the habit of cruising up and down river with one
"West." It certainly was not the _Scandal_, for as transpires in the
letter, that "Great Ship" was not yet painted for the yachting season.

Mr. Manby was a ship agent at Woodbridge.

The "Ship-wash" was, and is, the "Rattlin' Sam" of Felixstowe, and Tom
Newson, FitzGerald's skipper, had evidently had a good bit of
"salwagin'."

"Dan" is not the name of a man, but of a pointed buoy with a flag atop
wherewith herring fishers mark the end of their fleets of nets, or (vide
_Sea Words and Phrases_, etc.). "A small buoy, with some ensign atop, to
mark where the fishing lines have been _shot_; and the _dan_ is said to
'watch well' if it hold erect against wind and tide. I have often
mistaken it for some floating sea bird of an unknown species."

The prophecy that as soon as Posh got his longshore fleet complete he
would wish to go on a "lugger," that is to say, to the deep-sea fishing,
was destined to be fulfilled, and that with the assistance of FitzGerald
himself. But no one ever took Posh's place. FitzGerald's experience as
a "herring merchant" began and ended with his intimacy with Posh.

{Old Lowestoft herring-drifter with "Dan" fixed to stem: p43.jpg}

George Howe, whose schooner was launched so that FitzGerald was just in
time to see her masts slipping along, was one of the sons of "old John
Howe," who, with his wife, was caretaker of Little Grange for many years.
The schooner was, Posh tells me, exceptionally cheap, and FitzGerald's
reference to her meant that she was too cheap to be good.

Since Posh's letter-writing powers received praise from one so qualified
to bestow it, there must have been a falling off from want of practice,
or from some other cause, for the old man is readier with his cod lines
than with his pen by a very great deal, and it is difficult to believe
that he ever wielded the pen of a ready writer. But perhaps FitzGerald
was so fascinated by the qualities which did exist in his protege that he
saw his friend through the medium of a glamour which set up, as it were,
a mirage of things that were not. Well, it speaks better for a man's
heart to descry non-existent merits than to imagine vain defects, and it
was like the generous soul of FitzGerald to attribute excellencies to his
friend which only existed in his imagination.

CHAPTER II
"REMEMBER YOUR DEBTS"

In 1866 Posh became the owner of a very old deep-sea lugger named th