Bound East for Cardiff
Scene from “Moon of the Caribbees” at Provincetown Playhouse, NYC. 1924. Museum of the City of New York.

Bound East for Cardiff

Eugene O'Neill•
LiteratureLife at sea

Yank    This sailor life ain’t much to cry about leavin’—just one ship after another, hard work, small pay, and bum grub; and when we git into port, just a drunk endin’ up in a fight, and all your money gone, and then ship away again.  Never meetin’ no nice people;  never gittin outa sailor town and never seein’ none of it;  without no one to care whether you’re alive or dead. [With a bitter smile] There ain’t much in all that that’d make yuh sorry to lose it, Drisc.

Driscoll [Gloomy]    It’s a hell av a life, the sea.