Fish Patrol Tales

In his youth, John Griffith Cheney, the future Jack London, owned the sloop Razzle-Dazzle (that is, “Haunting” or “Fuss”) and worked on it (oyster poaching), until the ship went out of order. Later, John entered the California Sea Patrol (California Sea Patrol), and the experience obtained there gave him material not only for creating a collection of stories, but also for other “sea” subjects ^[1] .

London argued that "Fish Patrol Tales" is largely based on real events. The story “White and yellow” is in fact an accurate description of a case from the life of Jack London himself, and the hero of the story “King of the Greeks” Big Alec is a person who actually existed, whom the author did not change either his name or his nickname ^[2] .

The narration is conducted in the first person, the narrator is the owner of the sloop "Reindeer", chartered by a fishing company to patrol the gulf in order to prevent illegal fishing methods. The other main character is Charlie Le Grant, if not participating in the events, then at least mentioned in each story.

The collection’s stories were first published in magazine from February to May 1905, and in October of the same year they were published in Macmillan publishing house ^[3] . In 2010, the collection was included in the collection of stories by Jack London, whose stories are connected with the San Francisco Bay by (published by Sydney Samizdat Press).

• White and yellow ( White and Yellow , 1902). A fishing patrol on two ships (one of them is the “Reindeer”) is sent to the Lower Bay of San Francisco Bay to prevent Chinese fishermen from using predatory fishing for shrimp, who used small-mesh nets that killed all the fish that went along with the shrimps, including fry. When delivering captured poachers to San Rafael, a serious problem is particularly acute - the “reindeer” has a leak, and the captured Chinese refuse to bail out water. The detainees enter into a psychological duel with two patrolmen, counting on their release before the threat of a catastrophe or as a result of physical violence, but are defeated.
• "King of the Greeks" ( The King of the Greeks , 1902). Bolshoi Ale nicknamed "The King of the Greeks" for a long time due to the corruption of a part of the fisherman’s patrol officers and the ability to hire the best lawyers thanks to the "taxes" he imposed on his fellow tribesmen of Greek origin, not only for malicious and even demonstrative poaching, but and for killing patrolmen. After several unsuccessful attempts to detain him red-handed, Charlie Le Grant and the narrator successfully use an accident: those hired to overtake a private yacht to Benishia, they are unrecognized approaching her to the skiff of Big Alec and seize their enemy at the crime scene.
• Oyster Pirates Raid ( A Raid on the Oyster Pirates , 1902). Due to the illness of his superior's wife in patrol, the narrator and Charlie Le Grant find themselves in “simple” and decide to earn some money by accidentally learning about the generous reward promised by some owner of oyster banks to anyone who can regularly seize on his property. The narrator and the hired volunteer rent the old sloop "Maggie" and infiltrate into the gang of "oyster pirates", pretending to be inexperienced novices. In the midst of fishing, they hijack the boats of poachers, taking them in tow, and Charlie Le Grant, with the help of the police and the guards of the shoals, organizes a barrier between the shoals and the shore. At the risk of drowning at high tide, the "pirates" are forced to surrender.
• The Siege of the Lancashire Queen ( The Siege of the Lancashire Queen , 1903). After a long grueling chase, the two poachers took refuge from the narrator and Charlie Le Grant on the English ship Lancashire Queen, anchored in San Francisco Bay. Pissed off with a blow to the head during the pursuit of hefty power, Charlie Le Grant gives the word to catch the violators and, together with the narrator, sets up an ambush at the Solanskaya quay dock, resulting in a “stalemate” situation - day after day poachers occasionally make attempts to cross. ashore in their rowing boat, but at the sight of the patrolmen sailing away to them, they return safely to their refuge every time. Finally, a private boat with a steam turbine with a capacity of 4,000 hp appears at the pier, Le Grant secretly negotiates with its owner and, when poachers try to reach the shore, patrolmen successfully intercept them not on their usual sailing boat, but using This latest achievements of science and technology. "This time, my wit was not wit, but she did her job," Charlie commented on an unusual operation of a fishing patrol in response to a humorous reproach from her boss.
• Trick Charlie ( Charley's Coup , 1903). A whole village of fishermen of Greek origin unanimously violates the law, exposing a multitude of fine-meshed nets across the bed of the river flowing into the San Francisco Bay during the spawning period of salmon . When a ship arrives with the narrator and Charlie Le Grant on board, who expect to seize at least one poacher boat along with the nets, the fishermen scheduled for arrest are slowly rowing to the shore, and then they open fire on the patrol and force them to abandon the confiscation of the nets until other offenders continue to quietly go about their business. Day by day, the fishing patrol loses credibility, but the paddle steamer, accidentally hooking the nets, leads the patrolmen to a saving thought. They hire the Mary-Rebecca schooner, screw a special hook under its bottom, enter the river and hook ten nets together with the boats of their owners. Poachers open fire with rifle guns, but patrolmen let you know about what is happening, bypassing one of the marinas, and in the next town a whole crowd of armed miners come ashore to assist the servants of the law in apprehending criminals.
• Demetrios Kontos ( Demetrios Contos , 1903). The fisherman Demetrios Kontos improved his sailing boat, making it the fastest in the San Francisco Bay, and challenged the fishing patrol. He announces in advance his intention to fish for salmon in Benisha’s mind, where patrols live, on a no-fishing day - Sunday. Twice the narrator and Charlie Le Grant unsuccessfully tried to catch up with him, and on the third Sunday they carried out a new plan: Le Grant, depicting disappointment, slowly left the pier where a crowd of fishermen who sympathized with Kontos gathered, where the narrator had to go "Drive" the offender, pursuing him on a patrol sailboat. During the chase, the narrator's boat crashes into a floating log and sinks, Demetrios Contos saves him, but he still arrests him at the pier in Vallejo Le Grant, following the letter of the law. The court sentences the poacher to a fine that the patrol pay out of his pocket, after which Kontos becomes their friend and stops violating the rules of fishing.
• Yellow handkerchief (1903). The narrator completes work in the fishing patrol and, together with other patrolmen, heads for the Northern Deer to Auckland , where he intends to continue his education. In the fog, the sloop crashes into a Chinese junk with fishermen engaged in illegal shrimp fishing. Among the poachers there is a Chinese with a yellow handkerchief on his head, who was already arrested a year earlier (the story “White and Yellow”). The "reindeer" takes the junk, into which the narrator is transplanted, in tow and leads her along the San Rafael river to the place of detention. For technical reasons, the tug has to be given away, in the dark the Chinese attack the narrator, the junk is detached from the “Reindeer”, and the narrator is planted tied up on a small island. At night, the Yellow Scarf sails by boat alone — apparently to kill the hated patrolman, but by this time he manages to free himself from the ropes and hides from the enemy all the night in cold mud in shallow water near the shore, until the Chinese leave attempts to find him, and the patrolmen returning to the "Northern Deer" rescue their comrade.

