Slides used by John Mack during his presentation (The Gender of Ships) at the 'Women and the Sea' symposium. A podcast of John's talk is available at http://www.ucd.ie/humanities/events/podcasts/2015/women-and-the-sea/

1. The Gender of ships
John Mack
Sainsbury Research Unit
University of East Anglia

2. The difficulty arises from the fact that one does
not deal with women in a mob, but with a
woman as an individual. So we may have to do
with men. But in each of us there lurks some
particle of the mob temperament. No matter
how earnestly we strive against each other, we
remain brothers on the lowest side of our
intellect and in the instability of our feelings.
With women it is not so. Much as they are to us
they are nothing to each other. Those sensitive
creatures have no ears for our blandishments.
……. I would illustrate my idea of fidelity as
between man and women by a statement which,
though it might appear shockingly
sophisticated, is really very simple. To forget
one’s self, to surrender all personal feeling in
the service of that fine art, is the only way for a
man to the faithful discharge of his trust.

3. “ The difficulty arises from the fact that one
does not deal with ships in a mob, but with a
ship as an individual. So we may have to do
with men. But in each of us there lurks some
particle of the mob temperament. No matter
how earnestly we strive against each other, we
remain brothers on the lowest side of our
intellect and in the instability of our feelings.
With ships it is not so. Much as they are to us
they are nothing to each other. Those sensitive
creatures have no ears for our blandishments.
……. I would illustrate my idea of fidelity as
between man and ships by a statement which,
though it might appear shockingly
sophisticated, is really very simple. To forget
one’s self, to surrender all personal feeling in
the service of that fine art, is the only way for a
man to the faithful discharge of his trust.”
Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea p.29

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