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. Memoirer Og Breve,
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Summary:
To see history through a micro-perspective, ego documents
are the paramount source. This is particularly true for the
sailors in the maritime history. When the purpose is not to
draw the great lines of history but rather to experience those
small everyday things, the letters, diaries, autobiographies
and memories are a gold mine of information – of course
seen through the eyes of the writer.
To get to know the characteristics of every sailor we need
to look beyond the text and deduce what is written between
the lines. What interests him, and what has he left out? How
does he measure and describe things that are strange to him,
such as foreign countries and their inhabitants and culture?
All these things tell us not only what kind of person he was
himself, but also about his environment and the way he nav-
igated in it.
In this article I have sketched out three major topics that
can be determining for a person’s identity. The first is reli-
gion, which throughout time has been the primary reference
to quite a few aspects in a society: answers on life, social
norms and an individual’s relationship with God, thus his
perception of himself.
Next are the individual experiences. As experiences both
delightful and traumatic, hard choices, wrong or right choic-
es or simply an important new chapter in life shape us and
give us skills, knowledge and personality. These events in
the sailor’s life are important for the way he views himself
and the world. The sailors are often most aware of the fact
that an event has been significant and it is well described in
their ego documents.
Last comes the aspect of society. The norms of society
influence the behaviour of every single member, and will
affect his or her view of right and wrong. As the norms of
society are often built into a person from a very early age,
they often appear as related to the individual. Society is also
strongly affected by religion, and these two aspects will in
many cases merge.
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