Edward FitzGerald and Posh | Page 7

So to sea he went, top hat and all. And a good and hardy sailor man he was, as all who remember his ways afloat will testify.
Shortly before or after his visit to Lowestoft in the spring of 1866 FitzGerald wrote to Posh:--
"MARKETHILL, WOODBRIDGE, "Saturday.
"MY GOOD FELLOW,
"When I came in from my Boat yesterday I found your Hamper of Fish. Mr. Manby has his conger Eel: I gave the Codling to a young Gentleman in his ninetieth year: the Plaice we have eaten here--very good--and the Skaite I have just sent in my Boat to Newson. I should have gone down myself, but that it set in for rain; but, at the same time, I did not wish to let the Fish miss his mark. Newson was here two days ago, well and jolly; his Smack had a good Thing on the Ship-wash lately; and altogether they have done pretty well this Winter. He is about beginning to paint my Great Ship.
"I had your letter about Nets and Dan. You must not pretend you can't write as good a Letter as a man needs to write, or to read. I suppose the Nets were cheap if good; and I should be sorry you had not bought more, but that, when you have got a Fleet for alongshore fishing, then you will forsake them for some Lugger; and then I shall have to find another Posh to dabble about, and smoke a pipe, with. George Howe's Schooner ran down the Slips into the Water yesterday, just as I was in time to see her Masts slipping along. In the Evening she bent a new Main-sail. I doubt she will turn out a dear Bargain, after all, as such Bargains are sure to.
"I was looking at the Whaleboat I told you of, but Mr. Manby thinks she would . . . you propose.
"Here is a long Yarn; but to-morrow is Sunday; so you can take it easy. And so 'Fare ye well.'
"EDWARD FITZGERALD."
The boat referred to in this letter was probably a small craft in which FitzGerald had been in the habit of cruising up and down river with one "West." It certainly was not the Scandal, for as transpires in the letter, that "Great Ship" was not yet painted for the yachting season.
Mr. Manby was a ship agent at Woodbridge.
The "Ship-wash" was, and is, the "Rattlin' Sam" of Felixstowe, and Tom Newson, FitzGerald's skipper, had evidently had a good bit of "salwagin'."
"Dan" is not the name of a man, but of a pointed buoy with a flag atop wherewith herring fishers mark the end of their fleets of nets, or (vide Sea Words and Phrases, etc.). "A small buoy, with some ensign atop, to mark where the fishing lines have been shot; and the dan is said to 'watch well' if it hold erect against wind and tide. I have often mistaken it for some floating sea bird of an unknown species."
The prophecy that as soon as Posh got his longshore fleet complete he would wish to go on a "lugger," that is to say, to the deep-sea fishing, was destined to be fulfilled, and that with the assistance of FitzGerald himself. But no one ever took Posh's place. FitzGerald's experience as a "herring merchant" began and ended with his intimacy with Posh.
{Old Lowestoft herring-drifter with "Dan" fixed to stem: p43.jpg}
George Howe, whose schooner was launched so that FitzGerald was just in time to see her masts slipping along, was one of the sons of "old John Howe," who, with his wife, was caretaker of Little Grange for many years. The schooner was, Posh tells me, exceptionally cheap, and FitzGerald's reference to her meant that she was too cheap to be good.
Since Posh's letter-writing powers received praise from one so qualified to bestow it, there must have been a falling off from want of practice, or from some other cause, for the old man is readier with his cod lines than with his pen by a very great deal, and it is difficult to believe that he ever wielded the pen of a ready writer. But perhaps FitzGerald was so fascinated by the qualities which did exist in his protege that he saw his friend through the medium of a glamour which set up, as it were, a mirage of things that were not. Well, it speaks better for a man's heart to descry non-existent merits than to imagine vain defects, and it was like the generous soul of FitzGerald to attribute excellencies to his friend which only existed in his imagination.
CHAPTER II
"REMEMBER YOUR DEBTS"
In 1866 Posh became the owner of a very old deep-sea lugger named the William Tell, and, to enable him to acquire the nets and gear necessary for her complete equipment as a North Sea herring boat,