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The Mirror of the Sea

Part 3 The Fine Art Chapter IX

Word Count: 1386    |    Released on: 18/11/2017

ace against time, against an ideal standard of achievement outstripping the expectations of common men. Like all true art, the general conduct of a ship and her handling in particul

alling, was their vocation, one and all; and they recognised this with as much sincerity, and drew as much inspiration from this

ice was deep, hearty, and authoritative - the voice of a very prince amongst sailors. He did everything with an air which put your attention on the alert and raised your expectations, but the result somehow was always on stereotyped lines, unsuggestive, empty of any lesson that one could lay to heart. He kept his ship in apple-pie order, which would have been seamanlike enough but for a finicking touch in its details. His officers affected a superiority over the rest of us, but the boredom of their souls appeared in their manner of dreary submission to the fads of their commander. It was only his apprenticed boys whose irrepressible spirits were not affected by the solem

umstance of terrific grandeur. One may think that the locality of your passing away by means of suffocation in water does not really matter very much. I am not so sure of that. I am, perhaps, unduly sensitive, but I confess that the idea of being suddenly spilt into an infuriated ocean in the midst of darkness and uproar affect

on with a certitude of execution upon the basis of just appreciation of means and ends which is the highest quality of the man of action.

. Their own masters had not handed the sacred fire into the keeping of their cold and skilful hands. One of those last I remember specially, now gone to his rest from that sea which his temperament must have made a scene of little more than a peaceful pursuit. Once only

, he called me aft from my station on the forecastle head, and, turning over and over his binoculars in his brown hands, said: "Do you see that big, heavy

ecame untrue to his temperament. It was not with him art for art's sake: it was art for his own sake; and a dismal failure was the penalty he paid for that greatest of sins. It might have been even heavier, but, as it happened, we did not run our ship ashore, nor did we knock a large hole in the big ship whose lower masts were painted white. But it is a wonder that we did not carry away the cables of both our anchors, for, as may be imagined, I did not stand upon the order to "Let go!" that came to me in

a shy mumble, "She wouldn't luff up in time, somehow

all the living creatures upon land and sea, it is ships alone that cannot be taken in b

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1 Part 1 Landfalls and Departures I2 Part 1 Chapter II3 Part 1 Chapter III4 Part 2 Emblems of Hope IV5 Part 2 Chapter V6 Part 2 Chapter VI7 Part 3 The Fine Art VII8 Part 3 The Fine Art VIII9 Part 3 The Fine Art Chapter IX10 Part 4 Cobwebs and Gossamer Chapter X11 Part 4 Cobwebs and Gossamer Chapter XI12 Part 4 Cobwebs and Gossamer Chapter XII13 Part 5 The Weight of the Burden XIII14 Part 5 The Weight of the Burden XIV15 Part 5 The Weight of the Burden XV16 Part 6 Overdue and Missing XVI17 Part 6 Overdue and Missing XVII18 Part 6 Overdue and Missing XVIII19 Part 6 Overdue and Missing XIX20 Part 7 The Grip of the Land XX21 Part 7 The Grip of the Land XXI22 Part 8 The Character of the Foe XXII23 Part 8 The Character of the Foe XXIII24 Part 8 The Character of the Foe XXIV25 Part 9 Rules of East and West XXV26 Part 9 Rules of East and West XXVI27 Part 9 Rules of East and West XXVII28 Part 9 Rules of East and West XXVIII29 Part 9 Rules of East and West XXIX30 Part 10 The Faithful River XXX31 Part 10 The Faithful River XXXI32 Part 10 XXXII33 Part 11 In Captivity XXXIII34 Part 11 In Captivity XXXIV35 Part 12 Initiation XXXV36 Part 12 Initiation XXXVI37 Part 13 The Nursery of the Craft XXXVII38 Part 13 The Nursery of the Craft XXXVIII39 Part 13 The Nursery of the Craft XXXIX40 Part 14 The Tremolino XL41 Part 14 The Tremolino XLI42 Part 14 The Tremolino XLII43 Part 14 The Tremolino XLIII44 Part 14 The Tremolino XLIV45 Part 14 The Tremolino XLV46 Part 15 The Heroic Age XLVI47 Part 15 The Heroic Age XLVII48 Part 15 The Heroic Age XLVIII49 Part 15 The Heroic Age XLIX