From the Shelves of the Paco Library

James Norman Hall, who coauthored the Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy with Charles Bernard Nordhoff, also wrote a collection of rollicking stories set in the age of fighting sail featuring a retired, peg-legged Royal Navy surgeon by the name of F. Dogbody. Doctor Dogbody’s Leg takes us inside the snug Portsmouth tavern called The Cheerful Tortoise, where our hero spends his evenings regaling a small group of regulars, and the occasional stranger, with his seafaring yarns, each one of which affords a different explanation for the loss of the good doctor’s “larboard leg”. Along the way, Dr. Dogbody gives us thrilling accounts of battles and escapes, and of encounters with the obscure and the great, the latter category including Lord Nelson and Benjamin Franklin, among others.

The stories themselves are well-plotted, hilarious little gems, made all the more enjoyable because of the cozy, convivial environment in which they are told, and the reader might well fancy himself sitting spellbound, not unlike Dr. Dogbody’s friends, Captain Murgatroyd and Ned Balthus, gripping a tankard of ale, and following the trail of the latest yarn to its inevitable end in yet another uproarious explanation of the loss of the famous leg.

Who wouldn’t stop to inspect the fabulous inn sign of the Cheerful Tortoise, and read in its solidity and artful execution an irresistible invitation to come inside and warm oneself by the fire?

“The Cheerful Tortoise had suffered with the rest of the community from the return of peace, although the creature which gave the inn its name smiled down on passers-by with its old-time air of wistful geniality. The inn sign, as Mr. Tunn himself was willing to admit, was a veritable work of art. Carved from a huge slab of oak by an old seaman, many years before, it was impervious to wind and weather; only the strongest gale would cause it to swing slightly on its heavy gilded chain. Many a thirsty seaman, just ashore, would stop short to gaze in admiration at Will Tunn’s tortoise, touch his hat to it with a grin, and seek no farther for refreshment. The carapace was a bright sea-green, the calipee pale blue, and the flippers yellow, while the head, with its eager smiling face, was richly ornamented and picked out in gold leaf. But the tortoise was greater than the sum of its parts, thanks to a happy stroke of seaman’s genius. Its attitude of absorbed interest as it craned its neck to one side, as though to gaze past the lintel of the doorway onto the taproom, combined with its smile, in which sadness at thought of its own deprivations seemed to be mingled with unselfish delight at thought of the good cheer and good company within, had made it a famous tavern animal amongst innumerable swans, blue boars, cocks, dogs and ducks, red lions, green dragons, white harts, and horses that adorned the highroad between Portsmouth and London.”

These stories represent a delightful and unique excursion off of the normal trade routes of the well-chartered waters of nautical fiction, and you’ll find Doctor Dogbody a worthy companion for those crisp autumn nights when you’re sitting snug by the fireside (with or without a tankard of ale or a bottle of Madeira).