A Floating Home Part 11

'"I'll give yer two hundred," says the cap'n.

'That fared to me best to take it, for she was b.u.mpin' heavier, and I laowed she'd begin to shift a bit soon. Then agin, the paounding was in our favour, for I see that skeered the cap'n wonnerful, so I starts a bluff on him.

'"That 'on't do, cap'n," I says. "I'm off."

'I went to the lee side of the p.o.o.p, where our ould bo't was made fast, to have a look at my mates. The ould thing was tumblin' abaout suthen, for there was a heavy backwash off the ship's quarter. As she came up on a sea they caught sight o' me and started pullin' faces and shakin' their heads, and next time I see them they was doin' the same.

I tumbled to it quick enough that they wanted to say suthen to me, and a course they couldn't shaout it out, so I threw 'em the fall o' the mizzen sheet, and me and one o' the crew pulled ould Somers aboard.

'"For 'eaven's sake," he says, close in my ear, "make a bargin quick!

She's a comin' off by herself! We've got a lead on the graound, and she's moved twenty foot already."

'I went back to the cap'n, and he was all on fidgetin' worse'n ever, so I says, "Cap'n, my mates'll be satisfied with three hundred paound."

'"Don't you do no such thing," says the pilot; "she'll come off all right."

'"I'll stick to my two hundred," says the cap'n.

'I dursn't wait, so I closed on it, and the mate writ aout two agreements, one for the cap'n and t'other for me. Our chaps soon got the kedge anchor and a hundred fathoms o' warp into the lugger and laid that right aout astern, and I give the order for the lower main torpsail and upper fore torpsail to be set.

'Then our chaps come aboard, and what with heavin' her astern a bit every time she lifted to a sea and them two torpsails aback, she come off in half an hour.

'Yes, yes; we got thirteen pound apiece, and if it hadn't been for that pilot we'd a got double.'

CHAPTER XV

'Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, la vie est la, Simple et tranquille; Cette paisible rumeur-la Vient de la ville.'

We engaged two men to help us up the creek, which is narrow and was full of small boats difficult for a large craft to avoid. Unluckily, there was no wind, and we had to punt. This made our difficulties greater, as the _Ark Royal_, unlike her trading sisters, could not cannon her way cheerfully up the creek lest her stanchions should be carried away or her cabin tops be damaged.

The two men used the poles forward while I steered. A proud helmsman I was, knowing myself the owner and skipper of the largest yacht on the station, as we pa.s.sed a quay thronged with longsh.o.r.emen looking on. At that moment I had to put the wheel hard over, and as the barge's stern swung towards the land her rudder touched the hawser of a smack moored at the shipyard. The pull of a ninety-ton vessel moving however slowly is enormous. The hawser tautened like a bar of iron; the _Ark Royal's_ rudder was banged amidships, wrenching the wheel from my hands; one of the spokes caught my belt, hoisted me off my feet, swung me right over the top of the wheel, and dropped me on the other side of the deck. The Mate and the children did not seem to understand that this accident to the Skipper reflected some ridicule on the whole ship's company. They cackled with delight, and wanted me to do it again.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WALTON CREEK]

When we came abreast of our berth there was not enough water for us to go in, so we lay on a spit of sand and mud for that day. On the next tide, which was higher, we moved in stern first, leaving our anchor well out in the creek ready to haul us off in the spring.

The ebbing tide left us in a shallow dock about three feet deep into which the _Ark Royal_ just fitted, so that with a ladder on to the saltings we could easily get on and off the ship. From the road, seventy or eighty yards away, there was a path across the saltings right up to us, but as it was very muddy we bought forty or fifty bushels of c.o.c.klesh.e.l.ls and spread them on it. We also made a bridge with planks over a small rill which cut across the path.

