Gus had been on board the Laurel for six days, and was beginning to feel quite at home, when the lookout gave the cry, ‘Land Ho!’ All the crew who were not engaged in other duties crowded to the rails, searching the horizon and pointing ahead. Gus followed the direction of their gaze and eventually made out a small, grey hump that might easily have been a cloud. As the ship drew nearer, the hump solidified into a mountain and the grey became green and Gus found himself looking at a landscape of terraced hillsides rising to a sharp peak, with a settlement of white buildings fringing a bay at its foot. The Laurel glided into the harbour and dropped anchor and Gus gazed in fascination. He had never seen anywhere so green and lush and there were trees he could not name and flowers that belonged in storybooks. The sight awoke a long buried memory, of pictures from the Bible he had been shown by a teacher in the workhouse.

‘Where are we?’ he asked the man next to him.

‘Madeira,’ came the response. ‘That’s Funchal town.’

‘I think it should be called Paradise,’ Gus said.

The man laughed. ‘Aye, well, I guess that’s near enough.’

‘Why have we stopped here?’ Gus asked.

‘Coaling,’ was the reply. ‘That’s the thing with a steamer. You’ve got to take of coal whenever you can.’

‘But …’ Gus stopped himself. He had been about to ask why they had to take on coal, when they were supposed to have a hold full of it.

Most of the crew had called at the island on earlier voyages and there was excited chatter about the delights of the taverns to be found ashore and the beauty of the girls who served in them. The mood rapidly soured when it was learned that there was to be no shore leave. Gus shared in the general disappointment. He longed to set foot on this strange and exotic land.

For two days the coal barges shuttled to and fro and their cargoes were hauled aboard, though in a leisurely manner that Gus found surprising. Usually the officers kept the men working hard at any task, but now they seemed happy to let them take it easy. By the end of the second day all the coal had been loaded, but still Captain Ramsay appeared in no hurry to resume the voyage. Gus heard mutterings among the crew.

‘What we doing, hanging about here? If we can’t go ashore we might as well be on our way.’

Serving in the wardroom, Gus had the impression that the officers were uneasy, too.

‘If we’re here much longer the port authorities are going to smell a rat. We’re fully coaled, so they’re going to wonder what we’re waiting for.’