Words HORATIO CLARE “The true peace of God,” Joseph Conrad wrote, “begins at any spot a thousand miles from the nearest land.” Conrad knew the oceans, their rages and their might, but when you talk to master mariners it is the wonder and the balm of the seas that moves them, not the storms. I went around the world on freighters, [ith the captains and cre[s oJ container ships 1] Árst captain [as liOe a (anish Fear, gri^^led [ith FulO and taciturnity. Great seas and hard-working ships make and reward strong, unsentimental people, and 'aptain 0arsen [as such a Qan ,e e\pressed his orders curtl] and his Oindness gruJfl], and taOing our ship across the %tlantic, across the 1editerranean, through 7ue^ and the -ndian 3cean, through the 1alacca 7traits, across the 7outh 'hina 7ea and across the 4aciÁc Oept hiQ ver] Fus] &ut in the Qidst oJ a liJetiQe of voyages he was still as delighted as I was by the universe that is the sea. We came across whales several tiQes to encounter those great citi^ens oJ the Flue [orld is to understand ho[ trul] rich and strange our planet is. “I want to get that whale and take him home to my wife!” the captain said. I knew what he
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