To the west of us was a sea-wall, and behind it marshes stretching away into dimness; to the north was the railway line; to the south, first saltings and then the open Thames. At high water we could see all the ships beyond the saltings; at low water they were hidden from us. To the east there were gasworks, which we tried to forget, and the ancient end of the town with houses of many shapes and att.i.tudes. One of the houses leaned over a quay against which smacks lay so close that you could have reeved their peak halyards from the top windows.

There was only one house near by us, and in that lived a barge-owner, who welcomed us and lent us a broad teak ship's ladder. Such was the place in which we settled down for the winter.

As soon as we had driven in posts and laid out spare anchors, with long warps to hold us in position, we began to establish our communications with the sh.o.r.e. We found tradesmen anxious to call every day for orders. The postmaster promised three deliveries of our letters. I took a season ticket to London, as the time had arrived for me to begin my new work. The station was about eight minutes' walk from the _Ark Royal_. The boy's school could be reached in about twenty minutes by tram-car. We instructed the tradesmen's boys when they came on board to go forward and conduct their business through the forehatch. For visitors we hung the ship's bell in the mizzen rigging. I engaged a sailor-boy as handyman and crew.

The only thing that interrupted our traffic with the sh.o.r.e was the spring tides, which covered the saltings, for if Jack, the handyman, were not ready with a boat, a tradesman's boy would have to shout until he was heard. Soon, however, the boys came to understand signals, and when a boat could not be sent at once they would leave the provisions on the gra.s.sy bank by the path, and someone from the barge fetched them as soon as possible. There were only about six days each fortnight on which the tides were high enough to make the use of a boat necessary.

Later we dismissed the boy, as a trusted family servant, Louisa, whom we had known for many years, came to live with us. As Louisa could not manage the boat, we set up a box on a post by the road in which tradesmen could leave our provisions.

If we had thought of the box sooner it would have saved us the robbery of a red sausage by a pa.s.sing dog. The Mate and I were on deck, and saw the robbery committed. The time in which we launched the boat from the davits would have done credit to a lifeboat's crew. It was rather a long, stern chase after we had landed, and would have gone on much longer but for the dog's greed in stopping two or three times to begin his meal. As soon as we came near, off he went again, tearing over the gra.s.s between the saltings and the road with our flaming sausage in his mouth. It was a race between our endurance and his greed, and his greed won, for at last he lay down with the sausage between his paws and we fell on him from behind and captured our own. The sausage had several dents in it, but it was not punctured. The dog had a good mouth.

As for mishaps to the food, more occurred on board when it was being actually delivered than when it was waiting on sh.o.r.e. Twice the milk-boy stumbled over the foresh.o.r.e and spilt our milk on deck. A more serious matter was the butcher-boy's fall. He came up the ladder with his wooden tray on his shoulder one bl.u.s.tering day, was caught by a gust as he reached the top, and was blown backwards into the mud.

Our joint lodged in the mud, and the wooden tray travelled a long way like a sledge on the slippery mud before it stopped.

Our coal was brought along the road in a cart, and man-handled from there to the fore end of the ship. We took only four hundredweight at a time, as we did not use much coal--the inside of a barge is very easily heated--and we did not care to have the decks hampered.

That winter, when an old barge was being broken up near by, we bought a large quant.i.ty of small blocks of wood to use instead of coal in the saloon. The coloured flames this wood gave off were delightful. As there was no room for the wood on deck, we built a platform on the ground alongside the _Ark Royal_. The platform sank a little, or perhaps it was never high enough; at all events, when we had used only half our stock an enormous tide came, and the remainder of the wood floated away. As soon as we saw that the tide was going to be abnormal we manned our boat and tried to salve as much of the wood as possible, but the tide rose too fast for us. First the blocks floated off in twos and threes, then in fives and tens, and at last in squadrons. We pursued them and half filled the boat, but a fresh westerly breeze scattered the Armada. We saw it spreading out and trailing down the creek as the tide turned. Nor was that all. Long before the blocks had reached the quay in their seaward flight they had been marked by eyes trained from childhood in the search for flotsam, jetsam, or salvage. Boats were launched, and our wood was picked up and carried off almost under our noses.

