Eleven

 

On the following Monday morning Egg took Edward to the boat-yard and led the way to the drawing office.

‘As you know,’ he said, ‘this firm’s been involved with quick boats since my father started it. We build river boats for South America and our launches have been used in the university boat race for the officials. We produced sixteen-knot boats as long ago as 1890 and they brought us loads of orders. Now, as we know, it’s torpedo boats. The need these days is for something fast and sturdy which is a good sea-keeper. The engine’s the thing. We’ve made experiments, but, of course, so has everybody else: Hydraulic jet propulsion. Propellers of all shapes and sizes. In the end it always comes back to the power plant.’

He paused and adjusted his spectacles. ‘We’ve had our disasters too. Snake, which was built for the navy, was lost and the court martial claimed it was structural weakness. It wasn’t, of course. No court martial is qualified to pontificate on causes but they always do if only to show it isn’t naval slackness that’s to blame.’

He gestured at the drawing board. ‘This is the Bourdillon Mark III. Hand started. There was a bit of a problem over it having to be set low but I’ve overcome that by using an extra shaft and a chain. It’s fast.’

Edward studied the drawings. ‘Is that what I’m supposed to be selling?’

‘Not yet. For you I’m thinking of forty-five-foot launches powered with two Bourdillon IIIs, each developing seventy horsepower. Their weight’s only about one and a half tons and we think we can reach seventeen knots with them – ideal for naval purposes.’

‘As torpedo boats?’

‘The navy’s used fifty-six-foot picket boats with a dropping gear carrying two eighteen-inch torpedoes and they’re found to be stable if the boat doesn’t exceed ten knots. I think mine could go faster.’

Edward frowned. ‘Seventeen knots isn’t very fast for a torpedo boat,’ he said.

‘That’s because the navy insists on paraffin. They lose about fifteen per cent of their power output from the same engine capacity. But the navy doesn’t like petrol. They consider it dangerous.’

‘So is being hit by gunfire. There’d be less chance of that if the boat were faster.’

Egg’s idea intrigued Edward. It seemed to have great potential. Selling boats would make him virtually his own master, and he would be able to travel where he pleased so long as he justified it with sales. Above all – and the thought kept returning to him – it meant that eventually he could talk on equal terms with Rafaela.

‘When were you thinking I should start?’ he asked.

‘In two or three months’ time,’ Egg said. ‘You’ll need to be well acquainted with the boat. We have two available at the moment. It’ll mean using them constantly and reading everything you can about them.’

‘I’ll need a mechanic with me.’

‘All the time?’ Egg looked startled.

‘If these boats are what I think they are, I’ll need someone to answer finer points about the engines. And he’ll need to keep them in tip-top condition because it won’t look very good if they break down while they’re being demonstrated.’

‘Did you have someone in mind?’

There was only one contender. Edward spoke to Sam Nankidno the next morning as he crouched over the shaft of one of Egg’s steam launches.

‘How goes it with Alice Appleby?’ he asked.

Sam looked up. ‘She’s took up with that young feller who runs the dairy counter in the grocer’s.’ He sounded bitter. ‘A bloke who slaps water into butter all day.’

‘So you’ll be free now?’

Sam grinned. ‘There are plenty of other fish in the sea.’

‘I meant, free to do what you please.’

‘What are you getting at, Eddy?’

‘Ever thought of travelling, Sam?’

Sam looked up. ‘Me? Can’t afford it.’

‘Would you like to?’

‘Who wouldn’t?’

‘What about these new boats the yard’s turning out?’

‘The forty-five-footers? They’re good.’

‘And the engines? Have you worked on them?’

‘The older men get those jobs.’

‘Fancy having a go at them?’

‘Not half. Look, what’s all this about?’

 

There was a little grumbling at the engine shop as the news about Sam went round. But the grumblers were all older family men who had no wish to leave home, and adjustments were made in shifts to allow Sam in.

As soon as the boats were ready, one was put in the water and the trials began. They spent a few minutes admiring it, then Egg gestured. ‘Start up,’ he said.

The engine came to life with an explosion and a puff of blue smoke then settled down to a steady rumble that spoke of power. The trials went well and the boat’s speed was calculated at 15 knots. With Sam’s tinkering, they pushed it up to 17 knots but could go no further.

‘If we ran on petrol,’ Edward asked, ‘how fast would she be?’

Egg rubbed his nose. ‘Twenty-five. About there.’

‘Suppose we converted them wholly to petrol. Would it take long?’

Sam explained. For petrol and paraffin there were two separate fuel tanks and two separate leads to the carburettor. The engine started on petrol then switched to the vaporising oil. When they stopped they switched back to petrol so that the carburettor was left with petrol in it.

‘Otherwise you have to drain the whole system,’ Sam said.

‘Good,’ Edward said. ‘All we need now are the throttles changing. Forward for fast. Back for slow. Let’s do it.’

 

The boat moved down the creek, its engines rumbling heavily. There was a lop on the sea but with Egg, Edward and Sam aboard the boat showed she had good sea-keeping qualities and they soon reached a speed of 22½ knots.

Egg’s eyes shone with delight.

Edward and Sam now had virtually full control of the trials of Dido and Aeneas as Egg had christened the two boats. As the summer holiday period arrived, they found themselves moving about the south coast, either towing a Bourdillon on a huge trailer hauled by a clanking steam engine, or putting it on board a coastal vessel at Southampton and dumping it in the water at their destination. Most of the comments at the various regattas were complimentary, but the yachting fraternity did not really approve of anything that didn’t carry canvas. Nevertheless, the boats won everything they entered and started to sell.