The Skipper's Wooing

(1898)

The ship's crew forms a syndicate to trace a missing father in order to enable their beloved captain to marry the girl he loves. Hilarious episodes follow, the cook's adventures being the funniest of all. This extremely popular Edwardian humour writer is hardly known today. While reprints of Jerome and Saki appear from time to time, Jacobs' works do not. The omnibus collection The Snug Harbour is a gem. The early novella The Skipper's Wooing is a little masterpiece. Most of Jacobs' short stories and novels are still readable. These works are peopled by short-distance mariners,who in real life, must be very unpleasant characters-drunkards and generally irresponsible. On duty they are tethered by the rough discipline of the sea, and off duty they are on the spree. Yet you never dislike them. The author performs alchemy of artistic recreation, and they become very likeable. But there is something else that makes them quite remarkable. Jacobs' characters are propelled by their innate humour. Unlike Wodehouse, no awkward situations are contrived for them, but their own humours land them in and out of them.It is a time for a re-discovery of Jacobs. The effort, I believe, shall be worth while.--Submitted by Anonymous

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