John Porter & Jenny: The Windward Passage

Part II

Part II

After a few days, the crew has settled into their routines to the point people can have a little more fun, starting with Kevin's "Modern Shanty Contest" to replace the traditional 19th century working songs that provide the coordinating rhythm to large groups of people hauling lines like the mainsail halyard or the braces. "Bad Romance" (Alex' contribution) is a little too fast, but "Before He Cheats" (mine) works well. "I Love Rock n' Roll" (Will) left up for debate. The entire process has the captain vacillating between horror and hysterics as he stands behind the wheel with a customary military rigidity too long used to be shed now, in old uniform slacks and loud Hawaiian shirt which I take to be his celebration of civilian sailing. Off duty folks start hanging out in scattered little gatherings on deck or on the rack above the winch where the lumpy bundles of sails provides an ideal place for lounging. At meals the groups become more fluid as people start to mingle between watches.

I tend to stick close to the Captain to pick his brain for nautical knowledge in general as well as Naval history, the lack of attention given to both the Royal Navy's history, as well as the developing naval forces of the Commonwealth Nations, in this region of the world being of concern to us both. He keeps hinting heavily there's a doctorate in it for me. I keep hinting heavily back that I really want to return to the Ancient Mediterranean at some point. That was what I got into Naval History to study after all.

"So how did you end up with Greg here?" John asks me over the remnants of dinner one night, probably desperate to drag the conversation out of the dry pages of historiography.

To which I relate how I got drawn into studying the history of the Royal Navy by accident. "One of my classmates had taken the Naval History course the semester...term before I did and she had done her term paper and presentation on…"

"Oh God." The Captain winces, having heard this story before.

"…"The Frequency and Recurrence of Sodomy and Bestiality on Royal Naval Vessels of the Napoleonic Wars"  which in the department was popularly known as the "Buggery in the British Navy Paper.""

At "sodomy" John has started to choke. By "buggery" he is chortling is the most remarkably adorable manner.

"Like you lot were much better. Regulation brothels," Dr. Randall counters in annoyance.

"Monty took good care of his troops. And at least the Army knows where to put it." This results in a display of British inter-service rivalry I have not had the pleasure of, so I let the two men give each other a hard time until the Captain quits the table longing for "the days of proper Naval discipline of the cat".

"You shagged cats too?" John asks the older man's retreating back to get the one-finger salute in response. "Not my type, mate," John rejoins dryly.

After the chuckling subsides John smiles, a gentle curve of his narrow lips conveying a startlingly genuine warmth. "You didn't finish telling me how you got into Greg's program, sorry."

I shrug. "The end of the story isn't nearly as interesting as the beginning." I talk about how being competitive with my classmate made me stumble onto an academic gap of study focused on the Royal Navy that I have been swimming in since. He narrows his eyes in interest while I am talking, but at the end he nods politely, obviously not seeing the importance of the work.

"Sorry. I hear Greg talking about some of the things he is working on and I can't believe what some people get paid for."

"Well, we aren't paid a lot. And I can see where from the outside it looks like historians get caught up in a lot of trivial minutia, but the general idea is that by studying the details we will understand the larger events better. In my case the progression of the power of the nation state and the development of the military as a disciplined fighting force. And in understanding how things came to be, we learn, hopefully, how to best move forward in the future."