Sir Francis Drake said:

[PIRATE JUSTICE]

Sir Francis Drake is best known as an English sea captain and pirate. He was the second man to circumnavigate the globe, and the first from England to do so. This beautiful prayer is attributed to him:


Disturb us, Lord, whenWe are too well pleased with ourselves,When our dreams have come trueBecause we have dreamed too little,When we arrived safelyBecause we sailed too close to the shore.


Disturb us, Lord, whenWith the abundance of things we possessWe have lost our thirstFor the waters of life;Having fallen in love with life,We have ceased to dream of eternityAnd in our efforts to build a new earth,We have allowed our visionOf the new heaven to dim.Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,To venture on wider seasWhere storms will show your mastery;Where losing sight of land,We shall find the stars.We ask you to push backThe horizons of our hopes;And to push into the futureIn strength, courage, hope, and love.- Sir Francis Drake

[Ericinico]

MerryChristmas!

[Shinazueli]

Sir Francis Drake is best known as an English sea captain and pirate. He was the second man to circumnavigate the globe, and the first from England to do so. This beautiful prayer is attributed to him:


Disturb us, Lord, whenWe are too well pleased with ourselves,When our dreams have come trueBecause we have dreamed too little,When we arrived safelyBecause we sailed too close to the shore.


Disturb us, Lord, whenWith the abundance of things we possessWe have lost our thirstFor the waters of life;Having fallen in love with life,We have ceased to dream of eternityAnd in our efforts to build a new earth,We have allowed our visionOf the new heaven to dim.Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,To venture on wider seasWhere storms will show your mastery;Where losing sight of land,We shall find the stars.We ask you to push backThe horizons of our hopes;And to push into the futureIn strength, courage, hope, and love.- Sir Francis Drake

Didn't be get eaten by cannibals, though? Lol.

[SoccerStud]

Ferdinand Magellan was better...

Sir Francis Drake died of dysentery.

[Q Raider]

Pretty sure that Sir Francis Drake was actually a "privateer" and not a pirate as he carried out his activities with the blessing of the of crown ruler.

But I guess the perspective of what he was is relative to which end of his guns you were looking at........

[Shinazueli]

Pretty sure that Sir Francis Drake was actually a "privateer" and not a pirate as he carried out his activities with the blessing of the of crown ruler.

But I guess the perspective of what he was is relative to which end of his guns you were looking at........

For the general public, there's virtually no difference. Almost all the pirates had some backer in Europe.

I wonder if Gree backs the pirates... Could explain the end of the people-cott and the thread titled "Stop Asking Gree to Improve the Game." ...

Interesting questions.

[XxGNUTxX]

Happy holidays

[PIRATE JUSTICE]

Gree is a fine company providing great entertainment for everyone.

[Agent Orange]

The Story Behind Smelling Land


(Taken from Chapter 1, A Cabin Boy's Legacy)

In which we begin to see things the other way around.

I no longer stroll a tidal shore without thinking of the cabin boy. Without wondering about his fate and why that fate was to be swinging by his neck, from a yardarm, dead, when the British fleet struck the Isles of Scilly.

That cabin boy has stuck in my head since 1974 when my young son Doug and I were part of a small crew bringing Samphire, a 39-foot sailboat, from Cork to Southampton. It is told that when the fleet was still some distance off the islands, a cabin boy came to the admiral’s stateroom to say, ‘Sir, I smell land. I think we should heave-to until the fog clears.’ Advice from a cabin boy to an admiral of the Royal Navy was neither expected nor welcome-especially not in 1707, and especially not to Admiral Cloudesley Shovell. The boy was reprimanded and sent away. Yet he must have gone on deck for another whiff, because soon he was back at the admiral’s door, no doubt apprehensive, but not enough to stop him repeating his warning: ‘Sir, I smell land. I think we should put about.’ And that is why he was swinging from the yardarm when the fleet crunched ashore on the land he had been smelling.

It’s an interesting tale of the era. But for me the intriguing part of this story is the question: What was the cabin boy smelling when he said he was smelling land? He was smelling life. Life in the intertidal zone, that marvellous jumble of seaweed and kelp, crabs and mollusks—all of whom make their home between the high and low watermark of tidal coasts. The cabin boy lived his life on the sea—in those days cabin boys were seldom allowed ashore even when in harbor—so a whiff of damp seaweed was a whiff of land. Yet what he was smelling, of course, is exactly what we smell when we say we are smelling the sea.

The cabin boy was correct, but his was unconventional whiffery.
So for me, ‘smelling land’ became a metaphor for seeing things the other way around. Sometimes smelling land is just raw fun. Sometimes it brings the exquisite and lonely joy of stumbling upon a new insight. Sometimes smelling land is helpful. And sometimes it is essential if a problem is to be resolved or an opportunity captured.

Taken as a parable, smelling land also warns of immediate dangers to the smellers, at least if they dare speak of what they have smelled, or worse, of the implications. Fortunately in modern times, at least in most places, the penalties have been reduced. We no longer swing people from yardarms. People may lose jobs, or promotions or the warm feeling of being taken seriously. Academics certainly lose research grants. Smellers-of-land on the corporate ladder are shunted off to staff positions—thought safe on the flanks, but dangerous to corporate stability when in positions of line responsibility.

The parable also warns of longer-term dangers to ships of state, corporations, or large institutions should they discourage the whiffers or trivialize what they say.

