Wooden ships

OK, there's one good thing about the Rose Festival (or, as some of my friends unfondly refer to it, the Hose Festival). You get to see the wooden ships.

There's been one tied up under the east end of the Hawthorne Bridge for a couple of weeks now. Today two more came in, preceded by a tugboat firing water cannons. The first one had all its sails furled; the second was partly rigged, but clearly proceeding under engine power-- against the air resistance of all that sailcloth. Must have been costing a pretty penny.

I'm always stunned by how small they are. People crossed oceans in those? They must have been crazy! Still. As antique, romantic, crypto-Luddite notions go... there are worse ones you could be attached to than the sight of a tower of canvas bearing up a fragile chip of wood, as the soul bears up the body.

They fired their cannons as they passed Waterfront Park. Avast, ye rose-bedecked landlubbers! Ye're about to be overhauled, broadsided, boarded, and pillaged! Arrrrr!

Collection available! Knocking from Inside