"Captains Courageous"

Chapter VI

Notes on the text

These notes are based on those written by Leonee Ormond for the OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS edition of Captains Courageous (1995) with the kind permission of Oxford University Press. Except where stated otherwise, the page numbers below refer to the Macmillan Uniform Edition of Captains Courageous (1899, and frequently reprinted since).

[March 6th 2008]

[Page 148, line 13] lee the side of the boat away from the wind.

[Page 149, line 4] Et it? have you eaten it?

[Page 150, line 6] lullsikin' raound wandering about aimlessly.

[Page 152, line 2] halibutter a boat fishing for halibut.

[Page 152, line 20] Atlantic Avenoo Atlantic Avenue is a main street in the north-east, waterfront area of Boston.

[Page 153, line 9] bug-juice raw alcoholic liquor.

[Page 153, line 22] Boston Light i.e. the entrance to Boston harbour.

[Page 153, line 23] never lufted her lee-rail her lee-rail was underwater the whole time, i.e. she was carrying too much sail.

[Page 154, line 13] tramp tramp steamer, a vessel that picks up cargo where it can, i.e. not on a scheduled voyage.

[Page 155, line 3] Cape Clear Clear Island, County Cork. The nearby Fastnet Rock, a rocky islet which the Fastnet Race uses as a mark to sail round, is the southernmost point of Ireland.

[Page 155, line 5] Skibbereen small market town and fishing port south-west of Cork, Ireland.

[Page 156, line 3] Fayal one of the Faisal islands in the Azores group in the Atlantic.

[Page 156, line 8] brick sc. brig, abbrev. for `brigantine', of which the original meaning was `a small vessel equipped both for sailing and rowing' (Shorter Oxford Dictionary).

[Page 156, line 11] Grand Canary Gran Canaria, largest of the islands in the Canary group off north-west Africa.

[Page 156, line 13] Blanco Cape Blanco, Mauretania, north-west Africa.

[Page 156, line 15] Bezagos the Bizagos islands off the coast of Guinea, in West Africa.

[Page 156, line 15] Liberia republic on the west coast of Africa.

[Page 156, line 23] pinkey pinky, an old-fashioned small New England vessel with a painted stern.

[Page 156, line 24] Greenland's icy mountains a reference to the first line of a hymn by Bishop Reginald Heber, 1783-1826.

[Page 156, line 29] Disko island off the west coast of Greenland.

[Page 157, line 16] squid cephalopod.

[Page 158, line 20] buoy the ... cable attach a buoy to the cable so that the anchor will be marked and can be retrieved easily should an emergency require the ship to leave so quickly that the cable must be cut.

[Page 158, line 26] lee-bowed cutting in on another boat.

[Page 159, line 17] Scrabble-towners a clearly derogatory term that here, as suggested by the Dictionary of Newfoundland English, implies opportunist landsmen out to take an easy catch and then hasten ashore again.

[Page 160, line 21] an' haow does your garden grow? nursery rhyme: `Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?'

[Page 161, line 2] Shackamaxons Shackamaxon is an old name for that part of northeast Philadelphia now known as Kensington. During the late 19th and early-to-mind 20th Century, this area was a hotbed of industry, and particularly of textile manufacture. The epithet, then, probably means 'mill hands', and repeats Dan's reference to the overall factory.

[Page 161, line 6] Johnna Morgan play the organ! `Johnny Morgan', a music-hall song by John Reed. John Hunt Morgan (1825-64) was a Confederate cavalry officer, raider, and hero.

[L. O.]