{"id":545,"date":"2012-02-27T14:25:16","date_gmt":"2012-02-27T14:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/sealitsearchable\/?p=545"},"modified":"2022-06-30T01:53:49","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T01:53:49","slug":"little-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/l\/little-george\/","title":{"rendered":"Little, George"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/em> Chris J. Thomas<\/em> (2017)<\/p>\n

LITTLE, GEORGE (1791-1849). Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1791, George Little is best known for his autobiographical Life on the Ocean; or Twenty Years at Sea<\/em> (1843). The son of a naval officer, Little was entranced by seafaring life at a young age, boarding his first merchant ship at the age of sixteen, despite the protestations of his father. Little\u2019s early career coincided with the War of 1812, during which time, as he recounts in Life on the Ocean<\/em>, he was first captured by the British and then swiftly rescued by the American privateer Paul Jones<\/em>. After a string of successful engagements, the Paul Jones<\/em> was eventually taken by the British, who transported Little and the crew to Stapleton Depot, where he would spend two years imprisoned. Following his release at the conclusion of the war, Little stationed himself in the Port of Baltimore, where he later became a captain in its merchant port.<\/p>\n

Forced to retire after going blind, Little required an amanuensis to write his story in Life on the Ocean<\/em>. Though Little emphasizes the difficulty this assistance caused, his account is remarkably detailed and specific, suggesting that most of the material was sourced from Little\u2019s diary accounts. Little\u2019s career as a merchant sailor took him to all parts of the globe; his adventures range from a friendly visit to the Sandwich Islands to his capture at the hands of Rio de la Hacha \u201cIndians\u201d in Colombia. The overwhelming success of Life on the Ocean<\/em> prompted Little to publish The American Cruiser; Or The Two Messmates, a tale of the last war<\/em> (1846), a work of historical fiction informed by his nautical experience during the War of 1812.<\/p>\n

While both of his works provided plenty of adventure to satisfy his reading public, Little was most concerned with reshaping public perception of the sailor, \u201ca class, perhaps, of more value to the real interests of this country than any other \u2014 a class whose interests certainly have been more neglected by society than even the pauper who prowls about the streets.\u201d In the final chapters of Life on the Ocean<\/em>, Little campaigns for better treatment of sailors. Recognizing the uniquely global role of the sailor\u2014\u201cthat seamen are the great links of the chain which unites nation to nation, ocean to ocean, continent to continent, and island to island\u201d \u2014Little argues that sailors given access to education and religion make better emissaries for future missionary and philanthropic endeavors in \u201csavage\u201d places.<\/p>\n

The publication of Little\u2019s Life on the Ocean<\/em>\u2014as well as similar works, such as Samuel Leech\u2019s A Voice from the Main Deck<\/em> (1843) and Nicholas Isaacs\u2019 Twenty Years before the Mast<\/em> (1845)\u2014was spurred by the success of Richard Henry Dana, Jr.\u2019s Two Years before the Mast <\/em>(1840). Like Dana\u2019s Two Years<\/em>, Little\u2019s Life on the Ocean<\/em> eschewed the established sea literature conventions of adventure and exploration, instead providing a sympathetic account of the day-to-day lives of sailors. Yet the difference between Dana and Little\u2019s titles is revealing: while Dana\u2019s Two Years<\/em> suggests a mere sojourn into the sailing world, Little\u2019s title foregrounds his ambition to convey the ocean as its own space of dwelling. As much as Life on the Ocean<\/em> is propelled by Little\u2019s own life on<\/em> the ocean, it is equally an account of the life of<\/em> the ocean, often reflecting on the complex network of social, spatial, and environmental relationships that constitute the lives of seamen.<\/p>\n

Life on the Ocean; Or Twenty Years at Sea<\/em> (1843)<\/p>\n

Archive.org<\/a>
\nGoogle Books<\/a>
\nHathiTrust<\/a><\/p>\n

The American Cruiser<\/em> (1846)<\/p>\n

Archive.org<\/a>
\nGoogle Books<\/a>
\nHathiTrust<\/a><\/p>\n

keywords: male, autobiography<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life on the Ocean, or Twenty Years at Sea (1843) Continue reading &<\/span> text links<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25925],"tags":[53755,53769,53761,53764,53782,53801],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-l","tag-19th-century","tag-atlantic-ocean","tag-fiction","tag-nonfiction","tag-science-nature","tag-war"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6461,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/6461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}