"Captains Courageous": A Story of the Grand Banks

d collected overnight. They cleaned up the plates and pans of the elder mess, who were out fishing, sliced pork for the midday meal, swabbed down the foc'sle, filled the lamps, drew coal and w

ome liner, her hull invisible, smudged the blue, and to eastward a big ship's top-gallant sails, just lifting, made a square nick in it

o' course, but scrowgin' on us all the time? There's the Prince Leboo; she's a Chat-ham boat. She's crep' up sence last night. An' see that big one with a patch in her foresail an' a new jib? She's the Carrie Pitman from West Chat-ham. She won't keep her canvas long onless her

sitive schooners on the horizon as a compliment to his powers. But now that it was paid, he wished to draw away and make his berth alone, till it was time to go up to the Virgin and fish in the streets of that roaring town upon the waters. So Disko Troop

chores. Can't we go overside a pi

ner them ha'af baked brown shoe

y spare rig where he kin overhaul it, 'cause Ma sez I'm keerless." He rummaged through a locker, and in less than three minutes Harvey was adorn

methin' like," s

in' raound the Fleet. If any one asks you what I'm ca

chooner. Dan hauled in the painter, and dropped lightly on

Dan. "Ef there was any sea you'd go to the

like fashion, on the Adirondack ponds; but there is a difference between squeaking pins and well-balanced r

your oar in any kind o' sea you're liable to

g. A tin dinner-horn rested in cleats just under Harvey's right hand, beside an ugly-looking maul, a short gaff, and a shorter wooden stick

" said Harvey, for his hand

ries much. Ye pull; but ye needn't pull

wo if I asked 'em," Harvey replied. He had been

, naow. But a dory an' craft an' gear"- Dan spoke as though she were a whal

be 'most the ouly thing I

litheroo thet way, Harve. Short's the trick, beca

kicked Harvey under the chi

d to learn too, but I wasn't more than

s seat with aching

our own fault ef we can't handle 'em, he says

ile away, but when Dan up-ended an o

on to the hook. "Over with the doughboys. Bait

baiting and heaving out the leads. The dory drifted along easily.

d on Harvey's shoulders as a big cod flapped and kicked a

entifically stunned the fish before he pulled it inboard, and wrenched out the hook with the

strawberries!" h

and white on the other - perfect reproductions of the land fruit, e

em. Slat 'em

rvey had picked them from the

ingers throbbed as though h

e teched with the naked fingers, Dad says. Slat 'em off agin the gunne

of a fishing-dory in mid-ocean. She suffered agonies whenever he went out on Saranac Lake; and, by the way, Harvey remembered distinctly that he used

accordin' to his strength,

as he hung on to the line. "It's

eady for all chances. Something white and oval flickered and fluttered through the green. "I'l

on; he dripped with sweat, and was half-blinded from staring at the circling sunlit ripples about the swiftly moving line. The boys were tired

Dan, wiping his forehead

een halibut many times on marble slabs ashore, but it had never occurred to him to a

'baout as logy a halibut's we're apt to find this trip. Yesterday's catch - did ye notice it?- was all big fish an' no halibut. Dad he

tol on the 'We're Here', and a potato

owd. Dad's onter something, er he'd never break fishin'

them to Penn, who was careering around a fixed point for all the world like a gigantic water-bug. The little man backed away

m, else he'll root an

he could not lay down the law to his elders, but had to ask

eady - on sandy bottom too - an' Dad says next one he loses, sure'

vague idea it might be some kind of marine t

it means. They'd guy him dreadful. Penn couldn't stand that no more'n a dog with a dipper to his tail. He's so everlastin' sens

man, panting. "It doesn't move at a

ointing to a wild tangle of spare oars and dory-rodi

ish windlass. Mr. Salters showed me how t

smile, twitched once or twice on the rod

aid laughing, "er she

kes of the little anchor with big, pathet

y were out of ear-shot, "Penn ain't quite all caulked. H

it one of your fa

s oars. He felt he was learni

this time. Penn's a

was a Moravian preacher once. Jacob Boiler wuz his name, Dad told me, an' he lived with his wife an' four children somewheres out Pennsylvania way. Well, Pen

