Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Seaman's Secrets, 1626





















John Davis (c.1550-1605) was a successful explorer during the reign of Elizabeth I. He discovered the Falkland Islands, where his crew killed like 100,000 penguins and the meat spoiled and most of the sailors died of worms, and the Davis Straight, which he named after himself. Basically, he sailed all over the place (maybe even with Raleigh!). Then he invented some sort of quadrant called the Backstaff that was pretty cool. Anyway, he published The Seaman's Secrets, a navigation guide, in 1594.

Tragically, he was killed by Japanese pirates off of Sumatra in 1605. RIP, John Davis. Maybe if you REALLY knew how to navigate properly you would've made it to someplace cool like Atlantis or something.

What is the next necessary thing to be learned?

ps -- Do you know what a Googlewhack is? Because apparently this website has one! With two amazing words, I might add: http://bit.ly/1z2TQY

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Yay, penguin worms!

Doug said...

My personal favorite is "Valhalla." It's also the second reference to Valhalla I've seen in a week, which leads me to conclude that Norse mythology references are about to be the next big thing. That or somehow our collective unconscious knows that Ragnarok will happen in 2012.

Sarah Redmond said...

Ragnarok is totally coming! It's the best of the end-times myths, you know, but mostly because it's so fun to say.

But the real question is, can you spot the Hamlet joke I made in the picture? It's absolutely sidesplitting.

Doug said...

Can I spot the Hamlet joke? Can I tell a hawk from a handsaw? (Ok, I admit it took you pointing it out.)

I love Hamlet jokes! I always say that the dissertation I never wrote was going to be entitled "Hamlet and His Problems."

Kesha Tickets said...

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