The annoyance of losing the wood was aggravated by the sootiness of the coal upon which we now had to fall back. Not only did soot lie about on deck in still weather, but the chimneys had to be swept once a week. Certainly this was a very easy job; one had only to remove the upper parts of the chimneys on deck, hold them over the side, and run a mop through them; then get someone inside the ship to hold some sacking below, and shove the mop down the lower parts of the chimneys.

Our supply of eight hundred gallons of water generally lasted about six weeks, for, as has been said already, we used chiefly salt water for the bath. To refill the tanks we could either move out of our berth on a spring tide and take the water on board through a hose from a neighbouring shed where water was laid on, or we could have it carried on board by hand. On the whole, we decided to have the water carried on board, and our barge-owner friend kindly allowed us to take the water from his house.

As it did not much matter when the water was brought, or whether the carrier worked one hour or eight hours a day, we gave the appointment of water-carrier to a hairless, red-faced boy of twenty who lived in an old boat. As a matter of fact, he was a man of about thirty-five, of whom it was said by some that he was half-witted, by others that he was lazy, and by others that he was artful. Anyhow, he suited us very well, for in the circ.u.mstances he could not easily have suited us badly. He came when he felt inclined, and with a yoke and two three-gallon pails patiently, and at his own pace, fetched the water, emptied it into our tanks, and went for more. He generally made five round trips in an hour, thus bringing thirty gallons. He never worked more than six hours a day, at which rate he could fill our tanks in about five days; but he generally preferred to spread the work over ten days.

Even where we lay beyond the town the _Ark Royal_ was an object of intense curiosity. Had we made a charge for showing people over her, we should have collected enough money to buy a new mainsail. Among the strangers who became acquainted with her internal beauties the most enterprising and the most bewildered was a school-attendance officer.

He called one Sat.u.r.day afternoon, and was told we should not be back till the evening. We were waiting for dinner when Louisa announced that he had returned. We invited him to the saloon and inquired his business. He had heard that we had three children, and he had come to a.s.sure himself that they were being educated. Oh, the boys were at Mr.

Jones's, and were going on to Haileybury? Quite so. He was sorry to have troubled us. Then he, too, was shown round the ship, so that we trust he did not consider his visit wholly wasted.

Although our berth was more than a hundred yards from the railway, the trains--particularly the expresses--shook the ground on which the _Ark Royal_ sat. At first the noise disturbed us, but soon we became unconscious of it. For other reasons I was grateful to the railway for being where it was. On dark winter nights, when I was returning from London, it never failed to please me to look out of the train and see the warm radiance from the _Ark Royal_ striking up into the blackness.

Then the walk from the station along the narrow old street paved with cobbles was delightful, and I could not hurry because I must stop to watch an anchor or a trawlhead being forged in the blacksmith's, or to look at the mops, buckets, oilskins, sou'-westers, compa.s.ses, foghorns, lamps, and tins of paint, in the marine stores. And particularly at high water--if the wind were on sh.o.r.e--as I came abreast of the openings between the houses I was drawn by the splashing of the waves against the quay. There I would peer at the dark forms of dinghies scuffling in the small 'sissing' waves (as they say in Ess.e.x), or watch a c.o.c.kle-boat with ghostly sails come racing home, and listen for the click of her patent blocks as she lowered her long gaff in readiness to berth by the sheds farther up the creek near the _Ark Royal_. I knew that unless I hurried she would be there before me, but then on the wide piece of quay facing the Flag Inn knots of fishermen would be pacing backwards and forwards, and civility or interest required that the time of night should be pa.s.sed with them. Just then, perhaps, a green light close in would attract me, and forthwith the dark canvas of a barge towering above it would loom in sight. The short stiff walk of the fishermen would cease; all eyes would strain into the darkness, and a discussion as to which barge she was and for what quay she was bound would begin. At last the barge would settle the matter by becoming recognizable beyond dispute.

