What matter? The wind is fair and
you are for Calabria with twenty tons of macaroni from Amalfi. There is
no time to be lost, either, for you will probably come home in ballast.
Past Scalea, then, where tradition says that Judas Iscariot was born and
bred and did his first murder. Right ahead is the sharp point of the
Diamante, beyond that low shore where the cane brake grows to within
fifty yards of the sea. Now you have run past the little cape, and are
abreast of the beach. Down mainsail--down jib--down foresail. Let go the
anchor while she forges, eight to nine lengths from the land, and let
her swing round, stern to the sand. Clear away the dingy and launch her
from amidships, and send a line ashore. Overboard with everything now,
for beaching, capstan, chocks and all--the swell will wash them in. As
the keel grates on the pebbles, the men jump into the water from the
high stern and catch the drifting wood. Some plant the capstan, others
pass the long hemp cable and reeve it through the fiddle block. A hand
forward to slack out the cable as the heavy boat slowly creeps up out of
the water. The men from other craft, already beached, lend a hand too
and a score of stout fellows breast the long oars which serve for
capstan bars.
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