The Sea Life

From MAST & SAIL IN EUROPE AND ASIA 1906
By H. Warrington Smyth

"What is it in the sea life which is so powerful in its influence?
What is it which one meets there with such certainty, and which is not in crowded places nor in men’s applause, not printed in newspapers nor telegraphed by Reuter? It is in the laugh of the little child, in that look of the woman you love. It is on the bosom of the great river, in the breast of the wide moorland. It whispers in the wind of the veldt, it hums in the music of the tropical night. To some, it is borne on the booming night-notes of the deep forest, to others it speaks on the silent snow-peaks. But above all it is there to the man who holds the night watch alone at sea. It is the sense of things done, of things endured, of meanings not understood; the secret of the Deep Silence, which is of eternity, (and of) which the heart cannot speak."

Indeed!
Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