Complete New Tales of Para Handy (71 page)

“Onyway, Jum, efter he'd given us a gless wi' something warmin' in it, the yat skipper passed roond a box o' big Havana cigars for us to try. I said no, thanks, if he didna mind I would stick wi' the pipe — but Dan here, who'd neffer smoked a cigar in his naitural, picked oot the biggest wan in the box and lit it up quite jocco.

“Two meenits and he wass chust ass green in the face ass the gress on midsummer day, and two meenits more and he wass up and oot the cabin like a lamplighter and aal we could hear wass him bein' no weel ower the side o' the yat! It wass a while before Dougie and me let him forget aboot that, I can tell you: and I had to feenish his dram for him that night, too!”

“Och, he's so smairt,” said the Engineer, both embarrassed and petulant at once. “Jist ask him aboot the time we wis cairrying the shows for the Tarbert Fair from Brodick, where they'd been for the week afore that, over to Loch Fyne.

“Wan o' the sideshows for the Fair wis a man that had a kind of a trained monkey, that could sit on a perch and stand on its haun's, and jump through girrs, and put on a wee bit of a cloak and tak' it off again, and go in among the folk on the end of a leash wi' a kind of a silver cup in its haun's tae collect the pennies.”

It was now the Captain's turn to look uncomfortable. “What on earth is the point of draggin' up old stories this way,” he asked Macphail with some fervour, but the Engineer continued as if there had been no interruption.

“Para Handy wis fairly taken wi' the monkey,” he said: “and wis aye gettin' the man that owned it too pit it through its paces as we crossed the tap o' Kilbrannan Soond and headed up Loch Fyne.

“When the monkey wis given a wee tin drum and a stick tae bang it with, Para Handy wis that tickled he stuck his pipe in his mooth so he'd baith haun's free to slap his thighs, for he wis laughin' till he wis sair.

“At that the monkey leapt onto his shouthers, pulled the pipe frae his mooth, and went and sat on the side of the vessel and tried tae smoke it itself! Para Handy very near fell aff of the main-hatch he wis laughing that mich, watching the beast tryin' tae imitate whit he'd been dae'ing.

“He didna laugh long! The monkey near choked on the baccy smoke and it pulled the pipe oot of its mooth quicker than it had put it in, looked at it a moment with whit ye'd hae sworn wis an expression of disgust — and then hurled Para Handy's best and only genuine and original meer-schaum ower the side o' the shup and into the Loch. So it wis an expensive joke for the Captain that day!”

“Well,” said Jim with conviction, “If I wis ever tempted to stert smokin' I'd jist have to remind masel' aboot the mess you two cloons manage tae get yoursel's intae. It's my considered opinion ye're naethin' but a pair of eejits tae cairry on wi' the pipes at aal. They seem to involve ye in an awful lot of aggravation and expense, and I canna see that it's worth it for the sake of a whiff of tobacco.”

“Ah,” said Paa Handy dreamily, “but that iss where you are aal wrong, Jum. Tobacco is sublime — chust sublime. If Dougie wass here he would tell you that himself…”

F
ACTNOTE

A ‘jenny-a'-thing' was, of course, a general store which sold just about everything (as the cliché has it) from a needle to an anchor. They were the hub around which very many of the more remote rural communities revolved, and in isolated parts of the Highlands and the rural west they still are today.

The pier at Blairmore, on the Cowal coast at the entrance to Loch Long, is one of the few remaining piers on the firth and sea-lochs of the Clyde which are still serviceable and, more importantly, licensed to serve. Our last surviving paddler, the
Waverley
, calls occasionally at Blairmore to pick up passengers for an evening cruise to Lochgoilhead or Arrochar. Ardentinny never had a pier: Passengers were embarked or disembarked from the steamers (by prior arrangement, or by hailing them as they passed) by flitboat.

The
Blue Dragon
(from 1892 till 1904) and her successor
Blue Dragon II
(1905 till 1913) were owned by a quite remarkable English schoolmaster and yachtsman, C C Lynam.

Blue Dragon
was a tiny craft, just 25ft overall, yet from the modest beginnings of day-excursions along the south coast of England Lynam sailed her further and further north and became a regular visitor not just in summer, but during winter holidays as well, to the Hebrides and West Highlands.

