Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” gives an insight into the hardships these sailors faced. Very tough buggers!
Aye. And Alan Villiers wrote some great stuff about them too, from first-hand experience.
Dana’s experiences were definitely first-hand.
Of course.
Tough old birds
They had to be in order to survive a voyage on a sailing ship around the dread widow maker known as Cape Horn.
I noticed that the survivors lived long lives…Alpha males to be sure
Can you imagine having to take in the top gallants at night, in a Horn gale, in winter in snow and ice, pitching and rolling…. and claw in the sails with frozen fingers, no lights, no safety harness and no modern clothing to keep you dry or warm. If you fall it is either instant death as you hit the deck or slightly slower death if you go overboard.
Fascinating stuff. Those guys routinely did things that would take half an army and a year’s planning nowadays.
And all without an Environmental Impact Report and Health and Safety bureaucrats……
O/T:
‘THE investigation into missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 will “sharpen its focus on sabotage” according to reports, amid indications the plane changed course and tried to mask its location.’
Changing course and masking the location indicate a hijacking, not sabotage.
It seems as though everybody is strenuously avoiding the “h” word. Why?
Because there is one particular group that hijacks planes and ships these days and they are followers of the pedophile prophet.
Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” gives an insight into the hardships these sailors faced. Very tough buggers!
Aye. And Alan Villiers wrote some great stuff about them too, from first-hand experience.
Dana’s experiences were definitely first-hand.
Of course.
Tough old birds
They had to be in order to survive a voyage on a sailing ship around the dread widow maker known as Cape Horn.
I noticed that the survivors lived long lives…Alpha males to be sure
Can you imagine having to take in the top gallants at night, in a Horn gale, in winter in snow and ice, pitching and rolling…. and claw in the sails with frozen fingers, no lights, no safety harness and no modern clothing to keep you dry or warm. If you fall it is either instant death as you hit the deck or slightly slower death if you go overboard.
incredible (and terrifying) to think about.
*Truly* great men.
A good article on them-
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-03-08/features/8804050473_1_ships-wrecks-cape-horn
Good stuff.
Long read on the Locomotives shipped around the Horn during the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.
http://cprr.org/Museum/RR_Shipped_by_Sea.html
Fascinating stuff. Those guys routinely did things that would take half an army and a year’s planning nowadays.
And all without an Environmental Impact Report and Health and Safety bureaucrats……
O/T:
‘THE investigation into missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 will “sharpen its focus on sabotage” according to reports, amid indications the plane changed course and tried to mask its location.’
Changing course and masking the location indicate a hijacking, not sabotage.
It seems as though everybody is strenuously avoiding the “h” word. Why?
Because there is one particular group that hijacks planes and ships these days and they are followers of the pedophile prophet.
The story gets stranger as the days go by-
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/world/asia/malaysia-military-radar.html?smid=tw-bna&_r=0
The USS Kidd is joining in the search-
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/uss-kidd-search-missing-malaysia-airlines/2014/03/14/id/559594/
One thing is for sure,whatever happened that plane is WELL off it’s intended course.
The fellow in the vid who said it was living life second by second is in the bullseye. These sailors did it millisecond by millisecond. Nice clip.