. But I don't know why. It stic

as comin'. His mind give out from that on. He mistrusted somethin' hed happened up to Johnstown, but for the poor life of him he couldn't remember what, an' he jest drifted araound smilin' an' wonderin'. He didn't know what he was, nor yit what he hed bin, an' thet way he run agin Uncle Salters, who was visitin' 'n Allegheny City. Ha'af my

d along till, one day, Penn's church - he'd belonged to the Moravians - found out where he wuz drifted an' layin', an' wrote to Uncle Salters. 'Never heerd what they said exactly; but Uncle Salters was mad. He's a 'piscopolian mostly - but he jest let 'em hev it both sides o' the bow, 's if he was a Baptist; an' sez he warn't goin' to give up Penn to any blame Moravian connection in Pennsylvania or anywheres else. Then he come to Dad, towin' Penn,- thet was two trips back,- an' sez he an' Penn must fish a trip fer their he

n't ever have thought Uncle Salters car

id Dan. "We ought to ha' give him a

chooner now, the other b

r dinner," said Troop from the deck. "We'l

he gear for dressing down. "Look at them boats that hev edged

d to a landsman, the nodding schooner

rike the Main Ledge. 'Way off yonder's the Day's Eye. The two Jeraulds own her. She's from Harwich; fastish, too, an' hez good luck; but Dad he'd find fish in a graveyard. Them other three, sid

wded," he went on, addressing the crew as they clambered inboard. "We'll leave 'em to bait big an' catch small." He looked at the catch in th

on the weathe

, for there's no sign I can see," said

ater. The men stopped dressing-down without a word. Long Jack and Uncle Salters slipped the windlass brakes into their sockets, and began to heave up the anchor; the windlass jarring as the wet hempen

thers raised the clacking, rattling rings of the foresail; and the foreboom creaked

behind this fo

derful part was that he heard no orders except an occasio

" said Tom Platt, to Harvey gaping

re are w

week aboard. It's all new to you, but we never know what may

an' a bullet in your belly," said Troop,

to it. "But we didn't think o' that when we manned the windlass-brakes on the Miss Jim Buck, I outside Beau-fort

an' dodgin' Reb privateers. Sorry I can't accommodate you with red-hot shot, Tom

f spray that clattered down on the foc'sle. The rigging dripped clammy drops, and the men lounged along

'l," said Disko, rolling

rofit. What's the sense o' wastin'

ve-top slashed diagonally across the boat, smote Uncle Salters between the shoulders, and

put this duckin' act up on him two trips runnin'. Hi! That found him where he feeds." Uncle Salters had taken re

stays'l, Salters," said Disko,

n't lay it to me if anything happens. Penn, you go below right off an' git your

lters hustled Penn into the fore-cabin. "'Looks to me like's if we'd all be doin' so fer a

musement. "I'd dean forgot we'd a passenger under that T-wharf hat. There's no idlenes

ed Dan. "You've got to go it alone.

mp-foremast, but Long Jack had a gift of expression. When he wished to draw Harvey's attention to the peak-halyards, he dug his knuckles into the back of the boy's neck and kept him at gaze for half a mi

t to trip over; the foc'sle stovepipe, and the gurry-butts by the foc'sle hatch to hold the fish-livers. Aft of these the foreboom and booby of the main-hatch took all the space that was not needed for the pumps and dressing-pens. Then c

business, but ranged alongside with enormous and unnec

nnocince. Tom Platt, this bally-hoo's not

Platt pleaded. "Give him a chance to know a few leadin' principles. Sail

Tom Platt! Now, after all I've said, how'd you re

said Harvey, poi

he North

run that rope you sh

ay," Tom Pla

an' has not the names

d hook the tackle on to the re

Lower!" said Tom Platt,

alyards," Harvey went on. Th

d on thim," s

it's cringle - till the cringle was down on the boom. Then I'd tie her up

oard. D'ye follow me? 'Tis dollars an' cents I'm puttin' into your pocket, ye skinny little supercargo, so that fwhin ye've filled out ye can ship fr

