Question: Mark Twain illustrated the feeling of being insignificant with an
anecdote about a man in a small fishing boat, calling out in a fog,
and hearing a reply that described a vast merchant vessle laiden with
gold etc, many days out of Bombay. My dad used to tell this and the
story has morphed in the re-telling. Where is the original story? I
have a feeling that it is from an acceptence speech for an honorary
award.
Asked by: Bodave-ga
Bodave-ga:
You're very close to being right on your own about this particular
anecdote. However, as both a big Mark Twain fan and as a researcher, I
am pleased to present a fuller understanding for you.
The anecdote you've heard from your father is actually known Twain's
"Begum of Bengal" speech. Twain was really recollecting an "incident"
he admittedly recalled from an earlier work that had obviously greatly
impressed him. Yet, it was the way and the reason Twain spoke about it
that made it memorable and authentic Twain oratory. He expressed a
sense of grateful fulfillment in receiving tributes late in life while
still illustrating the pompous nature of both overblown grandeur and
injured pride. Some consider it to be his best and defining moment as
a public speaker.
Twain sailed for what would be his last trip to England on June 8,
1907. He was well-received during that trip, and attended a number of
banquets held in his honor. Twain was persuaded to stay slightly
longer than intended so he could attend one final banquet for him in
Liverpool. He was the guest of the Lord Mayor there on the evening of
July 10, 1907. According to Albert Bigelow Paine, an early Twain
biographer, the humorist closed that banquet with remarks that
included the following:
[... Many and many a year ago I gathered an incident from Dana?s Two
Years Before the Mast. It was like this: There was a presumptuous
little self-important skipper in a coasting sloop engaged in the
dried-apple and kitchen-furniture trade, and he was always hailing
every ship that came in sight. He did it just to hear himself talk and
to air his small grandeur. One day a majestic Indiaman came plowing by
with course on course of canvas towering into the sky, her decks and
yards swarming with sailors, her hull burdened to the Plimsoll line
with a rich freightage of precious spices, lading the breezes with
gracious and mysterious odors of the Orient. It was a noble spectacle,
a sublime spectacle! Of course the little skipper popped into the
shrouds and squeaked out a hail, ?Ship ahoy! What ship is that? And
whence and whither?? In a deep and thunderous bass the answer came
back through the speaking-trumpet, ?The Begum, of Bengal?142 days out
from Canton?homeward bound! What ship is that?? Well, it just crushed
that poor little creature?s vanity flat, and he squeaked back most
humbly, ?Only the Mary Ann, fourteen hours out from Boston, bound for
Kittery Point? with nothing to speak of!? Oh, what an eloquent word
that ?only,? to express the depths of his humbleness! That is just my
case. During just one hour in the twenty-four?not more?I pause and
reflect in the stillness of the night with the echoes of your English
welcome still lingering in my ears, and then I am humble. Then I am
properly meek, and for that little while I am only the Mary Ann,
fourteen hours out, cargoed with vegetables and tinware; but during
all the other twenty-three hours my vain self-complacency rides high
on the white crests of your approval, and then I am a stately
Indiaman, plowing the great seas under a cloud of canvas and laden
with the kindest words that have ever been vouchsafed to any wandering
alien in this world, I think; then my twenty-six fortunate days on
this old mother soil seem to be multiplied by six, and I am the Begum,
of Bengal, 142 days out from Canton?homeward bound!]
True to his words, Mark Twain left England for New York on July 13, 1907.
The author that Twain recalled was Richard Henry Dana Jr. (1815-1882).
Dana's book "Two Years Before the Mast" was his first-hand account of
his own experiences as a sailor going from Massachusettes to
California and back the hard way -- around South America. Dana's book
was first published in 1841, so Twain (born in 1835) likely read it as
a boy. The book was so popular that Dana updated it with reflections
in 1869. Dana's son re-published it again in 1911. Twain, who died in
1910, did not live to see that third release of the work he referenced
so fondly.
The text of Twain's "Begum of Bengal" speech can always be found in
Chapter 259 of Paine's three-volume biography of Twain. That was
published completely in 1912, but electronic text makes it easily
available today.
I hope this helps,
Brettquest
Sources and Links:
Paine, Albert Bigelow. Mark Twain: A Biography (Complete).New York:
Harper & Bros., 1912. [A three-volume biography by a late-in-life
confidant to Twain]
Mark Twain: A Biography. by Albert Bigelow Paine (Chapter 256)
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/t/twain/paine/chapter256.html
Mark Twain: A Biography. by Albert Bigelow Paine (Chapter 259)
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/t/twain/paine/chapter259.html
CA 93000179 [Library of Congress Bibliographic Information on Two
Years Before the Mast]
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbkbib:@field(NUMBER+@band(calbk+139))
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