The Romantic Interest Which Many Take In The Sea, And In Those
Who Live Upon It, May Be Of Use
In exciting their attention to
this subject, though I cannot but feel sure that all who have
followed me in
My narrative must be convinced that the sailor has
no romance in his every-day life to sustain him, but that it is
very much the same plain, matter-of-fact drudgery and hardship,
which would be experienced on shore. If I have not produced
this conviction, I have failed in persuading others of what my
own experience has most fully impressed upon myself.
There is a witchery in the sea, its songs and stories, and in the
mere sight of a ship, and the sailor's dress, especially to a young
mind, which has done more to man navies, and fill merchantmen, than
all the press-gangs of Europe. I have known a young man with such
a passion for the sea, that the very creaking of a block stirred up
his imagination so that he could hardly keep his feet on dry ground;
and many are the boys, in every seaport, who are drawn away, as by an
almost irresistible attraction, from their work and schools, and hang
about the decks and yards of vessels, with a fondness which, it is
plain, will have its way. No sooner, however, has the young sailor
begun his new life in earnest, than all this fine drapery falls off,
and he learns that it is but work and hardship, after all.
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