t think as yew'd made so
much.'"

That is Posh's account of the final disagreement which led to the sale of
the boats in 1874. Even if it be true one cannot say that the bluff
independence came off with flying colours in this particular instance.
But FitzGerald could have told another story, if one may judge from his
letter to Mr. Spalding of the 9th January, 1874, written from Lowestoft
(_Two Suffolk Friends_, p. 123):--

". . . I have seen no more of Fletcher since I wrote, though he called
once when I was out. . . . I only hope he has taken no desperate
step. I hope so for his Family's sake, including Father and Mother.
People here have asked me if he is not going to give up the business,
&c. Yet there is Greatness about the Man. I believe his want of
Conscience in some particulars is to be referred to his _Salwaging_
Ethics; and your Cromwells, Caesars, and Napoleons have not been more
scrupulous. But I shall part Company with him if I can do so without
Injury to his Family. If not I must let him go on _under some_
'_Surveillance_': he _must_ wish to get rid of me also, and (I
believe, though he says _not_) of the Boat, if he could better
himself."

Posh's story is that after the letter of December 31st, 1873, FitzGerald
tried to find him. He went to his father's house, and (says Posh, which
we are at liberty to doubt) "cried like a child." He sent Posh a paper
of conditions which must be agreed to if he, Posh, were to continue to
have the use of the _Meum and Tuum_ and the _Henrietta_. The last one
was (Posh says, with a roar of indignation), "that the said Joseph
Fletcher the younger shall be a teetotaller!"

"Lor'!" says Posh, "how my father did swear at him when I told him o'
that!"

No doubt he did. And no doubt in the presence of FitzGerald the "slim"
old Lowestoft longshoreman raised his mighty voice in wrath and
indignation that he should have begotten a son to disgrace him so
cruelly! FitzGerald was too open a man, too honest-hearted, too
straightforward to understand that a father could encourage his son
insidiously, and swear at him, FitzGerald, at the same time as he
deprecated that son's conduct. But FitzGerald's eyes, long closed by
kindness, were partly open at last. He would not go on without some
better guarantee of conduct, some better security that the boats' debts
would be paid. On January 19th, 1874, he wrote to Posh (and the
handwriting