Ben took the hand extended to him. It felt cold and dry, and Hardtack’s grip was so tight that Ben gave an involuntary wince.
“Oh sorry,” said Hardtack. “I always forget that some people don’t like a strong handshake.”
And then, as the handshake came to an end, Hardtack’s hand dropped onto Ben’s plate, tipping the two remaining sausages onto the deck.
“Oh, clumsy me!” exclaimed Hardtack. As he said this, he took a step forward. “And look, I’ve gone and trodden on your sausages. Sorry about that.”
“You should be more careful,” blurted out Badger.
“Cool it, Striped One,” said Hardtack, using the nickname he had made up for Badger. Badgers are striped, of course, but nobody apart from Hardtack and his friends thought this very funny. “An accident’s an accident. It’s not as if I meant it.”
He walked away before Ben had the chance to say anything. On the floor he saw his two squashed sausages. It seemed such a waste – and he was still hungry.
“Here,” said Fee. “You can have one of mine.”
“And one of mine too,” said Poppy.
Badger’s eyes narrowed. ‘That was no accident,” he said. “I’ve seen him do that before.”
Ben tried to make little of it. “I don’t care,” he said.
“Well I do,” muttered Badger.
In deadly peril
Once breakfast was over, Badger and Poppy took their new friends to the Middle Deck to find a hammock and store their belongings.
“Are we going downstairs?” asked Fee, as they left the mess hall.
Poppy gently corrected her. “Not downstairs,” she said. “You go downstairs in a building, but in a ship it’s down below.”
Fee blushed. She did not like to be thought of as somebody who had never been to sea – she had been at sea a lot, but in her parents’ submarine it was all so different. “On our submarine there’s only one deck,” she explained. “That’s why I’m not used to stairs …”
Poppy interrupted her. “They aren’t stairs,” she pointed out. “We call them a companionway or a ladder.” She smiled. “Sorry, Fee, but it’s best that I tell you.”
Fee sighed. “I suppose I’ll remember,” she said.
Poppy was reassuring. “We all learn soon enough,” she said. “You’ll know everything by … by tomorrow!”
Fee was not so sure of that, but there was one thing that she was certain about, and that was that she liked Poppy, and Badger too. Having a good friend when you are just starting off on something new always helps, and having two good friends is even better.
Poppy was interested in hearing a bit more about life on a submarine. “It must be pretty cramped down there,” she said. “I’ve seen pictures of submarines, and there’s not much room.”
“You get used to it,” said Fee. “You get used to sharing every bit of space – and not just sharing with people – you share with provisions. We used the space above my bunk to hang sausages and cabbages. And my brother had to share his bunk with a whole lot of tinned tomatoes. It wasn’t that comfortable.”
Poppy’s eyes widened. “And what about air? Did you have enough air?”
“Most of the time,” said Fee. “But sometimes when the air supplies got a bit low we had to take it in turns to breathe. I would breathe in when my brother breathed out. Then I would breathe out while he breathed in.”
Poppy tried to imagine what that was like. She did not like the sound of taking turns to breathe.
“But that hardly ever happened,” Fee went on. “Most of the time we submerged for only a few hours so that my parents could study fish. Then we would surface again and open the hatch to let fresh air in.”
While Poppy took Fee to the girls’ cabins, Badger led Ben to the boys’. “Here we are,” he said, pointing to a door off a passageway. “You can share with me, if you like.”
Badger pushed open the door and showed Ben the cabin beyond. It was not big; in fact, Ben thought it rather small. He saw, though, there was enough room for the two hammocks slung from one side of the cabin to the other, and also for a couple of small chests for storage.
“This is my hammock,” said Badger. “And that can be yours.” He looked enquiringly at Ben. “Have you ever slept in one of these things?”
Ben shook his head. “I’ve seen hammocks,” he said. “But I’ve never slept in one.”
