WINDWARD ISLES AND THE GRENADINES Ij 



Challenger steamed into the beautiful harbour of St. George's, 

 Grenada, on a steamy morning in early May, The Captain was 

 thinking of the call he would shortly have to pay on His Excellency 

 the Governor of the Windward Isles, who resided at St. George's ; 

 laying out his white No. lo uniform which he would be wearing 

 for the call his steward was thinking of all the 'dhobeying' he 

 would have to do now that the officers and ship's company were 

 to be wearing whites for some months ; Number One was thinking 

 how hard it was to get Perkins, the coxswain of the motor boat, 

 to look neat and clean for such an occasion, as this good seaman 

 sat in the stern sheets of the motor boat which was about to be 

 lowered into the water at a sign from the bridge ; Ordinary Sea- 

 man Clarke was thinking of the 'blast' he would be getting from 

 the Boatswain as soon as he heard the anchor leave the hawse pipe : 

 Clarke's job was to see that the rope ladder, now neatly rolled 

 against the guardrail, ran clear when the others hauled out the 

 lower boom to which the boats secured in harbour — but it 

 always fouled something and held back the boom, ruining the 

 whole evolution, as the Boatswain forcefully told him ; and Stoker 

 Pierce, sweating in the engine-room, was thinking of the warm, 

 earthy smell of the land, and the crunch of gravel under his feet 

 as he made his dusty way along the seafront looking for the 

 inevitable bar, not knowing on this first night where to find it — 

 but once he had found the right joint and had settled down there 

 would be rum, happy dusky female company and music stretching 

 into the long tropical night ahead. 



The ship's company were experiencing that excited anticipation 

 of visiting a port for the first time, an experience which never 

 palls, and which makes seagoing always something of an adventure. 



The white houses of the town were scattered higgledy- 

 piggledy among the palm trees on the lower slopes of the rounded 

 hills surrounding the Carenage, while above the town the palms 

 gave way to thick dark-green, bosky trees. Seen from the ship 

 at anchor the town has a pleasing aspect and the schooners lying 

 with their sterns to the wooden quays before the old-fashioned 

 warehouses bring thoughts of earlier days. 



The ship had already visited Carriacou in the Grenadines some 

 4^ miles to the northward along the arc of islands forming the 

 Windward group. The work in the Grenadines was to chart a 



4 



