Don't be sorry, the putative birthplace is actually in England, a town called Penkarne near Monmouth. This is not known for a fact, and i did not so state it, therefore. However, Morgan named his home estate in Jamaica Penkarne, so i think it highly likely. Now, it may be that my source is incorrect in stating that Penkarne is in England, but i'll see what i can find out.
I checked with Ordnance Survey, and they returned no results, it possibly no longer exists.
http://www.answers.com/Monmouth%2C%20wales
I found a Pencarn (street) referred to in Gwent, also Wales.
Penkarne is an unusual-looking spelling. No idea whether I'm barking up the wrong leek.
I don't know myself, and the ultimate source is one of only two comtemporary sources on the age of Caribbean piracy--in this case, Esqueleming. He is the source for the seventeenth century, and Captain Johnson (very likely a pen name for Daniel Defoe) is the source for the early eighteenth century. By 1730, piracy in the Caribbean had become a small-time, sneaking affair, which it what is has always been nearly everywhere around the world. Pirates sank to the level of sea-borne muggers.
BBB
Set, I hate it when I'm so late in discovering a new thread (buried deep in the "at a glance" portal) that I will like. How in the world can I catch up without spending the entire day here?
Wouldn't it be great if your fans could get a "new Setanta thread alert", perhaps by pm.
BBB
I started the thread on June 6th, Aunt Bee, it ain't exactly new . . .
I do hope you will enjoy it, though . . .
Set
Setanta wrote:I started the thread on June 6th, Aunt Bee, it ain't exactly new . . .
I do hope you will enjoy it, though . . .
Set, sadly, I didn't discover it until this morning. I must have had my head in the sand or in my cups.
BBB
I told you the weather was stormy.
What's the German equivalent of the aphorism in English "Any port in a storm"?
(Also something like "Desperate situations require desperate remedies" I suppose too)
I couldn't decide in which Forum to post this message, so in the end I used it to bump Set's excellent Piracy thread.
This message
Ghost yacht found off Australia bears an uncanny resemblance to the myth of the
Mary Celeste, but it comes too late to be an April fools' tale.
Thanks for posting that and bumping the thread, Paasky. It does look appropriate, too, since some sort of sea-borne crime would be the most likely explanation for this bizarre incident.
unless the three sailors all decided to take a look at a shark at the same time ?
hbg
That reminds me of two stories, Hamburger.
The first is (more or less) factual, and occurred during the mutiny on HMS Bounty in April, 1789. One of the able seamen (i think it was Byrne, but can't find confirmation) was somewhat "simple," and, after going off watch early in the morning on which the mutiny had taken place, stayed on deck to watch a shark which was following the ship. Incredibly, throughout the mutiny, this seaman remained at the rail, watching the shark. Only after Bligh and those who had joined him the launch were dropping behind Bounty did this seaman realize what had taken place, and he then wept at being left behind--convinced he would be convicted of mutiny and hanged. I have confirmed that Byrne was acquitted, and if my recollection is correct, he was left at Tahiti as Bounty called there before setting sail again, and survived the wreck of Pandora to be returned to England, where he was tried and acquitted.
The other was that i was reminded of a silly English movie i once saw, Carry on Columbus. At one point, the female lead is standing at the rail, and one of the seamen approaches her and asks her what she is looking at. She says she's looking at a shark, to which she points, and the seaman tells her to be careful, because if she were to fall over the side, the shark would attack and eat her . . .
Oooo . . . will he eat me whole ? ! ? ! ?
No, Love, he'll spit that part out . . .
If I remember correctly, the story of the Mary Celeste was a sailor's tale and the ship showed clear signs of having been through a severe storm which could explain the missing crew (they could have taken to the boats, believing the ship was doomed).
In the case of the Ozzie yacht there is more mystery. Most likely it wasn't pirates, for the news reads that everything of value remained aboard. The torn jib would suggest a violent squall or a mysterious monster wave that washed the men off the deck, but in that case one would expect more damage aboard. I would be interested to know whether the men abard were experienced sailors or hapless tourists. I noticed that the "stootwillen" (for lack of an English word in my vocabulary) were still tied along the side of the ship. An experienced blue water sailor would have taken those aboard.
The accident could of course have been very simple and stupid: The guys went for a swim or a dive, a wind blew up and tore the jib as well as cut the anchor line on a sharp piece of coral. Or they went for a swim when they were becalmed and then the wind suddenly blew up and blew the ship away from them. If one had remained aboard he could have been propulsed overboard by the mainsail boom, especially if they, as I suggested, were not experienced sailors.
I am interested in hearing the outcome of the investigation.
Just read that the men were Ozzies, planning to sail around all of Northern Australia. That doesn't sound like something an inexperienced crew would undertake. And the police rules out foul play. Well, your guess is as good as mine...
Fenders are put out when you dock
or when another ship ties up alongside.
Joe(who knows where the wind blows)Nation
fenders, bumpers, "calais condoms" , now we have stootwillen. I like that term best.
While cats have a really low wetted surface and therefore can go like a cat out of hell, that beam chine that separates the hulls can be like a snowplow. If those guys were toolin the seas and a large overboarded cargo container may have been floating like an iceberg , thye could have hit it and been tossed overboard like a trebouchet flippin rocks. If you look at the space between the hulls, it looks a little messed up there.
Cargo containers often get unseated from container ships in rough seas. and , if conditions are right, can float forever. Weve seen a few in our trips out into the Gulf of MAine.. Many can be big as a semi trailer.. Im gonna start a movement to have all cargo containers painted a really bilious dayglo chartreuse. this is actually the best color for visibility on the sea. The seas are turning into one big junkyard.
Thats my guess and Im stickin with it.
