A LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVES
George P. Boughton’s maritime career began in 1881 at the age of 12 and lasted into adulthood. As his colourful and acclaimed memoir reveals, a life on the ocean waves was anything but jolly: conditions were tough, often the food was barely edible while the work was backbreaking, although the salt of the earth camaraderie among the sailors more than compensated for the hardships on deck.
Seafaring, which was first published in 1926, is as much about the reminiscences of one man as it is an elegy for a way of life that has slipped into the past. It is almost possible to imagine Boughton’s whiskery voice recalling the era of the “large sailing ships” and why (in his opinion), the world stopped being a better place when these fine old vessels were forced off the sea.
Boughton died in 1940 at the age of 71, but with the publication of these memoirs his contribution to our understanding of this area of history is guaranteed to live on.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
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