Ferry Ride

The passengers on the ferry had nowhere to sit and almost nowhere to stand. Only the ship's officers ad a little space and this was on the bridge, which, along with the wheelhouse, was situated on a wooden platform erected over the engine-room. Here the captain of the vessel was in command. The bridge and wheelhouse were separated from the rest of the platform by a little wooden gate, secured only with a string catch. 5

The captain was distinguished from his fellow officers by his hat, a black felt trilby punched out into a dome and secured to his head by a silk ribbon beneath the chin. He showed no interest in the proceedings around him. No nautical preparation could hold his attention; instead, he sat at the back of the bridge, sucking on a pipe and deciding who should be allowed to pass through the gate. The competition for his honour, personally bestowed, was all the greater because of the 10

discomforts of standing anywhere else in the boat, by few who applied were chosen. Just before departure a man limped down the quay, leaning on another. The limping man was dressed in blue overalls which were stained with blood that had seeped from a heavily bandaged wound on his head. His face was grey, and he could hardly stand. The captain beckoned him to join the party on the bridge, and he stumbled up the steps and into a corner, where he fell in a heap and bled 15

quietly for the duration of the crossing. The ferry tooted its steam horn, the bow-gate was ordered to be raised, and under the direction of a man in an orange vest, the first officer, the voyage began.

A few years ago one of the ferried met a large wave in mid-stream and overturned. There were no survivors; by the time anyone on either bank noticed that the ferry was overdue, all trace of it

had disappeared. On this present occasion the ferry chugged away from the quay with its bow- 20

gate still low enough for water to flow over it past the car deck and back to the engine-room. The captain remained unconcerned and continued to suck his pope and gaze ahead while the bow-gate was adjusted and the surplus water slowly drained away.

Not long afterwards, the chief engineer, in fact the only engineer, abandoned his post and came

to the bridge to dry out. As he passed through the gate, there was a rush of passengers behind 25

him, led by a voluble character who insisted on addressing the other passengers in French, the second language of the country. It took minutes of detailed and elegant argument, he speaking in French, the officers in English, before he agreed to withdraw. While this was taking place, the gate remained ajar, so firmly wedged in the helmsman's back that he could hardly manage the wheel.

The first officer all this time was pointing our rocks and reassuring all who would listen that 30

though the river was broad and deep, its navigation required calculations of the greatest delicacy. When the helmsman was eventually free again, the ship responded to the wheel very slowly. A glance at the wheel cable showed that it had been clumsily repaired with thin wires in several places. But the captain's calm was not disturbed, until the very last moment it seemed that he would not once need to remove his pipe from his mouth. Then as the ferry approached its 35

destination, disaster loomed.

The quay drew closer, so the first officer rang the engine-room telegraph for half speed, forgetting that it would not be answered because the chief engineer was still beside him on the bridge. Consequently the boat went past the landing-ramp on the quay at full speed. No sooner was the bow rope in the hands of the dockers than it was wrenched back again as the bows raced 40

on towards the beach. The chief engineer in his haste to stop the engines, and not feeling up to further discussion with the one man who continued to block the gat to the bridge, jumped off the edge of the platform and began to fight his way among the passengers, cars and goats towards the engine-room.

Then the captain came to life. He leapt to his feet, pushed the helmsman aside, seized the wheel, 45

and ordered "full astern" on the telegraph. There was no response since the engineer was still some way from the engine-room,, and the captain, assuming that the telegraph was jammed, began banging the brass handle back