The Race to Kangaroo Cliff

by Alexander McCall Smith

  “Then why do they do it?” asked Thomas Seagrape.

  “They do it when something’s chasing them,” Miss Worsfold replied. “When a bigger fish comes after a shoal of flying fish, the one thing they can do that the bigger fish can’t is to get out of the water, fly a little way, then drop back into a different bit of water.”

  Now, as Henry lay on the deck and the students busied themselves with their various hobbies, down below in the water a hungry barracuda – a big fish with very sharp teeth – decided that the small group of flying fish swimming happily nearby would make a perfect midday snack. The flying fish, panicking at the sight of the barracuda, hurled themselves out of the water, flapping their wings as fast as they could.

  What they did not notice, though, was the huge bulk of the Tobermory immediately in front of them. But it was too late to turn back, so they simply flapped their wings a little harder to gain some extra height and shot over the deck of the great sailing ship and back into the water on the other side.

  Henry, who had been dozing, opened his eyes to see a whole cloud of flying fish directly above his nose. No dog could ignore such a challenge, so he went scampering after them, barking furiously and determined to catch some of these insolent creatures. But the fish were too fast for him, and unable to stop himself in time he shot off the edge of the deck, following the flying fish in a perfect arc down into the water.

  Henry, of course, was a good swimmer, and there was never any danger of him drowning, but it was still impossible for him to get back on board the Tobermory without one of the liberty boats being lowered to pick him up. But before he could even paddle his way back closer to the ship, he was caught by a large wave and carried further away from the Tobermory towards the shore.

  Other dogs might well have panicked, but Henry, resourceful as ever, managed to clamber on top of a small plank of wood that was also being carried along by the wave, and it was on this improvised surfboard that he sped towards the beach, wagging his tail excitedly.

  It was a marvellous sight, and there were howls of laughter from the deck of the Tobermory. Captain Macbeth heard the noise and came up from below to see what was going on. At first he was alarmed to see his dog speeding away in the water, but when he saw Henry surfing, his face broke into a broad smile.

  It was a simple matter to stop the ship and launch a small boat, captained by Mr Rigger, to row off and pick up Henry, who by now had been deposited at the edge of the beach, where the waves made a white line of foam.

  When he came back on board, he was given a hero’s welcome.

  “You know,” said Mr Rigger, as he watched Henry being dried in one of Matron’s large towels, “I thought I’d come across everything there was to see on the oceans, but now … well, Henry is the very first surfing dog I’ve ever seen!”

  Hearing his name mentioned, Henry uttered a bark. A dog’s bark can mean many things, but this one seemed clear enough. It said, Well, there you are, please don’t underestimate what I can do!

  The Tobermory made it across the Roaring Forties much more quickly than anticipated, even allowing for the time spent rescuing Feathers from his dangerous iceberg. That was not the only ice they saw – they narrowly avoided hitting a large chunk one night when the moon went behind a cloud and it was difficult to see what lay ahead. Poppy and Badger were at the helm when this happened, and they were able to swing the ship sharply to starboard and just miss the ice.

  Another incident, potentially just as serious, took place just a few days before they reached Australia. It had to do with water, which is one of the most precious things on any ship when it is at sea. Fresh water, that is – there’s any amount of salt water all around you, but you can’t drink that. So you have to watch your supplies of fresh water and make sure there’s enough to last until you get to the next port.

  Like any big ship, the Tobermory had large tanks down below in the bilges – the very lowest part of the boat – in which fresh water was stored. Pipes led up from these tanks to the kitchen and then on to the basins and showers in the washrooms. Cook looked after drinking water, decanting it into large containers from which everybody could fill their individual water bottles. He also filled jugs that were placed on the table at mealtimes.

  Fresh water was needed in the washrooms because you can’t wash in sea water, nor can you brush your teeth in it. Washing in sea water leaves you covered in salt and feeling sticky; only fresh water will make you properly clean.

  But you have to be careful. Standing under the shower for a long time might make you feel nice and clean, but it gets through a large volume of water. And if everybody on a ship like the Tobermory took long showers, the supplies of fresh water would last no time at all.

  Poppy had explained all this to Fee when she first joined the ship. “There’s a very important rule when it comes to showers,” she explained. “No shower longer than two minutes.”

  Fee frowned. “Two minutes isn’t very long,” she said.

  “No, it isn’t,” said Poppy. “It’s really just in and out.”

  “But why?” asked Fee.

  “We need to save water,” Poppy explained. “There are lots of people on board. If everybody had a long shower – say ten minutes – we’d run out of water way before we reached the next port.”

  Fee loved long showers, but she understood that these would just not be possible on board. “I’ll be careful,” she promised.

  “Good,” said Poppy. “Because if we ran out of water, we wouldn’t have anything to drink.” She paused before continuing, “There’s a famous poem, you know. It’s called The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Have you read it?”

  Fee shook her head.

  “It’s about a ship that runs out of water,” said Poppy. “It goes like this: Water, water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink; Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”

  Fee shivered. “If we ran out of water in the middle of the ocean,” she said, “what would happen? Would we die of thirst?”

