ABSTRACT
In their treatment of society, nautical melodramas typically tread a fine line between the subversive and jingoistic, few more so than John Thomas Haines’s The Ocean of Life; or, “Every Inch a Sailor!” (Surrey, 1836). True to form, the original production featured T. P. Cooke as Mat Merriton, the rollicking Jack Tar who after sundry adventures rescues the damsel and saves the day. In the process, though, the play critiques class consciousness, colonialism, gender stereotypes, and religious hypocrites, offering biting satire as well as action and comedy.
