ad cleared from the Channel in
seaworthiness; crossed the Line with a boastful "_All well!_" to a
homeward-bounder; steered south into the 'roaring forties'--to meet
disaster in fire, or wind, or sea, and falter into the Falklands with
the boats swung out!

There was then no firm of ship repairers on the Islands. The most Mr.
Fordyce could do for us was to find workmen, and a schooner to take
part of our cargo and lighten us sufficiently to get at the leaky
rivets. Old Jock had to set up as a master shipwright and superintend
the repairs himself. And who better? Had he not set Houston's leg as
straight as a Gilmorehill Professor could? He was the man; and there
was no sign of hesitation when he got out his piece of chalk and made
marks (as many and as mysterious as a Clydeside gaffer's) on the
damaged ironwork! Such skilled labour as he could get--'smiths' from
the sheep camps (handy men, who were by turns stonemasons or
woolpackers or ironworkers)--were no great hands at ship-work; but the
Old Man, with his rough, chalked sketches, could make things plain; he
had, too, the great advantage of knowing the Islanders' language and
its proper application to the ordering of 'wis'like' men! What might
have been put elsewhere as, "What th' hell sort of work do you call
this?" he translated to, "Man, man, Jock Steel! Could ye no' pit a
fairer bend oan that knee?" ... Jock (who would have thrown down his
tools, and "on with his jacket" at the first) would perhaps turn red at
the kindlier reproof, mutter "Well, well," and have another try at the
stubborn knee.

It was slow work, for all the din and clatter. Forge fires are
devilish in the hands of an unskilled blower; rivets break and twist
and get chilled when the striking is squint and irregular; iron is
tough and stubborn when leverage is misapplied. There were
difficulties. (Difficulties that wee Jonny Docherty, a Partick rivet
'b'ye,' would have laughed at!) The difficulty of strapping cut beams
to make them span their former length; the difficulty of small rivets
and big holes, of small holes and big rivets ... the sheer despair when
sworn measurements go unaccountably and mysteriously wrong in practice.

All difficulties! Difficulties to be met and overcome!

Every one of us had a turn at the ironwork. There was odd work that we
could do while the 'smiths' were heating and hammering at the more
important sections. We made a feeble show, most of us; but