The man who thought like a ship
By: Loren C. Steffy
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: Ed Rachal Foundation nautical archaeology series; Ed Rachal Foundation nautical archaeology series
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: College Station
Language: eng
Number of pages: 196
ISBN-13: 9781603446648; 9781603440585
Subjects: Underwater archaeology; Institute of Nautical Archaeology (U.S.); American Institute of Nautical Archaeology; Marine archaeologists; Biography; History
Description: "J. Richard "Dick" Steffy stood inside the limestone hall of the Crusader castle in Cyprus and looked at the wood fragments arrayed before him. they were old beyond belief. For more than two millennia they had remained on the sea floor, eaten by worms and soaking up seawater until they had the consistency of wet cardboard. There were some 6,000 pieces in all, and Steffy's job was to put them all back together in their original shape. ... He has volunteered for the job even though he had no qualifications for it. For twenty-five years he had been an electrician in a small land-locked town in Pennsylvania. He held no advanced degrees - his understanding of ships was entirely self-taught. Yet he would find himself half a world away from his home town, planning to reassemble a ship that last sailed during the reign of Alexander the Great, and he planned to do it using mathematical formulas and modeling techniques that he had devel;oped in his basement as a hobby."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Crooked Aleppo; title: Dreams in paper and paste; title: Short circuits; title: The ships begin to speak; title: Pieces of the puzzle; title: "You're crazy! You'll starve to death"; title: The reconstructor; title: A dream in jeopardy; title: Man's failure as a thinking animal; title: Zoe's garage; title: Settling into Mecca; title: Studies in mud, charcoal, and bronze; title: Genius and despair; title: The laughter of Aristides; title: The voyage ends; title: Epilogue.