Due to overwhelming popular demand—well, one person asked. I am easily overwhelmed—above is a photo of me wearing my Akubra hat. It was taken in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2001. Neither the hat nor I have changed since then. At least the hat hasn’t.
I am reading an interesting and well written book: SIX FRIGATES: THE EPIC HISTORY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE U.S. NAVY by Ian W. Toll. This is not the navy of the revolution, which, with the exception of John Paul Jones, was all but annihilated, but the true founding of the navy in the 1790s after we became an independent nation. I am learning a great deal about that part of our history and of shipbuilding.
At the time of course the British Navy ruled the waves and the world. Basically they used three classes of ships: ships of the line which carried at least 74 guns and were the equivalent of battleships; frigates, which were smaller, lighter, faster, and usually carried between 28-38 guns; and a class of still smaller and generally faster, non rated sloops and brigs.
A Philadelphia shipbuilder, Joshua Humphreys, who was put in charge of the building of the first American frigates, came up with the brilliant idea of building exceptionally large, heavily armed and fast sailing frigates, which could out gun any existing European frigate and out sail any ship of the line and thus not have to face overwhelming fire power. Naturally as with any original idea there was opposition, but Humphreys had his way, resulting in among others the USS CONSTITUTION.
Essential to the construction of the ships were the trees just outside my windows. I continually admire their beauty, tenacity, and obvious strength, but after reading the following paen to them yesterday in SIX FRIGATES, I admire them even more.
In reading SIX FRIGATES I found myself wondering how Philadelphia more than a hundred difficult miles from the open ocean became a major seaport. So I googled and found this, which is well worth reading, especially the section ‘Women At Sea.’
https://philahistory.org/2019/08/29/philadelphias-rich-maritime-history/
7 comments:
I know that Miradouro. During the covid shutdown the statute in that plaza wore a facemask. I'm betting it would have preferred the hat.
Someone just mentioned this book to me..Now, I MUST get my hands on it.
Do.
I enjoyed this book also. Looking at my paperback copy, I must have read it some years ago, as the font size must be no bigger than 8. I'd go blind trying to read it today, at least without a magnifying glass. Kindle's are great for the aged eyes.
I'm definitely adding the book to my reading list. Thank you for the link to the article on Philadelphia. Quite interesting.
It's a very good book, and a very good story. I enjoyed it, as well. All that twisted live oak, no good for long straight boards, but perfect for natural bent boat frames and such, where very little is straight. And if you've never tried to chop and move any of it, I can assure you it's hard and heavy as heck.
And thanks for the link to the Philadelphia article, also very good reading.
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