“I am now off to sail the English seas again, and to pursue from thought to thought and from memory to memory such things as have occupied one human soul, and of these some will be of profit to one man and some to another, and most, I suppose, to none at all.“
So writes Hilaire Belloc in The Cruise of the Nona, a beautiful and boisterous travelogue based on a voyage in his own sailing boat. Recently republished in a beautiful new edition, this oceanic escape deserves renewed attention.
Unlike Chesterton, Belloc didn’t just write about having adventures – he actually had them.
From his service in the French Military to his wild journey across the USA in pursuit of his future wife, from his foot pilgrimage to Rome to his nautical escapades, Belloc put his muscles, feet, and sweat where GK could only send his imagination.
Belloc was a private man. The voyage upon which The Cruise of the Nona is based was conducted only a few months after his beloved wife Elodie died, probably of cancer. While Belloc never explicitly mentions this event in his book, his reflection that like a cruise, life is a “whole rigmarole” that “leads us along nowhither, and yet is alive with discovery, emotion, adventure, peril, and repose” might stem from his struggle with grief.
His melancholy is tinged with a unique gold. Unlike the modern nihilist that refuses to see light amid the darkness, Belloc loves “this detestable little world which can be so beautiful when it likes”.
The ambit of topics to which Belloc devotes himself is delightful for the armchair adventurer as much as the seasoned sailor. Recalling his time in parliament, the author reflects often on the state of politics and government at the turn of the 20th century, as well as the causes and effects of World War I. “But,” you might ask, “what has all this to do with the sailing of the sea?” To which Belloc replies, “Nothing, save that it is during the sailing of the lonely sea that men most consider the nature of things.”
“I say that the sea is in all things the teacher of men” – Belloc’s was a dry religion, and his adherence to the faith often without consolation. He described himself as sensuous by nature, yet his spiritual sensitivity shines through nonetheless. When a landmark is mysteriously obscured by a special atmospheric condition, he speaks of the sea as revealing Divine truth, referencing the fact that “the wise firmly admit vast Presences to stand in what is an apparent emptiness, unperceived by any sense”.
His thought ought to resonate with reflective souls: “as there is a concealment of reality at sea, corresponding to the concealment of reality from our experience in human life, so also at sea there is occasionally vision, corresponding to that occasional vision which you also have in human life: but vision is much rarer than the concealment of reality.”
One reason Belloc believed the ocean to be such a good teacher is the way it puts man in visceral and difficult contact with reality. This is because “no one can at sea forego human reason or doubt that things are things, or that true ideas are true”.
But confronting reason is the incalculable nature of the deep: “the sea does teach one that the human reason, working from a number of known premises, must always be on its guard, lest the conclusion be upset in practice by the irruption of other premises, unknown or not considered.” Because it is so vast, it teaches “the necessary presence of incalculable elements, perpetually defeating all our calculations”.
We might wonder how true to life Belloc’s meandering thoughts are. I suspect that they are similar to what he thought of, yet in some part inventions of the writing desk rather than the heaving deck. Indeed, he comments that “literature has no business to be a mirror of life. We can see life for ourselves without literature. What literature ought to do, I take it, is to make a type or expression of life, which is quite a different thing from a mere reflection…”
One particularly refreshing aspect of Belloc’s style is his acerbic sarcasm, comparable (I think) to the lime or lemon in a mixed drink. For example, that “the strong exasperation against fools” ingrained in us is, Belloc is sure, “an instinct implanted in us (or, as fools themselves would say, ‘evolved’) whereby we defend ourselves against such accidents…”. Or, again, describing the rich owner of a motorboat: “He was of that very considerable class known as the Good Rich, with whom are the Penitent Thieves, the Reformed Drunkards, the Sane Professors, the Womanly Furies, and all other candidates for heaven.”
To take Belloc ’s The Cruise of the Nona in one’s hands, smell the paper, stretch open the spine at the bookmark, and curl up in an armchair is not only the start of a relaxing hour or two. It is also preparation for philosophical and religious meditation. The sea “presents, upon the greatest scale we mortals can bear, those not mortal powers which brought us into being. It is not only the symbol or the mirror, but especially is it the messenger of the Divine.”
For Belloc, the faith is incarnational. His vision of human activity is one where our work and recreation simultaneously promotes strength, virtue and sanctity, as much for men as for women. Belloc’s oceanic undertaking – while amusing and helpful – should also provide inspiration for voyages of discovery in our own lives. When we consider how “all that a man does” makes “a string of happenings and thinkings, disconnected and without shape, meaningless, and yet full: which is Life”, we can plumb the depths of this mystery.
Navigating the “discovery, emotion, adventure, peril, and repose” which fill our lives despite the “rigmarole” that can sometimes appear to lead “us along nowhither” is sometimes only possible on a voyage whose sole purpose is consideration of our destiny. After all, “Nona” is the Roman name for one of the three Fates – the female personifications of Destiny, who spin and cut the thread of every mortal life.
Whether we float or not, Belloc’s cruise is an invitation to ponder our life in a voyage of our own.
Julian Kwasniewski is an artist, musician and writer based in Wyoming.
‘The Cruise of the Nona’ is available to purchase from OS JUSTI PRESS.
This article first appeared in the April 2024 issue of the Catholic Herald. To subscribe to our multiple-award-winning magazine and have it delivered to your door anywhere in the world, and receive our limited-time Easter offer, go here.
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