But while some of these old sailors liked to "spin yarns" and some had
their frailties, they were, as a rule, strong characters, rugged,
honest, courageous, unselfish--real men, in fact, whose sterling
qualities stood out in strong contrast against the unreality of many
timid and non-effective lives about them. It was not their romancing,
but their reality, and the achieving power of their lives that appealed
to me as a boy, and I was drawn to the kind of life that had helped to
produce such men.

Then, too, the ocean itself, with its immensity, its mystery, its moods,
the danger in it, and the man's work in mastering it, was almost
irresistibly attractive to me.

On graduating from high school I declined my father's offer to send me
to college, thinking that the life I had in view did not require a
college education. Then he made me a very attractive business
proposition, but it looked to me like slavery, and what I wanted most
was freedom. My father and mother were both Christians, but I had become
skeptical, profane and reckless of public opinion. I had left home for a
boarding house in the same town at eighteen, and at nineteen I had
slipped the moorings and was heading out to sea.




ADRIFT


My second trip to the Banks was made in response to the same kind of