{"id":28837,"date":"2014-12-14T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-14T05:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=28837"},"modified":"2014-12-07T21:45:26","modified_gmt":"2014-12-08T02:45:26","slug":"qotd-the-voyage-of-the-rogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/12\/14\/qotd-the-voyage-of-the-rogue\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: The voyage of the <em>Rogue<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>Years ago, when I was young and inexperienced, I hired a yacht myself. Three things had combined to lead me into this foolishness: I had had a stroke of unexpected luck; Ethelbertha had expressed a yearning for sea air; and the very next morning, in taking up casually at the club a copy of the <em>Sportsman<\/em>, I had come across the following advertisement:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p>TO YACHTSMEN. Unique Opportunity. <em>Rogue<\/em>, 28-ton Yawl. Owner, called away suddenly on business, is willing to let this superbly-fitted \u201cgreyhound of the sea\u201d for any period short or long. Two cabins and saloon; pianette, by Woffenkoff; new copper. Terms, 10 guineas a week. Apply Pertwee and Co., 3A Bucklersbury.<\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It had seemed to me like the answer to a prayer. \u201cThe new copper\u201d did not interest me; what little washing we might want could wait, I thought. But the \u201cpianette by Woffenkoff\u201d sounded alluring. I pictured Ethelbertha playing in the evening \u2014 something with a chorus, in which, perhaps, the crew, with a little training, might join \u2014 while our moving home bounded, \u201cgreyhound-like,\u201d over the silvery billows.<\/p>\n<p>I took a cab and drove direct to 3A Bucklersbury. Mr. Pertwee was an unpretentious-looking gentleman, who had an unostentatious office on the third floor. He showed me a picture in water-colours of the <em>Rogue<\/em> flying before the wind. The deck was at an angle of 95 to the ocean. In the picture no human beings were represented on the deck; I suppose they had slipped off. Indeed, I do not see how anyone could have kept on, unless nailed. I pointed out this disadvantage to the agent, who, however, explained to me that the picture represented the <em>Rogue<\/em> doubling something or other on the well-known occasion of her winning the Medway Challenge Shield. Mr. Pertwee assumed that I knew all about the event, so that I did not like to ask any questions. Two specks near the frame of the picture, which at first I had taken for moths, represented, it appeared, the second and third winners in this celebrated race. A photograph of the yacht at anchor off Gravesend was less impressive, but suggested more stability. All answers to my inquiries being satisfactory, I took the thing for a fortnight. Mr. Pertwee said it was fortunate I wanted it only for a fortnight \u2014 later on I came to agree with him \u2014 the time fitting in exactly with another hiring. Had I required it for three weeks he would have been compelled to refuse me.<\/p>\n<p>The letting being thus arranged, Mr. Pertwee asked me if I had a skipper in my eye. That I had not was also fortunate \u2014 things seemed to be turning out luckily for me all round \u2014 because Mr. Pertwee felt sure I could not do better than keep on Mr. Goyles, at present in charge \u2014 an excellent skipper, so Mr. Pertwee assured me, a man who knew the sea as a man knows his own wife, and who had never lost a life.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It was still early in the day, and the yacht was lying off Harwich. I caught the ten forty-five from Liverpool Street, and by one o\u2019clock was talking to Mr. Goyles on deck. He was a stout man, and had a fatherly way with him. I told him my idea, which was to take the outlying Dutch islands and then creep up to Norway. He said, \u201cAye, aye, sir,\u201d and appeared quite enthusiastic about the trip; said he should enjoy it himself. We came to the question of victualling, and he grew more enthusiastic. The amount of food suggested by Mr. Goyles, I confess, surprised me. Had we been living in the days of Drake and the Spanish Main, I should have feared he was arranging for something illegal. However, he laughed in his fatherly way, and assured me we were not overdoing it. Anything left the crew would divide and take home with them \u2014 it seemed this was the custom. It appeared to me that I was providing for this crew for the winter, but I did not like to appear stingy, and said no more. The amount of drink required also surprised me. I arranged for what I thought we should need for ourselves, and then Mr. Goyles spoke up for the crew. I must say that for him, he did think of his men.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want anything in the nature of an orgie, Mr. Goyles,\u201d I suggested.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOrgie!\u201d replied Mr. Goyles; \u201cwhy they\u2019ll take that little drop in their tea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He explained to me that his motto was, Get good men and treat them well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey work better for you,\u201d said Mr. Goyles; \u201cand they come again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I didn\u2019t feel I wanted them to come again. I was beginning to take a dislike to them before I had seen them; I regarded them as a greedy and guzzling crew. But Mr. Goyles was so cheerfully emphatic, and I was so inexperienced, that again I let him have his way. He also promised that even in this department he would see to it personally that nothing was wasted.<\/p>\n<p>I also left him to engage the crew. He said he could do the thing, and would, for me, with the help two men and a boy. If he was alluding to the clearing up of the victuals and drink, I think he was making an under-estimate; but possibly he may have been speaking of the sailing of the yacht.<\/p>\n<p>I called at my tailors on the way home and ordered a yachting suit, with a white hat, which they promised to bustle up and have ready in time; and then I went home and told Ethelbertha all I had done. Her delight was clouded by only one reflection \u2014 would the dressmaker be able to finish a yachting costume for her in time? That is so like a woman.