FOUR SEA STORIES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 802, 3 December 1954, Page 14

FOUR SEA STORIES

THE GENTLE CAPTAIN, by Kennard Davis; Jonathan Cape, English price 9/6. ONLY A REAL JONAH, by Humfrey Jordan; Hodder and Stoughton, English price 10/6. FIDDLER’S GREEN, by Ernest Gann; Hodder and Stoughton, English price 12/6. THE WRECK OF THE RUNNING GALE, by Garland Roark; Hodder and Stoughton, English price 12/6. HERE is wide variety in these four sea tales, and three of them merit good marks. Because Kennard Davis is a@ new writer, and the tramp steamer usually gets less than her due, I take The Gentle Captain first. He is a lovable and very competent old captain, with a bo’sun to match, in a tramp near the end of her days. The new mate, returned to sea after the wreck of his domestic life ashore; is cross-grained and sinks to crime. The captain has to handle his mate, rescue the crew of another ship in an Atlantic gale, and save his own stricken command. The story is uncommonly well written by a man who spent some years at sea. I doubt

the mate’s criminality in the circumstances, but the other characters are well drawn, and ship-lovers. will find pleasure in the daily handling of a homely ship. Engaged in "a very ancient wandering sea trade," the Morning Glory of Humfrey Jordan’s Only a.Real Jonah is technically a tramp, but she is new and fitted with every comfort for the crew and her ten passengers. This is the business of the sea at its best. The understanding, pride and continuity of long family ownership is parallelled by service in the company’s fleet. The chairman sends his son to be an apprentice in the happy Morning Glory, a youngster with too much ego in his cosmos, so that he can be tested for succession in management. The plot deals with the reactions to this, and unfolds in a world voyage that includes the Mediterranean, Wellington, Sydney and Burma. This is a pleasant and informative tour, with a fair amount of exciting incident, but thtre is more feel and smell of the sea in the wallowings of the older tramp. In Fiddler’s Green, Ernest Gann takes us to the San Francisco fishing fleet, and mixes the technique of catch- ing cod and salmon with shore crime. A crook on the run takes refuge afloat, and teams up with the rebellious son of the Norwegian-born skipper. The conflict between father and son is a sociological illumination. The emigrant is

happy to exercise his old skill as a fisherman and remain poor, but the boy is bent on the bright lights and easy money. The situation is developed with fine psychological insight and in a vivid style. This is qa good amphibious novel, and, like the other two, strengthens one’s faith in human nature. The Wreck of the Running Gale is set in a land of dreams. Calling at Chile in the ‘seventies, with a secret treasure aboard, the ship is stolen by the mate, The captain sets off after her into the blue in a schooner, and the owners’ representative, who tells the story, hires another schooner (as we would take a taxi) to pursue both. There is a fantastic game of hide and seek in the Pacific Islands, in which every traditional "property" is used, from luscious girls on the beach to pagan rites in the bush. Winded, and sticky with Garland Roark’s over-writing, I had to give up before the end, but others may be bet-

ter trained.

A.

M.