Age of Sail

Imagine ships glissading into harbour, their masts scraping the sky, sails aloft, billowy, like great bird wings fluttering. Captains navigate their ships into port, return voyages that crossed the seven seas, riding the waves, north and south, east and west from Jamaica to London to Timbuktu, ship holds filled with bananas, sugar, rum and molasses from sunny far-off lands. Wives awaiting husbands’ safe return home, pacing the widows walk, reading letters sent months ago, hint of hardships and menaces at sea that fuels anxiety: imaginations run wild, spiralling – fierce brigands besieging vessels at sea; sudden squalls threaten ships, tossed to and fro, waves like a leviathan, thrashes and roils, wrecks run aground, pummelled by pounding surf.