<\/p>\n<p>Our honeymoon, which had taken place not very long before, had been somewhat curtailed, so we decided we would invite nobody, but have the yacht to ourselves. And thankful I am to Heaven that we did so decide. On Monday we put on all our clothes and started. I forget what Ethelbertha wore, but, whatever it may have been, it looked very fetching. My own costume was a dark blue trimmed with a narrow white braid, which, I think, was rather effective.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Goyles met us on deck, and told us that lunch was ready. I must admit Goyles had secured the services of a very fair cook. The capabilities of the other members of the crew I had no opportunity of judging. Speaking of them in a state of rest, however, I can say of them they appeared to be a cheerful crew.<\/p>\n<p>My idea had been that so soon as the men had finished their dinner we would weigh anchor, while I, smoking a cigar, with Ethelbertha by my side, would lean over the gunwale and watch the white cliffs of the Fatherland sink imperceptibly into the horizon. Ethelbertha and I carried out our part of the programme, and waited, with the deck to ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey seem to be taking their time,\u201d said Ethelbertha.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf, in the course of fourteen days,\u201d I said, \u201cthey eat half of what is on this yacht, they will want a fairly long time for every meal. We had better not hurry them, or they won\u2019t get through a quarter of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey must have gone to sleep,\u201d said Ethelbertha, later on. \u201cIt will be tea-time soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They were certainly very quiet. I went for\u2019ard, and hailed Captain Goyles down the ladder. I hailed him three times; then he came up slowly. He appeared to be a heavier and older man than when I had seen him last. He had a cold cigar in his mouth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you are ready, Captain Goyles,\u201d I said, \u201cwe\u2019ll start.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Captain Goyles removed the cigar from his mouth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot to-day we won\u2019t, sir,\u201d he replied, \u201cwith your permission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy, what\u2019s the matter with to-day?\u201d I said. I know sailors are a superstitious folk; I thought maybe a Monday might be considered unlucky.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe day\u2019s all right,\u201d answered Captain Goyles, \u201cit\u2019s the wind I\u2019m a-thinking of. It don\u2019t look much like changing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut do we want it to change?\u201d I asked. \u201cIt seems to me to be just where it should be, dead behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAye, aye,\u201d said Captain Goyles, \u201cdead\u2019s the right word to use, for dead we\u2019d all be, bar Providence, if we was to put out in this. You see, sir,\u201d he explained, in answer to my look of surprise, \u201cthis is what we call a \u2018land wind,\u2019 that is, it\u2019s a-blowing, as one might say, direct off the land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When I came to think of it the man was right; the wind was blowing off the land.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt may change in the night,\u201d said Captain Goyles, more hopefully \u201canyhow, it\u2019s not violent, and she rides well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Captain Goyles resumed his cigar, and I returned aft, and explained to Ethelbertha the reason for the delay. Ethelbertha, who appeared to be less high spirited than when we first boarded, wanted to know why we couldn\u2019t sail when the wind was off the land.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it was not blowing off the land,\u201d said Ethelbertha, \u201cit would be blowing off the sea, and that would send us back into the shore again. It seems to me this is just the very wind we want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I said: \u201cThat is your inexperience, love; it seems to be the very wind we want, but it is not. It\u2019s what we call a land wind, and a land wind is always very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ethelbertha wanted to know why a land wind was very dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>Her argumentativeness annoyed me somewhat; maybe I was feeling a bit cross; the monotonous rolling heave of a small yacht at anchor depresses an ardent spirit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t explain it to you,\u201d I replied, which was true, \u201cbut to set sail in this wind would be the height of foolhardiness, and I care for you too much, dear, to expose you to unnecessary risks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I thought this rather a neat conclusion, but Ethelbertha merely replied that she wished, under the circumstances, we hadn\u2019t come on board till Tuesday, and went below.<\/p>\n<p>In the morning the wind veered round to the north; I was up early, and observed this to Captain Goyles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAye, aye, sir,\u201d he remarked; \u201cit\u2019s unfortunate, but it can\u2019t be helped.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t think it possible for us to start to-day?\u201d I hazarded.<\/p>\n<p>He did not get angry with me, he only laughed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, sir,\u201d said he, \u201cif you was a-wanting to go to Ipswich, I should say as it couldn\u2019t be better for us, but our destination being, as you see, the Dutch coast \u2014 why there you are!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I broke the news to Ethelbertha, and we agreed to spend the day on shore. Harwich is not a merry town, towards evening you might call it dull. We had some tea and watercress at Dovercourt, and then returned to the quay to look for Captain Goyles and the boat. We waited an hour for him. When he came he was more cheerful than we were; if he had not told me himself that he never drank anything but one glass of hot grog before turning in for the night, I should have said he was drunk.