ECCENTRICITIES OF A GOOD HEART
There must always be an interval ashore between the return of the
drifters from the western voyage and their sailing north to follow the
herring down from Aberdeen to Yarmouth. And during this interval, in
1869, FitzGerald wrote one or two letters to Posh which have survived
that wholesale destruction of which their recipient speaks.
"WOODBRIDGE, _Friday_.
"Newson is up here with the Yacht, Posh; and we shall start to-morrow
with the Tide about 10.30. I doubt if we shall get out of the
harbour: or, even if we do that, get to Lowestoft in the Day. But you
can just give a look to the Southward to-morrow evening, or Sunday. I
write this, because we _may_ not have more than a day to stay at
Lowestoft.
"E. FG."
Despite his silk hat and his boa, FitzGerald was a keen and genuine lover
of yachting. Even in the way in which he took his enjoyment of this he
was original. Posh asserts that he has seen his "guv'nor" lying in the
lee scuppers while the _Scandal_ was heeling over in a stiff breeze, and
permitting the wash of the sea to run over him till he was drenched to
the skin. Indeed, although his long lean body looked frail, he was
reckless in the way in which he treated it. Posh tells one story which I
give in his words. He vouches for its truth, and I give it on his
authority and not as vouching for its accuracy myself. Personally I
believe the tale is true enough, but I admit that it requires a power of
assimilation which is not given to all.
"He! he!" says Posh. "He was a rum un sometimes, was my guv'nor! I
remember one day when the _Scandal_ was a layin' agin' the wharf where
the trawl market is now. Mr. Sims Reeves, the lawyer [this was a
prominent counsel on the Norwich circuit, not the famous tenor], and
some other friends came over for a sail, and they and Tom [Newson] was
below while me and Jack and the guv'nor was on deck, astarn. The
mains'l was h'isted, but there wasn't no heads'l on her, and we lay
theer riddy to get unner way. There was a fresh o' wind blowin' from
the eastard, not wery stiddy, and as we lay theer the boom kep' a
wamblin' and a jerkin' from side to side, a wrenchin' the mainsheet
block a rum un. The guv'nor was a readin' of a letter as had just
been brought down by the poost. 'Posh,' he say, 'here's a letter with
some money I niver expected to git,' he say. 'That's a good job,'
when just then the boom come over wallop and caught him fair on the
side of his hid, and knocked him oover into the harbour like one
o'clock. He was a wearin' of his topper same as us'al, and all of a
sudden up he come agin just as Jack an' me was raychin' oover arter
him. His topper come up aisy like, as though 'twas a life-buoy if I
may say soo, and unnerneath it come the fur boa, and then the guv'nor.
And as true as I set here he was still a holdin' that letter out in
front of him in both hands. Well, I couldn't help it. I bust out a
laughin', and soo did Jack an' all, and then we rayched down and
copped hold on him and h'isted him aboord all right and tight, but as
wet as a soused harrin'. He come up a laughin', playsed as Punch, an'
give orders to cast off and git up headsail ta oncet. And would yew
believe me, he wouldn't goo below ta shift afore we got right out to
the Corton light, though Mr. Reeves axed him tew time and time agin!
Not he. That was blowin' a fresh o' wind, an' he jest lay down in the
lee scuppers, and 'I can't get no wetter, Posh,' he say, and let the
lipper slosh oover him. Ah! He was a master rum un, was my ole
guv'nor!"
The northern herring voyage of the _Meum and Tuum_ in 1869, that is to
say, the eight weeks' fishing down the east coast from Aberdeen to
Lowestoft from the beginning of August to the end of September, seems to
have been about up to what FitzGerald might have called "Neighbour's
fare." He wrote to Mrs. W. H. Thompson (the wife of the Master of
Trinity): "My lugger has had (along with her neighbours) such a Season
hitherto of Winds as no one remembers. We made 450 pounds in the North
Sea" (that is to say, in the north fishing before the home Martinmas
fishing began); "and (just for fun) I did wish to realise 5 pounds in my
pocket. But my Captain would take it all to pay Bills. But if he makes
another 400 pounds this Home Voyage! Oh, then we shall have money in our
pockets. I do wish this. For the anxiety about all these people's lives
has been so much more to me than all the amusement I have got from the
Business, that I think I will draw out of it if I can see my Captain
sufficiently firm on his legs to carry it on alone. True, there will
still be the same risk to him and his ten men, but they don't care; only
I sit here listening to the Winds in the Chimney, and always thinking of
the eleven hanging at my own finger ends" (_Letters_, II, 110, Eversley
Edition).
