Wind Power

This is a true story. Rex White knows too many seamen's stories to want to add to them. Besides, this happened on land. It happened in Lytham, a town on the River Ribble, near to the place where the river flows into the Irish Sea. The shape of the trees along the Lytham beach road is proof of the great strength of the wind which comes in off the sea. It blows hard across the grass, the car-parks and the open road beside the river, and there is nothing to stop it. Rex White was a ship's pilot. It was his job to guide ships up the river, between hanks of sand, into the port of Preston. Mr. White lived in a village some kilometres from the coast, so he had to drive to Lytham and leave his car in one of the car-parks beside the river. Then he used to row out to the pilot boat, and await the particular ship that it was his duty to guide. Early one morning, Mr. White returned to Lytham from a night on duty, to find that he could not start his car. He had driven from his village the evening before, and had left his car in the car-park as usual. He had rowed out to the pilot boat, and gone on board the S. S. Kilkenny, which was on her way from Ireland. Then, in the early hours of the following morning, he had returned to Lytham in the pilot boat, expecting to drive home to a cup of hot chocolate and a warm bed. But no matter what he did, he could not get the engine to start. It was a cold and windy night; there was no one about, and there was no garage open to which he could turn for help. He was just about to give up, and spend the rest of the night on the back seat of the car, when he had a bright idea. He pushed the car round so that it was facing in the direction of the wind, opened all four doors, pushed it along a short way, and then jumped in. The doors acted like sails, and in no time the wind had taken him right out of the car-park, and away down the beach road. When he tried the starter-switch once more, the engine roared to life immediately. All he had to do then was to stop the car and shut the doors. He went to bed later than usual, but he did not go without his cup of hot chocolate. Mr. White was not a seaman for nothing.