CHAPTER 4
The storm petrelsAs time passed Neil found he had a place aboard the ship. He grew accustomed to the language and the men grew accustomed to him. He learnt his way about and was impressed by the way the ship was constructed, everything fitted neatly into place. It was built for heavy seas and long journeys, of oak with a pine mast forty feet high; the keel, the stem and the stern-post all of a single piece of timber; the sixteen rows of planking overlapping each other, riveted and caulked with tarred rope. In the middle of the ship was a block of oak, surmounted by a wooden fish, in which the mast was set. The rudder was an oar of oak, eleven feet long, fastened to the starboard and making the ship very sensitive to the steersman’s hand. The prow of the ship rose high and was ca
