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I considered posting this in the Military Literature forum, but I decided instead to post in the Navy Forum as I am hoping to stimulate a bit of discussion about how serving at sea can affect ones outlook on life. So I begin by quoting perhaps the 'greatest historical naval novelist of all time", the late Patrick O'Brian in his novel Mauritius Command:
"Were we to speak generally, we might say that upon the whole sailors after many years of their unnatural cloistered life, tend to regard the land as Fiddler's Green, a perpetual holiday; and their experiences cannot be attempted to be fulfilled. What the ordinary landsman accepts as the common lot, the daily round of domestic ills, children, responsibilities, the ordinary seaman is apt to look upon as a dissapointment of his hopes, an altogether exceptional trial, and an invasion of his liberty."
Mauritius Command is the 4th volume in a 20 volume set which includes the now famous novel The Far Side of the World- the book upon which the movie Master and Commander was based.
What of the relentless, monstrous, beautiful oceans of the world and those who ply her currents, winds and routes. Has making the sea a part of your life actually changed your perspective on living? I know it did for me, but it took a while to get used to the routine of sea, especially the routine aboard a warship with it's many daily evolutions.
There is a saying along the lines that "once you are upon the sea, then shall forever be the sea within you." To a large degree I find I must agree with this saying .... I never saw the ocean until I was twenty years of age .... now twenty years on I cannot take my mind off it for than a day or two.
Cheers.
Anybody else have similar perspectives?
"Were we to speak generally, we might say that upon the whole sailors after many years of their unnatural cloistered life, tend to regard the land as Fiddler's Green, a perpetual holiday; and their experiences cannot be attempted to be fulfilled. What the ordinary landsman accepts as the common lot, the daily round of domestic ills, children, responsibilities, the ordinary seaman is apt to look upon as a dissapointment of his hopes, an altogether exceptional trial, and an invasion of his liberty."
Mauritius Command is the 4th volume in a 20 volume set which includes the now famous novel The Far Side of the World- the book upon which the movie Master and Commander was based.
What of the relentless, monstrous, beautiful oceans of the world and those who ply her currents, winds and routes. Has making the sea a part of your life actually changed your perspective on living? I know it did for me, but it took a while to get used to the routine of sea, especially the routine aboard a warship with it's many daily evolutions.
There is a saying along the lines that "once you are upon the sea, then shall forever be the sea within you." To a large degree I find I must agree with this saying .... I never saw the ocean until I was twenty years of age .... now twenty years on I cannot take my mind off it for than a day or two.
Cheers.
Anybody else have similar perspectives?