By all that is wonderful, it is the sea, I believe, the sea itself — or is it youth alone? Who can tell? But you here — you all had something out of life: money, love — whatever gets you on shore — and tell me, wasn’t that the best time, that time when you were young at sea; young and had nothing, on the sea that gives nothing except hard knocks — and sometimes a chance to feel your strength — the only — what you all regret.

Joseph Conrad, “Youth, Marlowe in a beer drinking session with men who had sailed in their youth