ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS

Having recently celebrated Valentine’s Day it got me thinking about the romance and adventures of life on the high seas.

In years gone by a young man was lured to sea. He was drawn to the distant horizons, the vision of carefree life in exotic foreign ports surrounded by beautiful native women, stirred by the romance of the sea. Then there were those who went to sea simply because they needed a job.

Contemporary travel is fast and efficient. Board a plane, eat a meal, watch a movie,  and a few hours later, the traveler disembarks in a new and distant land to sample unique foods, observe exotic dances and decipher the language of the quaint inhabitants. After a one week stay in a luxury hotel and its back home.  Even travelers on a cruise ship, although slower than a plane, still experience the romance of the high seas with all the luxury of a 5-star resort.  As everyone disembarks in a foreign port they try to take in as much culture as possible by talking to the locals, tasting different foods and buying a special souvenir that is a symbol of where they have been.   By contrast, travel during the 18th century was slow, laborious and quite difficult.

During the 18th century, when a vessel and its crew came in contact with new people, the sailors and islanders often participated in gift giving, trade and hospitality rituals. They played music and entertained one another, compiled vocabularies and set up markets. Not only did the crew want what others had---fruit, livestock, or beads, ---they wanted to satisfy basic curiosity.  Not much has changed over the years, just the length of time it takes to reach the destination, the comfort of getting there and the cost.  But I am sure many of us would rather enjoy todays luxurious form of travel as we set sail on the high seas.