I want to learn how to navigate without GPS

Poida,

I was speaking of none dying while in the longboat with Bligh after he and the others were set adrift. Don't recall how many died during regular ops.

Been looking for one book I read in particular. Think it was called "The Lost Journals of Capt. James Cook".

Tim

 

Alan,

Kept everyone alive if I recall correctly. Hardly the tyrant they make him out to be. But we are getting accostemed to rewritten history, are we not?

Tim

'scuse me buddy if I failed mind reading at university.

Poida

 

Yeah Poida,

Sometimes I forget that just because I'm thinking it, does not mean it makes it to the screen.

Low of 63F tonight. Camping out under the stars. Maybe I can learn my nav stars better.

You have a good one.

Tim

PS: I like the game show Jeopardy. Last night three supposedly smart contestants did not know Sirius, Antares, Polaris (I think?) were stars. Found that interesting & a little truobling.

 

Thanks to Hollywood, and whoever those guys were that wrote the book. Few people today realize that back then, a captain was an ersatz ruler of a small kingdom, a world that lasted sometimes for several years, and yet with an opportunity for any sailor to jump ship easily at any port if he so chose.
Captains were the fairest of rulers generally, since their commision was performance-based. Those who joined the ranks of able seamen often were men without any normal ties to civilized society--- drunks, drifters, and misfits.
In a way, ships then were peopled with voluntary prison inmates. To mutiny was therefore a serious crime. It really amounted to stealing a ship and while sometimes could be justified, more often it was the human nature of a very suspicious and uneducated crew at work. In the case of the Bounty, the contrast of returning to a repressive society and continuing the hard life of a common seaman compared to the apparent delights of life in Tahiti (whose women were so hot and uninhibited...) was all too obvious. Christian tipped the scales, himself having personal stakes. If not for his own personal stake in the matter, history would have been very different.
Much of Bligh's ugly reputation came out of a need to justify another entirely different motivation.
Christian could have later returned to Tahiti easily. One can't blame the men who followed him. I would have done the same if I'd been one of them. But the mutinying officers were most surely a threat to the cohesion of the British navy, who held their vast empire together by the very kind of men of which Bligh was the best example. No other way could the Crown maintain its power except through the discipline of stalwart men such as Bligh was.
The story is a typical case of historical myopia. In the movie, Bligh is played by an ugly little man, and Christian is played by the handsomest actor in Hollywood. The idea was to get the audience to hate Bligh in part because he was simply too unattractive to be loved.

Alan

 

Yeah, Tim, I watch Jeopardy too. It's interesting that while the Shakespere and opera questions are always so demanding, a nautical question is always absolutely simple and elementary. The bias is towards that relatively useless upper crusty educational drivel that is the hallmark of the priveliged and often equally useless upper class. Hardly fair, as it negates the value of real world knowledge that should be a source of pride to those who have mastered their art.
Perhaps this is why craftsmanship is a dying art in the USA. While in France, a carpenter is likely to make nearly as much as a doctor, here the doctor makes 10 times as much for his level of expertise. The irony is that I could run circles around my sister at Jeopardy, who is a doctor, who also can't change a car tire or put up a shelf.

Alan

 

Alan,

Thats funny as my sis is a MD (general pratitioner) also.

Can't say she does not have some general knowledge, but it seems to be only in limited areas. Her poor ignorant brother (that would be me), I am quite confident, would destroy her at Jeopardy. That is if it did not have a bunch of stupid, irrelevant catagories. Seems the good subjects are being more & more neglected.

I'm not big into TV, but like the show. Take care of my disabled mom. Thats the one time of the day we always share.

Tim

 

Ah! Mr Bligh! good navigator reasonable Captain - wasn't he the guy who (as Admiral) was gov'ner of Australia (well the bit that was known about?) who had to be removed for kicking the poo out of the local white population - seem to recall he thought they were convicts or something!! Yes a misunderstood gentleman if ever there was one! As for Mr Christian - hardly call him an ocifer - Masters Mate more like. Being a 'transport' the 'Bounty' ran too one lieutenant in command (as master and commander no less, but not ranked as such, she was so small she didn't even rate to that level). a Masters Mate or Junior Warrant Officer/ Petty Officer and a couple of midshipmen who in those days (still?) rank little more than boys who can read, OK the more senior ones were actually given ocifer jobs with a small amount of authority (skipper of a prize crew and the like) to help train then for when they became full lieutenants but generally were boys under training!

 

I don't want to get political, and no disrespect to individual doctors intended. Having said that, the concept of doctors and healthcare in this contry has, IMHO, gone downhill in the past 60 years or so.

Doctors were once people who cared about and were paid for maintaining the health of their patients. Now they are people who are paid by the number and type of procedures they order and by lucrative fringe benefits (e.g. expense paid "conferences" and "training sessions" in exotic resorts) from pharmaceutical companies for prescribing hugely expensive drugs. They are paid by big business and government, not by patients.
They are paid for expensive procedures whether or not the patient's health improves, and they are paid very little for supporting and improving the patient's health if there are no costly procedures involved. General and family practice physicians make much less than specialists under this system, and, not surprisingly, there are fewer of them each year.

The difference is that craftsmen are paid for the quality of their results, as doctors once were paid. The demand in this country for high quality results is limited. Maybe it's the definition of "high quality", based on our society's growing tendency to look for short term results, instant gratification, etc. Don't build a home that will last for centuries; build one that you can resell for a profit in a few years.

I suspect very few doctors are well rounded enough in their education anymore to even consider navigating without GPS. (Nice segue back to topic, huh?)

 

Charlie you talking about the US or the UK? can't see much difference either way!

 

Huh? Quality is less an issue when it's free! Here, we pay to be abused!

A.

 

Good point, Alan. We get all the mediocrity and lack of efficiency of socialized medicine, without universal coverage, and we pay for it!

 

I think this thread needs a GPS

 

Not bad tho'

Went from Bligh to jeopardy to stars to doctors and the health service in 4 posts.

Don't mention the war!

Poida

 

Hmmm?

 

Ok lets tie it all together - Cap'n Bligh navigated by the stars which on a cloudy night put him in jeopardy, doubly so because he had no health service in those days and thus no doctor onboard. These days of course because of GPS it would have been quicker to get to a doctor - if the health service was up to speed! God bless the war for making it possible!!