captain bligh

[cappy]

reply to cappy
I thought it was a absolute load of shite and I believe its going to get worse , bligh was a serious navigator and sailor
and these television milk fed sops do not do him or his achievements any favours as I do not believe that the modern sailor could emulate this mans seamanship/ sas my ****
tom

##well thomas i think i would rather have been in my bed or on the beach in the islands...than on the biscuit and 400 calories per day......they do not pretend to be bligh ....unlike yourself i have a bit of respect for the SAS .....if you read about bligh as i have done he was a hard taskmaster ......his crew mutinied almost unheard of at that time he also had great trouble handling the affairs in australia when he was governer and regularly had to call out the soldier force to keep order there also some people cannot handle people perhaps bligh was one of them ....i cannot take away from the man ...and i do not wish to do so ..but there are a few older masters on this site who could navigate the course he took ...and weather permiting would have possibly made the voyage.....i look forward to the next episode .......but feel quite sure i would rather not be on that small boat as having done a bit of sailing in my time i understand how quickly one can getcold wet and hungry to a state of ...wish i wasnt here .......but i do think your statement on the SAS was abit contrary..regards cappy

[Captain Kong]

From Bligh`s Journals of the Voyage to Tahiti, he started for the first time the Three watch system , 4 on an 8 off, instead of 4 on and 4 off, as he wanted his men to be rested at all times so they would be ready for any emergency, He gave them a good diet as he didn't want to lose any men with Scurvy etc.

The Reason for the Mutiny is obvious.
They lived in a Paradise for 5 months, all the beautiful Wahines they could handle, fresh food and fruit everyday, a nice warm climate, warm seas and sun. a Sailors Dream,
Then they had to take the ship back to the filthy unsanitary hovels, cold and damp in England, a bad diet, and smelly women,
What would you or any Sailor do, ???? I certainly would have joined in with the Mutiny..
No contest
Ia orana, Maitai.
Brian

[cappy]

From Bligh`s Journals of the Voyage to Tahiti, he started for the first time the Three watch system , 4 on an 8 off, instead of 4 on and 4 off, as he wanted his men to be rested at all times so they would be ready for any emergency, He gave them a good diet as he didn't want to lose any men with Scurvy etc.

The Reason for the Mutiny is obvious.
They lived in a Paradise for 5 months, all the beautiful Wahines they could handle, fresh food and fruit everyday, a nice warm climate, warm seas and sun. a Sailors Dream,
Then they had to take the ship back to the filthy unsanitary hovels, cold and damp in England, a bad diet, and smelly women,
What would you or any Sailor do, ???? I certainly would have joined in with the Mutiny..
No contest
Ia orana, Maitai.
Brian

skin out brian as many of us did cappy

[thomas michael]

hi cappy

as a matter of fact I have the highest of regard for the sas and our armed forces, just to give you a idea I sailed into Guernsey the channel isles, after going ashore that night I went to a local bar and one guy introduced himself whilst pouring a pint down his shirt, instantly followed by another most of it all over the floor, he then asks me if I was a southpaw, being fed up with this guy already I said I'm quite happy either hand, he sobers for a instant and says well shall we arm wrestle.
it seems this guy was a drinking buddy of oliver reed (thank god he wasn't there ) anyway he is mumbling on about Hereford and his hush hush job,and when I turn around the other five people in the bar are all inbred or suffering some deformity of the mush. and they are expecting this ex sas to drop the scouser well it didn't happen because he was full of ****,
alls I'm saying is that I have learnt that people don't walk round telling everybody they meet they are trained killers.
and one I knew a regimental sargent major para decorated for the falklands was so sea sick going there that he vowed never to get on another boat for the rest of his life, I still have the shortwave radio he gave to me when he came back.
as for bligh he was a great seaman and navigator also sailed with our greatest chart maker and navigator cook, whom finally after cracking up he went crazy and was killed in Tahiti for bullying them and his crew but like bligh I prefer to think of his navigation and seaman skills rather than for his humanity.
now as for the program of the journey I actually know one of the guys in the boat, and he is a professional charity fund raiser and on his last trip sailing around the uk there where photos he had taken with a caption underneath them that he was sailing in forty knot winds, to me it looked like no more than twenty possibly twenty five knots, and I have been sailing for thirty years and I own the exact same boat he was in when the pictures where taken,
and I still think that the program with its support team on the port side or standing by at all times, whilst they go over to it for some rest time is shite.
after all its not like one of my other greates heros shackleton and he only covered fifteen hundred miles without a support boat,
keep it coming cappy I'm enjoying the ride
tom

[Captain Kong]

