Continental Drift 3.0

We have been working up the cartagraphical wonders to create the world. So here is an Island that does not exist, yet does.

My new ship

I gave up the old Frigate for something more my style

The Nemisis I gave up. Tis too much a ship for my crew. I have no need to for such a monster. So on the way back from France I took a Dutch Pinnace and renamed her Nemisis II. She is a fast, bluff, and manuverable ship of 24 guns. With 40 hands we can sail her true to any course. And she draws only 10 feet so that we can take her to many'a port and stream that would wreak a larger craft.

Of course we had to take her and that was a nasty business. She was headed to the Texel Roadstead but we had the weather gauge and had a sloop of 8 guns. We over took her and tired to put her crew ashore in terrible winds. They foundered in sight of the headlands and all were lost. Twas a terrible thing to behold, all those men crying out, and we with our stern to them.

Their ship is a fine vessal indeed. Stout and of high quality. The Dutch shipbuilders are have a well deserved reputation as master craftsman. We spent the crossing, with mostly good weather, taking down the bulkheads and streamlinging her as best we could.

I hope Captain Fyre has fair winds with the old Nemisis. She is a fine grand battle boat. But this little Pinnace is a crafty, fearsome, and quick sea bird. There is something about each vessel I have stood upon. From the old Providence to this ship. Each has a spirit, as it were, and each a personality. A captain's hands upon the wheel of any ship need to love her lest he lose her. And like all women, each is unique.

My new hat

I was tired of my old hat. So I took a knife to it and removed the old braid and feathers. Then I added new more luxuriant braid of a far superior quality. I kept the Ostrich plumes and my clan badge.

Currently the hat is at the limit of what would have been available in the 1690's. Its rear is not turned up like the sides. It also has a black and gold hat band. I got in a big trouble doing this. For it was late one night and I marked up the marble floor in the rotunda and Vaux le Vicomte with my knife while adjusting said hat. Luckily Madame Fouqet was most aggreable to forgiving me once I educated her in the finer ars le Amour. (This is appocryphal. In truth I was in danger of losing my hat to the steward. The requiste bribe did the trick.)

I am on my way back to Tortuga.

After a lovely time at Vaux Le Comte with Meme. Fouqet I am on my way back to Tortuga. I was informed that the English ship Essex has gone down with many tens of thousands of pounds of gold in her off Gibraltar. I know nothing of the sinking of this vessel. And damn and blast that she went down before we could board her. Not that I know anything of such a ship in the first place.

Our last night at Vaux le Vicomte we were privy to a performance of Alceste under the stars. M. Lully has been dead now since 87', but his petite band and company survives, M. De la Lande performed. They were at Vaux and the Madame persuaded them to perform. We all took part. Everything about the French nobility is beyond ostentatious. Particularly those close to the king. A great treat was that Monsieur La Prince was also in attendance. He is a great poof, but is also a man of good nature and was a lot of fun. He told me that he was glad to be away from his brother the King.

This is an MP3 player test post

The Crossing East

The Eastindiaman off the coast of Tortuga after my boarding.

The crossing of a great ocean of the Earth will never be an easy voyage. No sane person could attempt it without a profound sense of his or her own smallness and futility. One crosses such watery spaces with the compliance of the fates and without such natural aggreement one is doomed, no matter how they lived their lives or how many times they bothered to pray to God.

Not long ago the Dominicans sent a small fleet of Brigs from Spain to Vera Cruz. At least that was the intended destination. The fleet sailed from several Spanish ports. Sent word from the Canaries then vanished from the Earth. Many ships sail into oblivion and to return to Europe is the worse course; with the currents and winds not prevailing.

Our journey took us from Tortuga north to St. Augustine, then on a northerly course and finally sourthward again until we made Barfluer. It was a journey of five and a half weeks. Not bad at all. I have known of some captains that fight the currents and the winds to go straight at Spain, France, or England, and spend the better half of a year at sea only to make port in Boston or North Africa.

I hope that my time at Vaux Le Comte is brief.



Our crossing!