In the larger
Blue Dragon II
Lynam undertook voyages not just to Orkney and Shetland, but over to Bergen and then north to the North Cape and the midnight sun. She was a two-masted yawl of 43ft overall with roomy cabin-space and six berths. In 1905 she cost him just £300!

Three volumes describing his voyages (all well-illustrated and comprehensive but highly idiosyncratic, not to say eccentric) were published between 1908 and 1913. Now very scarce they are much prized by bibliophiles as remarkable accounts of Edwardian maritime adventure, and the attitudes and amenities of the age.

An encounter with a puffer, her engineer and one of the yacht's cigars is indeed related in Lynam's chronicles!

Meerschaum pipes, made from a fine white clay (the word itself derives from the German for sea-foam) were then among the most highly regarded of smoking implements and the bowls were almost always carved or moulded into intricate and decorative shapes such as character or caricature heads of men or women, whether historical or imaginary: or of beasts of myth, legend or fact.

Good early meerschaums are sought-after by collectors: and the Captain would certainly not have been happy to lose his!

60

Hurricane Jack, Entrepreneur

H
urricane Jack clattered up the ladder from the fo'c'sle and disappeared out onto the deck of the
Vital Spark
. “Weel,” said Macphail sardonically, “that's the last ye'll see of
that
five shullings.”

The puffer was lying overnight at the Broomielaw where she had been spotted by the doughty Jack, who was on the last night of a brief but eventful shore leave before taking passage as able seaman on an Australia-bound wool packet: the mariner had a problem, and he had come aboard to share it with Para Handy.

Jack's problem, not unusually, was to do with money, or rather the lack of it: quite simply, his leave had outlasted his funds and his final night of freedom before a 90-day passage promised to be one to forget, rather than one to remember. Para Handy had not hesitated for one second before agreeing to fund that final spree and sent Jack ashore clutching two half-crowns. He had refused, with reluctance, Jack's pressing invitation that he should join him on the grounds that the
Vital Spark
was due to leave on the six a.m. tide. A further, overwhelming reason for refusal was that Jack now had in his pocket the Captain's entire current assets with the exception only of a handful of coppers — something which Para Handy was absolutely determined that his oldest friend should never suspect, and very unwilling that his cynical crew should ever know.

“Five shullings!” he said contemptuously, “ass if that mattered at aal. Five shullings iss nothing to Jeck!”

“It's certainly naethin' to you, noo,” continued the engineer implacably, “for that's it gone for good. Yon fella has jist nae idea whatsoever o' the value o' money, nor the prunciples of ownership. It's nae wonder he's never got twa pennies tae rub thegither.”

“Jeck iss the sort of man that could quite easily have been a mullionaire, if he had pit his mind to it,” said Para Handy with dignity and conviction: “but what you will neffer understand, Macphail, iss that there iss some chentlemen to whom money is only a minor conseederation compared wi' the sheer enchoyment of life. And it iss his life, and ensuring the happiness of his fellow human beings, that matters to Jeck. He doesna give a docken aboot money, but I can assure you that if he ever
had
cared aboot it and put his mind to it then he could have made it hand over fist.

“That wass neffer better shown than wan time when he and I wass workin' the Brodick puffer
Mingulay
. We had come doon to Loch Ryan, wi' a cargo of early Arran Pilots for Stranraer, and when we had unloaded the cairgo late on Friday efternoon, the owner sent a telegram to tell us to stay where we were till Monday as he wass negotiating a return load o' whunstane for us.

“That suited us chust fine, and we spruced up and went ashore, for neither Jeck nor I had ever been in Stranraer before, and Jeck wass always in extra good trum in a new surroundings.

“The engineer we had wi' us wass a soor-faced man — sometimes I think it's wan o' the qualifications for the chob, no offence meant Dan, and he wassna at aal interested in seeing what sort of a toon Stranraer wass, so he stayed aboard.

“The place wass hotching! There wass weekend truppers frae Gleska, folk from the country roond aboot, visiting frien's and relations in the toon, a wheen of towerists over from Ireland, and a few from England ass weel.

“The first thing Jeck noticed wass, there wassna mich provided for them in the way of entertainment. Stranraer iss no' at aal like the Clyde holiday resorts, there iss very little diversion for ony visitors — or the toon's own folk, come to that . There wass hundreds o' ladies and chentlemen and faimilies millin' aboot wi' absolutely nothing to do.

