Ripping yarns, beautiful lies and a few home truths.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Clinker Boats and Powdered Milk
I've been recording Old Salt in the evenings when we sit fireside, after setting nets. This session is about the wooden clinker boats, in the days before fishermen had tinnies and outboard motors.
Yes indeedy. I've got a lovely photo of Old Salt as a boy, sitting on an upturned clinker that is sitting on the roof of an old Ford. It looks like the driver wouldn't be able to see through the windscreen for the bow. Got no idea how they got the monster on and off - the boat that is.
'the boat that is' - ha ha. Good work, though. Many of us regret not listening to the old lot when we had the chance - at least that's what I tell the grand children. Your voices are exactly how I have heard them in my mind's ear.
I think you'd like to spend an eve with Old Salt, Tom. I'd be a happy fly on the wall. There is plenty more of these recordings but so many are poacher tales with real names and need a serious edit, or twenty years, before they see the light of day ...
So, I picked up a copy of Creative Nonfiction at the Melb Writers Festival on the weekend and was thrilled to see your post in there -- reproduced with permission, this time, I hope! I (among, I'm sure, many others) recommended it, so was particularly chuffed! hehe
Did you recommend it to cnf, Ms PoW? Well, thank you! I read your posts on the MWF and was going to let you know that my story was in the cnf Australia edition ... but the launch was on Saturday night I believe - and it was too late by then. Anyhoo ... now I wait for my own copy to plod across the continent(s) and land in my letterbox. During the edit, they Americanised the language so it will be interesting to see how it reads.
No worries! It was even the same post, just because it had to be in the past 12 months and that one sprung to mind, but I made a disclaimer on their online form that they should read all your posts because they are gems, hehe. Man, you would think that, it being an Aus addition, they could include examples of Aus language -- ah well. House style and all that, I suppose..
Hard graft. Tinnies & outboards must have been a revelation to these guys. A self-draining cockpit has gotta be a must.
ReplyDeleteYes indeedy. I've got a lovely photo of Old Salt as a boy, sitting on an upturned clinker that is sitting on the roof of an old Ford. It looks like the driver wouldn't be able to see through the windscreen for the bow. Got no idea how they got the monster on and off - the boat that is.
ReplyDelete'the boat that is' - ha ha. Good work, though. Many of us regret not listening to the old lot when we had the chance - at least that's what I tell the grand children. Your voices are exactly how I have heard them in my mind's ear.
DeleteI think you'd like to spend an eve with Old Salt, Tom. I'd be a happy fly on the wall. There is plenty more of these recordings but so many are poacher tales with real names and need a serious edit, or twenty years, before they see the light of day ...
DeleteIf I ever get down there, I'll look you up.
Delete"You knew who you were working for then..." Classic.
DeleteOh wow, this is a great recording!
ReplyDeleteSo, I picked up a copy of Creative Nonfiction at the Melb Writers Festival on the weekend and was thrilled to see your post in there -- reproduced with permission, this time, I hope! I (among, I'm sure, many others) recommended it, so was particularly chuffed! hehe
Did you recommend it to cnf, Ms PoW? Well, thank you!
ReplyDeleteI read your posts on the MWF and was going to let you know that my story was in the cnf Australia edition ... but the launch was on Saturday night I believe - and it was too late by then.
Anyhoo ... now I wait for my own copy to plod across the continent(s) and land in my letterbox. During the edit, they Americanised the language so it will be interesting to see how it reads.
No worries! It was even the same post, just because it had to be in the past 12 months and that one sprung to mind, but I made a disclaimer on their online form that they should read all your posts because they are gems, hehe.
ReplyDeleteMan, you would think that, it being an Aus addition, they could include examples of Aus language -- ah well. House style and all that, I suppose..