Cowboy Captain of Cutty Sark

Dyer, Sonia sonia.dyer at hp.com
Mon Apr 12 03:03:49 CEST 2004


Sonia wrote:
>>...what the eruption of 
>> Krakatoa was really like to experience from on board a ship.

Don wrote:
>Well, I don't think anyone who experienced that was ever able to tell
the tale. They'd be in Davy Jones' Locker. That was >all made up! I
mean, the various aspects of the explosion were accurate... the noise,
the pyroclastic flow, the tidal wave, the rain of rocks and ash... but
any ship nearby was simply never heard from again... it didn't surf the
curl. 

Well then it was very nicely made up!  According to Winchester's book,
ships that were in harbor, like the Royal Dutch military ship Berouw,
definitely didn't surf the curl successfully - it was tumbled over and
over and finally deposited right-side-up several miles up a valley, 60
ft above sea level.  The crew didn't survive though.  There were at
least 10 other European ships at sea in the area that did survive. The
"Norham Castle" reported the eardrums had been shattered in more than
half the crew.  The "Charles Bal" was the closest ship that survived,
and it was 10 miles from Krakatoa.  None of them mentioned pyroclastic
flows, but did mention heavy rains of still-warm hunks of pumice, dark
sulphurous smelling ash clouds, everything including sails and ropes,
coated with what looked like powdered cement, pink St Elmo's fire, and
various crew members receiving electrical shocks from the static
discharge in the ash clouds.  Chronometers stopped and compasses spun
wildly.  And of course, the series of tidal waves up to 135 ft high,
which washed 36,000 people off the land and into Davy Jones' locker.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but your story was a very good
approximation.


>One detail I was surprised to learn was (since you ask) saying "the
eruption of Krakatoa" is a bit of a misnomer for the >event. Krakatoa
was not the name of the volcano...

Right, Krakatoa was the name of the island that was blown to
smithereenies.  The middle of its 3 volcanos, Mt Danan, was mostly at
fault, but poor ole Krakatoa got the blame.


>> Also, with regard to Capt. Moore, was there a real Capt. Moore, or is

>> he a composite?  The way you drew him reminds me very much of Gregory

>> Peck as Capt. Ahab in the movie "Moby Dick".

>I see someone gave you a link to a site where someone else posted my
answer to that very question when I was asked once before. I can't
improve on that answer --  did you manage to find the site?

Yes, thanks Kai.  That page was very informative.  Gregory Peck gave an
uncharacteristically stiff, wooden performance in that movie, and Don
actually captured that very amusingly in the demeanor of Capt Moore!
  
       Sonia





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