It Seemed To Me That The Personal Freedom Of These Sailors, Who Own
No Superiors Except Those Of Their Own Choice, Is As Like As May Be
To That Of Their Seafaring Ancestors.
And even in their mode of
navigation they have admitted no such an entire change as you would
suppose probable.
It is true that they have so far availed
themselves of modern discoveries as to look to the compass instead
of the stars, and that they have superseded the immortal gods of
their forefathers by St. Nicholas in his glass case, {11} but they
are not yet so confident either in their needle, or their saint, as
to love an open sea, and they still hug their shores as fondly as
the Argonauts of old. Indeed, they have a most unsailor-like love
for the land, and I really believe that in a gale of wind they
would rather have a rock-bound coast on their lee than no coast at
all. According to the notions of an English seaman, this kind of
navigation would soon bring the vessel on which it might be
practised to an evil end. The Greek, however, is unaccountably
successful in escaping the consequences of being "jammed in," as it
is called, upon a lee-shore.
These seamen, like their forefathers, rely upon no winds unless
they are right astern or on the quarter; they rarely go on a wind
if it blows at all fresh, and if the adverse breeze approaches to a
gale, they at once fumigate St. Nicholas, and put up the helm.
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