A LOVE PASSAGE by W.W. JACOBS
1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales
Jon Hagadorn
4.5 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"A Love Passage" is a lighthearted maritime comedy from W.W. Jacobs' 1896 collection, Many Cargoes, that satirizes the bumbling romantic efforts of sailors.
The Plot
The story follows the mate of a schooner who decides, with somewhat clinical detachment, that it is time for him to fall in love. When the skipper brings his daughter on board for a voyage, the mate sees an opportunity and begins an exaggerated performance of romance.
Performing "Love": The mate's idea of courtship is highly theatrical; he begins to mope, loses his appetite, and spends an inordinate amount of time washing and preening, much to the annoyance of the skipper.
The Misunderstanding: Most of his "lovelorn" gazing goes unnoticed by the girl. While the mate believes he is deep in a profound, melancholy romance, the girl remains oblivious or merely amused by his strange behavior.
The Climax: The humor peaks when the mate's attempts to appear sophisticated or "stricken" by love conflict with his actual duties on the ship, leading to comical friction with the crew and the skipper.
Key Themes
Performance vs. Reality: The mate is more in love with the idea of being in love than with the girl herself.
Nautical Life: Jacobs uses his signature dockside vernacular and maritime setting to ground the absurdity of the "love passage" in the gritty reality of life on a schooner.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back, everyone, the 1001 classic short stories and tales. |
| 0:17.6 | This is your host, John Haggardhorn. |
| 0:19.8 | And today we're diving into the lighter, |
| 0:22.0 | saltier side of a literary legend. When you hear the name W.W. Jacobs, your mind probably |
| 0:28.6 | goes straight to the chilling, cursed thumping of the monkey's paw. But Jacobs wasn't just a master of |
| 0:35.2 | the macabre. He was the undisputed king of the English dockside comedy. |
| 0:40.9 | Jacobs grew up on the Thames Wharves in London, |
| 0:43.6 | watching the rough-and-tumble lives of sailors, captains, |
| 0:46.9 | and the clever women who often outsmarted them both. |
| 0:50.4 | Today's story, a love passage, takes us right into a schooner |
| 0:54.1 | where the sea air is thick with more than just salt. |
| 0:56.8 | "'It's thick with management. |
| 0:58.7 | "'You see, Captain Buncombe has a problem. |
| 1:02.0 | "'His daughter is in love with a thin clerk, |
| 1:04.7 | "'and he's determined to steer her toward a man with a bit more figure. |
| 1:08.7 | "'He decides the best way to break them up is to take her on a voyage where he can control the company she keeps. |
| 1:15.1 | But as any seasoned sailor knows, the wind doesn't always blow where you want it to. |
| 1:20.9 | Between a nervous first mate trying to play the part of a lover and a daughter who might be a few knots ahead of her father's plan, this love |
| 1:28.8 | passage becomes a hilarious comedy of errors. It's a story about human folly, the absurdity of romance, |
| 1:36.5 | and the classic Jacobs trademark, a surprise ending that lands perfectly. So settle in, grab a cup of coffee, and let's sail with W.W. Jacobs and a love passage. |
| 1:50.0 | The mate was leaning against the side of the schooner, idly watching a few red-coated lines of it lounging on the tower quay. |
| 1:57.7 | Careful mariners were getting out their side lights, and careless lighter men were progressing by easy bumps from craft to craft on their way up the river. |
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