CHAPTER III
The "Olivette"
It was quite a jolly journey, frequent stoppages at stations and changes notwithstanding. Few of the boys had been off the main London line before, and the run between Basingstoke and Oxford was quite new to them. Mr. Armitage pointed out the chief objects of interest, while the Sea Scouts plied him with innumerable questions, some of which were beyond him. They worked out the speed of the train by observing how long it took to cover the distance between two telegraph posts, since these are placed eighty-eight yards, or one twentieth of a mile apart.
"What river is that, sir?" asked Hepburn.
"It isn't a river," declared Woodleigh. "It's a canal. Look, there's a tow-path and a lock."
"Strictly speaking, it's both," said Mr. Armitage. "It's a canalized river, and it happens to be the Thames."
"The Thames!" exclaimed Roche. "Why, it's quite narrow. If we wanted to turn the boat round we wouldn't have room."
"I think so," corrected the Scoutmaster. "Viewed from a height it looks narrower than it actually is. We'll cross it several times before we get to Oxford."
"I wonder what sort of motor the boat has," remarked Roche.
"Mr. Murgatroyd gave no details," replied the Scoutmaster. "It's probably a well-known one. I don't think it ought to be beyond you."
Already the Sea Scouts had a good theoretical and practical knowledge of marine motors; Roche, Flemming, and Woodleigh showing quite good promise in that direction. They had the instinctive gift for locating troubles in internal-combustion engines, and not once but many times, during their short cruises on the Solent, they had assisted amateur yachtsmen whose motors had proved refractory.
Upon arriving at Oxford, the party hired a somewhat decrepit horse and cab to take their gear down to the river. The Scouts decided to walk. For one thing, it was a change after being in a railway carriage for the best part of four hours; for another, it enabled them to get a better view of the city.
"We shan't see many of the colleges," observed Mr. Armitage. "They lie, for the most part, in the north-eastern and south-eastern portions of the city. We'll have to visit them later."
"Rather a difference from Milford," declared Hepburn, as the Sea Scouts threaded their way through the crowds in Carfax. "Jolly fine old place, eh, what?"
Just then a tall, bronze-complexioned man of about thirty stopped Mr. Armitage, and extended his left hand true scout fashion.
"Excuse me, sir," he exclaimed, "but Sea Scouts are not often seen here, although I believe they are 'common objects by the seaside'. My name's Jackson, not that that will interest you, but it is the usual thing to give it. I'm Scoutmaster of one of the Oxford troops. I thought, perhaps, that you are on a visit; in which case my fellows could show you round."
"Hardly on a visit," replied Mr. Armitage, and he indicated the nature of the business that brought him and six Sea Scouts to Oxford.
"I rather envy you," said Mr. Jackson. "I know the boat. However, I suppose you want to be getting on."
"We shall be delighted if, to-morrow afternoon, your troop will take us in hand," remarked Mr. Armitage. "We want to make the best of the opportunity and see the sights, and I quite realize that your suggestion offers the best solution to the question of what to and what not to see."
A little later on, as the Sea Scouts were crossing Folly Bridge, they had their first view of the Olivette—that being the name painted on the bows of the 50-footer.
She was lying alongside a floating stage, just below the bridge, and, if the truth be told, the Olivette was not at all the type of boat Mr. Armitage and his troop had expected to find.
Closer acquaintance showed that she was 54 feet in length with a beam of 12 feet. She drew 3 feet 4 inches aft—dimensions that were rather excessive for the upper Thames.
"Why, she's a tug, sir!" exclaimed Stratton, pointing to a massive beam at the after end of the coach-roof, in the centre of which was a strong, swivelled towing-hook.
"Apparently," agreed the Scoutmaster. "At any rate she's strongly built, and has a terrifically big rubbing strake. She'll stand some knocking about."
"She's more like a sea-going boat," remarked Roche. "She's different from all the other steamers and motor-launches about here."
"I'd like to take her to sea," observed Mr. Armitage. "Let's get on board, and see what she's like down below."
Later on the Scoutmaster learnt that the Olivette was a Government-owned motor-tug, built at Oxford, but never used, owing to the Armistice. Becoming "surplus to requirements ", she was sold to Mr. Murgatroyd, who christened her Olivette. Previously she had been designated by a number.
"Going below" meant descending a short iron ladder into a spacious cockpit, with seats and lockers under the waterways on either side. Opening aft out of the cockpit were three doors. The centre one led to a small, two-berthed cabin, with folding iron cots over lockered seats. The one great drawback was the lack of sufficient headroom—even Hepburn, the smallest of the troop, having to duck his head.
On the starboard side of the entrance to the after cabin was a neat and compact galley, equipped with an atmospheric stove and an array of pots, pans, and crocks. On the port side was a lavatory.
For'ard of the cockpit, and gained by the simple method of stooping under the towing-beam, was the engine-room, with a coach-built roof over.
"Some engine!" declared Roche enthusiastically. "Paraffin, 60—80 horse-power too."
He opened the four compression taps, and proceeded to try to turn the starting-handle.
"My word!" he ejaculated. "She is stiff. Hasn't been used for months."
"You'll have to be careful to keep clear of that fly-wheel," cautioned Mr. Armitage. "It's awfully in the way, and should anyone get mixed up with it there'll be a fatal or very serious accident. Wonder they didn't put a guard-rail to it."
A couple of feet in front of the engine was a raised platform forming the floor of a "sunk" wheel-house. The helmsman would thus be able to see across the fore-deck, although the bows of the vessel interrupted a direct view of the surface of the water within a distance of 50 feet, which was, Mr. Armitage pointed out, a decided disadvantage when entering a lock.
"However," he added optimistically, "we'll soon get used to that."
"She is a sea-going craft after all, sir!" declared Roche triumphantly. "I thought she was."
"How do you know?" inquired Woodleigh sceptically.
"Because she has a compass. She wouldn't want one if she was designed for the Thames, would she?" replied Roche.
One by one Scoutmaster and Sea Scouts crawled through a very small doorway in the wheel-house bulkhead and gained the fo'c'sle, to which access was also obtainable by means of a fore-hatch.
"Quite spacious," commented Mr. Armitage, "and, what is equally important, dry. I see that there are four cots, so two of you will have to sleep on the side lockers in the cockpit. After all, a plank bed isn't so bad when you once get used to it. If it rains, then the fellow on the leeward berth will have to sleep in the after cabin, unless the owner doesn't sleep ashore, as I hope he will. And, by the by, it's as well that we didn't carry out Mr. Murgatroyd's suggestion and bring a tow-rope. There are some in that locker, I see. Get them out, Stratton. We're bound to want them, and we can see what we have got."
Examination showed that there were 50 fathoms of 4-inch coir rope and two 25 fathoms of 2-inch Manila.
"Yes, we've saved ourselves the fag of bringing a coil of rope with us," continued the Scoutmaster. "And there's an anchor and chain and a powerful little winch, so we ought to be all right on that score. Now stow away your gear, and we'll have something to eat. After that, Roche, Flemming, and Woodleigh, can give the engine a run. Warkworth and Hepburn, you'll undertake the catering. Remember, to-morrow's Sunday and Monday's Bank Holiday, so be prepared, and don't land us in the cart."