  Poppy shrugged. “If it didn’t rain, maybe. You see, if it rains you can collect water in a canvas tarpaulin. You can get quite a bit that way.”

  Fee was relieved. But then Poppy went on, “If it rains … And it doesn’t always rain, does it? How much rain have we had in the past few days?” She paused for a few moments before answering her own question. “None. So if we ran out of water now, it wouldn’t be good.”

  Fee was always careful with fresh water after that – as was everybody, as they heard often enough from the Captain and Matron about the need to conserve supplies. Like everybody else, Fee attended Matron’s special classes in how to wash your hair in forty-five seconds (if you were a girl) and thirty seconds (if you were a boy). (The difference, of course, was based on the fact that the girls mostly had longer hair than the boys, and needed more time to wash it.) There were also lessons in how to clean your teeth using less than half a cup of fresh water, and how to wash your clothes in a bucket.

  All of the water tanks had gauges on them, and it was part of the duties of the morning watch to check the levels on these gauges, note them down on a piece of paper and report them to the duty officer. One morning, when the Tobermory was still several days from Australia, it was the turn of Ben and Badger to check the water levels in the main freshwater tank. Because they had been at sea for so long, the two secondary tanks had been used up and the ship would be dependent on the main tank for the rest of the voyage. The Captain had calculated that there would be enough water to see them through, and nobody was too worried that they might run out.

  It was dark down in the bilges, and the only way Ben and Badger could see was to use the powerful flashlight kept near the door for exactly this purpose.

  Ben took the flashlight and lit the way down the ladder into the bilges.

  “I don’t like it down here,” he confessed to Badger. “It makes me feel a bit …”

  “Scared?” supplied Badger.

  “Yes, I suppose so.�
� It is not easy to admit to people that you are scared, but Ben knew that Badger was not the sort of person to laugh at you for not being brave.

  “I’m scared too,” said Badger

  It was dark where they were, and there were all sorts of odd sounds too, which were the creaking and groaning of timbers that are the constant soundtrack of a ship at sea. But there were other sounds too, which were more difficult to identify. There was a buzzing and a whistling, and something that sounded just like footsteps, although that was impossible as they were the only people down there.

  Unless the ship is haunted, thought Ben, remembering that he had heard some talk of that, before reassuring himself that people often make up these stories just to frighten each other.

  They made their way down to the bottom of the ladder. Now Ben played the beam of light over the short walkway that led to the secondary water tanks – now both empty – to the side of the main water tank. They could already see the gauge illuminated in the darkness, although they could not read the figures.

  When they reached the tank, Badger bent down to read the gauge. Ben heard a sharp intake of breath – a gasp.

  “The tank’s almost empty,” whispered Badger. “Only … only …” He struggled to make out the markings on the gauge. “I can’t quite read it, Ben, but it’s hardly registering.”

  “But that’s impossible, Badge,” exclaimed Ben. “Take another look.”

  Badger craned his neck to get a better view. “No,” he muttered after a while. “It’s almost all gone.”

  Ben leaned forward to take a look himself. He hoped that Badger had got it wrong, but when he looked at the gauge, it told the same story to him. “Knock on the side of the tank,” he said to Badger. “See if it sounds empty.”

  There is a big difference between the sound that a full tank makes and the sound that an empty one makes. One sounds like a solid block of wood – the other sounds like a drum. This sounded like a drum.

  “It’s definitely almost empty,” said Badger. “Listen to that.”

  They tried it again. There was no doubt: the main water tank was almost completely dry.

  The two boys looked at one another. “What do we do?” asked Ben.

  Badger thought for a moment. “We must go and tell the Captain right away,” he said. “Because …” He looked at his watch, and Ben’s heart sank. They were up early because they were on watch; everybody else was just about to get up and would be going to the washrooms for a shower. Unless they stopped them, the ship’s water supply would be totally exhausted within a couple of minutes.

  With only the flashlight to guide them, they scrambled out of the bilges and up the ladder. Then they both ran as fast as they possibly could to the Great Cabin, Captain Macbeth’s personal quarters.

  The Captain had only just got dressed and was straightening his tie when the two boys knocked loudly at his door. He was surprised to see them and he knew immediately that something was wrong.

  “A problem?” he asked.

  “Yes,” blurted out Badger. “The water … We looked, you see, and we …”

  “It was really low,” said Ben, who was still panting to catch his breath.

  The Captain held up a hand. “Calm down,” he said. “Take a deep breath – and then tell me what the trouble is. What water are you talking about?”

  “The main tank,” said Badger. “We were checking the level this morning …”

  “As you should,” interjected the Captain. “You’re on this watch, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” said Badger. “So we checked and the gauge was almost at zero. There’s hardly any water left.”

  The Captain frowned. “I know the secondary tanks are empty. We’ve still got the main tank.”

  Badger shook his head. “No, we haven’t, sir. The main tank has hardly any water left, and if people have their showers this morning …”

  The Captain stopped him. “Are you absolutely sure? The main tank?”

  Ben confirmed what Badger had said. “Almost empty, Captain,” he said. “We checked by knocking on it to see how much was left. If people start to use water …”

  He did not finish. The consequences of that did not have to be spelt out.

