Mischief Goes South: Every Herring Should Hang by its Own Tail (H.W. Tilman - The Collected Edition): 10 Paperback – 22 Sept. 2016

This is one of H W Tilman’s many books describing his extraordinary adventures on land and sea. Mischief is the name of the distinctly battered but apparently seaworthy Bristol pilot cutter that was Tilman’s first boat. Originally designed to be sailed hard by a ‘man and boy’ crew in the Bristol Channel, Tilman adopted Mischief, took on crew and sailed her to some of the most inhospitable parts of the globe. When Tilman writes ‘goes South’ he is not talking of the South of England, or the Mediterranean maybe; he is talking Patagonia and the Antarctic.His whole approach to his adventures are so far removed from the current way of doing things that they feel like a glimpse into the distant past – to the adventuring of Drake or Hawkins, or even further, back to the days of the Vikings when a boat would be equipped with a lodestone, laden with smoked fish and some tubs of water, and shoved off. Tilman was once asked how to arrange a mountaineering expedition, and his answer was crisp: ‘Pack your boots and go!’ His approach to sailing seems to have been much the same. Get a crew together and shove off.But there is a darker side to this casual and – some might say – amateur approach. Tilman genuinely seems to have been fearless, unafraid of death. His extraordinary record in both world wars bear this out – and subsequent adventures in the Himalayas or on the oceans reinforce that. But, it seems, he never quite understood that not everyone feels the same. ‘Every herring should hang by its tail’ is one of his most quoted aphorisms, and is generally quoted approvingly in favour of the virtues of self reliance and independence. But when that extends to not bothering with life jackets, flares or other basic safety equipment, then maybe it becomes a little less virtuous, and not universally applicable or popular.Not that Tilman courted popularity, on the contrary: he is never more animated than when criticising his crew or complaining of their unworthiness. He obviously never attended one of those management course where tutors point out that when you point a finger of blame at someone else, there are three fingers pointing back at you! On this trip at least there was no place for companionship, empathy or fun. For some of us these human values are as important as the adventures that engender them. ‘Come back alive, come back friends, come back having got to the top – in that order’ was Roger Baxter Jones’ famous phrase. From the evidence here Tilman would have had no idea what Baxter Jones was talking about.A feature of this edition is a striking extra chapter by the only woman who apparently ever sailed with him. Janet Verasanso was the part owner – with her husband – of Mischief before it was acquired by Tilman, and was crew when he sailed her from Majorca to Gibraltar. In this chapter she absolutely pulls no punches as she describes how Tilman’s attitude to her changed – from initial, guarded politeness when they first met to discuss the sale, to out and out misogynistic hostility and rudeness when on passage. There are two anecdotes here that, if true, describe someone whose behaviour in most circles would have been considered way beyond tolerable. I didn’t finish this book wishing that I’d ever had the opportunity to sail with him.