33. Life. In her next journal entry, Sophie asks Uncle Stew if he knew Rosalie and if Dock liked her a lot. Stew answers yes to both, and implies that Dock has been unable to forget about Rosalie and leave things in the past—Rosalie was the actually the sole reason why the crew stopped at Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard, and Grand Manan. Stew tells Sophie that Block Island was where Dock first met Rosalie, and Joey in Martha’s Vineyard is Rosalie’s brother. Joey told Dock that Rosalie’s husband died, and that she had gone to visit Frank at Grand Manan to see him and the whales. That’s why Dock wanted to go visit Frank. Sophie asked where Rosalie was when they were all in Grand Manan, and Uncle Stew sarcastically asks her to guess, implying that she’s in England.
Sophie also writes that Dock had worried her the night before when they were both on watch duty. Dock asked “What’s it all about? …You know. Life.” Sophie thought that Dock looked like he was about to cry, and this shocks her, since he’s also such a calm, steady, level-headed person. Sophie writes that after Dock left, she stared out at the ocean and had a bizarre rush of feelings. First she felt totally peaceful, that the ocean was the best place one could possibly be, but this peace quickly morphed into an immense sense of loneliness.
This entry reveals to us the secret motivations behind The Wanderer’s stops on the east coast of North America—Dock’s desire to see or at least get information about Rosalie, the love of his life. It seems that a desire to visit Bompie isn’t the only reason behind making the trip, and that perhaps Rosalie, and the death of her husband, have been the subjects behind the serious conversations which Cody walked in on between Dock and Joey and Frank. Stew’s implication that Rosalie is in England raises the question whether they would have made yet another stop somewhere else if Dock knew Rosalie wasn’t in England.
This scene shows how the ocean has affected Dock’s mind. Thrust from his everyday life on land to the vast expanse of the seas, Dock’s normal perception of the world around him has changed, and fundamental questions about existence now haunt him. Compiled with the fact that his thoughts are constantly focused on Rosalie, his long-lost love, asking what the point of life is seems particularly relevant.