Posted by Robert Dilley on September 05, 2000 at 16:17:16 from 205.189.37.81:
I have just re-read Childers' novel (a copy of which was on the bookshelf of the houseboat) for the first time in many years, and the following passage struck me. I am sure others must have noted this before, but I don't remember seeing it commented on so I hope I will be excused for revisiting it.
The narrator is a very amateur sailor who has been persuaded to accompany a much more experienced hand in a Goblin-sized yacht for a little espionage off the pre-WWI north German coast. They are anchored in nasty October weather, and wondering if to move:
"A blunder of mine, when I went to the winch to get up the anchor, settled the question. Thirty out of our forty fathoms of chain were out. Confused by the motion and a blinding sleet-shower that had come on, and forgetting the tremendous strain on the cable, I cast the slack off the bitts and left it loose. There was then only one turn of the chain round the drum, enough in ordinary weather to prevent it running out. But now my first heave on the winch-lever started it slipping, and in an instant it was whizzing out of the hawse-pipe and overboard. I tried to stop it with my foot, stumbled at a heavy plunge of the yacht, heard something snap below, and saw the last of it disappear. The yacht fell off the wind and drifted astern." (Penguin, 1978, p 160).
Sounds familiar? In this case the result was less spectacular. The narrator had the sense to hoist the foresail, the skipper was quickly summoned and the situation brought under control. The kedge anchor was available, and the main chain was buoyed and recovered later. Incidentally, the skipper, Davies, has some Peter Duck tendencies. "It was always a torture to Davies to feel a good breeze running to waste while he was inactive at anchor or on shore. The 'shore' to him was an inferior element, merely serving as a useful annexe to the water -- a source of necessary supplies (p 54)."