Yeats called it ‘gong-tormented’ and ‘dolphin-torn’. That was the turbulent town of Byzantium in its sea-ward character. Two thousand years of turbulence have brought it to its hinge position in the world today.
When Shackleton faced an 800-mile sea-passage in an open boat to save his men back on Elephant Isle, he knew he was undertaking a passage that would not be forgotten. In entirely different circumstances Captain Bligh steered his open boat across 4,000 miles of the Pacific to Timor. Monsarrat’s ‘Cruel Sea’ gave us notice of what the sea can do when men are coping with its moods and its place in hostilities.
Living on our small island, we can never forget the sea, the silver sea, the shining sea, ‘The Sea, the Sea’, as Iris Murdoch preferred. Our history has turned upon maritime events from the battle of Swanage, then Hastings, then the Nile and 1940. We have never been able to forget the sea and its Vikings, its trading opportunities. and its contact with other civilisations.
How are we to take arms against a sea of troubles? Shakespeare’ s question haunts us all. The depth of it drives us to religious speculation.
And why then is life a voyage? It is a journey demanding daily and hourly attention. It is taking advantage of cubic miles of water. It is ever-changing and always the same. We have to be watch-keepers. It is a journey without roads. We have to rely on charts and work out our navigation – by the stars as it used to be – and now with the help of a gps.
And we should not leave out the New Testament in our journey-making.
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