{A Lowestoft "Dandy": p116.jpg}
The number of hands on a herring drifter used to be eleven, which seemed
excessive till the labour of hauling nearly two miles of nets by hand is
remembered. Now that almost every drifter which goes into the North Sea
has a donkey engine to do the hardest work of the hauling the number
aboard the dandies is lessened to nine.
This letter to Mrs. Thompson is the first suggestion that FitzGerald has
any idea of ending the partnership, a suggestion which became fully
developed in 1870.
But before Posh was hard at it every day, fishing off the Norfolk coast,
his "guv'nor" wrote him a note in a much more cheerful strain. Indeed,
this is a letter by itself, unlike any other of the writer's which I have
seen, though (as Dr. Aldis Wright says) "FitzGerald never wrote a letter
like any one else." The power of throwing himself "into the picture,"
the humour of conscious imitation, were never more brilliantly
illustrated than by this hail-fellow-well-met letter, written by the
scholar and poet:--
"MARKETHILL, WOODBRIDGE, _Wednesday_.
"Now then, Posh, here is a letter for you, sooner than you looked for,
and moreover you will have to answer it as soon as you can.
"I want you to learn from your friend _Dan Fuller_ what particulars
you can about that Lugger we saw at Mutford Bridge. Draft of Water,
Length of Keel, What sails and Stores; and what _Price_; and any other
Questions you may think necessary to ask. If the man here who has a
notion of buying such a Vessel to make a Yacht of on this river sees
any hope of doing so at a reasonable rate, and with a reasonable hope
of Success, he will go over next week to look at the Vessel. He of
course knows he would have to alter all her inside: but I told him
your Opinion that she would do well _cutter rigged_.
"So now, Poshy, do go down as soon as is convenient, to Dan, and stand
him _half a pint_ and don't tell him what you are come about, but just
turn the conversation (in a _Salvaging_ sort of way) to the old Lugger
and get me the particulars I ask for. Perhaps Dan's heart will
open--_over Half a Pint_--as yours has been known to do. And if you
write to me as soon as you can what you can learn, why I take my
Blessed Oath that I'll be d---d if I don't stand you Half a Pint, so
help me Bob, the next time I go to Lowestoft. I hope I make myself
understood.
"The _Elsie_ is being gutted, and new timbered, and Mr. Silver has
bought a new dandy of forty tons, and Ablett Percival" (cf. spelling
in other letters) "is to be Captain. I think of going down the river
soon to see Captain Newson. I have been on the River To-day and
thought that I should have been with you on the way to Yarmouth or
Southwold if I had stayed at Lowestoft. Instead of which I have been
to the Lawyer here.
"Good-bye, Poshy, and believe me always yours to the last Half Pint.
"E. FG.
"I enclose a paper with my questions marked, to which you can add
short answers."
Dan Fuller was the builder of the _Meum and Tuum_. His son is still
living, and a well-known mechanic in Lowestoft. Mutford Bridge will be
better recognised as the bridge at Oulton Broad.
Once again FitzGerald chuckles at the morality of the "salwagers," and
chuckles again at the expansiveness of the East Anglian "half a pint,"
which may mean anything between its nominal measure and the full holding
capacity of the drinker--which is as vague as "half a pint," itself.
The _Elsie_ was a yacht which belonged to a syndicate of Woodbridge
yachtsmen, of whom Mr. Silver (a Woodbridge friend of FitzGerald's) was
one and Mr. Manby was another. The two friends who went to Mutford
Bridge to look at the lugger were (so far as Posh can remember) Mr.
Silver and Mr. Cobbold, of Cobbold's Bank. Posh says that the lugger was
a beauty. But nothing came of the visit, and the Woodbridge man did not
buy her.
As yet the warning which FitzGerald had given Posh in his sermon had (so
far as the letters tell us) served its purpose. But the letters appear
to be deceitful in this, and the next chapter must deal with a painful
phase of the partnership.