Three War Stories by David Mamet

Author:David Mamet [Mamet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Argo-Navis

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When we left Portsmouth, on the cruise, which would result in our capture and imprisonment, the Fort made the signal Ps. 107.23, a well-known sign for parting, which is beloved as the Mariners’ Prayer: “They that go down to the Sea in Ships, and do their work in Many Waters, have seen the Deeds of God, and his Wonders in the Watery Deep.”

The same port, upon our return, and ignorant of our presence on board, made Ps. 107.6: “Then they cried out to God, in their Distress, and, for their woes, he rescued them.” And 107.16, “For he smashed copper gates and cut asunder bolts.”

At my first opportunity, I visited the Fort and inquired the identity of the signal Midshipman of the day of our return, and I found him.

I asked if, though I could not have imagined how, he somehow knew of the carriage on board the returning ship, of us who had become known as the African Captives.

He replied that he had not, but that I was not the first to’ve asked him how he chose those verses.

He looked around, and, seeing we were alone, asked if I could, in good conscience, give my word not to reveal his secret.

“Why?” I asked, since he had, it seems, already unburdened himself to the Press.

“Yes,” he said, “but to them I lied.”

“What did you tell them?” I asked; and he said that, after Church, the preceding Sabbath, he had lain down, and been visited in a dream, and in the dream were the numbers of which he made the signal, that night, on his accession to the Watch.

“Very good,” I said. “Now, between two men in Blue, is there a greater, or perhaps different story?”

He smiled, and confessed that he, to while away the dead watch, was amusing himself throwing dice. Psalms 107, 16, and 6 being conjured out of the throw: one, six, and six.

“Very good,” I said, “but how did you chance upon Psalms?”

“I leafed through the Bible,” he said, “eyes closed, and stabbed my finger down at the page.”

I do not know that this, more than the tale of the dream, adequately explains the extraordinary encapsulation of my journey by the two sections from Psalms. I believe it falls under the heading of Coincidence.

We know, of course, that the extraordinary thing about Coincidences is how many of them do not occur, how our reasoning about them includes the logical fallacy post hoc ergo propter hoc. Which is to say, we find ourselves thinking of X, and, that afternoon he appears. Well and good, but we forget, when we first thought of him, we did not suggest to ourselves, “That means I will see him later today.” Nor do we recollect, on seeing him, how many others we have thought of that day yet not seen.

I have to date refrained from revealing the story of the Midshipman’s choice of Scripture, as such would have been to indict him of both inattention to duty, and blasphemy.

But not

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