The Treasure of Tortuga!
Like the Jack Warrender tale, this one also was written to precede a magical presentation for children!
THE TREASURE OF TORTUGA!
Just off the north-west coast of the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola (now divided into the two countries of Haiti and The Dominican Republic), lies a small rocky island which, from a distance, looks like a giant tortoise rising above the surface of the sea. The Spaniards in fact, named this island, Tortuga, which means, Tortoise.
During the summer of 1713, five notorious pirate captains met on the island to make an agreement never to attack each other. As a gesture of good faith, each took with them a bag of personal treasure to be buried on the island. If any of the five were to be killed, their treasure was to be divided between those who remained.
Each buried his treasure in an individual plot and a map was drawn, showing the locations. There were just five copies of the map, of which each captain had one. Within two years of the meeting, all five pirates were dead! Either killed in action or taken by the authorities and executed.
There were many rumours about the meeting on Tortuga, but no one knew the whereabouts of the treasure or who held any of the maps. The story was consigned to myth and legend.
Then one day, in June, 1926, a young boy, the son of a merchant seaman, found an old leather wallet on the beach near where he lived in Cornwall. Upon opening the wallet, he discovered two pieces of parchment. One of them carried a roughly drawn map and the other, some strange instructions.
He took the package to his father, who soon recognized the map as being that of Tortuga. He had of course heard the old legend of the five pirate captains and thought that these two old tattered documents might indeed be directions to the buried treasure!
He took them to the appropriate authorities who verified the age and validity of the papers and an expedition was mounted to find the treasure!
IV. Answer the following questions (in details):
1. What does a rocky island look like?
2. Why did pirate captains meet on the island?
3. How could they find the buried treasure?
4. What did the son of a merchant seaman discover in the wallet?
V. Make up a dialogue on the following situation, get ready to reproduce it.
An agent comes aboard the ship. You are a watch officer. Greet each other, introduce yourself and show the agent to the Master's cabin.
VI. Compose a story about your duties on board the ship. Use the following
words and expressions:
To prepare for departure; an officer on watch; to be responsible for; to load and discharge the cargo; the navigating bridge; to keep watch; ship's speed; to relieve somebody of watch.
VII. Home-reading (read and translate orally and do all tasks in written form).
THE LEAST OF THE INDIANS
By Jack Eckert
In the overall scheme of things one-hitch people come and go from the Coast Guard at the rate of a couple of thousand per year. The young men and women enter, possibly go through a Class A service school, become productive Coasties for two and a half or three years and then leave the service for good.
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Their memory of the Coast Guard is better than the memory the Coast Guard has for them. Unless they distinguish themselves by act or deed or are real foul balls, they are even forgotten by their shipmates.
In the Marine Corps personnel are indoctrinated in the tenet that, "Once a Marine, Always a Marine." Such is not our service -- regrettably.
The epitome of a person like that was my friend Donald Schwartz who entered the Coast Guard about 1954, spent some time at Racine Lifeboat Station, transferred to the Cutter Mackinaw for a year or two, finishing up his hitch as a draftsman in the Civil Engineering Branch of the Ninth District.
Don was a rather shy but proud person. He had grown up an orphan living in several different homes from a very young age. Out of High School at 17 he entered the Navy until he was 21. He left the Navy as a MM3 and joined the Coast Guard as an FN. He might have gotten his crow back but for the fact the Coast Guard was operating only a few steam ships. Eventually he made EN3 then EN2.
His only vice was his appreciation for pipes and pipe smoking.
You would never know that Don was around. I knew him on the Mackinaw. We came on together and were casual friends. The only sea story that can be told about him was when he was assigned to two months scullery duty, the bane of all FN's and FA's of the time.
Don didn't like coffee very well but he had to make it as part of his "scullery maid" duties. The coffee urn was located on the mess deck immediately next to the scullery. Don hated cleaning out the coffee urn, the smell bothered him so he hit upon a "better" way of doing things. He would clean out the urn early Monday mornings. A new basket was put in and filled with about five pounds of coffee. He then ran the heated water through it until the urn was nearly full. Oh that mess deck coffee was strong on Mondays. As the pot emptied he would simply add more water to it, filling up the sight glass. The coffee got progressively weaker as the week wore on until by Friday it was hot colored water. For some reason or other even the most ardent "coffeehead" drank very little mess deck coffee preferring instead to get it from one of the engine rooms or any other place where coffee was brewed. Simultaneously sales from the "coke machine" went up. Nobody ever figured out what was wrong with the coffee until Don's scullery tour was up and he returned to engine room duties. Miraculously the mess deck coffee improved and the Chief Belly Robber was credited for buying better coffee.
Don had received training as a draftsman somewhere along the line, the District Office was in need of one and by whatever means the man and the job were brought together to the satisfaction of both.
He was never very happy as an Engineman. He liked being a draftsman. When re-enlistment time approached he opted out because he could get no assurance that he could remain in his chosen trade.
Don Schwartz came and went from the Coast Guard hardly making a ripple in the water. Many people do that and we forget them even though they did their jobs and caused no problems while they were with us.
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He went on in Civilian life to be a draftsman until he retired at 65. He had married a barren woman, adapted a daughter, and was a quiet church going man all of his life. Tragedy struck when his wife passed away suddenly several years ago. Ironically just after he retired, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and soon died of it.
Few of us remember Don. He didn't do anything heroic. He wasn't a bad guy. He just came in, did his job, and quietly left. One of the Least of the Indians.
Ex I. Answer the following questions:
1. When did the young people become productive Coasties?
2. Were they remembered by their shipmates?
3. When did Schwartz enter the Coast Guard?
4. What job did Schwartz have in the Ninth District?
5. Why did Schwartz live in different homes?
6. What was his vice?
7. Why did Don have to make coffee?
8. Did he like working as an Engineman?
9. What job did he like?
10. What was his family like?
Ex. II. Translate the following sentences into English:
1. , .
2. .
3. , , .
4. , .
5. , .
6. , , .
7. 65 .
8. , .
Test paper
I. Give the equivalents of the following expressions:
; ; ; ; ; .
II. Translate the following sentences into English:
1. , .
2. 2 .
3. .
4. , .
5. ?
6. .
7. , .
8. , .
III. Read the text and translate it in writing:
The lodya had a wide flat bottom and a small draught, which enabled her to sail anywhere without putting her in case of a storm. The ship could always be taken ashore or put on ice. But it did not obey the rudder as well as a ship with a keel does, especially in a storm.
Sailing their ships, the Pomor seamen became familiar with the climate and currents of the Arctic Ocean and its icebound seas, and courageously sailed on their small ships out into the open ocean, exploring distant lands.
They knew that the tides were connected with the position of the moon in the sky, and called them "the breath of the ocean". They were familiar with the compass, which they called matochka. They could tell the time by the stars and the sun.
The northern seamen of old used charts copied by hand and sailing directions, which contained descriptions of the coast, showed the safest routes, and pointed out the most convenient time for sailing.
The brave Pomor seamen made many important geographical discoveries.
IV. Answer the following questions in details:
1. Why did not the lodya obey the rudder?
2. How and where did the Pomor seamen sail on their ships?
3. How did they call the compass and what publications did they use during their
sailing?