“You’ll get used to it quickly,” said Badger. “And when the ship’s going up and down, you’ll be pleased to have a hammock. They swing, you see, like the tables in the mess hall. They’re really just swinging beds.”
Ben stowed away the clothing he had collected from Matron, and then emptied the kitbag he had brought with him. The chest was just large enough to contain everything, and soon all his possessions were neatly packed away.
“That’s it,” said Badger, looking at his watch. “And we’re just in time to go back up on deck to report for duty.”
It gave Ben a thrill to think that he was reporting for duty. He had never done that before, and he wondered just what his duties would be.
It seemed as if Badger had read his mind. “Scrubbing the decks,” he said. “Checking the rigging. Polishing the railings. Stowing the boats. Removing the sail covers.” He paused. “There are hundreds of things to do before you go to sea, but don’t worry. Just stick beside me and do what I do – you can’t go wrong that way.” He smiled, and then added, “At least, I hope you can’t go wrong – sometimes people do!”
Poppy and Fee were busy uncoiling rope on deck when the two boys emerged. Badger took Ben to a rope ladder that was fastened to the ship’s railings at one end and, at the other, to the top of one of the masts. It made Ben dizzy just to look up. Would people really climb all the way up there, he wondered?
His question was answered almost immediately. “I’ll show you how to do this,” Badger said. “We need to go up and make sure the rigging’s secure.”
Ben gulped. “All right,” he said, trying his hardest to sound confident, but not really succeeding. The rope ladder he had used earlier that day did not seem to disappear into the clouds, as this one did.
“It’s not too bad,” said Badger. “All you have to do is to remember not to look down.”
Ben thought that was easier said than done. People always told you not to look down when you were doing something like crossing a narrow bridge over a ravine or climbing up a mountain. Don’t look down, they said, but of course that was exactly where you wanted to look, just to check up on how far you would drop if you fell. Not that you were planning to fall, of course …
Now they stood at the bottom of the rope ladder. “Would you like to go first?” asked Badger. “If you slip, I’ll be able to catch you.”
Ben swallowed. He was not going to slip. He was definitely not going to slip.
But if he did not go first, Badger might think he was afraid, and he did not want that. So he stretched out his arms, gripped one of the rungs, took a deep breath, and began to climb. He felt the ladder move under his weight, and then move again when Badger followed behind him. He took another deep breath and looked up at the climb ahead of him. He suddenly felt surprised: it was not nearly as bad as he had imagined. In fact now he had started he decided that he was actually enjoying himself.
“Are you all right?” Badger called out from beneath him.
“Yes,” shouted Ben. “I don’t mind this at all.”
Badger seemed pleased. “You obviously have a head for heights,” he said.
Have I? Ben asked himself. He had never thought about it, but perhaps it was true. Perhaps he was one of those people who could stand on top of a mountain and look down without feeling the slightest bit worried – or one of those window-cleaners who dangled on ropes down the sides of tall buildings and managed to whistle as they worked. I suppose, he said to himself, if you don’t try things like this you’ll never know whether or not you can do them.
Halfway up the ladder, Ben paused. He k
new he should not look down, but he could not help himself. If I’m going to fall, he thought, I might as well know how far it’s going to be. Ever so slowly he turned his head so that he could glance down below him, but quickly he turned it back. It had been an appalling, frightening sight: everything looked so small from up there – the deck, the people standing on it, the coils of rope, the line of life rafts. Even Tobermory harbour and the town, with its moored boats, bobbing in the water, looked small from up there – like a model village by a model bay.
Badger wondered why he had stopped. “Are you all right up there?” he called out.
Ben swallowed hard. He knew that if he was going to stay at this school he would have to get used to this sort of thing. You cannot go to sea feeling frightened of everything. You have to be brave – and he would be.
“Just getting my breath back,” he replied. “I’m ready to carry on now.”
Hand over hand he made his way up. Foot over foot he climbed the ladder, until a few minutes later he realised that he was at the top. There he stopped and waited for Badger to arrive.