Yes Shackleton sailed Eight Hundred miles from Elephant Island to the coast of South Georgia in the most Hostile seas on earth and then had to climb over the ice covered mountains to get down to the Whaling Station to get help for his men on Elephant Island. Where they survived another freezing Antarctic winter
The boat,`James Caird`, was an open boat with four men. another epic voyage, through icebergs, if he had been a couple of degrees off course he would have disappeared forever.
Hard men then,
Below Elephant Island, where Shackleton left his men to get help. A dreadful place to be with no stores only diet was penguins, no shelter, a freezing mist and ice. Point Wild named after one of Shackletons men,
Shackletons grave at Grytviken , South Georgia. 20 graves in that graveyard, all face traditionally east, Shackletons grave in the only one facing south towards the South Pole.
We drank a bottle of Rum there and the last tot is poured onto his grave an old custom.
Brian

[cappy]

''well thomas i would think knowing two ex SAS now retired from that special force that the bum you met in guernsy was just that a bum.......the guys i know are very unpretentious and never come on about there ex proffesion .......the guy who is the leader of this expedition is sas and the fool from liverpool would be a wiser man to listen to what he is told ..if you sailed regularly you would know you cant have two captains...and each must do as needed by the one in charge...it appeared christian didnt and the rest of his crowd ended up killing him and each other ...i have never sailed at any great speed but would think it extremely hard to tell the difference lokoking at a picture and being able to tell the speed of the vessel between 20 or 40 knots.....but i would bow to your superior knowledge on that...it is also interesting that none of these guys are seamen of any note ........but having said that i shall watch the series with interest.... with reference to your keep it coming .....i shall now retire giving way to a person who appears to have sailed a windbag to a much superior level than me....regards cappy

[cappy]

Yes Shackleton sailed Eight Hundred miles from Elephant Island to the coast of South Georgia in the most Hostile seas on earth and then had to climb over the ice covered mountains to get down to the Whaling Station to get help for his men on Elephant Island. Where they survived another freezing Antarctic winter
The boat,`James Caird`, was an open boat with four men. another epic voyage, through icebergs, if he had been a couple of degrees off course he would have disappeared forever.
Hard men then,
Below Elephant Island, where Shackleton left his men to get help. A dreadful place to be with no stores only diet was penguins, no shelter, a freezing mist and ice. Point Wild named after one of Shackletons men,
Shackletons grave at Grytviken , South Georgia. 20 graves in that graveyard, all face traditionally east, Shackletons grave in the only one facing south towards the South Pole.
We drank a bottle of Rum there and the last tot is poured onto his grave an old custom.
Brian

###iron men wooden ships brian .....cometh the time cometh the man......regards cappy

[thomas michael]

hi capt kong
a great story, for one of my all time heroes, did you see the television program about it I'm afraid this is why my heroes can never be maligned these are the people I look up to
tom

[Captain Kong]

No I didn't see any series on Shackleton. But in the Antarctic trip I did we folloe=wed in the `footsteps` of Shackleton,
A far better explorer than Scott. He could have got to the South Pole in 2007 ; five years before Scott, but he knew that if he got to the Pole he didn't have enough supplies to get back and that would kill his men so he turned back. He thought more of his men than the glory of being the first.

After his last aborted expedition he was planning to be the first mean to cross the entire continent, coast to coast, via the Pole, BUT when he went back to South Georgia he had a Heart Attack and died. A ship took his body to Montevideo and then they cabled his wife and told her he had died and were bringing his body home,
She cabled back , Keep him he thinks more of the Antarctic than he does of me.
So they took his body back to Grytviken and buried him there in the little grave yard.at the side on the bay. There is a small wooden church where they had a Service for him. No one lives in South Georgia, only the BAS, and half a dozen volunteers from the South Georgia Heritage Trust who maintain the small church and the small museum during the season they are removed when the winter comes on again.
I was going to go for the six month season but I was injured by a Bull Elephant Seal and it took thirty days to get back home and I had to wait Ten Months for an operation so I missed the time of when they go down there, You have to go to Montevideo and then a Navy ship or Fishing vessel will take you to the island. The head quarters of the SGHT is in Dundee. if you want to volunteer. They leave around October.
Some views of Gritvyken

[thomas michael]

hi cappy
loved your retort.
yes I agree that guy in Guernsey was a bum,
the only reason I told the story about him was to show you cannot accept anything on face value.especially when claims of being members of the sas, by people whom are obviously not.
as for superior knowledge, I only pointed out the facts about sailing, to make the point about the sea lawyer in the boat.
I make the point about myself sailing in the same boat, to point out that I know twenty knot winds against forty, which the scouser in the boat states was the wind speed he was sailing in.
the reason I am able to make that distinction is because I own the same model of boat, I therefore know what and how she will sail in the certain winds,( ie twenty knots full main and gib)( forty knots third reefed main gib reefed his pictures show him with all sail flying, impossible. for that boat in the wind speed he states,
then there is the sea state,( twenty knots confused sea breaking ) (forty knots sea breaking large waves spume off white horses )
but I will allow you to watch the program further and await your findings, and we can discuss them further.
and yes I thank god I am still sailing and hope to keep going and I await the new season with baited breath, that after racing throughout the winter in the brass monkey series at Liverpool
thanks for the reply
tom