let her work under him . Warwick didn't think much of women on the whole, still less of them as sailors on the North Atlantic run. Gwen and Mother wore him down over time and he reluctantly agreed . Gwen wrote Mother just before setting sail : "I'll enjoy having you no end. Warwick w ill just have to bear up under us and w ill probably like it in the end." Having been home-schooled from a very yo ung age (what her father called "education by poetry" or "education by metaphor"), Mother brought with her a develo ped interest in educating the yo ung. She knew that W arwick and Gwen kept with them at all times their two young children, Warwick, Jr. (nicknamed "Co mmodore"), and Ann (nicknam ed "Queen Ann"), both hardened sa ilors from birth. Ann and Commodore were sea babies w ith such un-babylike playthings as ropes and marlinspikes. Nonetheless, Ann also had a love of Buffy dolls, teddy bea rs, and woolly dogs, and she kept a seagoing nursery
and ring bolts from any spot o n deck. Bruised from ankle to elbow, Mother winced but felt her wou nds were worth it, agreeing with philosopher Thomas Carlyle that" in all true labor, were it but hand labor, there is som ething of divineness." Mother and her shipmates soon felt bonded to ship and seaas though they had been away for years, as if they had never known that other life of newspapers, cars, crowds, and politics. Whole passages of verse flo oded her mind: from Masefield 's "Dauber," Keats' "Sonnet of the Sea," and Stevenson's ''A. Visit from the Sea." "W e had become a unit in a m atter of hours, understanding each other in silence as in talk, loving Wander Bird with a passionate and jealous love." The ocean voyage more than lived up to Mother's expectations of adventure and danger. Ships passed in the night: Whither, 0 splendid ship, thy white sails crowding, Leaning across the bosom of the urgent West, That fearest nor sea rising, nor sky clouding, Whither away, fair rover, and what thy quest? (from '/l Passer-By" by Robert Bridges) Dense fog met them in the iceberg-infested G reat Banks off Newfoundland. Because an iceberg reflects an echo from some distance, that is what they listened for most anxio usly: Listening lest ice should m ake the note reso und. She bayed there like a solitary hound Lost in covert. All the watch she bayed. The fog came closelier down, no answer made. D enser it grew until the ship was lost. The elemental hid her. (from "D auber" by john Masefield)
"Commodore" and Ann Tompkins, ages four and six at the time, are seen taking in on the tack of the main topsail. full of toys accumulated in scores of different ports. The children slept in the bunks once used by the Hamburg pilots, while their parents slept in the after cabin . Their father marveled at how easily they adapted to their environment, navigating ladders and the rig with ease and more sure of foot when underway than wh en motionless in port. They were seldom seasick. Their education started very young. Using the Calvert homeschooling method, Gwen was provided a box of supplies, including pens, pencils, paper, etc. Warwick built them a special desk, addi ng a raised lip to keep supplies from flying off in rough weather. During recess on deck, they might study sea mammals when whales and dolphins were in view. They could identify passing ships by their silhouette, whether battleship or rusty freighter with cranes and cargo booms, or high-sided ocean liners with row upon row of portholes. Their father-captain liked to play hide-and-seek with his children and taught them to play chess and Monopoly. Once at sea, it fell to the skipper to put his green crew to wo rk, teaching them to hand, reef, and steer. Sails, running rigging, and belaying pins had to be memorized, both where they were located and how they worked. Mother and the other hands had to learn to walk, then run, blindfolded, to the va rious blocks
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Once clear of Scotland 's Cape Wrath, Warwick sought a record-breaking passage by taking a shortcut along a lee shore when a vicious squall caught them flying too much sail. Warwick ordered all hands-all the men, that is- up the mast. Mother and Gwen were left alone in the wet and roaring blackness to keep the ship's heading into the wind with all four hands on the helm . Reaching Pentland Firth, Wander Bird was facing one of the most treacherous rip tides in the world. Tompkins pointed his little ship into the narrow, treacherous straits, where the tide gradually slackened , shooting the schooner th rough the straits and into the North Sea. The captain was having the time of his life. Close to their destination, in the straits between D enmark and Norway, another gale kept Mother and Gwen seasick below. Staggeri ng on deck, they witnessed a square rigger coming up the Skagerrak under full sail, bathed in the moonlight. Unable to see anyone in the darkness on deck, they heard a cry: "Ahoy! The Leif Erikson, 104 days out of Australia, bound for Mariehamn , Finland. What ship are yo u?" Mother was thrilled. ''All the poetry of the sea poured over me with the next wave," she said . 'Wouldst thou! ' so the helmsm an answered, 'Know the secret of the sea? O nly those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mys tery!' For that brief moment, she felt as though she had understood.
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SEA HISTORY 129, WINTER 2009- 10