March 12, 1981 AD
Slack Water
Theodore James Rankin was born at 4:23 pm at Calvary Hospital in Lenah Valley during an autumn storm that had driven Hobart's fishing fleet into port. He was the first child of the fisherman William Theodore Rankin and the marine science teacher Margaret Anne Rankin. William tied up the Southern Current at Constitution Dock and reached the hospital ahead of the worst of the weather. He spent the labour with a marine radio on the windowsill, and noted from his tide table that his son had arrived near slack water.
Theodore James Rankin was born at 4:23 pm at Calvary Hospital on Augusta Road in Lenah Valley, the first child of William Theodore Rankin, a commercial fisherman working out of Constitution Dock, and Margaret Anne Rankin née Fraser, who taught marine science at Hobart College. He weighed eight pounds two ounces. He was delivered by the obstetrician Dr Frances Henley, with the midwife Carol Ingram attending.
Margaret's labour began at dawn at the family's cottage in Taroona. By mid-morning an autumn storm had come up the Derwent with little warning, and the forecast turned bad enough to send Hobart's fishing fleet back to port. William brought his trawler, the Southern Current, into Constitution Dock before noon, made her fast alongside a dozen other boats sheltering there, and drove to Lenah Valley. He reached the hospital shortly before the worst of the wind and rain arrived over the city.
He brought a portable marine radio with him and set it on the windowsill of the labour ward, where it carried the fleet's reports and the coastal forecasts through the afternoon. Margaret did not object. Between contractions the two of them discussed the falling barometer, which hung in the corridor outside. As the delivery approached, Carol Ingram switched the radio off without asking either of them.
The birth was long but uncomplicated, and the baby was healthy. He cried briefly and then lay quiet, watching the room. William checked the tide table he kept in his jacket pocket and told his wife that their son had arrived near slack water, between the ebb and the flood. The name had been settled weeks before: Theodore after his father's middle name, and James after Margaret's father.
The storm eased through the early evening and blew itself out to the east. The radio, switched back on, reported the seas falling and the fleet preparing to go out again in the morning. Dr Henley examined mother and child again before she left for the night and found both well. When the night midwife came round shortly before midnight, she found Margaret awake and William asleep in the chair beside the bed with his son in his arms.
