Upon a rock
I am developing a true interest in history. There’s a lot of it and I’m old enough to know that I will not learn it all. Not even a small percentage. Some concentrating on things that might be applicable to me. I live in an island. One that is just large enough. And people have been coming here by ships for centuries. Not all of them make it in with the boat intact. I find this whole idea both heard and soft. I mean, a lot of my ancestors came here by ship and they must have landed in good shape. This afternoon I listened to a documentary concerning a disaster that took place within a day’s sail of here. The idea of that distance is relative as you can imagine. This is one of a rather large steamship that was built when sails were still included in the kit. I am not going to name the ship but I will tell you that crew can affect the results. The term hubris comes to mind. Too proud to realize that they’re in trouble and not wanting to let the rest of the world know how they may have failed at their task. Anyhow this particular ship which is en route to the United states decided that there supply of coal might be low so they diverted to another port. At a time when navigation was really done by guessing. There is a lighthouse in this story but it was never seen by those on board. Instead they found a huge rock and that point on the story goes downhill. According to the newspaper reports hundreds were lost. The rock was attached to a small island with a few families living there. Fishers, all settled down for the winter. And yet, they jumped to the task. Dragged their boats out and across the fields to get close to the shipwreck. And they rescued as many as they could. I imagine that the story that I heard was made into something more interesting but seriously, jumping into the frigid waters in the middle of a storm is never a fun time. As I said, hundreds did die and their bodies were taken ashore and then tourists came and looted. Some people are less heroic than others. There are an artifacts to be found in a couple of museums just across the way I may never go there but I do have a sense of the story. And this story serves as a lesson. Back in the old days lifeboats weren’t quite enough
