Here's what to do if you miss being in the Navy: Put on your foul-weather jacket. Hang two Coke bottles around your neck. Go stand in your shower from midnight to four a.m., with the water turned on full cold and all the lights out. Get out of the shower, strip down, and go to sleep on the top shelf of your closet.
It's only recently that I've gone past the point where I've been out of the Navy longer than I was in it, and I do miss it. Just not enough to go stand in a cold shower for four hours at a time. Instead, I write about it. Going back now, looking at some of our earlier not-so-ship-specific books, I see the hints and outlines of the Navy in 'em.
So, say along with me, "Arrr, matey," and let's talk about the sea.
First, talk-like-a-pirate day. All that "Arrr, matey" stuff. That's English West Country dialect. Among real pirates, Edward Teach (Blackbeard) and Sir Francis Drake (yeah, yeah, but ask the Spanish what he was) were from the West Country and would have talked that way. A big influence on the popular conception of how pirates talked were the performances by Robert Newton as Long John Silver and as Blackbeard in several films and TV series in the 1950s. Newton was from the West Country and used an exaggerated version of his native accent when playing those characters.
The Naval tradition is one of storytelling. What else do you have to do when you're over the horizon, when you're on watch and can't read or listen to the radio, but you can talk with the other guys standing watch beside you? You tell stories. Lots of them are didactic -- my worst duty-day ever, the strange events at Fleet Landing and how they were dealt with, the Day the Admiral Came to Visit. In addition to passing the time they pass on words of wisdom and solutions to unusual problems that you might not find in the tech manuals. Part of the culture is this: you can only tell stories of things that happened to you; you can't tell other people's stories as if they were your own.
Another part of the Naval story-telling tradition is joke-telling. I remember one midwatch (that's the watch from midnight to four a.m.) where we just told parrot jokes. One after another, no repeats. There are an awful lot of parrot jokes.
All this aside.
Let me recommend some books and some places for folks who want to read up on the sea:
Mystic Seaport--when I was young, growing up in New York, whenever we didn't have anything else to do on a weekend, the family would jump into the car and we'd all drive to Mystic. This is a recreation 19th century whaling village, and it has a marvelous library. We've gotten the inspiration for more than one story there.
The Mariner's Museum--when I was stationed in Norfolk, VA, this was a favorite spot. For Civil War ships, this is where the Monitor Center is going to be. It'll open spring, 2007.
Folklore and the Sea by Horace Beck. This is a lovely book, printed by the Mystic Seaport Press (ISBN: 0913372366). The chapter on Ghost Ships isn't one you'll want to read after dark when you're alone in the house.
The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley (ISBN: 0385040253). In amongst complete instructions on tying thousands of knots, Ashley puts a lot of anecdotes about the days of sail. I've owned my copy for thirty years, and I love it.
Cool! Thanks!
Posted by: Harry Connolly | December 11, 2006 at 08:35 PM
Also useful: The Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, MA
Posted by: Connie H. | December 14, 2006 at 07:07 AM
The Peabody-Essex? Oh, yes! Been there many's the time. Nataniel Bowditch is one of my personal heroes (I was a navigator for several years) and they have an alcove dedicated to him. I mean, what greater icon than Nathaniel Bowditch's sextant? (Not to mention his lead-filled walking stick, to defend himself against Copperheads.)
Posted by: James Macdonald | December 14, 2006 at 11:34 AM
Sea Stories is a good book, I like this type of books! thanks for sharing this information!
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