Last Liar Standing

[Bob Boze Bell]

December 31, 2012

In Baltimore I finally got to stand in front of a very historic ship, the U.S.S. Constellation:

 

As I recall, this is one of the ships featured prominently in my grade school history books supposedly dating back to the Revolutionary War. Turns out that is only about half true. Upon digging by historians in the 1990s it was discovered the ship was totally rebuilt in 1876 and very little of the original ship remains. Anyway, here I am, one of the last liars standing, square on the anchor, in the harbor at Baltimore, Maryland.

 

Damn cold, though.

 

As with the above named ship and its half-true history, the older i get the more everything seems to be about half authentic, half true. Turns out Wyatt Earp wasn't hunting buffalo in 1872 (as he told his biographer Stuart Lake) Earp was actually hunting beaver in a brothel in Peoria, Illinois. And so it goes.

 

"Follow the beaver."

—Old Vaquero Saying

[anthony martin]

 Bob,

  Most surviving wooden ships in continual use gradually get "replaced " bit by bit over the long years.The same holds true with U.S.S. Constitution and H.M.S. Victory.Nelson's famous ship.

  That information about Wyatt supports one of the reasons why Johnny Behan was so steamed with him-that he was a beaver trapper.

[anthony martin]

  That's a great photo of you on the anchor.It reminds me of when my friend Larry bought one of those gigunda insanely complicated and very expensive Italian wooden ship model kits.He took about six months to build that $1000 3 1/2 foot monstrosity and threw a cocktail party to celebrate and get ego stroked.When we were taking pictures of him standing with his big model he struck a heroic pose and said"THESE ARE THE DAYS OF WOODEN SHIPS AND IRON MEN!"-That's a great line.

[Mundo Osterberg]

I've been trying to download , "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver",  video by Primus for the last couple of weeks with no luck. A little help out there UNK!

[Iain Sanders]

Indeed! I spent a month aboard the oldest frigate in the world, the Trincomalee (built there, Ceylon - in those days -) for the Royal Navy in the mid 1800's; as a sailing instructor.  (Of sorts).  Very interesting historically.  The 'trainees, all schoolkids on 'holiday' slept in hammocks which they found extremely interesting too.  Despite being moored in Portsmouth (UK) harbour, a predecessor in my cabin had been killed by slipping between the ship & a boarding pontoon alongside the year before & a girl had lost some fingers the year before that.  I escaped unscathed.  The T. is now at Great Hartlepool, tamed, safe, used for corporate events & marriages - and all of her 'authentic' rigging is made of plastic.  They claim she is 'fully restored'.  Ugh!  Still, it was fun while it was real..  

[anthony martin]

 Iain,

   I saw her in the late 80's before she was given back her original name.If memory serves she was the Foudroyant(after Nelson's lost ship) all through her training career.I've been told that during her restoration her masts were replicated with steel ones.Still,a somewhat compromised restoration is certainly better than leaving her in her training configuration.There's a special mystique about early fighting ships-H.M.S. Warrior and the U.S.S. Olympia are two of my favorites.Thanks for the personal anecdote.