Wooden walled Gomorrahs of the deep

[anteros_lmc]

Melville finally mentions the unmentionable:

"What too many seamen are when ashore is very well known; but what some of them become when completely cut off from shore indulgences can hardly be imagined by landsmen. The sins for which the cities of the plain were overthrown still linger in some of these wooden-walled Gomorrahs of the deep. More than once complaints were made at the mast in the Neversink, from which the deck officer would turn away with loathing, refuse to hear them, and command the complainant out of his sight."

Melville, H., (2000), White-Jacket or the World in a Man-of-War, Northwestern University Press, pp 375-6.

Comments

[joyful-molly.livejournal.com]

Wooden walled Gomorrahs of the deep

Imagine this, read aloud by Sean Connery...!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Imagine this, read aloud by Sean Connery...!
In hish besht Shcottish accshent? ;)

Disclaimer: as a Scot I reserve the right to poke fun at other Scots. Oh yesh!

[black-hound.livejournal.com]

"wooden-walled Gomorrahs of the deep."

*loves it*

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Good isn't it? Aye he had a way with words that Melville fellow. :)

[txorakeriak.livejournal.com]

Is it bad that I snorted with laughter when I read the subject line? And then snorted even more when I found out that Melville actually wrote it? XD Hilarious!

I must say, though, that the behaviour of the mentioned deck officer is a good sign, considering that he could just as well have hanged whoever committed these "sins" and would have been on the side of the law.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Hello drbillbongo nice to meet you :) And in answer to your questions: no and no. It's brilliant isn't it? I also thought "sins for which the cities of the plain were overthrown " was a wonderfully coy euphemism.