The Off Topic Topic

[Josquius]

It is curious.
I guess it's what comes of having guys who know very little about ships (monarchs, nobles) being in charge of purchasing.

[The Larch]

What's the extra M for?

Medicine, apparently. Used to be just Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

[celedhring]

Now I want to go to Barcelona, very cool museum.

That's by far the most impressive piece in it, but if you have an interest in navigation it's a cool little museum to visit - don't think it justifies coming to Barcelona just by itself, though. Most of the collection is XIXth century stuff (ship decorations and instruments) but there are some XVI-XVIIth navigational charts.

There used to be a seaworhty replica of the Santa María (Columbus' ship), but it was burnt down by Catalan separatists in the 1990s and the provincial government (which runs the museum) decided it was too expensive to repair and scrapped it.

[Syt]

Traffic of people leaving Burning Man festival.

[The Larch]

I've read about Spanish ships of that era having large wooden crucifixes on their mizzen masts.  Either they left them out or my sources were incorrect.

Never heard such a thing in my life. Where did you get it from?

[celedhring]

Considering how gaudy that galley looks by modern standards, I now I understand why some paintings of the Naval Battle of Actium look like this.

That galley was built with the express purpose of leading the fleet of the Holy League of 1571, and the mandate was that it had to be more impressive than anything else brought by the other allies - particularly the Venetians, who were the other major contributor to the alliance and feared that the Holy League would be the first step to strongarm them into the Habsburg Italian sphere of influence.

[Syt]

Well yeah, but 16th/17th century was pretty over the top with the bling in general.

[Threviel]

Just look at Wasa about fifty years later:

[celedhring]

The Wasa  Easily the highlight of my Swedish vacation years ago.

[The Larch]

by Catalan separatists in the 1990s and the provincial government (which runs the museum) decided it was too expensive to repair and scrapped it.

We do have a seaworthy replica of the Pinta in Baiona, a town close to Vigo, as that was the first place in Europe where they landed in 1493 (they got separated at the Azores by a storm, and Columbus at the Niña arrived at Lisbon a couple of days later).



How they managed to cross the Atlantic and get back on such a tiny ship is truly amazing.

[Admiral Yi]

I've read about Spanish ships of that era having large wooden crucifixes on their mizzen masts.  Either they left them out or my sources were incorrect.

Never heard such a thing in my life. Where did you get it from?

The source I recall is Patrick Obrian, which is admittedly fiction but vigorously researched, and I thought I had read it elsewhere as well but can't recall where.

[Admiral Yi]

Who here can name Lincoln's first Vice President?

I'm rereading Grant, and it struck me when I got to the part where Lincoln named Andrew Johnson as his second VP that I didn't know the first, and I couldn't really recall any passage in any book on the Civil War that mentioned him.

I googled it and the name was a complete blank.

Interesting case of a person disappearing from history.

[Habbaku]

I could name him, and am surprised that you couldn't. The (spoilers) alliterative nature of his name makes it easier to remember.

I definitely don't remember many details about him, but the name is easy. 

[Caliga]

I could too.  I remember his name because it's awesome, but like Habs I don't remember shit about him.

[grumbler]

Hamlin's real claim to fame, IMO, was that he served simultaneously as the Veep and the company cook for his infantry company in the 1864 campaign.