Makes you wonder if anyone at Gree has been 'smelling land recently'.

*

[DVL505]

The Story Behind Smelling Land


(Taken from Chapter 1, A Cabin Boy's Legacy)

In which we begin to see things the other way around.

I no longer stroll a tidal shore without thinking of the cabin boy. Without wondering about his fate and why that fate was to be swinging by his neck, from a yardarm, dead, when the British fleet struck the Isles of Scilly.

That cabin boy has stuck in my head since 1974 when my young son Doug and I were part of a small crew bringing Samphire, a 39-foot sailboat, from Cork to Southampton. It is told that when the fleet was still some distance off the islands, a cabin boy came to the admiral’s stateroom to say, ‘Sir, I smell land. I think we should heave-to until the fog clears.’ Advice from a cabin boy to an admiral of the Royal Navy was neither expected nor welcome-especially not in 1707, and especially not to Admiral Cloudesley Shovell. The boy was reprimanded and sent away. Yet he must have gone on deck for another whiff, because soon he was back at the admiral’s door, no doubt apprehensive, but not enough to stop him repeating his warning: ‘Sir, I smell land. I think we should put about.’ And that is why he was swinging from the yardarm when the fleet crunched ashore on the land he had been smelling.

It’s an interesting tale of the era. But for me the intriguing part of this story is the question: What was the cabin boy smelling when he said he was smelling land? He was smelling life. Life in the intertidal zone, that marvellous jumble of seaweed and kelp, crabs and mollusks—all of whom make their home between the high and low watermark of tidal coasts. The cabin boy lived his life on the sea—in those days cabin boys were seldom allowed ashore even when in harbor—so a whiff of damp seaweed was a whiff of land. Yet what he was smelling, of course, is exactly what we smell when we say we are smelling the sea.

The cabin boy was correct, but his was unconventional whiffery.
So for me, ‘smelling land’ became a metaphor for seeing things the other way around. Sometimes smelling land is just raw fun. Sometimes it brings the exquisite and lonely joy of stumbling upon a new insight. Sometimes smelling land is helpful. And sometimes it is essential if a problem is to be resolved or an opportunity captured.

Taken as a parable, smelling land also warns of immediate dangers to the smellers, at least if they dare speak of what they have smelled, or worse, of the implications. Fortunately in modern times, at least in most places, the penalties have been reduced. We no longer swing people from yardarms. People may lose jobs, or promotions or the warm feeling of being taken seriously. Academics certainly lose research grants. Smellers-of-land on the corporate ladder are shunted off to staff positions—thought safe on the flanks, but dangerous to corporate stability when in positions of line responsibility.

The parable also warns of longer-term dangers to ships of state, corporations, or large institutions should they discourage the whiffers or trivialize what they say.

Makes you wonder if anyone at Gree has been 'smelling land recently'.

*Well said AO.

[Speed ump]

They would have to know what land is before they could smell it. Actually there is one guy there who is ale to smell land, and he seems to have trained a cabin girl to smell it too. Hope he figures put how to get the admiral to smell it too, without hanging from the yardarm.

[Arizona]

Sir Francis Drake is best known as an English sea captain and pirate. He was the second man to circumnavigate the globe, and the first from England to do so. This beautiful prayer is attributed to him:

STUPID!

Only a pirate if you take an opposition point of view; Spanish. Defeats the point of an argument as anyone can say anything about anyone and be correct, depending on their POV.
Drake wasn't such a bad bloke or even a pirate. Betty one gave him a knighthood as well!

[Speed ump]

Go back to your history books Arizona. Drake was considered a pirate by the Spanish, who had a reward on him. He was also a slaver, among manyother things. Check it out before you bark just to be barking. You've been promoted, to forum troll. Congrats.

[Sugarymama]

STUPID!

Only a pirate if you take an opposition point of view; Spanish. Defeats the point of an argument as anyone can say anything about anyone and be correct, depending on their POV.
Drake wasn't such a bad bloke or even a pirate. Betty one gave him a knighthood as well!

Lol...you are killing me. Way too much seriousness for Xmas day/evening. Maybe you should have spent the holiday in Brooklyn. Early in the day it was the Bk Nets vs. Celtics (we got spanked), then in the afternoon it was Knicks vs. Lakers (not a spanking, but we lost) Drinks and fun all around, good food and people. And a kick-ass game of Taboo. Trust me, the last thing you would have been thinking about is a history lesson about whatever it is you're talking about...trust. ;)

[Shinazueli]

Lol...you are killing me. Way too much seriousness for Xmas day/evening. Maybe you should have spent the holiday in Brooklyn. Early in the day it was the Bk Nets vs. Celtics (we got spanked), then in the afternoon it was Knicks vs. Lakers (not a spanking, but we lost) Drinks and fun all around, good food and people. And a kick-ass game of Taboo. Trust me, the last thing you would have been thinking about is a history lesson about whatever it is you're talking about...trust. ;)

Christmas with girls, sports, spankings, and taboos being broken. Sounds like I missed a good time.

[Sugarymama]

Christmas with girls, sports, spankings, and taboos being broken. Sounds like I missed a good time.

Yup....and wait until New Year's..lol. ;)

[King little fruit fly]

Okay, so a pirate was given the title Sir by the Queen of land of never sunset, how ironic! :confused:

[Xela]

Surely it reaches further than Gree?