Adventure Magazine Cover, June 20, 1925 — page 146: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

128 As a matter of fact, the Pelamon’s bow had been crushed in almost as badly as the Fva’s. Dap still owed the shipbuilders for the repairs on his schooner which the col- Jision had necessitated. And if it hadn’t been for Mel Frost, Captain Dan would have gone under financially—that is, if his swordfishing that summer had been as un- profitable as that of the past six years. But this summer it looked as if the Pela- mon would be the high-line schooner of the entire swordfishing fleet. Already, on her fourth trip of the season, one hundred and sixteen swordfish carcasses were iced down inher hold. Added to the five hundred and eleven swordfish she had brought to the Boston market on her three previous trips that season, that trip would put her well over the top for the honor which all fisher- men covet, along with its splendid financial reward. And Captain Dan did not keep Mel in ignorance that he and not the skipper was responsible for that season’s success. There was a time—it began ten years ago—when Captain Dan was repeatedly high-liner of the New England swordfishing fleet. Then, after reigning as high-liner for four years, the Pelamon ceased to bring in the largest catches. Strange that Dan had failed all at once, for he had the same crew—with one exception. And that exception, in the old crew he had shipped prior to this summer, was the very Captain Oliver Thomas with whom he had collided at sea and in court a year ago. Oliver was in the early twenties when he had sailed with Captain Dan—a dull, unattrac- tive chap, worthless as a fisherman. Cap- tain Dan would never have shipped him had not Oliver’s father, Captain Ira, been one of Dan’s seafaring acquaintances. Captain Ira was well-to-do. Captain Dan had been less fortunate. Easy-going and kind-hearted, the skipper of the Pelamon had never been able to save much money. He trusted Captain Ira’s judgment in busi- ness matters, often going to him for advice and reciprocating by selling Ira his fish—for Ira was a fish buyer as well as skipper, his office was in Boston. So ten years ago, after Dan’s first crew had given up seafaring and taken shore jobs, Captain Ira obtained for Dan that crew which until six years ago had made him high-liner. It was a decidedly more effi- cient crew than his first one from Freetown, Adventure the Pelamon’s decadent southeastern Mas- sachusetts home port. It was that second crew which, ten years ago, had made Cap- tain Dan high-liner of the fleet. Captain Dan shipped Oliver along with the Pelamon’s second crew to please his father. But Oliver was always in the way— a pretentious, boastful cub who seemed to be bent on having his own way regardless of others. Dan stood him as long as he could —exactly two seasons. Then he fired him, and in his place shipped Mel Frost, then a green, friendless Bluenose from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. | The break between Captain Dan and Captain Ira followed the discharge of Oli- ver from the Pelamon. ‘The two skippers had never spoken to each other since that memorable wordy battle—which nearly re- sulted in fisticuffs. The rise of Mel Frost, under Dan’s and other skippers’ tutelage, from one of the clumsiest swordfishermen to the best all-round member of any crew in the fleet is still discussed when schooners speak one another off Georges and Grand Banks, or their crews gather winter nights around blazing wood fires ashore. How Mel did it, no one can definitely fathom—except that he suddenly found himself. At any rate, Mel stayed in Cap- tain Dan’s crew two years, then left Dan and shipped with other skippers. Two years ago he surprized the fishing world by purchasing Captain Thrasher’s schooner Victory, shipping in her his own crew, and straightway winning the honor of high-liner, with great profit to himself and his ship- mates. He had repeated that triumph the following year But Mel traced his success to Captain Dan’s interest in him in those days when the successful Bluenose was only a green- horn who was scarcely worth his salt. He came to Captain Dan after the swordfish- ing season the previous year and advised the old skipper to discharge his crew. That was after the Pelamon’s collision with the Eva. “Tt’s them fellers Captain Ira hired for ye ten y’ars ago,” declared Mel, ‘“‘who are keepin’ yer profits down. ‘They were be- ginnin’ to do it when I shipped with ye the fust time. Cap’n Ira has sworn he’d run ye off the water. He’s payin’ your crew what they’re losin’ by low shares. He’s never gotten over havin’ Oliver turned back on his hands.” COMmMiCLOokkS.CO