Landfall
The mariners have already established the beachhead.
They have navigated by sunlight; they have navigated by starlight.
It may seem like madness, and it is in fact madness.
And yet, and yet. Here they are by the freshwater spring.
Here they are off the moving ocean,
out of the waves and sea air to where life is already green.
What have they seen? They have seen the sea swell.
They have seen stars in their fixed and holy alphabet
turn slowly through the night’s black quadrants.
They have gazed out from the moving deck.
They have seen the backs of whales.
They have seen the backs of dolphins.
They have seen a whale bigger than their vessel
rise up out of the ocean and disappear again.
They have seen the ocean.
They have seen landfall as the stocks ran out,
and ground underfoot.
They have seen grown men weep for joy.
Landfall
Interesting write John. It strips down experience and keys into the period. I reckon a mariner of the time would give a nod of 'yes, that's it, that was what it was like'. No wonder folk of that era believed in miracles! They needed to!
enjoyed
Phil
enjoyed
Phil
John, I'll give you a nitty gritty fact here. Blue Whales are typically 20-25m long whereas a submarine is 100-150m long. Collisions do occur and the Whale comes off worse 99.9% of the time. Tall ships are typically 40m long, for comparison, so you'd have to have a fairly small vessel in mind for these mariners. 20m is a typical luxury yacht or tourist boat size.
I can see the madness in sea voyage adventure of old. I don't know how holy the stars were for your mariners. I'm a little confused by the culture you've chosen. It seems a bit generic European invader? Viking boats would be smaller than Whales I imagine (without checking) but you'd need to be more specific in your lexicon to go down that route.
I could be missing something as always. I did enjoy the read though and I thought I'd present my interpretation in case it was any use.
I can see the madness in sea voyage adventure of old. I don't know how holy the stars were for your mariners. I'm a little confused by the culture you've chosen. It seems a bit generic European invader? Viking boats would be smaller than Whales I imagine (without checking) but you'd need to be more specific in your lexicon to go down that route.
I could be missing something as always. I did enjoy the read though and I thought I'd present my interpretation in case it was any use.
Hi Morph,
Thank you for thsoe interesting stats on whale vs. ship length! I was on a tourist ship a humpback came up alongside and it was the length of the ship, pretty much. That was my basis. I was thinking my mariners navigating by starlight are early European invaders - between Columbus and the Mayflower - so their ships might be between 15 and 30 meters long. A whale bigger than their vessel is not especially likely then, so I'll need a ponder.
The stars would have been holy for Columbus. Not sure about the Pilgrims.
Of course, my sailors could be Portuguese. They could almost be POlynesian, but for the deck I added in a late edit.
Cheers,
John
Thank you for thsoe interesting stats on whale vs. ship length! I was on a tourist ship a humpback came up alongside and it was the length of the ship, pretty much. That was my basis. I was thinking my mariners navigating by starlight are early European invaders - between Columbus and the Mayflower - so their ships might be between 15 and 30 meters long. A whale bigger than their vessel is not especially likely then, so I'll need a ponder.
The stars would have been holy for Columbus. Not sure about the Pilgrims.
Of course, my sailors could be Portuguese. They could almost be POlynesian, but for the deck I added in a late edit.
Cheers,
John