Peter Whittle's Marina's aspiration to be an all-encompassing publication of everything remotely related to Southport makes it a rather interesting document of the era, and though Whittle wasn't always too clear of how much of his work is borrowed from other sources, as those sources slowly become digitised we might learn what other works were consulted by Whittle— for while I have already found some of the original sources, I suspect there are plenty more yet to be found.
A good hint of the combination of sources may be perceived by the biblical quotes in Marina, for the Bible's many translations make sourcing their quotes easy, and these books tend to be well preserved (and digitised).
In the chapter about Geology, for instance, Whittle has two Genesis quotes, one from the New American Standard Bible and another from the King James Version. In «Advantages of the Sea», the «Book of Psalms» is quoted twice from both the Douay-Rheims Bible and the King James Version; a nearby quote from «Acts 14:15-17» (‘That you should turn from your vanities and worship the living God, which made heaven and earth, and the sea; and all things that are therein’) I have not been able to source; this often happens when the Bible is cited from memory, a feat not too uncommon.
While the concept of authorship or attribution is at play here, what is most relevant today is that some of the documents preserved in Marina may also possibly be nowadays their only surviving versions, which adds to the importance of this little book.
- ‘Genesis 1:10’. In New American Standard Bible. Lockman, 1971.
- ‘Genesis 9:15’. In King James Version, n.d.
- ‘Psalm 104:10’. In Douay-Rheims Bible, n.d.
- ‘Psalms 104:24-26, 31’. In King James Version, n.d.