  If you are the captain of a ship you have to be able to make decisions – and make them quickly. This is what Captain Macbeth now did. Without losing a moment, he rushed to a switch near his desk and pushed it. This was the general alarm, which sounded throughout the whole ship. Everyone had been trained to react to this by making their way up to the main deck immediately, bringing their lifejackets with them. It was a strict rule that the crew came immediately and did not waste time changing or combing their hair or searching for things they might like to take in a lifeboat if they had to abandon ship.

  Ben and Badger knew why he had done this. It was the best way of stopping the showers from being used. But would it work, or was it already too late? If anybody had started to have a shower, or even to use the basins to wash their face, then the last few precious gallons could have drained away by now.

  It was quite a sight. Most of the people who came up onto the deck, bleary-eyed from having been woken up so abruptly, were still in their pyjamas. But there were some who had got up early and were already dressed – and one or two of them looked as if they had already had a shower.

  “Pay attention!” shouted the Captain once the last of the stragglers had appeared. “We are facing a serious water crisis – nobody is to use the showers or the basins until further notice. Drinking water will be rationed by Cook. The toilets may be used as normal – they flush with sea water.”

  It was clear to everybody that the Captain was angry. After he had finished speaking, he turned to speak to Mr Rigger. Poppy, who was standing nearby, heard every word.

  “How on earth did this happen, Mr Rigger?” the Captain asked. “According to my calculations we had plenty of water to see us through – and now this. If there’s a leak, then I want to know why it wasn’t spotted earlier.”

  “I’ll do what I can to find out,” Mr Rigger replied.

  The Captain nodded, but he was still obviously concerned. “This is a very serious situation, you know,” he muttered to Mr Rigger. “More serious than the students might realise.”

  Mr Rigger glanced over his shoulder. “We don’t want them to panic,” he said quietly.

  “No,” agreed the Captain. “We’ll keep an appearance of normality as much as possible, but I must say I’m very, very worried.”

  After the Captain had finished his announcement, there was a buzz of excited chatter. A water crisis? Why was there a water crisis when everything had seemed to be fine the day before? Nobody had said anything then about the tank running dry. Ben and Badger went to join their friends, who were eager to find out what had happened.

  “Are you absolutely sure you were reading the right gauge?” asked Poppy.

  “Absolutely sure,” confirmed Badger. “We both looked, didn’t we, Ben? Just to be certain.”

  Ben nodded. “We also knocked on the tank to see if it sounded empty – and it did. It was just like a great big drum.”

  “I heard the Captain talking to Mr Rigger,” said Poppy. “He said we’re in serious trouble. And he must be right: we’re miles from Australia and the nearest fresh water.”

  Tanya shook her head sadly. “What will happen when Cook’s supply of drinking water is used up? What then?”

  Poppy shrugged. “I don’t know. And how long is that going to last, anyway? A day at the most, I think.”

  Breakfast was a sombre affair. Although everybody was trying to put a brave face on it, they all knew just how serious the situation was. Cook did his best to appear cheerful, but it was clear that he was worried. He usually chatted in a friendly way with people when they came to collect their food, but that morning he was tight-lipped.

  “Are we going to be all right, Cook?” asked Badger as he waited for Cook to put his egg and sausage onto his plate.

&nbs
p; Cook liked Badger and would not normally have snapped at him. But that morning his reply was short and unfriendly. “What do you think?” he said angrily. “Do you expect me to produce water from nowhere? Don’t ask stupid questions.”

  Badger was taken aback. “Sorry, Cook,” he stuttered. “I was just asking …”

  Cook immediately regretted his bad temper. “No, I’m the one who should be saying sorry, young Badger,” he said. “It’s just that … well, I don’t really know what to do. I’m down to a few pints of water, and when I turned on the tap nothing came out – just a hissing sound. I’m afraid I’m getting really worried, and that made me bite your head off. I’m sorry about that.”

  Badger told him that it did not matter. “I’m sure the Captain will find a solution,” he said. He was not sure of that, of course, but he wanted to say something to cheer Cook up, and he thought this would be better than saying nothing.

  Badger returned to his table. “What did Cook say?” asked Poppy. “Did he have any ideas?”

  Badger shook his head. “Nothing much,” he replied. “I think he’s every bit as worried as the rest of us.”

  They looked at one another, but nobody said anything. And what was there to say? Talking can make you thirsty, and so it was probably best to say nothing at all.

  Then suddenly a boy from another table, Bartholomew Fitzhardy, came up and whispered into Badger’s ear. He was popular and was also one of the most skilful sailors in the school. He was not the sort to exaggerate or make up stories.

  “I want to tell you something,” said Bartholomew.

  “Well, I’m listening,” said Badger.

  Bartholomew looked over his shoulder. “Not in here. Outside – on deck.”

  Badger looked puzzled, but he could tell that it was important. “Can Ben come?” he asked. “He knows how to keep a secret.”

  Bartholomew hesitated for a moment, but then he nodded. “All right. I’ll go out first – you and Ben wait a few minutes and then come. I’ll be on the port side – near the lifebelt locker.”