The Watermen: Selections From Chesapeake Read online

  In this way the feud between Tim Caveny, owner of a black Labrador, and Jake Turlock, owner of a red Chesapeake, began.

  The first test of the two dogs came in the autumn of 1888 at the dove shoot on the farm of old Lyman Steed, who had spent his long life running one of the Refuge plantations and had now retired to a stretch of land near Patamoke.

  Nineteen first-class hunters of the area convened at regular intervals during the dove season to shoot this most interesting of the small game birds: gentlemen like Lyman Steed, middle-class shopkeepers and rough watermen like Jake Turlock and Tim Caveny. For a dove shoot was one of the most republican forms of sport so far devised. Here a man’s worth was determined by two criteria: the way he fired his gun and how he managed his dog.

  Each hunter was allowed to bring one dog to the shoot, and the animal had to be well trained, because the birds came charging in at low altitude, swerved and dodged in unbelievable confusion and, on the lucky occasions when they were hit, fell maliciously in unpredictable spots. If there was a swamp nearby, as on the Steed farm, the doves would fall there. If there were brambles, the dying doves seemed to seek them out, and the only practical way for the hunter to retrieve his dove, if he hit one, was to have a dog trained to leap forward when he saw a dove fall from the sky and find it no matter where it dropped. The dog must also lift the fallen bird gently in its teeth, carry it without bruising it against thorns, and drop it at the feet of his master. A dove hunt was more a test of dog than of master.

  Jake Turlock had a well-trained beast, a large, surly red-haired Chesapeake, specially bred to work the icy waters of the bay in fall and winter. These dogs were unusual in that they grew a double matting of hair and produced an extra supply of oil to lubricate it. They could swim all day, loved to dive into the water for a fallen goose and were particularly skilled in breaking their way through ice. Like most of this breed, Jake’s Chesapeake had a vile temper and would allow himself to be worked only by his master. Every other gunner in the field was his enemy and their dogs were beneath his contempt, but he was kept obedient by Jake’s stern cry: ‘Hey-You, heel!’

  His name was Hey-You. Jake had started calling him that when he first arrived at the Turlock shack, a fractious, bounding pup giving no evidence that he could ever be trained. In fact, Jake had thought so little of him that he delayed giving him a proper name. ‘Hey-You! Get the dove!’ The pup would look quizzical, wait, consider whether he wanted to obey or not, then leap off when Jake kicked him.

  So during his useless youth he was plain ‘Hey-You, into the water for the goose!’ But at the age of three, after many kicks and buffetings, he suddenly developed into a marvelous hunting dog, a raider like his master, a rough-and-tumble, uncivilized beast who seemed made for the Chesapeake. ‘Hey-You! Go way down and fetch the dove.’ So when this red-haired dog swaggered onto the dove field this October day, he was recognized as one of the best ever trained in the Patamoke area.

  Lucifer, Tim Caveny’s Labrador, was an unknown quantity, for he had never before participated in a dove shoot; furthermore, he had been trained in a manner quite different from Hey-You. ‘My children were raised with love,’ the Irishman said, ‘and my dog is trained the same way.’ From the moment Lucifer came down off Captain Lightfoot’s ice ship, he had known nothing but love.

  His glossy coat was kept nourished by a daily supply of fat from the Caveny table, and his nails were trimmed. In return he gave the Caveny family his complete affection. ‘I believe that dog would lay down his life for me,’ Mrs. Caveny told her neighbors, for when she fed him he always looked up at her with his great black eyes and rubbed against her hand. A peddler came to the door one day, unexpectedly and in a frightening manner; Lucifer’s hackles rose, and he leaned forward tensely, waiting for a sign. Startled at seeing the man, Mrs. Caveny emitted a short gasp, whereupon Lucifer shot like a thunderbolt for the man’s throat.

  ‘Down, Lucifer!’ she cried, and he stopped almost in midair.

  But whether he could discipline himself to retrieve doves was another matter. Jake Turlock predicted widely, ‘The stupid Irishman has spoiled his dog, if’n he was any good to begin with.’ Other hunters who had trained their beasts more in the Turlock tradition agreed, adding, ‘He ain’t gonna get much out of that what-you-call-it—Labrador.’

