Getting used to maritime culture

Slowly but surely I'm becoming more familiar with the ways of the sea, maritime culture and the part that culture plays in the story of all of us. Much of this is because I have a living encyclopedia for an uncle in Captain Ken. In our cold and windy Barefoot Marina, he's told me stories made at sea -- some he was a part of, others that have made history. Either way, slowly those stories are becoming a new part of me.

Perhaps many already know the influence the imperial British Navy has had on a variety of popular expressions of our day, for example. Being a part of the naval fleet for an empire upon which the sun never set, British sailors had it tough and were out at sea for months on end. Oftentimes they were enlisted against their will, especially when the fleets were short of crewmen. The British Navy would enlist young men  and force them into the robust life of a sailor, but did promise to give them "three square meals a day", which referred to the table on which they ate, which had horizontal and vertical dividers that formed squares for each table setting to keep plates from sliding off the table when the boat was riding on the water. The table I write on within Captain Ken's yacht has a similar lip all along the edges that serve the same purpose.

Many of the British sailors had wives that they had to leave behind when the navy took them in. The ships went from port to port, but the sailors were carefully watched whenever their ships came to dock because many of the sailors were looking to escape at any chance they got. When they did come to back to port, they couldn't be gone for long, and if the port they were at was their hometown they couldn't leave the ship at all. Many sailors made the argument that they just want to see their wives, which the navy thought was reasonable. So married sailors were allowed to invite their wives on the ship when docked at their home port. But conjugal visits were not allowed in the common quarters for sailors. So when a sailor and wife had their conjugal visit on the ship they'd stay on the gun deck between two cannons and cover the area over with a blanket. Thus, the child they'd have nine months later would be called a "son of a gun".

Every morning the sailors had to get up bright and early, and before they could even have the first of their three square meals, they had to shine the decks. The commander of the ship would thus wake up his crew shouting, "Rise and shine".

Nowadays, living on a boat is considered a luxury. My, how times have changed! I've spent a little under three weeks learning about the worry-free, hospitably lifestyle of the yachtees who live in the marina with us. Every weekend they invite their friends out to the boat, play some music and drink some wine on Saturday night, and then cook up some eggs and bacon on the dock on Sunday morning. We just received three bottles of wine from our neighbor this evening, just as a friendly gesture he gave it. After another day of working on the boat,  it was a very welcomed gift. Keep living well, yachtsmen, keep living well.