Did a runaway apprentice become captain of a ship?
Upvote:5
I have not found an original historical event which covers all aspects of the background story you are questioning, but there is similarity to a story published in 1838. The link provided in the spoiler says this:
Two American teenagers took off in a sail boat, were picked up by a China Clipper, were gone two years—and returned to Boston with one of them in command.
The Edgar Allen Poe story The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket , 1838 has a remarkably similar beginning:
One night, the two boys become drunk and decide, on Augustus's whim, to take advantage of the breeze and sail out on Pym's sailboat, the Ariel. The breeze, however, turns out to be the beginnings of a violent storm. The situation gets critical when Augustus passes out drunk, and the inexperienced Pym must take control of the dinghy. The Ariel is overtaken by the Penguin, a returning whaling ship. Against the captain's wishes, the crew of the Penguin turns back to search for and rescue both Augustus and Pym.
If the Heinlein story isn't based on the Poe story, they may have at least had a common source. No triumphant return in two years as Captain for Pym, but there was illness and mutiny, also mentioned as part of the background story in the note on the site brought up in comments by @Steve Bird.
The Poe story's Wikipedia page says this:
Poe, who intended to present a realistic story, was inspired by several real-life accounts of sea voyages
This may relate more to materials taken from publications by Jeremiah N. Reynolds concerning scientific expeditions and hollow earth theories, and/or from Benjamin Morrell's A Narrative of Four Voyages.
There may be a common source for Poe's story and Heinlein's, but I haven't been able to come up with one. If theses stories are based on the same event, however, anyone continuing this research might focus before Poe's story was published in 1838.
This was also asked on Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack .
More post
- 📝 Was Catalonia ever a sovereign state?
- 📝 Was pie crust originally meant for throwing away in England?
- 📝 Are the proportions of a Christian cross based on a golden ratio?
- 📝 Was any stimulant used in wars before WW2 that gave a significant advantage to soldiers?
- 📝 Biggest successful secret project in history?
- 📝 What was the average height of Roman men and women?
- 📝 Were there any top Nazi generals who opposed the idea to invade the USSR?
- 📝 Why does English use Roman months, but Germanic days of the week?
- 📝 What is the back story behind the Baja California towns of "Purgatorio" and "Providencia"?
- 📝 When did mature redwood trees become possible to harvest?
- 📝 Who would have been worshipped as the god of engineering in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 When did people start believing aliens are abducting cows?
- 📝 Why were blacks still victimized in the Northern states after slavery's abolition?
- 📝 How was the manorial system a consequence of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire?
- 📝 French revolution: the source of the conflict in the meeting of the Estates General
- 📝 How were small swords worn in the 18th century?
- 📝 Was the Maltese Falcon a real historical artifact?
- 📝 Are the Xibe people the same as the Manchu?
- 📝 How did philosophical and scientific knowledge in Christian Europe in 1085 compare to the body of knowledge contained in the library of Toledo?
- 📝 What are recent historically significant accounts of direct democracy?
- 📝 During the Sengoku-jidai, what were shinobi (aka ninja) used for?
- 📝 How popular was the name Imhotep?
- 📝 Did any Ethiopian leaders help the Italians?
- 📝 Where can I find documents on the 1992 fight between French soldiers and Somalian fighters?
- 📝 Did Machimoi fight in Phalanx formation?
- 📝 General Sherman's March to the Sea
- 📝 Why didn't Germany bomb the crap out of Stalingrad to win the city?
- 📝 Have there been any major disagreements between historians over what sources should be used to interpret an event?
- 📝 Did 9/11 change people's behavior during the playing of the national anthem?
- 📝 What new technology/tactics allowed the breakthrough of the trenches in WW I western front?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did a runaway apprentice become captain of a ship?
- 📝 When and how did the USA and the UK become allies?
- 📝 When and why did having long hair become associated with women, and short hair with men?
- 📝 Did the communication lag become a problem for the ever expanding Roman Empire?
- 📝 How did Moscow become the capital/most important city in Russia?
- 📝 When did Canada become truly independent?
- 📝 When and where did socks become common?
- 📝 At which point in time did the majority of German population become aware of the Holocaust?
- 📝 Were secret treaties ratified? How did they become official while remaining secret?
- 📝 When did h*m*sexuality become unacceptable in Europe?
- 📝 When did Americans become safe from highway robbery?
- 📝 When did Kievan Rus' rulers become culturally Slavic?
- 📝 When and how did the Han ethnic group become by far the biggest ethnic group in China?
- 📝 When did it become acceptable to campaign for yourself for US President?
- 📝 Gender Color Association: When did boys become blue and girls pink?
- 📝 Why did Churchill become the PM of Britain during WWII instead of Lord Halifax?
- 📝 When did books first become affordable to the general population?
- 📝 When did the acceptance of diversity become such an important social goal in Western countries?
- 📝 Why did baseball become more popular than cricket in the USA?
- 📝 When did Josef Wissarionowitsch become "sexy" Stalin?
- 📝 When did nonporous ceramic become widespread?
- 📝 When did one-way mirrors become widely used by police?
- 📝 How and why did trade unions in America become influenced by organised crime, but unions in Britain didn't?
- 📝 When did Aurochs (large wild cattle) become extinct in Britain?
- 📝 When did the British monarch become an emperor?
- 📝 When and why did smiling at strangers and in photos become customary in the United States?
- 📝 Why did the original Carthage never become a Roman city?
- 📝 When did it become common for optical brighteners to be added to commercial laundry detergent?
- 📝 How did Moldova and Romania become separate in the first place?
- 📝 How did former Spanish colonies in the Americas become so fragmented?