I forgot to tell you all about the Maritime museum!
Highlights included:
- a boat very much like the "bootle bumtrinket" from "My Family and Other Animals" by Gerald Durrell- A little brightly painted flat bottomed 'child's first boat'.
-sailboats designed for ice sailing, which are perfect for the long wind-tunnel of lake Champlain. An ice sailer is like an enormous skate with a sail, and incredibly fast. For a long time the fastest recorded land speed was on an ice sailer.
-cannon demonstrations off their 18th century gunboat- a flat bottomed sail boat designed to rotate in the water such that, at anchor, the canon on one side can fire, and then reload while the guns on the other side come round into range and fire etc etc etc, I wonder if the men on board got dizzy?
-18th century reenactors who told us all about the soldier-sailors of the day's sleeping habits. The slept sitting up in the fetal position, each wrapped in his own blanket and stacked against the shins of the man behind. You can fit a lot more people in a small space sleeping that way, you stay warmer, and getting up every few hours for night watch is actually a welcome opportunity to stretch!
Highlights included:
- a boat very much like the "bootle bumtrinket" from "My Family and Other Animals" by Gerald Durrell- A little brightly painted flat bottomed 'child's first boat'.
-sailboats designed for ice sailing, which are perfect for the long wind-tunnel of lake Champlain. An ice sailer is like an enormous skate with a sail, and incredibly fast. For a long time the fastest recorded land speed was on an ice sailer.
-cannon demonstrations off their 18th century gunboat- a flat bottomed sail boat designed to rotate in the water such that, at anchor, the canon on one side can fire, and then reload while the guns on the other side come round into range and fire etc etc etc, I wonder if the men on board got dizzy?
-18th century reenactors who told us all about the soldier-sailors of the day's sleeping habits. The slept sitting up in the fetal position, each wrapped in his own blanket and stacked against the shins of the man behind. You can fit a lot more people in a small space sleeping that way, you stay warmer, and getting up every few hours for night watch is actually a welcome opportunity to stretch!
This boat was manned by upwards of 40 men!
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