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Location: Longview, Washington, United States

I live in a small town in Washington State, USA, with my wife, two sons, two dogs, a cat, and family nearby. I work at the local community college as an I.T. Specialist. In March of '02, we bought a 70-some year old house that needed a lot of work. When I'm not working on the house, I like to throw pots, be outside, and read a lot.

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Sunday, May 15, 2005

Not Every Saturday Can Be About Home Renno

For my dad's 61st birthday, my mom got him two tickets to a three hour cruise on one of two historical interpretations of sailing ships. On the cruise the two ships were to stage a mock battle. He and I drove down to Ilwaco yesterday for the event.



Lady Washington and the Lynx moored in Ilwaco.





Both of these ships are operated by separate non-profit foundations and don't usually operate together but they were both headed up the West Coast at the same time to go to the same tall ships gathering and decided to do come cooperative money making and educating along the way.


Lady Washington in the distance.

My dad and I got on board the Lynx, a re-creation of an 1812 Square Topsail Schooner - a slightly longer ship that the brig Lady Washington, who operates out of Aberdeen, WA. The Lynx home ports in Portsmouth, NH.

I just finished the fourth Patrick O'Brian novel, Mauritanius Command last night and plan to read the other sixteen in the series, popularized recently by the movie Master and Commander, starring Russell Crowe. Going on board the sailing ship really helped me to understand some of the terminology and descriptions of sailing rigs, etc. that I have been reading about.

The Lynx normally crews eight people but for that cruise the cook and the First Mate were left on shore. Those of us willing got to help sail the ship. I got to haul the main sail, work the jib sheets for about two hours, and haul clew lines when we were headed back into port. Again, the opportunity to pepper the crew with incessant technical and terminology questions was irrestistable.


They rake our stern.

About 3/4 of the fify or so people who came aboard for the cruise were Boom Pirates. I never really got it straight what the boom pirates are all about, but I think it involves a lot of dressing in pirate clothes and partying and drinking rum and also renn fairs.


Hat Overboard!

At one point I was talking with one of the crew and the gentleman in the green coat and hat pictured above. The conversation somehow got around to Burning Man, and while none of us had ever been we all agreed that it sounded like it might be fun. I said that some of my favorite pictures I had seen were of people who had recreated the costumes and vehicles from Road Warrior and were driving them around out in the dessert. Green Coat said, "Yah, I don't know... Theres' a lot of strange people in the world..."

I had to agree with him.




more boom pirates
According to their website, you can see pictured here Ferdinand and Dreamie D'Avanzo...


Not So Rolling Broadside with her single three pounder.


We put the hull down and let the scurvy dogs plow our slops.

posted by Scott in Washington at 3:16 PM |

5 comment(s):

  • Looks like a fun time.

    By the way a 'Raking' broadside is when one ship would fire on the enemy so that their shot would travel along the long axis of the ship - from the front or back. This, obviously, created a potential for far more damage to be done than a short axis broadside (Port to Starboard, Starboard to Port). Calling those 'Ships' is actually correct terminology, since they are ship rigged. Aubrey probabley would call them Brigs or Sloops. I actually walked around on one of those about a year ago when it was tied up in Seattle - the ships master was onboard and seemed annoyed that I was walking around below decks when he wanted to go to sleep.

    your humble servant,
    Rear Admiral of the Red Horatio Jerky

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5/15/2005 08:09:00 PM  

  • I changed the broadside caption to correct for the meaning of "to rake" I think the Lady Washington, with her two three pound guns and two stern chasers that had about and eighty caliber ball, if that, might find good work scaring sea lions away from the fish ladders, but not much else. The Lynx (a brig) mounted carronades.

    By Blogger Scott in Washington, at 5/15/2005 08:35:00 PM  

  • I'll lend you the book I just read that describes all the terminology (with pictures - which is most helpful when talking about which rope is called what and so forth), it is quite good.

    The Bounty was a vessel not unlike the one you took a ride on, a Brig or Sloop. I'm listening to an audio book that tells the story of the trip out to Tahiti, the mutiny, and Bligh's trip back home from the perspective of a researched historical event, not an historical event that then became a stage play, then a fictional book, then a few hollywood movies. Anyway, the Bounty mounted something like 6 4 pounder long guns and a half dozen 1 pounder pedastal guns. This was described as one person who saw the Bounty before it left England as 'Woefully Inadequate'.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5/16/2005 08:02:00 AM  

  • What a great experience to share with your father, I hope you got a lot of photo's (duh) looking at them. Is this something that happens every year, becasue it looks way to cool. The only boats I have ever been out on were to fish, and I would love to have the experience of this kind.....

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5/18/2005 03:26:00 PM  

  • The Lady Washingtons hail out of Aberdeen, so they are relatively easy to catch locally. The Lynx, however, is an East Coaster. Both have fairly decent websites that show their schedules if you are interested in seeing them. I think mock battles are pretty rare and you might have to travel to a tall ship festival to see that. The websites for both ships have links through to a national association with more info.

    By Blogger Scott in Washington, at 5/18/2005 07:38:00 PM  

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