The burning deck
When I wrote ‘the cat sits on his master’s hat’ the other day, the meter reminded me of Felicia Dorothea Hemans’ poem ‘Casabianca’, more commonly known as ‘The boy stood on the burning deck’ . The poem was written in 1826 and is an imaginative commemoration of an event in the Battle of the Nile in 1798.The battle, also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay, was a major naval battle between the British and the French which took place from August 1st to 3rd off the Nile Delta at Aboukir Bay.
The French flagship ‘L’Orient’ was commanded by Captain Luc-Julien- Joseph Casabianca, who had his young son Giocante on board with him. He ordered his son to remain at his post, which he did, ultimately perishing when the ship exploded. More than 1,000 men were killed, 70 survivors were picked up by British ships and a few reached the shore in rafts.
The explosion of the ship was of such magnitude that all ships on both sides ceased firing for ten minutes. That may have been because they were frantically engaged in extinguishing blazes in their own ships, caused by flaming wreckage from L’Orient, which had been flung out in a wide circle.
The French boy in the poem, Giocante, resolutely obeyed his father’s orders, despite the desperation of his situation as fire burned around him. He was loyal to the end, carrying out his duty, but perhaps common sense might have made him realise his plight and attempt escape.
When should one make a stand for oneself? Remaining loyal when circumstances dictate that it would be better to change course is foolhardy and leads to much disappointment and sorrow, and, in Giocante’s case, death. It is good and honourable to put the needs of others before one’s own, but not, if by so doing, health and sanity are jeopardised. There must be compromise and an understanding that no one person is right – or wrong - all the time. Accepting responsibility for one’s actions is essential for good mental health.
Giocante grew up in an era when fathers were to be obeyed unquestioningly. Those days have passed, for most, and rightly so.
There have been many parodies of the poem, but it was very popular when first published. For about a century, until the 1950s it was widely used in schools, memorised, recited and analysed.
