April 22 Monday – From Sam’s notebook:

“It breaks out hearts, this sunny magnificent morning, to sail along the lovely shores of England & can’t go ashore. Inviting” [MTNJ 2: 68].

Sam reflected on “Lying story-books which make boys fall in love with the sea.” He referred to more realistic stories, such as Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast (1840). Sam wrote:

“…that a common sailor’s life is often a hell; & that there are probably more brutes in command of little ships than in any other occupation in life” [MTNJ 2: 69].