h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I thought I would move your question over to your space as it is only a tiny part of my Sea entry. I would enjoy discussing the poem with you. One of the possible explanations is that it is the story of Fletcher Christian of the HMS Bounty. His family were friends of Coleridge. Some people believe Christian somehow managed to return to England, although most believe he was killed on Pitcairn's Island. Either way it is quite possible that he was the inspiration for the rime.

F S

rhymne not rime. Sorry its just occasionally i feel like a pedant

i think the poem is mostly about psychology

water water everywhere and not a drop to drink

is the best description I know for depression

Being an artist I am a little familiar with this state of mind - - cos it always causes artists block

Traveller in Time on his head
"It sounds to me as a deep frustration, whatever you do nothing to solve the problem. (learned to avoid any negative, bend it to doubt or positive)"

swimming in southern oceans
"Rime is mideval for rhyme, jet revived in literary use 1870<?>"

Nephew looks up
"Noticed on the right top we have got a link?
I do not know anything about rhymes I just think."

...but the answer to said problem is everwhere but unavailable to the questioner who poses said question in the wrong way..

I'm on top intellectual form tonight so watch your postings carefully...

Here is the link;

A897924

To be a bit materialistic, the part about

"Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink. "

A ship at sea is surrounded by water, but it is salt water. Drinking salt water led to madness and death. Every 18th century sailor knew this and many accounts exist about sailors who resorted to drinking their own urine to avoid consuming salt water. The first two stanzas refer to the fact that the decks would be mopped with seawater everyday to keep them watertight, but with the weakened crew they could no expend the energy to do this.

F S

Sailor in Time freshwater maker in his hands
"Nowadays you just need some electricity to make fresh water."

Traveller in Time on his head
"What does he mean by

**
He holds him with his glittering eye-
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.
**

I understand the part about 'The Mariner' as he holds the guest in his power. (whatever that may be)
The 'Wedding-Guest' pays attention to being held and then 'The Mariner hath his will'. What does 'hath' mean?
It seems to go about the (last)will of a -prisoner- awaiting his punishment -dead- but it makes no sense to me."

Nephew Who looking up during writing of the post
"Hmm here is no link in top to the rime. Shall I make one?"

>Sailor in Time freshwater maker in his hands
"Nowadays you just need some electricity to make fresh water."<

Quite true, all they needed to do was to distill the seawater ( which today can be done with a solar powered still ) but they didn't know.

>I understand the part about 'The Mariner' as he holds the guest in his power. (whatever that may be)
The 'Wedding-Guest' pays attention to being held and then 'The Mariner hath his will'. What does 'hath' mean?
It seems to go about the (last)will of a -prisoner- awaiting his punishment -dead- but it makes no sense to me."<

"hath" is only an early English form of "has" in this phrase the Mariner has his desire or interest or attention.

>Nephew Who looking up during writing of the post
"Hmm here is no link in top to the rime. Shall I make one?" <

I added the link in post # 5 I didn't have it handy for post #1

F S

Traveller in Time < A897924 > on his head
"Repeating < A897924 > does not matter. I own thi personal space so I could alter the a little.

(By the way take it as if we are dyslectic none of these word do mean something in my mother tongue, so we just see chains of characters making up a story some levels up in the modulation. NB Dict is of main help in these)

Hmm lets see what comes out interpreting just 'has' in the last sentence.
Of stanza (hmm, thinking of copying the rime and numbering the stanzas) number four."

what is your mother tongue?

Traveller in Time on his tongue
"Still in use in my mothers mouth.

The first 8 stanzas they travel south (sun higher each day)
Then they have a storm blowing them into the mist and snow in 5 stanzas.
There they get company of the Albatross.

**
And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariners' hollo!
**

(just typing it as a mark)
Two stanzas later he uses a cros-bow to kill the poor bird.
He understands having done something really bad.

(it must be more then twenty times reading upto here -{and I must say it is reading lots better then the first time}- )

Then I get really lost
there is southern wind ,
there is no wind
they are back at the equator (right up above the mast)
"

I can well understand how this presents a problem when not in your mother tongue. The simple answer is that the winds near the equator are quite unpredictable. The ship has sailed south in the Atlantic Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and proceeded north again to the Equator. Given my hypothesis in the opening post, slaying the Albatross might well have been the mutiny on the Bounty. In any event the loss of wind is without a doubt the punishment for killing the bird. The idea that all the sailors on the ship suffer for the sin of one is interesting and shows the sailor's ideal of "all for one and all for one". One of the first thing a sailor learns is the idea of;

Messmate before shipmate,
Shipmate before sailors,
Sailors before everyone else.

Messmates are a small group of sailors on a ship who eat together.

It is here that the poem begins to get more into the supernatural.

F S

Traveller in Time tomorrow continuing with the rime
"The English Rose V1 has some devices called towing generators. These press the water trough a filter apparently removing the salt.
< http://www.yachtwatermaker.com/waterlog%2520how%2520it%2520works.htm >
I get the impression they should have plenty of trust to 'waste' it like this.

insomniac:
`Poetry that will work...
**
About, about, in reel and rout
The deadth-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white.
**
it does not even rhyme`

In contrary one all stanzas rhyme on second and fouth line. Should that mean you have to read them as:
**
About, about, in reel and rout the deadth-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch's oils, burnt green, and blue and white.
**
?
However, all visuall aspects seem to be real life observations, what could this be? Knowing some algea (having bacteria) producing green light. The other colours are only visible in the very dark deep sea.
"

Sailor in Time in the same watch as himessmates
"You seem to know lot of enlish sailing. Can you help filling in the wrong or missing words on < A1103509 >. I still can not make up how all these staysailes are named."