“ ‘That iss a sight to behold, to be sure' says Jeck: ‘chust look you, Peter, at aal these folk wi' money burning a hole in their pockets and not a thing to spend it on. This toon iss no canny at aal. A man of ony sagiocity or mental agility wouldna have a problem makin' a good livin' here for he'd have nothing by way o' competition.

“Where iss the oaring-boats for hire, or the bathing-huts, or the motor-boat trups to the lighthoose, or the donkey-rides, or the day excursions up the Firth — or doon it, mebbe — or the aquariums or menageries or circuses or fairs? This toon needs a shake to itself!'

“The second thing that Jeck noticed wass a smert twofunnelled paddle-steamer tied up at the outer wall o' the harbour, quite deserted. She hadna steam up and there wassna a man to be seen moving aboot her.

“ ‘Now there iss someone that issna opening his eyes to a golden opportunity,' says Jeck: ‘the owner o' that shup needs to tak' a tumble to himself. Here's hundreds of towerists and visitors chust desperate to spend their money on
something
, and here's a man wi' chust the very thing they're looking for — but instead o' preparing for an excursion programme, he has her lying here like a stranded whale.

“ ‘Let us see if there iss onybody at hame, and we'll can mebbe put some business his way to our own advantage, for he is badly in need of some advice and encouragement.'

“When we got to the shup we saw that her port of registration wass Belfast, and her name wass
Pride of Rathlin
. And it wass right enough, there wassna a soul on board. There wass one gangway laid from the top of the paddle-box to the quayside but it had a kind of steel gate across the bottom end of it so you couldna get on board.

“ ‘Strange and stranger still,' says Jeck, and we walked up past the brudge till we wass at the bow of the shup.

“And there, when we looked back, we saw a kind of a bill stuck up on the foremast, very official looking.

“ ‘My chove,' said Jeck, ‘I've seen a few of those in my time at sea. She's been impounded!'

“I hadna a notion what he wass taalking aboot. Jeck chumped on board the shup, and beckoned on me to follow him.

“The notice wass headed WARRANT: BY ORDER OF THE SHERIFF OF DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY in big, bleck capitals. Jeck studied the small print underneath. I couldna make heid nor tail of it.

“ ‘Nae wonder she's chust lying here,' said Jeck, straightening up. ‘She's no' paid her Harbour Dues for months, and the port authorities hass had her poinded by the Shuriff's Officers, the owner daurna move her till he pays the dues and the fines. Man, Peter, whatna opportunity!'

“ ‘Opportunity for what,' I asked him.

“ ‘Why, to
unpound
her — unoffeecially, of course.'

“ ‘You canna get awa' wi' that, Jeck,' said I, ‘it's against the law!'

“ ‘Aye we can,' said Jeck, cheerfully, ‘it iss the weekend! The law's no here, apart from maybe wan toon polisman — but he iss sittin' wi' his feet up right now, and no' wantin' his Seturday disturbed or his Sabbath interrupted. The Shuriff and his men is awa' hame to their teas and they'll no' be back till Monday.

“Look at the crowds in the toon, Peter, and not a thing for them to do. Now how many tickets d'you think we could sell for a day cruise to the Isle of Man tomorrow?
Hundreds!
Bet your life on it! Now it iss going to tak' some organising, but we can do it if we set oor minds to it.'

“I sterted to protest, but you know what Jeck iss like when he gets cairried awa' wi' wan o' his schemes. He wudna listen to reason at aal. And you couldna but admire the sheer agility of the man when it cam' to gettin' the scheme moving.

“First thing he did, he went back to the
Mingulay
and woke up our Engineer, a man by the name o' MacFadyen, and telt him to go and find a blecksmith to burn aff the iron gate fixed to the gangway of the
Pride of Rathlin
and then go on board to tak' a look at her enchines and work oot how mony men he'd need wi' him to work her.

“His next caall wass at the toon printers. He had them run off a hundred posters advertising a
Grand Excursion to the Isle of Man
leaving at 9 o'clock sherp on Saturday mornin', fares of six shullings for adults, three shullings for weans, ony bairns in prams no cherge. Then he gave two young lads a half-a-crown apiece to go aal roond the toon sticking up the posters, with a special emphasis on hotels and public hooses where the visitors was maist likely to be.