Boon Island - Kenneth Roberts [50]
Page 110
Even before the dinghy had touched the stone, a boy reached out for her bow, turned her sideways and drew her to the bottom step with no apparent effort. This takes strength, and it surprised me, for at first sight the boy didn't look overly strong; but when I climbed from the dinghy and we lifted her from the water to set her on the step, so that she'd be out of the way of the innumerable fishermen who were constantly on the move, he made it seem as easy as lifting out a broomstick.
All these fisherfolk were concentrated between Ballast Quay and Billingsgatethe stretch where the incoming tide pushes whitebait by the millions against the abutments of the Naval Hospital.
Seemingly every one of those thousandssailors, girls, gipsies, old women, dock workershad some sort of whitebait basket-trap, and was lowering it into the brown waters of the Thames and flipping it out again, so that the whole waterfront was a flurry of splashing spray.
Above this spray hung a sort of medley of sound, caused by the groans, shouts, curses and shrieks of those who were either successful or unsuccessful in the yankings and jerkings of their traps. Their facial contortions, as they thus toiled, were something remarkable; but this particular boy would flip his wire basket from the water: then, whether the basket was empty or whether it held a glimmering flicker of those succulent little spratlings, he would glance at the whitebait fishers on either side with a sort of disarming concentration of amusement, generosity, amiability, apology ... apology, perhaps, for the smallness of his catch, or for his good fortune, or for his ineptitude, or perhaps for looking so much cleaner and neater than any of the men or boys who were sousing their baskets down and
Page 111
up, down and up, with dour determination and scowling ferocity.
If I seem to talk overmuch of Greenwich whitebait, it's because those insignificant minnows, in season, were Greenwich's most important product. People came from miles around, especially from London, to dine on them, even to have official whitebait banquets, such as were never held elsewhereand for an excellent reason. No place in the world produced such delectable morsels as the whitebait brought ashore at Greenwich; and whitebait at its finest arouses a sort of frenzy in the breasts of those who know it. Nobody ate mutton in Greenwich during the whitebait season, nor fowl, nor beefnot if he could get whitebait.
When the boy went back to his fishing-station, I saw that he had been fortunate; for on a square of wet sacking close behind him were perhaps two thirds of a bushel of whitebait, a good part of them still flopping and shimmering; so as a reward to him for helping me, as well as a home-coming gift for my father, I thought to buy some of them at a generous price. To that end I put my hand on his arm to get his attention.
To my amazement he shied away from my outstretched hand, as a puppy might shrink from a threatening foot, and the look he darted at me was almost violent in its wariness. Then, in a moment, he was merely a polite boy again, snapping his trap from the river, bringing with it a score of wriggling, glittering minnows which he dumped skillfully on his square of sacking.
"There's already enough for a dozen suppers," I said. "Spare me a fewtwo shillings worth, perhaps?" Two
Page 112
shillings should have been enough to buy half a bushel, but the boy only concentrated silently on the submerging of his little trap.
Not wishing to embarrass him by too much talk, I told him to bring all he could to my father's house on Church Lane, two streets beyond the Naval Hospital. ''If you have difficulty finding the house," I said, "ask for Magistrate Whitworth. I'm Miles Whitworth."
"I can't, sir," he said. "I'm fishing for Mr. Langman."
"Nonsense!" I said. "I'll