“You need to step out onto the spar,” Badger said. “There’s one below and one above. Stand on the lower spar and hold on to the higher one.”
For a moment Ben was unsure what his friend meant, but when he looked he saw that there was a wooden pole projecting out from the mast, with another one above it. The lower one, which looked strong, had sail rolled up beneath it, fastened with loops of rope. He had seen pictures of this sort of thing before and he knew that if the rope were released, the sail would open out below.
Gingerly he made his way out onto the lower spar, gripping the higher one tightly as he did so. He was concentrating so hard on what he was doing that he was almost surprised when Badger appeared beside him.
The other boy beamed at him. “See?” he said. “Easy, isn’t it?”
Ben nodded. He would not have described it as easy, but perhaps it was not quite as difficult as he had feared.
“Now we have to check the ropes on this sail,” said Badger. “We have to make sure they’re not tangled, so that when somebody pulls on the other end the sail unfurls properly. You watch while I check – that means next time you’ll be able to do it by yourself.”
Ben held his breath as Badger moved along the spar, reaching down from time to time to rearrange one of the ropes wound around the bunched-up sail. Badger made it all look extremely easy, but all the while Ben was thinking of what would happen if he slipped. It was a long way down to the deck …
It was just as he was thinking this that there came a sudden gust of wind. The air had been quite still up till then, so Ben was caught unawares. As the wind hit the ship, it leaned over and the mast tilted like a giant pencil being moved against the sky. Standing on the spar, Ben felt as if the whole world was shifting under his feet, and his natural reaction was to grab for more support. He should not have done this. He should not have taken his hand off the upper spar, but when your whole world goes topsy-turvy you can easily end up doing the wrong thing.
Ben reached out to grab a rope. As he did so, he lost his footing, and before he knew what was happening he felt himself topple off the spar and into the void. This is the end, he thought. This is the end of me.
Badger saw what was happening and gave a shout of warning. “Don’t let go!” he yelled.
Ben held on to the rope as he fell. For a second or two he plummeted straight down, but then the slack in the rope was taken up and it began to bear his weight. It was an awful wrench to his shoulders, and he felt as if his arms were going to be pulled from their sockets, but he held on to the rope and began to swing.
Out over the deck he swung, and, beyond that, over the sea. Like a giant pendulum he went backwards and forwards, narrowly avoiding the rigging. As he swung inwards, another gust of wind arrived, making the mast swing the other way, so Ben started to swing outwards.
He was aware that Badger was shouting something to him, but he could not make out what it was. There were people on the deck and they were all watching and pointing as he swung about on the end of the rope. He saw Matron appear from below deck, shading her eyes from the sun to get a better view of what was happening; he saw the Captain; he saw William Hardtack standing with Geoffrey Shark and Maximilian Flubber. Hardtack, Shark and Flubber were looking up and laughing.
Ben’s arms were now beginning to ache. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine what it would be like to die. Would it be like having a light switched out? Would it be very painful?
He opened his eyes again. Something was happening to the rope and he saw that he was getting closer to the deck with each swing. Looking up, he saw that Badger was struggling to loosen the rope, lowering Ben to safety.
Ben did not plan it, but what happened next brought a great roar of approval from many of those watching him from the deck. As the arc of his swing lengthened, he was now close to the deck. On his final swing, he suddenly realised that he was heading straight for Hardtack and his two friends.
“Look out!” Ben shouted. “Get out of the way!”
But it was too late, as he was already upon them. With a great thump he knocked all three of them over like skittles in a bowling alley. Down they went – one, two, three – while Ben, letting go of the rope at last, landed safely on his feet. He almost toppled over, but managed to straighten himself out, astonished to find that he was completely unharmed.
William Hardtack was the first of the three to get back on his feet. “You idiot!” he shouted. “You deliberately knocked us down!”