In 1928–1929, the stories of the collection were published in the 24-volume complete collection of works by Jack London (published by Earth and Factory , an appendix to the World Pathfinder magazine ). In 1961, the collection was completely published in the third volume of Jack London’s fourteen-volume collected works together with the People of the Abyss and Men's Fidelity collections, as well as the story The Game ( Pravda Publishers , illustrations by P.N.Pinkisevich ). In 1976, the same publishing house included it in the fourth volume of the thirteen-volume edition (Library of Fire series) along with the collection For Courage (other publications sometimes use the literal translation of the title of this collection: Dutch Prowess) ^[4] and the novel The Sea Wolf ” (also with illustrations by P.N. Pinkikevich). In these editions, the stories "White and Yellow", "Yellow Scarf" are given in the translation by V. A. Khinkis , "The King of the Greeks", "The raid on oyster pirates", "The siege of the Lancashire Queen", "Demetrios Kontos" - in the translation E. A. Ber (E. Berezina) , and “Charlie's Trick” is translated by E. M. Shishmareva ^{[5] [6]} . The collection was repeatedly reprinted in the 1990s and 2000s. Since 1998, the translations of Z. A. Vershinina (wives of one of the leaders of the Trudoviks in the State Duma, I. V. Zhilkin ) have been used.

• London J. Collected Works in thirteen volumes. / G.P. Zlobin; S. S. Ivanko. -M .: True , 1976. - T. 4. - 496 p. - (Library "Flame"). - 375 000 copies
• Erica Knapp. About the Author // Tales of the fish patrol. - A Digireads.com Book, 2011. - ISBN 978-1-59674-569-8 .

• Gutenberg.org