MERSEY TERRIERS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 13978, 6 February 1920, Page 5

MERSEY TERRIERS.

2 (By Oswald Wildridge.) With the tide at the half-flood mark, y the gates swung slowly back into the lockpits, and the fleet of tugs made a bolt for the open river, looking for all world, as Captain Enoch Carron put it. "like a pack o ! terriers I '—;', frisky, boisterous pack, some of them making a rakish cant as the hebf was thrown bard over, and every one tossing up a flurry of creamy foam. Soon, however, the pack ceased to be a pack. Three of the boats sheered away to the north, heading for the spacious freedom ot Liverpool Bay ; five of them rounded-to by the jetty, and there made fast ru await a further call; a couple cut across into the fairway, where, they snuggled in by the hull of a Cunarder, which, in spite of her power, would be unable t.i find her berth in dock without their help; and the rest, having been ordered south, scurried up the river to Birkenhead, to the Sloyne, and to the gates of the ship-canal at Eastham. As for the Tuskar, from whose bridge Captain Enoch Carron watched the varied manoeuvres, she bad been locked-out on river duty all the night, and was now dropping down to the jetty for instructions. "Just like a pack o' terriers." Carron repeated, clearly well pleased with the phrase: "and some of them," lie reflectively nddes, "are evijry bit a.s queer in their ways. That's one of the tilings about tugs. Now, take a sight of this squad. Host of /em look as much alike as a handful of peas: half a mile off a landsman cotildn't tell t'other from which—even a lot of deep sea men wouldn't manage much better, and yet there isn't two of 'em alike. For the folk who live with 'em, they've all got points that make them a bit different in their looks, and if you want to know how much different they are in their ways, you'd better ask their skippers " Here he made a turn across the bridge, murmured a call to the mate, who-was steering, for "a bit more star-boat-dj" and then began again. {'That's it—different iri their ways. Like you and me and other folk. They've all got manners and customs of their own. Ypu may turn half-a-dozen tugs out of the same yard, all the same length and draught and beam, driven by the same engine-power, built t' the same specifications, and yet some of 'em' 11; do things what none of the others will, and the cleverest swab ashore or afloat can't tell the reason why. F'r instance, here's' the old Tuskar. I'll own she's got a: few tricks she'd be better with- ; out, but when it comes to answering the. bell she's a reg'lar duck. ■ And as it's time I was getting the way off her, I'll show you, if you'll keep your ears tuned up." Whereupon he signalted for "half-speed astern," and while his hand was yet on the telegraph-lever the deck jarred violently beneath our . feet, the hull shivered and, groaned and under the stern the water broke into mild confusion. "What did I tell you?" the skipper demanded. "She was going astern before the bell was done speaking. That's how a tug ought to be, and in a rough docking commission I'd part- with a chunk of her horse-power before I'd part with her obedience. Now, that's the Tuskar. And yonder, there's the Tuscan standing by. that Swedish strag—might be a sister ship t' this one for size and power and general build, but she doesn't answer on the dot, not by ever so many, seconds, and so she's mostly .put on t' third-rate jobs. - "What's that? Ay, -ay, I dare say you're right. Mebbe it isn't much of a mystery, one set of engines being a bit,

slower than the other; but then it isn'tionly engines. Often enough it's the boats themselves, and it's there you can run athwart the things you can't explain. Now, there was the Porcupine, that I was in ever so many years back. She was an out-an'-out wall-crab. A lot of boats have a fancy for a wall, as 1 daresay you've found but for yourself, but the Porcupine beat the band. Set her against a wall and'she'd stick closer than a brother. "Simply wouldn't come away. .You'd think sometimes you'd have to' so overboard .and ,push her. off, and • many a time I've thousdit I was going" tshake all the rivets out before I could get her t' budge. That was the' only cranjiy trick she'd got. Out in the fainvay. she'd come about like a yacht an' do anything I asked her t' do. "Bu I think the rummiest craft I ever : handled was the Dauntless. She was a grand boat, too.- Did some of my biggest deep-sea tows with her. Set her in a seaway and she'd stand up t' the heaviest wind that ever blew; but if you asked her t' come out of dock with a bit of weather on,, she'd jib like a horse at a blow. And how d'ye think I used t ! manage her?'* Here the skipperis face.expanded in a.magnificent grin. "Why, I used t' turn her Tound and back her out. Against

a strong wind and tide she'd come through "the locks a, mighty sight better stern first than head, on. Now, it's gospel.truth, is that. Don't know why sne did it. and I only found it out by accident; but it's the truth. Set her stem on to it and she'd jibe and do everything she couldn't do; but drive heristern first and she'd manoeuvre as easily as though that was the proper ways t' go about it. S6 it's what Fm telling you; they're all different, have all got ways of their own, . and you can't show rhyme or reason for it. But here we are at the jetty, and that puts an end t' my preachifying. I'll awav t' the office and see what'-s stirring. .S« far as the captain was concerned, this was' indeed .the end what he, lieased to call his preachifying, but he iad touched the strings of memory, and i host of other happenings came troopng out of the past. There was, for extmple; the case of the Titan, or, better till, that tremendous baptism the Merer gave me on mv day of. introduction o its "pack o' terriers." Our mission ras the docking of a Houston liner m , ne of- the branches of the Queen's >ock, the Tartar being told off for sericeon the bow, and the Trojan being dven the greater task of hanging on to ler 'stern. From the shelter of the Canada Basin, while a hurricane wind ioomed overhead, we watched her go iy; and then, side by . side, the tugs •ave chase,-but long before the liner 'as "rounded-up" Mistress Mersey had onvinced us of her temper. Not that ler conduct provoked any sense of reentment. Had tho judge but known b that four-mile run in the teeth, of Jr tantrums made a passage, of dehrius delight. At no time is there any lake-believe in the tug's deportment;, he is built for business, and to busiess she strictlv attends. Moreover,

heavily engined as she she has no taste for fanev work, and so she goes smashing through everything she meets, where other craft might make a, show of buovantlv riding across the tops. And because of this we played a. lively game upon the bridge : across the. canvas dodger we watched for the signs; when the spindrift flung itself over the stem we ducked, and a roistering flume swept over our heads and swirled down upon the deck abaft the engine-room hood.- Even if talk had been desired, there was little opportunity, but now and again, as Captain Ned Morrison wiped the. water from his eyes, he cracked a joke; and once he begged a ■Word of praise for his boat. Jakes it bee-u-ti-ful. don't she?" he suggested And when I asked about her conduct "outside." he waxed still more enthusiastic. "Some tugs are only built for river work, and them I wouldn't cross the to in," he said; '•but T'd take the Tartar anywhere. Then he jerked his thumb to starboard where the Trojan was pegging alongside "But that's the tug for you ! he cried and it seemed as though a note . of en'vv blended with his praise. "Did ■ von see about that wreck on the gurbo la«t month 2 Well, she's the tug that towed the lifeboat out!" ( There we had it—the hall-mark of the two Aboard' his own boat lie would trust his life -"anywhere," but the Troian was the tug of distinction. She had towed the lifeboat out! BHETJMATTSar BELIEVED. Modern science has demonstrated that excess-uric acid is the cause of Rheumatism. HHEUMO, a scientific- x allv-compounded remedy, seldom tails to "eliminate the excess. 2s 6d and • 4= fid at chemists or stores. Large size contains full week's treatment. Barraclough's Nervine stops Toothache. Pr.-.gandra cures Corns nnickly..