"Captains Courageous"

Chapter X

Notes on the text

These notes are based on those written by Leonee Ormond for the OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS edition of Captains Courageous (1995) with the kind permission of Oxford University Press. Except where stated otherwise, the page numbers below refer to the Macmillan Uniform Edition of Captains Courageous (1899, and frequently reprinted since).




[October 27th 2003]


[Page 249, line 4] Snohomish Washington State.

[Page 250, line 28] 'I haven't had such a good time since Willie died' this is not a reference to another Cheyne son, but to the comic poem "In Memoriam", by Max Adeler (Charles Heber Clarke, 1847-1915).

[Page 251, line 15] rigger one who rigs ships.

[Page 256, line 21] burgee pennant, the triangular flag of a yacht club.

[Page 256, line 27] beam the measurement across the boat at the widest part; in this case Harvey is criticizing the lack of beam that would. make the boat unstable in a heavy wind.

[Page 257, line 5] slip a tackle unhook the dinghy from the falls; Harvey is criticizing the way the dinghy was lowered to the water.

[Page 260, line 15] mucker a man lacking refinement.

[Page 261, line 24] marquise a ring set with a pointed oval cluster of gemstones.

[Page 262, line 25] fares catches.

[Page 263, line 6] Memorial Day a memorial service for fishermen lost at sea is still held in Gloucester every August.

[Page 265, line 15] Seattle was burned out The city of Seattle is in Washington State, in the north-western United States. In June 1889 some thirty blocks in the commercial heart of the city, including many wooden houses, were burned out in the Great Seattle Fire, after a gluepot boiled over in McGough's Cabinet Shop.

[Page 266, line 4] Church on the Hill probably the church of Our Lady of Good Voyage.

[Page 266, line 10] lumpers labourers employed in loading and unloading cargoes.

[Page 266, line 26] high-license clearly to do with an alcohol tax, to be levied to pay for the organ, but the exact meaning is not clear.

[Page 268, line 6] `O all ye Works of the Lord ... forever' `Benedicite', 'Morning Prayer', Book of Common Prayer.

[Page 268, line 17] Pamlico Sound North Carolina.

[Page 269, line 21] fore-handed prudent, thrifty, by looking to the future.

[Page 269, line 24] Riches endureth but fer a season possibly an adaptation of Mark 4: 17: `and have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time'.

[Page 270, line 21] `They took the grandam's blanket. . .' from "The Wives of Brixham" by Menella Bute Smedley.
They took the grandame's blanket,
Who shiver'd and bade them go;
They took the baby's pillow,
Who could not say them no...

...And knew not all the while
If they were heaping a bonfire
Or only a funeral pile...

...With, `Child, here comes your father!'
Or, `Wife, is this your man?'...

...So when you see a Brixham boat
Go out to face the gales,
Think of the love that travels
Like light upon her sails!
Poems Written for a Child (London, 1868), 29-35.

[Page 270, line 28] Ground-hog case an irremediable situation.

[Page 274, line 3] Augusty Augusta, Maine.

[Page 281, line 16] Leland Stanford Junior Leland Stanford Junior University, California, was founded in 1885 by Leland Stanford and his wife in memory of their son. It opened in 1891.

[Page 281, line 28] cable San Francisco cable car.


[L. O.]