ABSTRACT
I have never been to Brest, but from the position on the map, I judge it to be as dismal a spot as any even in Scotland and Ireland. Nor do I know anything about life on a training ship; but the combination “life on a training ship off Brest” sounds to me positively terrifying. That poor little Viaud first found it so I have no doubt at all, though writing while he was a sailor of when he was a sailor, he is careful not to say this precisely.
