Messages from the Sea publishes some the saddest, shortest little sea stories I have ever come across. There’s something deeply human about spending your last minutes writing a message and casting it afloat in a bottle…
Category: Sailing ships
The remarkable tomb of Captain Robert Smith
This tomb – that of Captain Robert Smith (d.1697) – is in Holy Cross and St Lawrence Church, Waltham Abbey.
I was alerted to it was sent to me be my musical pal and occasional reader Malcolm Woods.
The ship is the Industria and is depicted negotiating the Rock of Socordia (sloth), which I guess a ship with that name would have to do.
More information and photos can be found here.
Junk building – and their water-tight bulkheads
In 2009, China nominated the watertight-bulkhead technology of Chinese junks for inclusion on the UN’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The nomination was accepted the following year.
Developed in South China’s Fujian Province, the bulkhead technology is used to create watertight compartments such that if one or two cabins on board an ocean-going junk are accidentally damaged in the course of navigation, sea water will not flood the other cabins, and the vessel will remain afloat. I guess this is pretty well the same approach used in the Titanic, although in retrospect in the case of the linern it was not perhaps implemented as well as it might have been.
The junks are built using traditional wood-working techniques and tools and are made mainly of camphor, pine and fir timber, principally using rabbet-jointing planks caulked using the the fibrous ramie plant, lime and tung oil. The experience and working methods of watertight-bulkhead technology are transmitted orally from master to apprentices.
Communities participate by holding solemn ceremonies to pray for peace and safety during construction and before the launch of the completed vessel.
The techniques of building junks are being lost as demand for the vessels has decreased, with wooden vessels replaced by steel-hulled ships, and in 2009 it was reported that only three masters were still able to claim full command of junk building techniques.
My thanks to boat and sail designer and maker Michael Storer for posting this one on Facebook!