Now Geoffrey Shark and Maximilian Flubber joined him, rubbing themselves in the places where they had landed. “You stupid—” Shark began.
He did not finish, as the Captain’s voice could now be heard booming across the deck. “You there! Hardtack, Shark, Flubber! I saw you laughing at that poor boy. Report to my cabin immediately!”
Hardtack shot Ben a furious glance as he led the other two off to the Captain’s cabin. Poppy had appeared by now and was standing at Ben’s side.
“They’re in trouble,” she whispered. “And it serves them right.”
Ben did not say anything. He did not want to make enemies, but it seemed to him that he now had three people who would be determined to get even.
Badger was next to arrive, having slid down the rope ladder with remarkable speed.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
Ben nodded. “You saved my life,” he said to Badger.
“Oh well,” said Badger modestly. “Please don’t mention it.”
Now Matron came over, looking anxious. “That was a narrow escape,” she said. “Nothing broken?”
“I’m fine,” Ben reassured her.
“You scared me,” said Fee to her brother.
“I’m fine,” he said again.
Matron left and they stood on the deck, until Poppy said, “Would you like me to show you how to coil rope? You don’t have to climb anywhere to do that – we can do that right here on deck.”
“That would be a great idea,” said Ben, and he followed Poppy to a place on the deck where large bundles of rope were waiting to be wound into neat coils. He felt none the worse for his ordeal, and enjoyed handling the thick rope.
“You’re good at this,” Poppy complimented him. “I think you’re going to be a really good sailor, Ben.”
“Thank you,” said Ben.
“What was it like swinging on that rope?” asked Poppy.
Ben thought for a moment. “Not too bad,” he said. But then he added, “Not that I’d like to try it again in a hurry.”
The rest of the day seemed to go quickly. Badger showed Ben what to do, making sure that he put himself in no further danger, while Fee followed Poppy around, learning about the tasks she had to perform.
“You’re doing just fine,” said Poppy. “I was hopeless when I first started. Living out in the bush, I knew all about things like bush tucker and kangaroo tracks, but I hardly knew which end of a b
oat was which. In fact, I don’t think I’d ever seen a boat until I came here.”
“Bush tucker?” asked Fee.
“It’s food you find in the bush,” explained Poppy. “There’s always something you can eat. You think there’s nothing, but then you start scrabbling around – do a bit of digging and so on – and before you know it you’ve got a three-course meal. Leaves, berries, roots – that sort of thing. The occasional lizard if you’re feeling really hungry. Snake too. Ever eaten a snake, Fee?”
Fee made a face. “No thanks!”
“Oh well,” said Poppy, with a laugh. “Snake’s not for everyone, I suppose.”
At six o’clock, a bell sounded and work stopped. “Four bells on the first dog watch,” said Badger, putting down the cloth he was using to polish a rail. “That’s it.”
The first dog watch was the period from four in the afternoon until six in the evening, and a bell was rung after each half hour. Four bells on that watch meant that you could stop whatever you were doing. It was always a welcome signal.
They went down below and changed out of their working clothes. Dinner was an hour later, and before that they could do what they liked. Badger took Ben to introduce him to his friends, and Poppy did the same for Fee. Then, when another bell rang, they all made their way into dinner.
Seated at the table with Badger on his right and a boy called Thomas Seagrape on his left, Ben tucked into the delicious fish stew that Cook had prepared. Thomas was a tall, thin boy from Jamaica. He had a wide smile and a friendly manner, and Ben knew at once that here was another friend. Thomas chatted to him about Port Antonio, where he lived with his mother, a well-known sailor, Captain Sally, who had a small steamer that made the journey between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands once a week. It seemed to Ben that Thomas knew everything there was to know about the sea, but at the same time he was not one of those people who make you feel small because you know only a fraction of what they know.
It was Thomas who brought up the subject of William Edward Hardtack and his gang.
School Ship Tobermory Page 4
