FDR had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy. They told me, now forgotten, just how many pictures of ships they took out of the White House after he died. But he could choose good men.
I brag like hell when I’m confident of what I’m doing. Back when I was sailing ships for a living, I would take a schooner up to San Francisco – I had my master’s certificate at 22 – and I would tell myself, ‘There isn’t a man in the world can do this better ‘n I can.’ And I meant it.
As a child, I was aware of the widely-held attitude that the ocean is so big, so resilient that we could use the sea as the ultimate place to dispose of anything we did not want, from garbage and nuclear wastes to sludge from sewage to entire ships that had reached the end of their useful life.
Most sailing ships take what they call trainees, who pay to be part of the crew. The Picton Castle takes people who are absolutely raw recruits. But you can’t just ride along. You’re learning to steer the ship, navigation; you’re pulling lines, keeping a lookout; in the galley you’re cooking.
Why not a space flower? Why do we always expect metal ships?
From the 1920s into the 1940s, Britain’s standard of living was supported by oil from Iran. British cars, trucks, and buses ran on cheap Iranian oil. Factories throughout Britain were fueled by oil from Iran. The Royal Navy, which projected British power all over the world, powered its ships with Iranian oil.
A century before the concept took hold in America, pirate ships were democracies. Most captains were elected by crew and could be voted out anytime.