We would watch the great mainsail grow smaller and smaller as it was brailed up, and wait for the mainsail and topsail to come down with a run. Then when the vessel seemed to be advancing right on to us there would be a splash and the sound of cable rattling out, and her stern would swing round towards the quay and she was anch.o.r.ed. A dark figure in a boat, glimpses of a line, a shout, 'All fast!' the sound of more cable being paid out, and the barge's bows would swing slowly in towards the quay and she was berthed. Then the fishermen in their sea-boots, and guernseys, and billyc.o.c.k hats, or jumpers and peaked caps, would resume their stiff short walk, and I was free to go on my homeward way.

With sailormen it seems as though they felt that the safety of a ship while being berthed depended on their not taking their eyes off her.

But perhaps they have no thought of rendering telepathic aid; it may be that they are only hypnotized, like me.

A little farther along the road one came into the open and could see the shafts of light from the _Ark Royal_. On dark nights the sailing directions to find our private path were very simple: go along the road until all light is obscured on the port side and begins to show on the starboard side; then you are abreast of the path. The richest moments of pleasure came when it was high water at night, and one could look over the saltings on to the business of the great river.

Especially on Fridays and Sat.u.r.days large liners were bound out or in; there were always the cl.u.s.tered illuminations of the sh.o.r.e to the east and south-east, the avenue of lights on the pier, and the Nore flaring up and dying down; to the south the searchlights of Sheerness; and to the south of west the River Middle gas-buoys blinking industriously in the dark and guiding the sailor safely up to London.

CHAPTER XVI

'Mon coeur, comme un oiseau, voltigeait tout joyeux Et planait librement a l'entour des cordages; Le navire roulait sous un ciel sans nuages Comme un ange enivre du soleil radieux.'

On Sat.u.r.days, when I was always at home, there was plenty to be done.

The mainsail, which we had not unbent, had to be aired and the blocks had to be overhauled; and there were arrears of carpentering which never seemed to be overtaken. At spring tides we used to sail about the creek in the dinghy. In their holidays the boys made and sailed model boats and invented ingenious and daring swinging games on board with the falls of the halyards. And of course they invited all their friends to see our floating home.

We spent Christmas on board in great jollity. That time was marked by one mishap, though it presented itself to the children as an entertainment appropriate to the season. The _Ark Royal_ during spring tides and a westerly gale blew partly out of her dock. As I was walking back from the station one evening something about her struck me as queer, though I was some way off and looking at her broadside on. When I came nearer I could see that she was listing over at a very steep angle.

The children were frankly delighted, and told me incoherently and all at once how their tea-things had slid off the table until books had been put under the legs, and how the saloon door would not shut and the kitchen door would not open.

After unhanging the doors and planing pieces off them, we were able to make shift all right till midnight, when the barge floated and I hove her back into her berth.

The wringing of the barge on this occasion led me to try definitely to solve the problem of keeping her decks, and particularly the joins between the decks and the coamings, perfectly watertight. It has been already mentioned that all barges, owing to their length and build, alter their shapes or 'wring' slightly according to the ground on which they lie. On this account, if I were to convert another barge, I should hang the doors at once with a certain margin. All our doors have been unhung and planed two or three times. The wringing throws an enormous strain on the coamings, tending to pull them apart from the decks. You may caulk the joins thoroughly with oak.u.m and serve them with marine glue, but a fresh strain will pull them open again. At last I invented a successful method. A quarter-round beading was fastened along the decks about a quarter of an inch from the coaming, and a hot mixture of marine glue and Stockholm tar was poured in between the beading and the coaming. The Stockholm tar gives the marine glue a permanent softness. We then covered the mixture with another mixture of putty and varnish, which protected it from heat, cold, and wet. The secret, in fine, is to caulk the joins with something that will expand and contract like the surrounding material without becoming detached from it. This something must remain soft and sticky. But if the mixture be not buried under something else it will melt and trickle across the decks like heavy treacle.