Square Riggers

'Glory of the seas' is a like a painted sigh of relief by Montague Dawson. Those square-riggers, who lined the keys of all ports in the latter half of the 19th century had souls. I cant compare them to the ships on which Cook discovered the world. Just think about this: When tea was transported by steamships in the early 20th century they said that it tasted bad compared to the tea brought in by the square riggers! Now, thats my kind of language.

'The Cutty Sark racing home'. When you have the chance, visit the lady in Greenwich.

'The' race in 1935

Sir Lipton sailing his 5th Shamrock, contender for the American Cup.
The era of great sailing becomes alive in this glowing painting by James A. Flood.
His style is so realistic that one feels itself spectator, listening to the wind in the rigging. The skill of these crews captained by awesome grizzly salts, followed them in their graves. The sheer number of square feet cotton, kept aloft by its standing and running rig makes you wonder: "How did they make it submit to the will of the skipper, curved like lasses, yet playful and majestic."

Respect

There is one thing about water that fascinates me. It is the silent power with which it takes what it wants.

See the endless string of brigs and schooners lining the coasts. Being caught in a storm is awesome, you are happy to feel the wind while on shore. The singing wind in standing rig of marinas makes me shiver, reminding me of nights in my bunk with howling winds above.

The towering green waves of the Channel I will never forget. Pitching ship with sickening crashing in the hollow of the waves. A ship of considerable size, just plowing and slamming on waves like a hammer.

The black rollers with white atlantic beards, coming from behind, breaking on our poopdeck setting the winches awash and thundering forward. Being on deck in this beastly weather, lashing the cargo after counting the rolling. The third wave the highest, then a lull would be there and a chance to lash that truck, timing the the lashing on the roll of the ship. When the cargo is secure and the temperature of the reefers are taken, the pitching would resume when the original course was set.

endless.....

Nightmares

OK, my nightmare goes like this: I am on the bridge, running my evening watch as 3rd mate. I do everything that is necessary but I fall asleep... when I wake up with a shock I run to the radar and see this white line across the screen. I look outside but it is dark. I switch to manual and yank the wheel to port and while sweat is running down my back I hear the something outside, the sound of breaking waves....

There are varieties like the one where I am suddenly surrounded by a narrow river, and the ship is steaming full ahead. EVery turn I can barely make, knowing the 300m long ship turns in a radius of a kilometer. Then the captain enters the bridge and....

This is the way they go down

With the engines full ahead, and the bow pushed under the weight of tonnes of water, she will just keep going.
Ships have been lost without a trace, full steam ahead plowing into these type of waves.

Suddenly not so unbelievable anymore.

The roaring fourties

This ship on this picture is the Esso Languedoc. It is south of Africa where the waves roll forever. The height is perhaps not that frightening, but if you know that this is a ship of approx 300 meters long, you can imagine peak to peak these waves are of about the same length.

So who was Poseidon?

Poseidons grandfather was Uranus, the god of the sky. His grandmother was the Earth, Gaia.
He was the son of two of the 12 Titans and his brother was Zeus.

everyone knows his power and kingdom, but few know about his weakness: women.
He has spawned quite some offspring. He changed himself into a horse to get the woman he wanted, his sister who had turned herself into a mare to avoid him.
Did you know he was the father of Pegasus? That was a result of a quickie with Medusa. I didn't know they had brown paperbags back then.

Because of this weakness it is perhaps why ships are called 'she', to please Poseidon. The maidens on the bows must have pleased him.
By the way, you don't want to know how Aphrodite was born and how nymphs came into the world.

Sleeping

When the ship rolls on towering waves coming from abreast, sleep doesn't come easily.

Where to hide when your world moves as one? Stuffing boxes of beer and lifevests under your mattress helps to wedge you tight. But how about being pressed against a wall one moment and the next hovering over a void room with the portal's below you?

Heeling 70 degrees is no fun if your securely lashed fridge decides to give way and all your beer and soda cans pop like corn.

It is the life of a sailor few know about. And those who know don't care to remember, stuffing it away.
It is the Bermuda - New York run in winter which makes you quietly go your way when bragging lads talk about their adventures. What is it that makes you long for the bonding among men when the weather makes life such a misery you crave for sandy beaches with loose women (not that you need bad weather to long for that).

Memories only serve their purpose when they help you deal with unknown situations. The sea provides you a solid guide in life no one can take away form you.
It leaves you lonely somewhat yes, knowing you can count only on yourself in the worst ordeals.

Hokusai, the great wave

The Breaking Wave Off Kanagawa. Also called The Great Wave. Woodblock print from Hokusai's series Thirty-six Views of Fuji, which are the high point of Japanese prints. The original is at the Hakone Museum in Japan.


We put this image on our wedding invitation.

The law of Buys Ballot

1817-90, Dutch meteorologist who organized and standardized a meteorological system.
This law states that, in the Northern Hemisphere, if one stands with his back to the wind, the area of low pressure is to his left. In the Southern Hemisphere the reverse is true. This cause can be found in the corkscrew deflection of teh wind caused by the earth's rotation. I learned this law at school 25 years ago.

How much water is there?

There's a whole lot of water on Earth! Something like 1,260,000,000,000,000,000,000 liters of the stuff can be found on our planet. This water is in a constant cycle -- it evaporates from the ocean, travels through the air, rains down on the land and then flows back to the ocean.

The scale of Beaufort

Created by one of those excellent English officers, many centuries ago and we use it like it has always been there....

Size of waves in the open ocean

This ship is at least 200 meters long. The bridge must be 15 meters above the water.
That makes the waves, top to top, at least 300 meters long and 15 to 20 meters high!
brrrr

The Batavia

This fantastic piece of history was rebuilt in 1985 by volunteers. What I find of particular interest is that they used the old crafts and methods and that it took them 10 years to complete using the remains of the original which are kept in the Australian maritime museum in Fremantle.
You can visit this beauty in Lelystad, Holland. (see the link for a virtual tour)

More than a year on this?

To get to the east during the VOC time, they had to keep this thing afloat for a year, only to find themselves taking a left turn too late and run aground on the cliffs of west Australia. Cape Leeuwin and the coast noth of it tells many stories.