Date of Award
8-21-2013
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Rhetoric and Writing
First Advisor
Sally Crisp
Abstract
In ancient times, my father's family name is believed to have designated a surveyor, designer, or `measurer' of sailing vessels. For these ancestors, most of whom dwelled on the archipelago of islands just north of the Normandy coast, known today as the Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey, the mastery of both seafaring and the building of sea-worthy vessels were matters of survival, not sport. In crafting family stories about adventures living near, in, and on the water, I discovered this seafaring family history. Thus these memoir stories unfold in layers, as stories of emigrations and the joining of clans, family legends, personal narrative, and story scraps from the history of seafaring, in short, the species of tales we tell in families, which form the weightless vessels of our humor, aversions, fears, loves, and folkways held sacred.
Recommended Citation
Walker, Barbara J., "A Measure of Vessels: A Memoir" (2013). Theses and Dissertations. 443.
https://research.ualr.edu/etd/443
