I never tire of the efficiency and directness Ernest Shackleton took with the few words used in the job advertisement he posted to recruit crew for his Antarctic expedition. “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.” At 21 years old, I accepted a job sharing a similar description – except for the months of darkness and doubt of a safe return – when I became a deckhand and ship’s carpenter on the American tall ship Rose, to sail from Newport, RI, to San Diego, California to make the feature film Master and Commander: Far Side of the World. Rose was a replica of the sixth-rate 1757 HMS Rose.
Life on board was hard and dirty, a stark contrast from the daily routine I had enjoyed only a few months prior as paid crew on the American flagged 12-Metre yacht . I had just recently returned to Newport from a European sailing tour that included the America’s Cup, my morning routine usually started with a pleasant stroll through a still-sleeping town on the French Riviera while enjoying a cup of coffee and a croissant before peeling off the sail cover, polishing the bronze winches, and rigging up our spinnaker sheets. Instead, my mornings on were a rush of falling out of my coffin-like bunk so I could try to get a spot in the front of the breakfast line ahead of the 28 other crew members.
