Review: “The Heaving of the Log”, William Hope Hodgson, 1988.
Yes, it’s another Hodgson story of about abusive mates at sea. (It was a second mate that made the life of the young Hodgson at sea a hell.)
The young apprentice seamen decide to play a joke on Second Mate Johnson one night when “heaving the log”, the process, which Hodgson interestingly describes, of measuring a ship’s speed and, hence calculate the longitude.
The apprentices are frequently called to do this while Johnson, in dereliction of his duties, sleeps, so, one night, they decide to play a joke on him and put the rope used to heave the log around Johnson’s neck.
However, the story ends with a grisly sort of revenge, and we don’t know if the apprentices are punished for it: Johnson’s neck is snapped, and he dies.
MarzAat 