Ralph Stock

Name: South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea
Author: Ralph Stock

South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (1922)

Summary

“South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea”, published in 1922, is a work by Ralph Stock. It explores elements such as Herriott, Landon and Stella.

Quotes from South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (Ralph Stock)

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (1922)

“ Landon turned on his heel.
"All right," he said. "Stand by to hoist the squaresail."
Herriott obeyed with compressed lips, and presently the Pioneer was racing homeward before a following gale. At the wheel it was soul-racking work. The gray hills of water had grown to mountains, up which the little craft was lifted as by a giant hand and flung reeling into the valley beyond. Combers, seemingly out of the sky, hung over her and broke as by a miracle, astern. It was fatal for the helmsman to look behind him. In the history of the sea more than one has been shot for so doing. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (1922)

“ Herriott was fuming over the inadequacies of oil stoves in anything of a sea, and when the meal was served he sat silent and morose. He was a changed man, and he knew it. There is nothing quite like a prolonged bucketing in small craft to give the best of us a glimpse of himself. Herriott felt vaguely that the sea had found him wanting, and the knowledge alternately surprised and tortured him.
Neither Stella nor Landon addressed him, but talked of the habits of sea birds during storm, of the formation and action of waves, and such-like trivialities that irritated Herriott beyond expression. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (1922)

“ By the time Herriott had reached the saloon Stella was in her bunk. She heard a cupboard opened softly, the faintest clink of glass, and a sigh as her husband settled down on one of the settees. She lay motionless, staring wide-eyed at the white-enamelled timber overhead.
With the dawn a gray nor'easter bore down upon the Pioneer, and quickly strengthened to a gale. Hove-to under double-reefed mainsail, the little yacht took it without flinching, as she had been built to do, and Stella busied herself with preparing hot drinks for the men when they should come below. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (1922)

“ The sight causes the breath to catch, the body to flinch for just that fraction of time that it takes to broach-to and founder.
And Stella enjoyed it! Herriott made the amazing discovery that night while his wife was on watch, and her small, finely chiselled face came into the searching radius of the binnacle lights. It was the face of a thoroughbred engaged in combat that it loved. The thing was inexplicable to Herriott. He dreaded his trick at the wheel with an intensity of which he had never dreamed himself capable.
At midnight, through the sliding hatch, he watched Landon relieve Stella. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (1922)

“ She slipped from the bunk of her minute cabin and passed through to where a sliding hatch aft afforded a glimpse of the helmsman in the steering well. There was none. The wheel was deserted and locked amidships. The Pioneer was hove-to.
Through a porthole in the hatch combing it was also possible to command a view of the deck for'ard, and here with face pressed close to the glass Stella stood as one hypnotized. In the searching moonlight all was clear. Her husband and Landon were on deck, barefooted as always but standing with bowed heads beside an indistinct shape that lay in shadow. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (1922)

“ Stella put a finger to his lips. "Never say that," she said. "I can't believe it."
"You mean you don't want to."
"I mean I don't want to, and I can't."
A wave crest smote the Pioneer a resounding thwack on her snub nose and swept the deck, dying with a gurgle in the scuppers.
Herriott swung his feet from the settee.
"Listen," he said. "You may as well know. We're hove-to in a gale that may last a week and drift us anywhere. There's nothing between us and the South Pole but the sea, and neither Lan nor I can navigate. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (1922)

“ For three days and three nights the Pioneer rode and drifted, and with the dawn of the fourth the wind veered, without slackening strength, to the opposite quarter. Landon noted the change.
"It's fair," he said. They were the first words he had uttered to Herriott in two days. "We ought to make all the northing we can."
"Fire ahead," returned Herriott; "you're in charge." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (1922)

“ Was it possible that they were blind to their position? Or were their verbal banalities a mask? In any case they were treating him as a child, he felt. It was a conspiracy between this friend of his and his own wife to humiliate and nullify him. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Ralph Stock, South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (1922)

“ I think that's all—oh, except that there are only fifteen gallons in the fresh-water tank. You see the position?"
"Yes," she said, "and thanks—I like to know. I'll have breakfast ready in ten minutes." ”

Ralph Stock

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Quotes from South of the Line — The Habit of the Sea (Ralph Stock)

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