RLS was eighteen and his father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a lighthouse engineer. He trained for this career for some months, but then went on to study Law at Edinburgh University. Here he began to write and gained his first publications. Towards the end of his life he wrote a series of essays about this early part of his life, explaining that he enjoyed the outdoor adventure part of being an engineer but not the office-bound majority of the work.
RLS was a prolific travel and adventure writer. And despite always being in poor health, he managed a great many adventurous journeys in his short life: travelling by canoe, donkey, train and boat across Europe, America, the Pacific and Australasia. He ended up living in Samoa and died there aged 44 years.
After publishing many articles and essays, his first major success was 'Treasure Island'. This work was started in 1881 and first serialised in a childrens magazine under the pseudonym Captain George North. The manuscript was revised and published as a book under his own name in 1883. RLS's map of Treasure Island bears a strong resemblance to Unst, the most northerly of the Shetlands.
I still have my copy of this book, given to me as a present on my seventh birthday.
The Sea Dog
I'm
a plain man
been
where it's hot as pitch
and
colder than winter frost
huge
sea tossing the fore-deck
ropes
and mainsails thrumming
nor-easterly
cutting yer bones,
many's
the shipmate never come back
left
under stones in a cove
wreck-wood
across the grave -
skerries
groaning, gulls screaming
black
crags cleaving the surf.
I talks square I do
none
can tell why he picked it
the
Cap'n always a careful man
atop
the cliff with his spyglass
no
fields, not a tree
nary
a lubber on the land
and
us hauling the sea-chests after
cursing
the wind and sleet.
Buried 'em?
I
reckon us did
The
map?
I
won't peach
Another?
Thank'ee
kindly
Rum...
it's
been meat and drink
man
and wife to me.
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