberg Line 

 weather fine. The odd thousand miles to east or west made little 

 difference. Only the final catch mattered. 



But meanwhile he was in the Roost, making south, homewards 

 to Aberdeen in A_f89, the Leslie James, one hundred and twenty 

 feet of warped deckboards and bent plates . The wind was a fairish 

 squall, force seven or thereabouts, he thought idly, but the queer 

 stretch of water over which he was passing, where the Atlantic 

 lashed into the North Sea and tides were ripping all creation apart, 

 was not a pleasant patch in the best of weather. He needed a firm 

 arm to the wheel for the rudder was kicking and, as she moved 

 athwart the main sea, he toppled helplessly with the wheelhouse. 

 The skipper stood in front of him, drinking another cup of tea 

 and, since they had both slept decently when they were 'dodging' 

 in the hurricane of the previous night, he was inclined to conver- 

 sation. 'It'll be nice to see Duncansby Head,' murmured the 

 skipper. But Jan was silent. 



He was thinking of the girl he had left in Aberdeen. He had, 

 indeed, just decided that he would marry her. Only, if he were 

 going to do so, he would have to get out of trawling. He was 

 making his plans. But plans depended on money and money on 

 the sea. So he was thinking, too, about the sea, and the men on 

 it, and all the strangeness of it. How much fish is there, in that 

 damned hold ? How much will I make out of this trip ? But he 

 would get no answer to his questions. Nobody ever knew these 



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