lked slowly to the rope named. A rope's end licked rou

evere eyes, "you can walk. Till then, take al

cy. He looked at the other men, and saw that even Dan did not smile. It was evidently all in the day's work, though it hurt abominably; so he swallowed the hint with a gulp and a gasp and a grin. The same smartness that led him to take such advantage of his mot

fter supper I show you a little schooner I

ed you'll be wuth your salt maybe 'fore you're draownded. Thet

as nothing to be seen ten feet beyond the surging jib-boom, while alongside rolled t

ern he produced a battered deep-sea lead hollowed at one end, smeared the hollow from a sauce

ith Harvey to help (and a proud boy was Harvey), let down the jib in a lump on th

y. "We're not drawin' twenty-five fut off F

ed lead plopped into the sea far ahead

en your dipsey lead's all the eye you're lik

f the Fleet, and he had his reputation as a master artist who knew the Banks blindfold. "Sixty, m

Tom Platt, hauling

ce more. "Heave!" said Disko

ed at Harvey proudly. But Harvey was too proud o

trust we're right over the nick

ely see him through the fog. "She's bust wi

aid Dan, diving for

rough the smother, her headsail banging wildly. The

Dad know? Help us here, Harve. It's a big un. Poke-hooked, too." They hauled together,

ith little crabs," cried

y already," said Long Jack. "Disko, ye

l heaved over the lines, each man t

rvey panted, as he lugged

ther by the thousand, and when they take the bait that way they're

and splashing - nearly all poke-hooked, as Dan had said. "Why

o Fundy. Boatfishin' ain't reckoned progressive, though, unless ye know as much as dad knows. Gu

k, abreast of him; but the few feet of a schooner's freeboard make so much extra dead-hauling, and stooping over the bulwarks cr

slapping the slime off his oilskins, and reeling

coffee a

wn and opened, utterly unconscious of fish or weather, sat the two men, a

Harvey, one hand in the leather loop at the

d heaps," Harvey replied, quot

eren't none o' his fault," snap

th the steaming coffee in a tin pail. "That lets us out o' c

tub or so o' trawl, while they're cleanin',

'd ruther cl

h. Dress daown! Dress daown! Pen

'd struck on?" said Uncle Salters, shuffling to hi

" said Dan, muddling about in the dusk over the tubs full of trawl-line lashed t

. "I mistrust shag-fishin' w

y single hook, with the stowage of the baited line so that it should run clear when shot from the dory, was a scientific business. Dan managed it in the dark, without looking, while Harvey caught his fingers on the barbs and bewailed his fate. But the hooks flew through Da

three.

I did." He stuck his finger in his mouth. "I tell you, Harve, there ain't money in Gloucester 'u'd hire me to ship on

regular trawling," said Harvey sulkil

there's mighty good reason fer it. Dad knows. Thet's why he's baitin' ez he

k, who had been exploring the inside of a dory with a lantern, snatched them away, loaded up the tubs and some small, painted trawl-buoys, and hove

case you'll not be lookin' for us, we'll

d impossible that she could avoid smashing against the schooner's

" said Dan, passing Harvey the lanyard of

in the cabin, scrawling in the log-book, did not look like a murderer,

set thet trawl! They've only gone out jest far 'nough so

nd a bump alongside. Manuel and Dan raced to the hooks of the dory-tackle; Long Jack and Tom Platt arrived on deck toget

Platt as he dripped.

nding to honour the second half wid our presence." And off they all four rolled to supper, where Harvey stuffed himself to the brim on fish-chowder and fried pies, and fell fast asleep just as Manu

tching the boy's face, "for his mother and his father, who

sh your game with Uncle Salters. Tell Dad I'll stan

ing into the black shadows of the lower bunk. "Expec' he make good ma

ut the chuckle

seas; the foc'sle stove-pipe hissed and sputtered as the spray caught it; and the boys slept on, while Disko, Long Jack, Tom Platt, and Uncle Salters, each in turn, stumped