Who is Reverend Nathaniel Martin from The Wine-dark Sea and what is their importance? The_Wine-Dark_Sea English & Literature Reverend Nathaniel Martin | The Wine-dark Sea

Nathaniel Martin is a man of the cloth and devoted to religion, though seamen are notoriously unsympathetic to a parson aboard their ship—for superstitious reasons. Thus, Maturin engages Martin's assistance as an assistant surgeon and not as a preacher. Martin's financial situation ashore, previously uncertain, is made good by Aubrey's offer of positions. Throughout the novel, Martin serves with reliability even as he becomes quite distanced, personally, from Maturin. Martin is very educated, speaks several languages, and knows volumes about religion—as made obvious by his lengthy explanation of the Knipperdolling faith. He is naturally inquisitive and, like Maturin, a competent naturalist, artist, and musician. Within the narrative, Martin functions primarily as a student of Maturin, and some of the more risible early sections of the novel deal with Maturin's nautical instruction to Martin. In a previous novel, Martin had found the married Clarissa Oakes incredibly attractive and had felt feelings of nearly overwhelming desire for her.