wooden ships, men of iron
- Thread starter jon hansen
- Start date
they say the ships sailed home with tea. not much on the opium they sailed into china with
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A tradition that continues today. I sailed into Gibraltar and noticed all these high powered, mat-black, speed boats in the marina. After asking about it, thinking they were club racers of some sort, I was told they were hashish runners. They would buy a boatload of duty-free cigarettes. They would cruise quietly across the straights to Morocco at night. There, they traded the cigarettes for hashish. Then, they raced across to Spain to a buyer to sell the hashish. After, they went home to British Gibraltar where no laws had been broken. You could walk the docks and spot bullet holes in the back and sides of some of these boats.
- Will (Dragonfly)
Here's the Cutty Sark today, or at least last September.
Beautiful vessels! In this day of replacement surgery some of us have ships of wood and hips of iron!
I'm pretty sure the new hip I got a month ago is some sort of titanium alloy.
And my boat is made of plastic...
Of course you are correct, but I did not think that "ships of plastic and hips of Titanium" rolled off the tongue very easily. Best wishes with the boat and the new hip.I'm pretty sure the new hip I got a month ago is some sort of titanium alloy.
Wasn't there a bad fire on the Cutty Sark a few years back? And looking at the rigging, is anyone else amazed that the preferred method of getting into the tops was to go up the ratlines, then lean back and go the last few feet up the outside of the futtock shrouds?