ambivalence that seafaring always see ms to Mediterranean durin g the sixth and f1fth We embark on voyages ge nerate. centuri es BC; the Portuguese ex ploratio ns not only to get somewhere Ttis not surpri sing that such co nditions of the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, of seafaring, taken together, have produced at f1rst tentative then bold , as we ll as th e but also to accomplish a ri ch and lastin g literature. Because voyea rl y Spani sh voyages to th e Americas in something, and, in Western ages in real expe ri ence have built-in mothe 15th and 16th centuries; Ren aissance culture, often to discover more mentum and directionality, driven by the circumn av iga tions of the wo rld; exp lo raabout the ways human beings urge for ex ploration and discovery or sim tions of th e Pacif1c during the 18th ce ncan expect to fare in the world. ply by th e desire to reach a known port tury; polar expediti ons to the Arctic and safel y, their narration requires ve ry littl e Antarctic during the 19th and ea rl y 20 th artifice in plot. And they tap into an inn ate teleology, an undercur- centuries; and und ersea exp lo rati o n to profound d epth s of th e rent of human purposes and goals. We embark o n voyages not o nl y ocea n in rece nt decad es. From the Odyssey to th e prese nt, th e sea has served as a place for literary portraits of adve nture and di saster, to get somewhere but also to accomplish som ething, and , in W es tern culture, often to di scover more about the ways human for quests, hun ts, and tests of human enduran ce. Throughout all beings can expect to fare in the world . In this sense voyages are a centuri es, unlike the land , the sea has been a co nstant for those natural vehicle for the human im agination ex ploring the unknown , w ho sa iled o n it, va ri ab le in mood but immutabl e in essence-a wh ether it be discovering strange new lands, finding out the truth place wit h a character mu ch like that attributed to Pose ido n , by about ourselves, or searching for those more perfect wo rlds we call turns both placid and turbulent, serene and menac in g. For seafarutopias. T h ese purposes and intentions, as we ll as tension between ers, these are th e def1ning dim ensions of th e place they li ve in , the lure of new experience and th e desire to get ho me, mark every largely unchanged since th e f1rst se paration of earth and wa ter. .1 stage of Odysseus's return from th e Trojan War. As he recapitul ates th e whole of his extraordinary voyage to Penelope, he tells the first Dr. Robert Foulke is professor emeritus at Skidmore College. A sea returning seaman's yarn in th e W estern world. voyager for more than 40 years, he has taught for the Williams College The sea has been a "place" of extrao rdin ary importan ce in the Program at Mystic Seaport and the Sea Education Association at evo luti o n of W es tern culture. [t is the environment that has Woods Hole, Massachusetts. This article is adapted.from his book The encompassed human beings during major movem ents of ex- Sea Voyage Narrative (New York, 1997) and .from the paper he panded awareness-the Greek co loni za tion westward through the presented at the World Marine Millennial Conference last year.
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SEA HISTORY 96. SPRING 2001