Master and Commander - Men and Boys?

Wow! What a great film. There are also many intelligent and useful reviews but I wanted to comment on some "givens" in the Navy and in society in 1805 which we have rejected. The film I think makes a wonderful case to have another look at these givens. My context is the question of why boys are in such trouble and are "failing in school".

As you leave the cinema one of the visuals that will remain is how large a role boys play on a ship that would go into action at that time.

Another is the seeming impossible complexity of managing, sailing and fighting a ship under those conditions. Not only did the commander have to lead, 200 men in quarters that were like a Uboat. But he would have had to have had brilliant seamanship skills and also brilliant tactical skills. How would a man of 35 -40 have gained these skills? Did he take a lot of courses? Was there a series of schools? No he went to sea as a boy and he learned them by doing, by watching and by being instructed as events happened. The end result? He became indeed a "Master".

In the film there are boys everywhere. Not just midshipmen but powder monkeys. The ship is an ongoing school where men teach the boys not only the skills they will need to be a sailor but most importantly the human skills to become men. There is a remarkable moment as the Surprise is being chased by the more powerful French frigate and will be in action in hours, where Aubrey conducts a master class in navigation.

We do not trust boys. But we see them in the film being very impressive and holding their own in a world of men. In particular there is a midshipmen, Lord Blakeney, who loses an arm early in the film like his hero Nelson. Aubrey correctly assesses Blakeney's ability when he puts this 13 year old in charge of the Surprise when most of the crew board the Frenchman. It is Blakeney who takes charge of the situation on the Galapagos Islands when the science expedition has to be abandoned and a rush back to the ship is demanded. His natural authority brooks no question. Blakeney's alter ego is Midshipman Holland. Aged 30 - he just cannot get it together and becomes the Jonah figure for the crew. Failure to master yourself in such cramped quarters means failure to master the situation and other men. There is no where to hide. There is no soft landing.

There is tremendous love shown by the men of the crew to the boys. There is no modern fear or tinge of homosexuality. It was OK to feel affectionate towards a boy. It is the normal order of the world. When boys die, the men are struck to the heart in a way that they are not when a adult is killed.

I increasingly wonder about why we have separated boys from the world of men. In high school we have given our boys into a world of abstraction. They do nothing but have to listen all day. They practice nothing. They have to sit still all day. Who are their role models - the gang leaders? What is the dominant culture of school today? In truth it is a world of women.

I am not suggesting that we all can or should go back to the time of Nelson. I am suggesting that tinkering with the school system will not help. I am suggesting that boys have to do to learn and that they have to have adult men as role models and that these precepts be used to find a better way