Philip Pullman: Once Upon a time in the North

'Yep, another successful day. But damn, Hester, you don't hit a drunk man with a stick.'

'Find a bed, Lee. Keep still. Don't talk to anyone. Think good thoughts. Stay out of trouble.'

'That's a good idea,' said Lee.

A few enquiries brought him to a dingy boarding house near the harbour. He paid the landlady for a week's room and board and laid his kitbag on the bed before going out to seek a way of earning some money.

There was a brisk wind snapping in from the sea, and Lee pulled his coat around him and settled his hat more firmly on his head as he саще out of a side street on to the harbour front. He found a line of shops facing the water - a ship's chandler, a clothing store and the like - and a dingy bar or two, "and the broad, stone-built headquarters of the Provincial Customs and Revenue Authority, with a navy-and-white flag flying from the roof. From each end of this waterfront a quay stretched out ahead, forming a long sheltered harbour a hundred and fifty yards or so wide. At the far end stood a lighthouse on a headland that curved around from the right.

Lee looked at the boats in the harbour, taking stock. For a town in the throes of an oil rush, it didn't seem very busy. There was a coal tanker tied up at the quay on the right, sitting low in the water, so they hadn't unloaded her yet; and the only crane on that side was a big steam affair that was working to set a new mainmast in a barque, attended by more men than were necessary, each vividly expressing his point of view. It would take all day; the coal would have to wait.

On the other quay, to the left, there were two smaller anbaric cranes, the first busy loading barrels

THE ELEMENTS OF AERIAL NAVIGATION

essential to. take the greatest care with regard to the manage­ment of ballast. The balance between buoyancy and weight is a delicate one, and many an aeronaut, alarmed by the appar­ent reluctance of his craft to take to the air, has jettisoned too much lead shot too early, and as a consequence has had to let out ga£ to avoid soaring too high. It is a grave mistake to leave too little in reserve. A buoyancy of a very few pounds is quite sufficient to bear the largest balloon aloft. Patience and caution are the watchwords. Aerial navigation is no game for the reckless and improvident.

Notes to Chapter Six

1. As a matter of fact, this is impossible.

2. SeeThe Rapture of the Heights, by Lt-Col Sir WG. Hebblewhite, VC, CMG, FRAS.

3. These are normally made of whalebone.

4. The cubic capacity of a gondola is most commonly ascertained by Stirling's rule; but the following simple plan may be adopted for general purposes. Measure the length and breadth outside and depth inside. Multiply them together and by 0.6. The product is the capacity of the vessel in cubic feet.

5. Only a fool would suppose so.

THE ELEMENTS OF AERIAL NAVIGATION

Chapter VII

Procedure for Landing a Balloon

Figure 9.

^=force ^=velocity ^=acceleration

Mgis the combined weight of the balloon, occupants and ballast and needs to be carefully monitored.Ris resistance t>r buoyancy which will be affected by other factors like the height of the balloon, its Velocity, air pressttre, wind etc.

Size of resistance could be proportional to Volume of balloon or to Velocity.

IfR>Mg(Resistance greater than weight) then balloon will accelerate up. IfRballoon will decelerate, reach its highest point, then start descending. If too much gas is released the descent may happen too fast resulting in a crash landing. Extra ballast may need to be released to slow the descent.

Once aloft in the empyrean, with both gas and ballast in reserve, the aeronaut has little to fear. It is when he approaches the earth with a view to resuming his lowly status as a creature of gravity that the pilot of an aerial vessel encounters the first real danger of his flight. And yet by taking the simplest and most basic pre­cautions, he may safely and easily negotiate the perils of landing, and emerge from his craft with all the nonchalance proper to a prince of the air.

The matj^r stoJ>ear

of fish-oil into the hold of one small steam coaster, the second unloading the timber piled high on the deck of another. Beyond them lay a schooner, at which no activity of any sort was going on, and Lee guessed that to be the unfortunate Captain van Breda's vessel that couldn't load her cargo. Lee couldn't even see anyone on deck. The ship had a forlorn air.

Running along each quay was a line of stone-built warehouses, and at the near end of the left-hand quay was a cluster of offices including that of the Harbour Master. There was a pilot's launch tied up at the steps outside it, and a substantial steam tug a little further on; and if neither of those was busy, trade must be slow.

Lee rang the bell at the Harbour Master's office and went in, having read the brass plate beside the door.

'Good day to you, Mr Aagaard,' he said. T've come to see whether I can find any work around here. Scoresby is the name, and I have a cargo balloon in storage at the Barents Sea Company Depot. Any likelihood of an aeronaut's services being in demand, do you suppose?'

The Harbour Master was an elderly man with a sour and cautious expression. His cat-daemon opened her eyes briefly and closed them again in disdain.

'Business is slow, Mr Scoresby,' said the old man. 'We have four vessels working in the harbour, and when they have gone, I do not expect any more trade for a week. Times are bad.'

'Four vessels?' said Lee. 'My eyes must be deceiving me. I saw five.'

'Four.'

'Then my eyes do need fixing. I saw a three-masted hallucination at the end of the east quay.'

'There is no work at the east quay, or at the west. Good day, Mr Scoresby.'

'And good day to you, sir.'

He and Hester left. Lee rubbed his jaw and looked left, along the quay, to the still schooner.

'I don't like to see any vessel so quiet,' he said. 'She looks like a ghost ship. There ought to be something the crew could be doing. Well, let's go and see what price they charge for hemp cord.'

He strolled along to the chandlery, where at least the stink of fish oil and tanning skins gave way to that of clean tarred rope. The man behind the counter was

reading a newspaper, and he barely looked up when Lee came in.

'Good day,' said Lee, to no response.

He wandered about the shop, looking at everything, and as usual saw plenty he needed and little he could afford. He scratched his head at the prices until he remembered that this place was an ice-bound island for six months of the year, and everything had to be imported.

'How's the election going?' he said to the shopkeeper, nodding at his newspaper. 'Will Mr Poliakov become the new Mayor?'

'You want to buy something?'

'Maybe. Ain't seen anything I can afford, at your prices.'

'Well, I don't sell newspapers.'

'Then good day to you,' said Lee, and left.