The Spuddy by Lillian Beckwith

Author:Lillian Beckwith [Beckwith, Lillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

Chapter Seven

For skipper Jake and the crew of the ‘Silver Crest’ the fishing season had proved a disastrous one. It had begun with a broken con rod in the engine which kept them tied up at the pier for close on two weeks and when that was repaired there had followed a run of bad luck which included fouled nets, a seized winch and gear damaged by heavy seas. When at last they managed to get a good spell at sea they found the herring shoals elusive and instead of ‘Silver Crest’ coming into port with fish holds so full that skipper and crew felt justified in taking a few hours rest and relaxation she was arriving with a meagre cran or two which necessitated their turning round straight away after unloading and going back to sea to search for new grounds to set their nets, perhaps snatching only two hours rest out of the twenty-four. From being one of the highest earning boats in the port they had dropped to being one of the lowest – a source of chagrin for any skipper with pride. The crew were dispirited and worried by the superstition that the bad luck which was dogging them might yet bring worse catastrophe. But Jake dismissed their fears. Despite discomforts, disappointments and danger he would allow nothing to affect his driving ambition to catch fish – more and more fish to earn more and more money for himself and his crew. And since Jeannie, his wife, was so much away from home visiting her parents Jake was also goaded by loneliness – loneliness and the recurring pain in his stomach which only hard work or deep sleep could dull.

Before he had met Jeannie, Jake, in common with most Gaymal fishermen, had been a heavy drinker, spending all his weekends ashore in the local pub downing whisky after whisky and when the pain had first insinuated itself into his stomach he had drunk even more whisky in the hope of alleviating it. Eventually its acuteness had driven him to see his doctor.

‘You’ll have to keep off the drink,’ the doctor warned after examining him. ‘I can give you medicine but medicine can’t fight the damage the whisky’s doing you. It would be different if you took a bit more care of yourself but ach!’ The doctor shook his head. ‘You fishermen are all the same. You abuse your bodies all week, working like galley slaves, going without sleep and bolting great wads of stodgy food and when the weekend comes you’re away to the pub and pouring whisky into your stomach as if it was an empty barrel with holes in the bottom.’

Jake had intended to heed the doctor’s warning but Gaymal offered only two places where an unmarried man ashore for the weekend could find company and relaxation. They were the pub and a district up at the back of the kipper yards locally known as ‘Chinatown’ where the itinerant ‘kipper lassies’ had their quarters.

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