They steer, set and strike sails, raise the 2,000-pound anchor by collectively turning the capstan, wash down the deck with saltwater, performed exhaustive boat checks, do the dishes, and clean the heads. Into this demanding schedule Walker shoehorns his two-hour lectures on travel and trade among Europe, Africa, and South and North America from the early fifteenth through the early nineteenth centuries.
People tend to forget that sailing once tied everything together.
Two hundred years ago, the London and Liverpool docks each employed 50,000 people. A hundred years ago, this Inner Harbor looked like a forest with all the masts. The towering, three-masted Rose , an embarrassment to the pleasure boats in its presence, perfectly illustrates the sea's diminished importance. At 179 feet, spar to stern, and 500 tons, she is the largest active wooden sailing ship in the world.