New England Aquarium Service

nice to see you here!!

Thanks,

I have a sailing background so I really took to these books. There are companion guides that go with the series and worth having:
www.amazon.com/Persons-Animals-Cannon-Aubrey-Maturin-Patrick/dp/0786406844/ref=cm_lmf_tit_1/192-4932779-7838032
and
www.amazon.com/Sea-Words-Third-Edition-Companion/dp/0805066152/ref=cm_lmf_tit_2/192-4932779-7838032
and
www.amazon.com/Patrick-OBrians-Navy-Illustrated-Companion/dp/0762415401/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z

Many times I stopped in mid-read to check Google maps / earth to get a better sense of where they were sailing, and to look up the common sails used - "Studding sails aloft and alow" and many others.

Nelson's Navy has a lot of info as well:

books.google.com/books?id=DVE5YzfTir4C&lpg=PA164&ots=a4Ck3JAdGU&dq=points%20sailing%20abaft%20beam&pg=PA164#v=onepage&q=points%20sailing%20abaft%20beam&f=false

At first I was intrigued by how they described direction - "North by East and a half East" and I always wondered just how close to the wind these old ships could sail. Many people think they could only sail downwind or not much on either side of that. They described beating and close-hauled as - "The Surprise can sail very close on a bowline, 4 points", or "That old tub can't even sail 6 points to the wind". After checking out Nelson's Navy I learned that they didn't describe direction by degrees but by "points" on a compass rose. One point = 11.5 degrees and there are 32 "points" on the rose (360 degrees). So he Surprise could sail up to 46 degrees on either side of the wind. That is pretty remarkable considering modern sailboats can beat up to around 35 degrees. I think the Baltimore Clipper could sail that close and in the mid 1800's reach 14 - 18 knots.
My last boat was a Comet. A racing class that is extremely fast but a bit touchy. Great fun as long as you don't mind getting wet.
www.cometclass.com/about.html

I had been waiting for a chance to use that usr name. Another I like is "LongBrass9" - a brass deck gun (cannon) that fired 9 lb. balls.