Ferry Ride :: essays research papers

The passengers on the ferry had nowhere to sit and almost nowhere to stand. Only the ships officers ad a little space and this was on the bridge, which, along with the wheelhouse, was situated on a wooden platform erected over the engine-room. Here the captain of the vessel was in command. The bridge and wheelhouse were separated from the rest of the platform by a little wooden gate, secured only with a string catch.5The captain was elevated from his fellow officers by his hat, a black felt trilby punched out into a dome and secured to his head by a silk ribbon beneath the chin. He showed no interest in the proceedings around him. No nautical preparation could hold his attention instead, he sat at the back of the bridge, drink on a pipe and deciding who should be allowed to pass through the gate. The competition for his honour, personally bestowed, was all the greater because of the 10discomforts of standing anywhere else in the boat, by few who applied were chosen. Just before de parture a man limped down the quay, leaning on another. The limping man was dressed in blue overalls which were stained with blood that had seeped from a heavily bandaged wound on his head. His face was grey, and he could hardly stand. The captain beckoned him to join the party on the bridge, and he stumbled up the steps and into a corner, where he fell in a heap and bled 15quietly for the duration of the crossing. The ferry tooted its steam horn, the bow-gate was reproducible to be raised, and under the direction of a man in an orange vest, the first officer, the voyage began.A few years ago one of the ferried met a large wave in mid-stream and overturned. There were no survivors by the time anyone on either bank noticed that the ferry was overdue, all trace of it had disappeared. On this present occasion the ferry chugged away from the quay with its bow-20gate still low enough for water to flow over it past the car floor and back to the engine-room. The captain remained unconcer ned and continued to suck his pope and gaze ahead while the bow-gate was adjusted and the surplus water slowly drained away. non long afterwards, the chief engineer, in fact the only engineer, abandoned his post and came to the bridge to dry out.