Number Two Hold, by Terence Quilligan

An original novel extract set in the twentieth century.

Con Mahoney worked at the bottom of the hold because he could. The others fought for the deck jobs, out of the dust, but Con went down the ladder first every morning, his shoulders filling the hatchway. Twenty years of hooking sacks out of ships’ holds had given him forearms like ships’ cables, and every ganger on the Mersey knew it.

That morning it was flour from the Algoa Bay. Working beside him was the Doyle lad, nineteen and thin as a broom handle, whose wife had had a baby at Christmas. The boy swung his hook too eagerly, and a sack split from end to end and poured itself over the boards like snow sliding off a roof.

‘Who did that?’ Rimmer the ganger leaned over the hatch. A split sack came out of a man’s wages. The lad had split one on Tuesday, and a second meant the gate.

The boy stood very still, his hook pressed flat against his chest as if it were a prayer card. Con looked at him. Then he turned his own hook over in his huge fingers, as though he had never seen it before.

‘Mine,’ he called up. ‘Getting old, Mr Rimmer. Hands like a baby’s.’

Rimmer swore, wrote in his book and went away. The lad started to say something, and Con swung a sack onto the boy’s shoulder to stop him. At the dinner hour Con coughed for a long time into his fist, with white dust on his lips, and when it was over he lit a cigarette and laughed at nothing.

What impressions does the writer create of Con Mahoney?

You must refer to the language used in the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.