  But Caveny persisted, talking to Lucifer in sweet Irish phrases, trying to convince the dumb animal that great success awaited him on the dove field. ‘Luke, you and me will get more doves than this town ever seen. Luke, when I say, “Fetch the dove!” you’re to go direct to the spot you think it fell. Then run out in wide and wider circles.’ Whether the dog would do this was uncertain, but Tim had tried with all his guile to get the animal in a frame of mind conducive to success. Now, as he led him to Lyman Steed’s farm, he prayed that his lessons had been in the right direction, but when he turned the last corner and saw the other eighteen men with their Chesapeakes awaiting him, eager to see what he had accomplished with this strange animal, his heart fluttered and he felt dizzy.

  Pulling gently on the rope attached to the dog’s collar, he brought him back, kneeled beside him and whispered in his lilting brogue, ‘Lucifer, you and me is on trial. They’re all watchin’ us.’ He stroked the dog’s glistening neck and said, ‘At my heel constantly, little fellow. You don’t move till I fire. And when I do, Luke, for the love of a merciful God, find that dove. Soft mouth, Luke, soft mouth and drop him at my toes, like you did with the rag dolls.’

  As if he knew what his master was saying, Luke turned and looked at Tim impatiently, as if to say, ‘I know my job. I’m a Labrador.’

  The field contained about twenty acres and had recently been harvested, so that it provided a large, flat, completely open area, but it was surrounded by a marsh on one side, a large blackberry bramble on another, and a grove of loblollies covering a thicket of underbrush on a third. The doves would sweep in over the loblollies, drop low, hear gunfire and veer back toward the brambles. Placement of gunners was an art reserved for Judge Hathaway Steed, who hunted in an expensive Harris tweed imported from London.

  The judge had been a hunter all his life, raised Chesapeakes and sold them to his friends. He had acquired a much better intuition concerning doves than he had of the law, and he now proposed to place his eighteen subordinates strategically, about sixty yards apart and in a pattern which pretty well covered the perimeter of the field. Toward the end of his assignments he came to Tim Caveny. ‘You there, with the what-you-call-it dog.’

  ‘Labrador,’ Caveny said, tipping his hat respectfully, as his father had done in the old country when the laird spoke.

  ‘Since we can’t be sure a dog like that can hunt …’

  ‘He can hunt.’

  The judge ignored this. ‘Take that corner,’ he said, and Tim wanted to complain that doves rarely came to that corner, but since he was on trial he kept his mouth shut, but he was most unhappy when he saw Jake Turlock receive one of the best positions.

  Then everyone stopped talking, for down the road edging the field came a carriage driven by a black man. On the seat beside him sat a very old gentleman with a shotgun across his knees. This was Lyman Steed, owner of the field. He was eighty-seven years old and so frail that a stranger would have wondered how he could lift a gun, let alone shoot it. Behind him, eyes and ears alert, rode a large red Chesapeake.

  The carriage came to a halt close to where Hathaway Steed was allocating the spots, and the black driver descended, unfolded a canvas chair and lifted the old man down into it. ‘Where do we sit today?’ Steed asked in a high, quavering voice.

  ‘Take him over by the big tree,’ Hathaway said, and the black man carried the chair and its contents to the spot indicated. There he scraped the ground with his foot, making a level platform, and on it he placed the owner of the farm and one of the best shots in this meet. ‘We’s ready,’ the black man cried, and the judge gave his last instructions: ‘If you see a dove that the men near you don’t, cal
l “Mark!” Keep your dogs under control. And if the dove flies low, absolutely no shooting in the direction of the man left or right.’

  The men took their positions. It was half after one in the afternoon. The sun was high and warm; insects droned. The dogs were restless, but each stayed close to his master, and the men wondered whether there would be any doves, because on some days they failed to show.

  But not today. From the woods came six doves, flying low in their wonderfully staggered pattern, now in this direction, now swooping in that. Jake Turlock, taken by surprise, fired and hit nothing. ‘Mark!’ he shouted at the top of his voice. Tim Caveny fired and hit nothing. ‘Mark!’ he bellowed. In swift, darting patterns the doves dived and swirled and twisted, and three other hunters fired at them, to no avail, but as the birds tried to leave the field old Lyman Steed had his gun waiting. With a splendid shot he hit his target, and his big Chesapeake leaped out before the bird hit the ground and retrieved it before the dove could even flutter. Bearing it proudly in his mouth, but not touching its flesh with his teeth, he trotted back, head high, to his master and laid the bird at the old man’s feet.

