"The Wager"

 

I am reading The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, David Grann’s best-selling account of a 1742 voyage when a group of British warships attempted a trip around the tip of South America. 

In the process Grann gives us an insight into how some common English phrases evolved out of the experience of naval exploration and warfare.  Grann writes (on p. 35):

“To “toe the line” derives from when boys on a ship were forced to stand still for inspection with their toes on a deck steam.  To “pipe down” was a boatswain’s whistle for everyone to be quiet at night, and “piping hot” was his call for meals.  A “scuttlebutt” was a water cask around which the seamen gossiped while waiting for their rations. A ship was “three sheets to the wind” when the lines to the sails broke and the vessel pitched drunkenly out of control.  To “turn a blind eye” became a popular expression after Vice-Admiral Nelson deliberately placed his telescope against his blind eye to ignore his superior’s signal flag to retreat.”

Later (on page 51) he mentions the source of the phrase “under the weather.”  It referred to when sailors became so sick that they were moved below deck, away from the weather.

The Wager is a great read.  Grann brings together 18th century social and technological issues, international politics, the impact of social stratification, and the role of naval innovation in the politics of European expansion.  I am still early in the book.  I know it will end in tragedy, but am looking forward to learning more about the fate of The Wager and of the sailors who manned it.

It Takes a Village

 

Individual versus Social Responsibility

Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley suffered an embarrassment this election year when asked about the cause of the American Civil War.   It was, she replied, the result of the conflict between two views of how one should live in society.  On one hand, the South celebrated the freedom of the individual, while the North celebrated a society in which government ensured the same rights—equal rights—for all citizens.  Almost immediately, there was a backlash, since most people felt that the Civil War was about slavery and how it denied freedom and full participation in society to an entire race of people.

            One could argue, of course, that slavery—or, more precisely, the right of individual people of one race to buy and hold others as slaves—was a major implication of a social structure defined by the rights of individuals without also referencing the individual’s responsibility to their society and the right of all individuals to the same opportunities.    Ultimately, this frames the questions that all democracies must address and then continue to consider as every new generation faces fresh challenges. 

The question of how to balance the individual’s rights with the individual’s responsibility to the community is not a new concern.  In his history of America during the Presidencies of Thomas Jefferson, Henry Adams (John Quincy’s grandson) recalled a controversy over whether or not citizens should fund the development of a highway across Rhode Island.  Opponents argued for a toll road, saying that they should not be required to pay the cost of people transporting goods from one place to another (Adams, p. 46).  Adams quotes Timothy Dwight, President of Yale from 1795 to 1817, on the Rhode Island state legislature’s refusal to fund the completion of an unfinished turnpike designed to cross the state:

“The principal reason for the refusal, as alleged by one of the members, it is said, was the following: that turnpikes and the establishment of religious worship had their origin in Great Britain, the government of which was a monarchy and the inhabitants slaves; that the people of Massachusetts and Connecticut were obliged by law to support ministers and pay the fare of turnpikes, and were therefore slaves also; that if they chose to be slaves they undoubtedly had a right to their choice, but that free-born Rhode Islanders ought never to submit to be priest-ridden, nor to pay for the privilege of travelling on the highway. This demonstrative reasoning prevailed, and the road continued in the state which I have mentioned until the year 1805. It was then completed, and free-born Rhode Islanders bowed their necks to the slavery of travelling on a good road” (ibid.).

And so it has gone for the two centuries that followed.  We continue to struggle to find a happy middle ground between the desire for individual freedom, on one hand, and the need for individuals to take responsibility for their communities on the other.  Historically, one result of this way of living is that the control of community falls to a tiny minority.  In the olden days, these were the aristocrats, kings and dictators.  The challenge for today, when many citizens have lost their sense of citizenship, is to keep our culture as a community of individuals.  As some have said, “It takes a village.”  Call it democracy.   

"Mayflower" -- Understanding the Real Events of Our Early History

 I just finished reading “Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War,” Nathaniel Philbrick’s account of how the Pilgrims and other English   peoples left Europe and came to what is now known as “New England” and how they interacted with the native Americans who already called that area home.   The book devotes much attention to the relationship between the Europeans and the Native Americans, showing how they competed for resources, how they learned about each other’s culture and ways, and, ultimately, how they came into conflict through King Philip’s War--a war that divided the Native Americans into pro- and anti-English factions and, ultimately, contributed greatly to the decline of the Native American population in New England.  

    It also documents some disturbing actions, especially in light of the long tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving as a coming together of English and Native American communities.  I was amazed to learn, for instance, that the English sold captured Native American fighters into slavery.  Beyond that, the war resulted in a huge loss of Native American population in the area.  As Philbrick writes, “The fourteen bloody months between June 1675 and August 1676 had a last, disturbing impact. On the development of New England and, with it, all of America.  . . . And yet we must look with something more than cynicism at a people who maintained more than half a century of peace with their Native neighbors.  The great mystery of this story is how America emerged from the terrible darkness of King Philip’s War to become the United States” (Mayflower p. 357).
   

    Given the political extremism that is currently flooding  the United States as we prepare for a historic election, we should all take a fresh look at a our history to better understand how we got here and what we need to value as we continue to evolve as a society.  I highly recommend Mayflower as a starting point.

 Philbrick, Nathanial.  Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War.  Penguin Books, 2007.