<\/p>\n<p>The next morning the wind was in the south, which made Captain Goyles rather anxious, it appearing that it was equally unsafe to move or to stop where we were; our only hope was it would change before anything happened. By this time, Ethelbertha had taken a dislike to the yacht; she said that, personally, she would rather be spending a week in a bathing machine, seeing that a bathing machine was at least steady.<\/p>\n<p>We passed another day in Harwich, and that night and the next, the wind still continuing in the south, we slept at the \u201cKing\u2019s Head.\u201d On Friday the wind was blowing direct from the east. I met Captain Goyles on the quay, and suggested that, under these circumstances, we might start. He appeared irritated at my persistence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you knew a bit more, sir,\u201d he said, \u201cyou\u2019d see for yourself that it\u2019s impossible. The wind\u2019s a-blowing direct off the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I said: \u201cCaptain Goyles, tell me what is this thing I have hired? Is it a yacht or a house-boat?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He seemed surprised at my question.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cIt\u2019s a yawl.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I mean is,\u201d I said, \u201ccan it be moved at all, or is it a fixture here? If it is a fixture,\u201d I continued, \u201ctell me so frankly, then we will get some ivy in boxes and train over the port-holes, stick some flowers and an awning on deck, and make the thing look pretty. If, on the other hand, it can be moved &mdash;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoved!\u201d interrupted Captain Goyles.  \u201cYou get the right wind behind the <em>Rogue<\/em> \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I said: \u201cWhat is the right wind?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Captain Goyles looked puzzled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the course of this week,\u201d I went on, \u201cwe have had wind from the north, from the south, from the east, from the west\u2014with variations. If you can think of any other point of the compass from which it can blow, tell me, and I will wait for it. If not, and if that anchor has not grown into the bottom of the ocean, we will have it up to-day and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He grasped the fact that I was determined.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVery well, sir,\u201d he said, \u201cyou\u2019re master and I\u2019m man. I\u2019ve only got one child as is still dependent on me, thank God, and no doubt your executors will feel it their duty to do the right thing by the old woman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His solemnity impressed me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Goyles,\u201d I said, \u201cbe honest with me. Is there any hope, in any weather, of getting away from this damned hole?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Captain Goyles\u2019s kindly geniality returned to him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou see, sir,\u201d he said, \u201cthis is a very peculiar coast. We\u2019d be all right if we were once out, but getting away from it in a cockle-shell like that \u2014 well, to be frank, sir, it wants doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I left Captain Goyles with the assurance that he would watch the weather as a mother would her sleeping babe; it was his own simile, and it struck me as rather touching. I saw him again at twelve o\u2019clock; he was watching it from the window of the \u201cChain and Anchor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At five o\u2019clock that evening a stroke of luck occurred; in the middle of the High Street I met a couple of yachting friends, who had had to put in by reason of a strained rudder. I told them my story, and they appeared less surprised than amused. Captain Goyles and the two men were still watching the weather. I ran into the \u201cKing\u2019s Head,\u201d and prepared Ethelbertha. The four of us crept quietly down to the quay, where we found our boat. Only the boy was on board; my two friends took charge of the yacht, and by six o\u2019clock we were scudding merrily up the coast.<\/p>\n<p>We put in that night at Aldborough, and the next day worked up to Yarmouth, where, as my friends had to leave, I decided to abandon the yacht. We sold the stores by auction on Yarmouth sands early in the morning. I made a loss, but had the satisfaction of \u201cdoing\u201d Captain Goyles. I left the <em>Rogue<\/em> in charge of a local mariner, who, for a couple of sovereigns, undertook to see to its return to Harwich; and we came back to London by train. There may be yachts other than the <em>Rogue<\/em>, and skippers other than Mr. Goyles, but that experience has prejudiced me against both.<\/p>\n<p>Jerome K. Jerome, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/2183\/2183-h\/2183-h.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Three Men on the Bummel<\/em><\/a>, 1914.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Years ago, when I was young and inexperienced, I hired a yacht myself. Three things had combined to lead me into this foolishness: I had had a stroke of unexpected luck; Ethelbertha had expressed a yearning for sea air; and the very next morning, in taking up casually at the club a copy of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,57,41],"tags":[948,61],"class_list":["post-28837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-humour","category-quotations","tag-jkjerome","tag-ships"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-7v7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28837"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28839,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28837\/revisions\/28839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}