  ‘That’s how it’s done,’ Tim Caveny whispered to his Labrador.

  There was a long wait and the hunters began to wonder if they would see any more doves, but Hathaway Steed, walking the rounds to police the action, assured each man as he passed, ‘We’re going to see flocks.’

  He was right. At about two-thirty they started coming in. ‘Mark!’ one hunter shouted as they passed him before he could fire. Jake Turlock was waiting and knocked one down, whereupon Hey-You leaped out into the open field, pounced on the fallen bird and brought it proudly back. Jake looked at Tim, but the Irishman kept his eyes on the sky. He did whisper to Lucifer, ‘Any dog can retrieve in an open field. Wait till one falls in the brambles.’

  On the next flight Tim got no chance to shoot, but Turlock did, and this time he hit a bird that had come over the field, heard the shooting and doubled back. This dove fell into brambles. ‘Fetch the dove!’ Jake told his Chesapeake, but the bushes were too thick. That bird was lost.

  But now another dove flew into Tim’s range, and when he fired, this one also fell into brambles. ‘Fetch the dove!’ Tim said calmly, his heart aching for a good retrieve.

  Lucifer plunged directly for the fallen bird but could not penetrate the thick and thorny briars. Unlike Turlock’s Chesapeake, he did not quit, for he heard his master calling softly, ‘Circle, Luke! Circle!’ And he ran in wide circles until he found a back path to the brambles. But again he was stopped, and again his master cried, ‘Circle, Luke!’ And this time he found an entrance which allowed him to roam freely, but with so much ranging he had lost an accurate guide to the fallen bird. Still he heard his master’s voice imploring, ‘Circle, Luke!’ and he knew that this meant he still had a chance.

  So in the depth of the bramble patch, but below the reach of the thorns, he ran and scrambled and clawed and finally came upon Caveny’s bird. He gave a quiet yup, and when Tim heard this his heart expanded. Lucifer had passed his first big test, but on the way out of the patch the dog smelled another fallen bird, Turlock’s, and he brought this one too.

  When he laid the two doves at Tim’s feet, the Irishman wanted to kneel and kiss his rough black head, but he knew that all the hunters in his area were watching, so in a manly way he patted the dog, then prepared for his moment of triumph.

  It was a custom in dove shooting that if a hunter downed a bird which his dog could not retrieve and another man’s dog did fetch it, the second hunter was obligated to deliver the dove to the man who had downed it. It was a nice tradition, for it allowed the second man to make a show of carrying the dove to its rightful owner while all the other hunters observed his act of sportsmanship. Implied in the gesture was the challenge: ‘My dog can retrieve and yours can’t.’

  Proudly Tim Caveny walked the hundred-odd yards to where Jake Turlock was standing. Lucifer started to follow, but Tim cried sharply, ‘Stay!’ and the dog obeyed. The other hunters took note of this, then watched as Tim gravely delivered the bird, but at this moment another hunter shouted, ‘Mark!’ and a whole covey flew over.

  Automatically Jake and Tim fired, and two birds fell. Jake’s Hey-You was on the spot, of course, and proudly ran out to recover the dove his master had knocked down, but Lucifer was far distant from where his master had shot, yet he was so obedient to the earlier command, ‘Stay,’ that he did not move. But when Tim yelled, ‘Fetch the dove,’ he leaped off his spot, rushed directly to the fallen bird, and carried it not to where Tim was standing, but back to his assigned location.

  The hunter next to Tim on the down side of the field called, ‘You got yourself a dog, Tim.’

  When Caveny returned to his location and saw the dove neatly laid beside his pouch, he desperately wanted to smother the dark beast with his affection; instead he said merely, ‘Good dog, Luke.’

  ‘Mark!’ came the call and up went the guns.

  The day was a triumph. Luke hunted in marshland as well as he had in brambles. He proved he had a soft mouth. He circled well in woods, and on the open field he was superb. And with it all he displayed the bland, sweet disposition of the Labradors and the Cavenys.

