Читать книгу Into the Frozen South онлайн

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In my bunk I lay for eight forlorn hours, and then it was up again and down to that pestiferous stokehold, where the same programme was gone through. I told myself that I wasn’t the only victim; others were perhaps even more miserable than myself. And here’s a curious fact: if you think that it helps you to carry on. Queer, I admit, but it does. You have a sort of pride in your own powers of resistance. It gives you something to think of; and as they tell you that mal de mer is more a mental ailment than a physical, your mind can’t concentrate quite so closely on its own woes. That’s my opinion, anyhow, whatever others may think.

About now all available hands took part in coal trimming, and my labours were consequently lightened. Scout Mooney was clean out of the running, suffering ten times as much as I was. And then, by way of a bracer, came a welcome change in work. Instead of shovelling coal I was set on to scrubbing and cleaning, part of every ship’s everlasting programme. Inside and outside I scrubbed the engine-room, and like the First Lord of the Admiralty in the play: “I scrubbed that engine-room so thoughtfully that soon I was”—well, not the ruler of any navee, but at least granted the boon of joining the deck squad and ordered to take my first trick at the helm, from eight o’clock at night. After a bit of instruction they handed the wheel over to me, and I had the ship between my own two hands. That was something worth while. I counted in the scheme of things. The wind had dropped somewhat and the ship’s motion was easier. The topsail was furled, and I found that once I’d got the hang of things steering was enjoyable. A ship is as responsive to her helm as a horse is to its bit. You can do practically anything you like with her. And the clean, strong air up there cleansed me more than I can tell; the shuddering misery of seasickness lessened. I had the ship to watch and to learn to understand; she was given to little restive tricks that had to be guarded against; and when your mind is so closely occupied, your own woes diminish amazingly.