"Pig-Headed" Sailor Men

While sailing the quiet night between Holyhead and Ireland, the narrator and a ship’s captain discover a shared past: both had once been aboard the ill‑fated Australian coasting steamer that sank on a Christmas Eve, a disaster that left many dead. Their conversation turns to the stubborn, often reckless nature of some masters of the sea, prompting the narrator to recall his own early voyages with captains who were either obstinate, self‑willed, or downright incapable.

The first tale takes us back to the narrator’s youth on a sleek Sydney barque bound for Samoa. Commanded by the towering Captain Rosser—renowned throughout the South Pacific for his iron resolve—the vessel is the only one taking a passenger, a fact that immediately draws the narrator’s curiosity. When a brand‑new, champagne‑fueled brigantine challenges Rosser to a race, the seasoned skipper calmly declines, confident that his slow, steady course will outlast the flash‑in‑the‑pan rival. His dry humor and keen insight into the newcomer’s over‑ambitious design set the tone for a series of unforgettable sea stories.