There are two Maine “Windjammers” currently for sale. This may not be terribly useful information for those of us feeling more than usually penurious in the current economic downturn. Nevertheless there are moments when the idea of chucking it all and making … Continue reading
Category Archives: Lore of the Sea
As this is a nautical blog, I do feel compelled to at least tip our hat to Andrew Sullivan’s recent article “Why I Blog“, in this month’s Atlantic Monthly . (I do recommend Sullivan’s political blog for the Atlantic – The Daily Dish.) I … Continue reading
I am every fond of the Irish sea song “Holy Ground”. The song is about a sailor bound for sea, leaving his lady love and hoping to return. “And still I live in hope to see the Holy Ground once more..” … Continue reading
One of my particular frustrations with the “Talk-Like a Pirate Day” folks is that even if one ignores the very nasty nature of pirates, historical and modern alike, a second and perhaps even great problem remains. The Talk-Like-a-Piraters do such … Continue reading
I was recently published in The Huffington Post. An excerpt: “The Golden Age of Piracy” or Long John Silver in a Tank This morning I was struck by the odd juxtaposition of an announcement for a festival and a … Continue reading
The real life pirate saga, which began Thursday night when Somali pirates seized the Faina, a Ukrainian ship loaded with a cargo of ammunition, grenade launchers and 33 refurbished Russian T-72 battle tanks, has turned into a stand-off between the pirates holding the crew hostage … Continue reading
“Ignorance of the crosscatharpins is not necessarily fatal. Explanation almost certainly would be.”
Patrick O’Brian.
The cliché goes that there are two types of people – those who believe that there are two types of people and those who don’t. There are no doubt many more than two types of types of readers of nautical fiction. Nevertheless my guess is that as it applies to jargon, there may indeed be only two types.
The first type, and probably the smarter of the two, are those who read the jargon and let the words wash over them like a breaking wave, catching what they can in context but not caring too very much if they understand the finer points of rigging an eighteenth century ship, or, as is often the case in Patrick O’Brian’s books, the lost art of English suet puddings with exotic names like “drowned baby” and “spotted dick”. Their approach is like that of reading the more technical sub-genres of science fiction, where one need not necessarily understand quantum physics to enjoy the story. (Indeed, I suspect too much understanding of the science might get in the way.)
Continue readingELISSA is a three-masted, iron-hulled sailing barque built in 1877 in Aberdeen, Scotland by Alexander Hall & Company. Under various names, rigs and owners she had a 90 year carreer carrying cargo. She was purchased by the Galveston Historical Foundation 1975. She … Continue reading
Archival Post: For the most recent news on HMS Pickle click here. HMS PICKLE is For Sale! OK, not the original HMS Pickle but a replica built in 1995. For only £350,000.00 (US$626,640) you too could own a replica of the historic … Continue reading
If by good fortune you missed the “International Talk Like a Pirate Day”, just as well. If you managed to pass the day without a single “Aargh” or “Shiver Me Timbers” congratulations. I have a rather good sense of humor … Continue reading