Talk:Winston Smith/@comment-3967731-20200214203912

I find the atmosphere to be really interesting on the Obra Dinn. I know this is a generalization, but perhaps sailing ships were more progressive than the rest of the world what with many people of different backgrounds and countries of origin having to trust and work together in close quarters.

It strikes me as extremely uncommon (yet refreshing) to find Winston Smith, an African American, in the position of ship's carpenter while Marcus Gibbs, a White American, is his subordinate. Furthermore, neither seems to care as Gibbs affectionately addresses him as boss. Adding to this English seaman George Shirley is very close with Wei Lee and the other Chinese topmen.

Now on the other hand we have total asshat Edward Nichols who's totally comfortable and confident in pinning the rap for a crime on the foreigner almost no one on board can understand. There's also Nathan Peters who addresses Lars Linde with a prejudicial epithet (at least Peters had the excuse that he was acting out of revenge and probably wasn't in his right mid). That sort of "us versus them" and "foreigner" mentality is far more what I would've expected for this period in time.

Bit of a mixed bag between the four examples, but interesting nontheless.