(Latin. "to see; to see")

The sound of the engines echoes Nordahl Grieg's Skibet gaar videre (1924), translated into English by A.G. Chater as The Ship Sails On (1927). The novel tells of the Mignon, "A Moloch that crushes the lives of men between its iron jaws," on her journey from Norway to the cape. When young Benjamin Hall joins her, he finds the forecastle full of whores, and despite being accepted by his fellows, he finds the trip a miserable experience and finally contracts V.D.

At the end of the voyage, holding the diseased ship's dog in his arms, Benjamin climbs over the rail to end it all, but he changes his mind and climbs back to face whatever lies ahead. Hughs thoughts in the above passage are perhaps derived from The Ship Sails On, p.57, where Benjamin contemplates the sea and the sky: "The boundless space around became so intimately small, since infinity has no scale. All was sky and sea. A little strip of wake bubbled behind the ship, and round about gleamed a few friendly miles of water."

Grieg (1902-1943) was known as an anti-fascist and pro-communist writer whose poetry, and staunch resistance against the German occupation of Norway in World War II made him a national hero.

Lowry identified with Grieg's writing early in his career; particularly with Benjamin Hall, the main character of The Ship Sails On. As Victor Doyen notes "Benjamin Hall was, as it were, Malcolm Lowry himself; The Ship Sails On dealt with his experiences and was, in a sense, the book he was trying to write." ("Fighting the Albatross of Self", I.2)

Left: Grieg during WW2. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.