Chapter 39

After a few minutes, though, there was a scrabbling sound coming from the side of the ship, and then a three-tined spear was hurled up and over the railing, clattering against the deck planking below. In short order, a young massive man emerged from behind a rope ladder that had been left dangling from the side of the walls. He was carrying a large, green- and yellow-scaled fish in a net bag that was fastened around his waist. With his hands on the bag as he approached the top of the ladder, he hoisted it up onto the deck, then completed the ascent and swung his legs over the fence.

When he turned around, the other seafarer greeted him and praised him in the strange combination of languages they were speaking between themselves. Two guys, working together, took the massive yellowfin fish from the nets and hung it on a frame so that it could be cleaned and gutted later that evening. This fish had to have been ten feet long from tip to tail fin, and it was rounder and fatter than the M