I can't sleep

I have had alook at the rime and notice that the spell begins to break when the mariner starts to pray ie he can peak, relating to my psychological reading of the poem,,,

had a quick peak at 'kubla khan' as well I think this relates to the state of mania..

traveller why is it when I put "" in my personal space to separate elements better, I keep getting a warning that br is expecting a body?

Nephew Who tapping on his console
"Should try , check out < A1947305 >"

>"The English Rose V. has some devices called towing generators. These press the water trough a filter apparently removing the salt.<

Interesting, I am not familiar with that device. It certainly makes ocean sailing a lot easier.

As for the names of the sails, I will do my best with the drawing you linked to. Please forgive me if I seem to be telling things you already know. I don't mean to over simplify, but I'm not sure of how much experience you have with sailing.

Starting at the extreme right the label near the front (bow) with the two lines extending down appears to be "Roller Furling Drum". These allow the front sails to be rolled up like a window shade around the stays. The term furl means to secure a sail that is not in use.

The label above it seems to say "Furling Lapper" I would just call it a jib. As you probably know modern racing yachts carry a number of front sails for different wind speeds. The "Working Jib" usually just comes back to the mast. A "Lapper" extends a little way past the mast, and a "Genoa Jib" can extend almost the full length of the boat. There are other sails for going down wind, but I'll leave them be for now.

The label below on to the left reads "Furling Staysail".

The top label behind the mast is "Main Sail" This sail is usually used at all times, in high winds it may be reefed ( partly furled ) to reduce sail area.

The label below that is the "Trysail" I would call it a "Storm Trysail" This sail is only used in very high winds when all the other sails have been furled. It replaces the Main Sail.

I believe the lowest label reads "Main Hatch" although it could have a few other names.

The label just in front of the rear ( mizzen ) mast is the "Mizzen Staysail" this sail is usually only used when the wind is blowing from the rear and must be removed before the boom ( the pole along the bottom of the Main Sail ) changes sides.

The top label to the rear of the mizzen mast is "Radar" and indicates the position of the radar antenna.

The label below and left is the "Mizzen Sail"

The lowest label in this group is "Doghouse" and it is a raised part of the cabin that allows you to look around from below decks. The navigation area is usually in this area.

The top label at the rear of the boat is the "Wind Generator" Which uses a wind mill to generate a small amount of electricity.

I can't quite make out the wording of the last label, but it is the Self Steering system. It has a small blade extending into the water and an adjustable wind vane at the top that will keep the boat sailing at the same angle to the wind.



I once had in interesting experience as crew on a Canadian boat that came from Quebec. All went smoothly until the owner's 12 year old grand daughter took the wheel. From that time on all orders were given in French!

I'll get back to the poem in the next post.

F S

Traveller in Time, making eye splices in his hear
"Wow, that was a big knot. Checkout your < MA235886 > 'The Albatross' has landed.

And I have found it, I mean the lights, This means they must have been further south then we expected! (Surely Nick will have taken some pictures)
In one of his logs John Ridgway talks about seeing 'Searchlight beams of Aurora Australis'. I think that is a perfect explaination for the dancing flames at night, and the burning water suggests they saw it on the horizon.

I wondered, some posts before, how they could get that far north in such short notice. Perhaps they where not at the equator jet.
How about your circle .. lets have a look at the sea. Ah, the 'Tropic of Capricorn' the southernmost circle where the sun in mid summer is in the zenith. Still rather too close to the equator to see the aurora..

Well, excuse me for not being mythical, but concidering anything to be explained by 'normal' phenomena adds information.

>However, all visuall aspects seem to be real life observations, what could this be? Knowing some algea (having bacteria) producing green light. The other colours are only visible in the very dark deep sea.<

The glowing Algie, in my area we call it "phosphorus" is quite interesting. When I was young ( read that a very long time ago ) the toilet on a boat simply pumped sea water into the bowl and mashed and pumped the residue out. In cooler months a midnight trip to relieve oneself was rewarded by a beautiful display of sparkling light as you worked the little pump.

Although the Aurora can not be seen from the tropics, Coleridge would have been quite familiar with them living in England.

As I said above we are entering the supernatural part of the story so perhaps we can allow a little license on how far "normal" "stable" people can see the wonders of the universe.

Are you familiar with Vincent van Gogh's masterpiece "Stary Stary Night" it is a surrealistic view of the night sky supposedly painted from his cell in a lunatic asylum. For years everyone thought it a sign of his delusion. With modern astronomy we now know the constellations painted actually exist.

F S

PS I saw your addition to my entries and am impressed by the work you have done. I will probably start another thread on your page to discuss some of the fine points.

Sailor in Time Parrobot on his shoulder
"Sorry, I am not a good at delaying action. I have done some homework already < A2063963 >. Traveller will design some drawings and Nephew will help in creating the entry. "