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Her cinnabar-tinted topsail, nicking the hot blue horizon, showed she was a Spanish wheat-boat hours before she reached Marseilles mole. There, her mainsail brailed itself, a spritsail broke out forward, and a handy driver aft; and she threaded her way through the shipping to her berth at the quay as quietly as a veiled woman slips through a bazaar. |
This is the opening passage of “The Manner of Men“, to be found in Limits and Renewals (1932), Kipling’s last collection of stories. In Roman times three sea captains are reminiscing. One of them tells the tale of how St Paul, a prisoner on a ship carrying him to a brutal death in Rome, is wrecked off the island of Malta. His force of personality and steadiness in a crisis, rallying all on board, had been unforgettable. |
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