Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 8, 2025
Jim was spattered with scales from head to foot, and drenched with water from the splashing tails. He stopped for a moment to rest. "Now you see what oil-clothes are good for," said he. "I'll give you your chance in a little while." Percy had kept the Barracouta near by as Jim pulled the dory along the trawl.
Looks as if she was a goner!" "Can't we help her somehow?" asked Percy. "I'm afraid not. We couldn't drive the sloop against this gale and sea; besides, those rollers would swamp a life-boat. All we can do is to get out on the point and try to save anybody who comes ashore. Put on your oil-clothes, fellows! Light both the lanterns, Percy!
Cards, novels, and all the hot arguments went by the board, and then after a mug-up for nearly all we slid into oil-clothes, boots and sou'westers, and puffing at what was probably to be the last pipeful of the evening, we lay around on lockers and on the floor, backs to the butt of the mast and backs to the stove wherever there was space for a broad back and a pair of stout legs our fellows dropped themselves, discussing all the while the things that interested them fish, fishing, fast vessels, big shares, politics, Bob Fitzsimmons, John L. Sullivan, good stories, and just then particularly, because two of the crew were thinking of marrying, the awful price of real estate in Gloucester.
Oil-clothes, heavy under-clothing, hip boots of red rubber, white, doughnut-shaped woolen "nippers" for pulling trawls, and various other articles for convenience and comfort were added to their outfits. Percy regarded it all in the light of a huge lark. Dressing himself in oilskins and rubber boots, he paraded up and down the store, much to the proprietor's disgust.
"Boys," jeered Pike, "what do you suppose I found this modest, salt-water violet or barnacle, I should say doing? Actually dressed in oil-clothes and cleaning fish! Think of it! P. Whittington, the one and only! Wouldn't his friends along Fifth Avenue like to see him in that rig!
They were there for whatever they might see, but particularly were they looking for the double white light of Five Fathom Bank lightship. The skipper was at the wheel. When he got in the way of the cabin light, we could catch the shine from his dripping oil-clothes, and the spark from his pipe which he kept going through it all marked his position when he stepped back into the darkness.
He had thrown off his oil-clothes to give his limbs greater freedom. His head was bare and his light hair stood straight up from his forehead. Grasping the hawser, he plunged into the sea and dragged himself toward the rock to which his father was fastened. The group on the point stood silent, watching him struggle yard by yard through the black water until he gained the ridge.
"Where am I?" "You're all right, Dad!" "Percy!" Both father and son showed a depth of feeling Jim would hardly have credited them with possessing. "You don't need me here any longer," he said. "I'll go down and help pull the others ashore. Throw these oil-clothes of mine over your father, Percy, and make him comfortable, and as soon as the rest are safe we'll carry him to camp."
The cook, as usual, was finishing up a batch of dough. You might have thought he was the only man who had been working in a week, were it not for the wet oil-clothes hanging up to dry, and the overhauling of second suits of oil-clothes by some of the gang.
Dread overcame him as he felt the limpness of the older man's body. Through the eddying tide ... up over the slippery rocks ... and presently Jim and the mate were unfastening the bonds that held the insensible millionaire in the boatswain's chair. They carried him up near the beacon and laid him down on Percy's oil-clothes. "He's breathing!" said the mate. "He'll come round all right.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking