While doing some more research for MacMillan Judge, Privateer, I came across Michael J. Berman’s website. He has some brilliant photographs of sailing ships there to be seen. Here is a link http://www.michaelbermanphotography.com/fineArtDyn.php?ID=49. It is very difficult to take pictures in the marine environment, let alone of sailing ships. The weather, the vessels, and any number of other factors can conspire against you. However, I’m impressed with Mr. Berman’s work, especially the black and white images.
Among them, you’ll find one of the Pride of Baltimore II. This is a topsail schooner, much like the one MacMillan Judge finds laid up in Spain. Judge buys it from a Spanish nobleman named Don Francisco. After some refit and repair, he and the crew rename her Fletcher. No need to tell you any more, you’ll have to read the book.
Please check out Mr. Berman’s site. You won’t be disappointed.
Aruba is already known for having several languages and it seems they’ll be adding Italian to the list. There was also a company from Italy hosting a seminar about their products as you can see from the next sign.
I wish I could have ducked into this seminar to see what was happening, but I had other obligations. As you can see from the next sign, Italian visitors are enjoying all the zany fun to be had on this desert island, including the Kookoo Kunuku booze bus ride, the beach, and an evening of quality music at the club Mr. Jazz.
Finally, to steer English-speaking people in the right direction, they post this final sign.
Wherever you’re from, you’ll find plenty of enjoyment here in Aruba. There’s always the beautiful beaches, the warm sun, and the cool Caribbean Sea. Then there are the great restaurants, exciting music venues, and fantastic shopping. And if you’re the adventuresome type, you can head out to the local joints where I like to chat and eat, meet new people and relax. It’s hard to go wrong here.
Not much room to sit in this thing. Anyway, it was interesting to see the vehicle out on the street. As you can see from the photo, they allowed people to get rather close. The kids thought it was great. Here’s a plug for all the sponsors of the effort.
It’s good to know there are smart people out there working hard to solve various energy issues. While this vehicle may not seem practical, the knowledge gained from such ventures can be applied to any number of other projects. No doubt the future will bring things that we might never have expected.
Too bad this one will never take to the air again. I checked on some facts about the DC-3 and discovered that it was the first airplane to enable the airlines to make a profit on passenger service only. American Airlines used it on the New York to Chicago route in 1936, and the air travel business was off to the races. More than 10,500 DC-3’s were built, and according to my research, about 1000 of them are still flying. Not bad when you consider they were built between 1935 and 1947. Here are a few other tidbits: It had a cruising speed of just over 200mph, carried up to 28 passengers, had two engines developing 1,200hp each, could travel about 2,000 miles with maximum fuel, and way back when you could buy one for about $138,000.
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