  It was the tradition on these dove shoots for one member at the end of the day to provide refreshments. At quarter to five, religiously, the hunting ceased. The dogs were put back on leashes, and if the owners had come by wagon, were stowed in back while their masters ate cold duck and drank Baltimore beer. Turlock and Caveny, having come on foot, tied their dogs to trees, and as they did so the former muttered, ‘Doves ain’t nothin’, Caveny. It’s what a dog does in ice that counts.’

  ‘Lucifer will handle ice,’ Tim said confidently.

  ‘On the bay proper, my Chesapeake is gonna eat ’im up. Out there they got waves.’

  ‘Your Labrador looks like a breed to be proud of,’ old Lyman Steed said as the black servant carried him into position to share the duck.

  ‘Possibilities,’ Judge Hathaway Steed said. ‘But we won’t know till we see him after geese.’

  Each man complimented Tim on what he had accomplished with this strange dog, but each also predicted, ‘Probably won’t be much on the bay. Hair’s not thick enough.’

  Tim did not argue, but when he got Lucifer home he hugged him and gave him chicken livers, and whispered, ‘Lucifer, geese is just doves, grown bigger. You’ll love the water, cold or not.’ During the whole dove season, during which this fine black dog excelled, Tim repeated his assurances: ‘You’re gonna do the same with geese.’

  The test came in November. As the four men and their dogs holed up in a blind at the Turlock marshes, Jake reminded them, ‘Geese ain’t so plentiful now. Can’t afford any mistakes, man or dog.’ He was right. Once the Choptank and its sister rivers had been home for a million geese; now the population had diminished to less than four hundred thousand, and bagging them became more difficult. Jake, a master of the goose call, tried from dawn till ten in the morning to lure the big birds down, but failed. The hunters had a meager lunch, and toward dusk, when it seemed that the day was a failure, nine geese wheeled in, lowered the pitch of their wings, spread their feet and came right at the blind. Guns blazed, and before the smoke had cleared, Jake’s Chesapeake had leaped out of the blind and with powerful swimming motions had retrieved the goose that his master had appeared to kill. Lucifer went into the water, too, but many seconds after Hey-You, and he was both splashy and noisy in making his retrieve of Tim’s goose.

  ‘Sure doesn’t like cold water,’ Jake said contemptuously.

  ‘Neither did yours, when he started,’ Tim said.

  ‘A Chesapeake is born lovin’ water, colder the better.’

  It became obvious to the hunters, after eight mornings in the blind, that while Tim Caveny’s new dog was exceptional with doves on warm days, he left much to be desired as a real hunter in the only form of the sport that mattered—goose on water. He dis
played a discernible reluctance to plunge into cold waves, and they began to wonder whether he would go into ice at all.

  Talk at the store centered on his deficiencies: ‘This here Labrador is too soft. Can’t hold a candle to a Chesapeake for hard work when it matters. You ask me, I think Caveny bought hisse’f a loser.’ Some hunters told him this to his face.

  Tim listened and said nothing. In his lifetime he had had four major dogs, all of them Chesapeakes, and he understood the breed almost as well as Jake Turlock did, but he had never owned a dog with the charm of Lucifer, the warmth, the love, and that meant something—‘I come home, the room’s bigger when that dog’s in it.’

  ‘Point is,’ the men argued, ‘a huntin’ dog oughtn’t to be in a room in the first place. His job is outside.’

  ‘You don’t know Lucifer. Besides, he’s sired the best lot of pups in the region. This breed is bound to catch on.’

  The Patamoke hunters were a suspicious clan. The most important thing in their lives, more important than wife or church or political party, was the totality of the hunting season: ‘You got to have the right gun, the right mates, the right spot, the right eye for the target and, above all, the right dog. And frankly, I doubt the Labrador.’ The pups did not sell.

  Tim had faith. He talked with Lucifer constantly, encouraging him to leap more quickly into the cold water. He showed what ice was like, and how the dog must break it with his forepaws to make a path for himself to the downed goose. Using every training trick the Choptank had ever heard of, he tried to bring this handsome dog along step by step.

  He failed. In January, when real ice formed along the edges of the river, the men went hunting along the banks of the bay itself, and when Jake Turlock knocked down a beautiful goose, it fell on ice about two hundred yards from the blind—‘Hey-You, get the bird!’