Literary Fun Fact: Before he was a famous author, Arthur Conan Doyle had formative experiences as a doctor on a whaling ship. Here's a particularly funny passage from his memoirs "Memories and Adventures."
To appreciate a woman one has to be out of sight of one for six months. I can well remember that as we rounded the north of Scotland on our return we dipped our flag to the lighthouse, being only some hundreds of yards from the shore.
A figure emerged to answer our salute, and the excited whisper ran through the ship, "It's a wumman!" The captain was on the bridge with his telescope. I had the binoculars in the bows. Every one was staring.
She was well over fifty, short skirts and sea boots—but she was a "wumman." "Anything in a mutch!" the sailors used to say, and I was of the same way of thinking.
Note: I've had trouble figuring out the meaning of "mutch" but I gather it's a garment worn by women?
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