The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1961-07-28
ID vussTT
By TOM JACKSON

at the dock and eased her white
stern over the slow swells coming
in from the inlet as the seven filed
down a narrow wooden walkway
that ambled in a rather aimless
angular path toward the water. The
sun was trying hard to come out
after morning of cool rain. Just
as they reached the boat a stream
of sunlight broke from behind the
ragged clouds and arched half
rainbow from somewhere on the
south end of the island out toward
the sound.
A little breeze toyed with the
water and chased ripping catuaws
up under the dock only to pick up
an empty cigarette pack and carry
it effortlessly back across the dock
and into the water.
Four men, two boys and a slip
of a girl with midnight hair blow
ing in the breeze all stepped the
short gap from the dock to the boat
one at a time. The girl almost fell
and wrinkled up her freckled nose
as she steadied herself with deck
chair.
The older man grinned at this
and from his experienced eyes came
a knowing glance of recognition.
He knew without asking that she
had never been on a small boat
before.
In few minutes the boat cough
ed to life and grumbled slowly
backward from its mooring until
the captain had enough room to
swing her around. Then her bow
rose slowly and she boiled a foam
ing wake behind her like a young
girl shaking her petticoat.
The girl wrinkled her nose again
when one of the men began grind
ing fish with rusty sausage grind
er. AS he stuffed them in the top
ia grayish bloody paste came out
the other end and dropped in
strings to waiting coffee can.
When he had enough he dumped the
can full in cheeseclouth bag and
left it on the deck. A thin trickle
of blood and water seeped out and
ran in tiny rivulet toward the
back of the boat. Again the girls
nose wrinkled almost automatically
and again the older man, turned
from the wheel and gave a knowing
grin.
A few minutes later the motor
died and one of the men cast an
anchor overheard. The bag of
ground fish was tied with a string
and thrown into the water. Seconds
later an oily slick spread outward
behind the boat.
A final time the girl wrinkled
her nose as she watched one of the
boys force a long heavy hook
through a small fish and make it
secure for bait. then whirrrrrrrr
the bait was out. .whirrrrrr an
other one was out and another un-
til six lines trailed from the boat
into the dark water.
The captain leaned against his
wheel and lit a battered pipe as he
watched the group fish. In a few
minutes one of the men squinted
his eyes across the water and made
a comment about the wind and an
other answered him in terms of the
direction of the tide and the morn
ing weather. They were seamen,
all of them. They knew the wind
and they knew the sea. To anyone
of them the pressure of the rising
deck against his feet, the smell of
the sound, the gentle tickle of the
breeze in his hair, the color of the
sky and of the water were mean
ingful reports. These things told
the weather, the chances for max
ing a catch, and many other things
that an inexperienced person would
never conceive. So they watched
and they waited. they were all ex-
pecting a strike.
The girl just sat and chatted
away, holding the pole between her
legs to light cigarette and later