M&D - Chapter 17 - Off With The Horns, On With The Show

[Johnny Marr]

"Once round Castle Rock and the Needles"

Couldn't help but think of 'riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of
shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back
to Howth Castle and Environs'. Probably just prompted by the presence of
round and Castle in both sentences ...

We find Mason in a small boat destined towards the shore of  Manatee Bay,
St Helena. It would appear that the locals are out on the sea front by the
Ridge Line, hunting for sea whales and whatever else they can fit in the
trawler off the end of their Lines and Hooks. Wikipedia informs me that
there are no native land mammals on St Helena, only sea mammals in the bay.

To Mason's chagrin, the crew lose The Wind and find themselves reliant on
"Breezes, tides and eddies" to reach the ominously named Break-Neck valley.
As a firm believer in the Age of Reason, Mason refuses to countenance that
18th century seafaring may still be something of an inexact sceience -
surely the wind is simply part of nature that mankind ought to have
mastered and harnessed for his own ends?

Poor Mason's obloquy is only increased by the crew's unsympathetic
amusement over his discombobulation; "That their Remarks are not in English
sends him further a-reel". Not in English? What kind of savagery has this
trip descended to? Little wonder he's glad to disembark as soon as
possible.
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