An inference about Harborough is that he is adventurous and seeks to challenge the limits set by others, as evidenced by his immediate desire to bathe despite the Captain's lethargic caution about the dangers of deep water. This is highlighted by his dismissive response to the Captain's concerns, indicating a willingness to engage with the sea regardless of its depths.
A project was forming in my mind. I looked at the water. It was a peculiar, vitreous green, closer under the steamer, was transparent to the depth of many feet. Beneath my shoe-soles the poop was hot; over side, the sea looked inexpressibly inviting. And on a sudden I turned to the drowsing Captain and exclaimed: “I want to bathe.” “To bathe?” The Captain gazed at me. “Why not?” The Captain yawned out some lethargic suggestion to the effect that to bathe would be dangerous because of the depth—as though I’d be more apt to drown in three miles of water than in three fathoms.
In 1–2 sentences, explain an inference about Harborough based on the details in the passage, and provide at least one piece of strong evidence to support your inference.
3 answers
Sorry forgot to add the rest of the passage here: Seafaring people are odd in that way—I don’t mean in their ignorance of swimming, though, to be sure, the average sailor is seldom a swimmer. They’re so—how shall I express it?—so unenterprising. In the midst of adventure and romance they are stirred by no recognition either of the adventures or the romantic. I was a city-bred youngster, who had never been out of hail of the homeland before, and I possessed more enterprise in my little finger than that far-travelled Captain had in the whole of his weather-worn, hulking lump of a carcass. I wanted to bathe. I wanted to bathe in the mid-Atlantic. I had learnt to bathe in the public swimming-bath near my old school, and now I wanted to try a swimming-bath three miles deep and tilting continuously at an angle of I don’t know how many degrees. The notion was gorgeous.
Based on the details in the passage, an inference about Harborough is that he possesses a youthful, adventurous spirit and a desire for new experiences, contrasting sharply with the Captain's jaded and unenterprising attitude toward life at sea. This is supported by Harborough's statement that he has "more enterprise in my little finger than that far-travelled Captain had in the whole of his weather-worn, hulking lump of a carcass," emphasizing his eagerness to embrace adventure despite the apparent risks.