Commander William King

I have been reading a great book, Adventure In Depth by Commander William King. Commander King is a bad ass in ways that most people can't comprehend these days. He was a submarine commander in World War II and later had the guts to re-invent himself and wrestle with his own identity while sailing around the world by himself in a small sailboat. His boat is dismasted in a violent hurricane and then on a subsequent attempt (yes he decided to try again) is broadsided by a shark or an orca leaving a gaping hole in the side of his boat. He is resourceful and ingenious enough to survive these incidents and many more, yet his story is not just about his physical adventure, but his reflections on his submarine experiences in World War II. Commander King is a man who knows no bounds on Earth or in his mind.

Here is one of my favorite passages so far:

Gradually I seemed able to master my emotions. To be alone on the ocean is good character training. It does not matter how old you are - sixteen or sixty - it is equally important to be able to grasp one's own tempers and twist them into submission. I took the fancy of pretending each mood was like a costume hanging in a cupboard, which one can pull out and don at will. And then i found I could laugh at myself. All these years, since indeed I was a child, those costumes had been able to leave their cupboard without orders and fling themselves on me. From now on I resolved to choose my own mental raiment, and this idea amused me greatly while I gazed back longingly toward the south, hoping for a right breeze to whip up and bear me home.