Rob Baker’s Reviews > Master and Commander > Status Update

"'He was a sin-eater...

'When a man died, Cheslin would be sent for; there would be a piece of bread on the dead man's breast; he would eat it, taking the sins upon himself. Then they would push a silver piece into his hand and thrust him out of the house, spitting on him and throwing stones as he ran away'" (220).

"A four-pounder (cannon) may not throw a very great weight of metal, and it may not be able to pierce two feet of oak half a mile away, as a thirty-two-pounder can; butit does throw a solid three-inch cast-iron ball at a thousand feet a second, which is an ugly thing to receive...and when it is fired it leaps back as though it were violently alive" (138).

Jack's joy for living, for ships, and for the sea is a very endearing quality:

"The sound of the creaking blocks, the gently straining cordage and sailcloth, the angle of the living deck and the curved line of guns in front of him sent such a jet of happiness through his heart that he almost skipped where he stood" (96).

Sometimes it feels like this book is 75% nautical jargon I don't understand. Cool but mostly meaningless words:

"'Trice up. Lay out.'

The calls agin, and the topmen hurried out on the yards. They cast off the gaskets, the lines that held the sails tight furled to the yards; they gathered the canvas.

'Sheet home. Hoist away. Cheerly there in the foretop. T'garns'l sheets. Hands to the braces. Belay'" (76).

"She despised her scrub of a husband, who truckled to her; and she had taken to music as a relief from him. But it did not seem that music was enough, for now she poured out a bumper and drank it off with a very practised air" (27).