Norfolk

Norfolk is a pivotal port setting in Joe Williams’s early life at sea: first a destination for a working ship, then the town where a romance, a career decision, and a proposed marriage take shape. Its importance comes not from a broad portrait of the city but from the way Joe’s maritime routine repeatedly brings him ashore there, making Norfolk the setting where his restless life begins to acquire the outlines of a home.

Port call and first explorations

Joe reaches Hampton Roads after fifteen days at sea aboard the Tampa. The crossing is mostly calm, with sunny weather and a glassy sea until a northwesterly wind roughens the water off the Capes. In Norfolk the ship unloads its small cargo of cotton print goods at Union Terminal. For Joe, going ashore with pay in his pocket is a significant change of scene: accompanied by Will Stirp, who belongs in the area, he visits Will’s family, watches a ball game, and rides the trolley to Virginia Beach with a group of girls.

The trip to the beach introduces Della Matthews. Joe is attracted to her, but his assumptions about women provoke Will’s rebuke, marking an early tension between Joe’s casual outlook and the judgments of people around him. The outing moves from swimming and a beach fire to a goodnight kiss from Della; afterward, Joe begins imagining her as a steady girl. Norfolk and its nearby beach thus become linked from the start with the possibility of attachment, even as Joe’s idea of commitment remains tentative.

The town also offers episodes that sit uneasily beside that emerging romance. After the group returns from the beach, Joe and Will look for drinks and women, play pool, and eventually follow two women into a dark, empty house. The contrast is characteristic of Joe’s Norfolk life: courtship with Della develops alongside impulsive nights out, and the setting holds both the prospect of a settled relationship and the habits of a young sailor ashore.

An extended stay and a choice of direction

The Tampa’s repairs at Newport News prolong Joe’s time in the area. While the ship is in drydock for a damaged plate, Joe and Will are paid off and spend time around Norfolk without a clear plan. Joe plays weekend baseball with a makeshift team of Navy Yard workers and sees Della in the evenings. She works as a stenographer at the First National Bank and warns him that a sailor’s life is rough, offers little advancement, and cannot be trusted as the basis for marriage. Joe acknowledges her point but initially treats youth as a reason not to worry about the future.

Their courtship brings a sharper disagreement into view. Della urges Joe to think about getting ahead rather than drifting, and objects to his indifference when he speaks contemptuously about his sick father. He leaves her after the argument, then returns to meet her outside work several days later. Their reconciliation begins modestly, with candy and talk of an upcoming ball game, but the Tampa’s impending departure for Pensacola and then across the water makes the choice more immediate. While they wait for the trolley to Virginia Beach, Della looks upset at the prospect of his leaving. Joe responds by saying he will not ship on the Tampa again and will find work in Norfolk.

That decision turns the city from a temporary stop into a proposed base for their future. On a full-moon night at the beach, beside a small fire meant to keep off mosquitoes, Della rests her head on Joe’s knees as he strokes her hair and kisses her. She proposes marriage once he has steady work, imagining that together they can amount to something. Her ambition is tied to her own record of hard work, including graduating at the head of her high-school class; Norfolk represents the chance to make that aspiration practical, not simply romantic.

Work, marriage, and the shore-side future

Joe’s later stay in Norfolk gives the plan a concrete form. He spends two months ashore, attends shore school each day, lives at the YMCA, and avoids drinking and pool. His savings from two trips on the North Star cover the effort. He consults Captain Perry in Newport News about the examination for a third mate’s license, worries over the necessary papers, and eventually passes. Showing the license to Della makes the achievement a shared source of excitement: the maritime career she had questioned now has a new credential and a possible path forward.

After receiving an advance of pay, Joe buys a uniform and works around Captain Perry’s drydock while the captain is still assembling a crew. In the evenings he paints a small rented bedroom, kitchenette, and bath for himself and Della. These practical preparations give Norfolk a domestic dimension absent from Joe’s earlier visits. The city is no longer only where he spends shore leave; it is where he tries to combine work at sea with a household on land.

Their church wedding reveals the strain beneath that plan. Della’s family insists on the ceremony, while Will Stirp serves as best man. Whiskey, drunken guests, and friction with Della’s family leave the occasion uncomfortable; afterward, at the Matthews home, the party becomes disorderly enough that Mrs. Matthews sends the guests away. Joe and Della leave in a taxi, with rice thrown after them and a newlywed sign pinned to Joe’s coat. Della cries during the departure and, on reaching the apartment, locks herself in the bathroom without answering Joe. Norfolk’s proposed domestic future therefore ends this episode not in settled happiness but in immediate uncertainty. Its arc—from port call to courtship, career preparation, and troubled marriage—makes the city the testing ground for Joe’s attempt to exchange movement for commitment without ceasing to be a sailor.