March 30, 2008: Nordhoff & Hall on Learning at Sea - 3 Comments

I've never, ever wanted to run away and make my fortune as a sailor until I read this paragraph. Is that weird?

"'Lieutenant Bligh,' he said, in his musing, abstracted way, 'desires me to instruct you in some of your duties. Navigation, nautical astronomy, and trigonometry he will teach you himself, since we have no schoolmaster on board, as on a man-of-war. And I can assure you that you will not sup til you have worked out the ship's position each day. You will be assigned to one of the watches, to keep order when the men are at the braces or aloft. You will see that the hammocks are stowed in the morning, and report the men whose hammocks are badly lashed. Never lounge against the guns or the ship's side, and never walk the deck with your hands in your pockets. You will be expected to go aloft with the men to learn how to bend canvas and how to reef and furl a sail, and when the ship is at anchor you may be placed in charge of one of the boats. And, last of all, you are the slave of those tyrants, the master and master's mates.'"

- Nordhoff & Hall, Mutiny on the Bounty, 1933.