Beachcombers and castaways
April 7th 2007 07:32
Beachcombers and Castaways are the romantic dream of armchair sailors. I have also dreamed of being a sort of beachcombing recluse and while on holiday to islands in the Pacific and in the South China Sea have had the opportunity to be at it well before the other guests are about. This is the soft way of doing what some shipwrecked or marooned sailors die doing for real.
However I must say that after some great storm at sea it is very profitable and interesting to scour the high tide line. I still drink coffee from a cup I found on a beach with the inscription of “USS Enterprise” I look at it and wonder how it came to be washed off the carrier and end up on that little bit of beach I was searching. Fishing floats, bits of net and cork, EPIRBS (electronic position indicating radio beacons,) strange fish and hats are some of the more interesting finds.
One of the original castaway/beachcombers was a 15th century sailor called Pedro Serrano. The name stuck out when I read it as I recently wrote one of my blogs about a dinner I had on a yacht called Serrano. This particular gentleman was marooned on an island that was almost pure sand. No trees or grass of any description. He was wearing the shirt he was sleeping in and a belt with his sailor’s knife when he washed ashore. At first he ate shellfish and anything he could lay his hands on. Water was his biggest problem as there was no stream and no rocks along the shore to catch rain water in fissures. He over came this by catching turtles.
On catching his turtles Serrano would carefully cut out the flesh and open the shell to use the natural shape to catch and store rainwater. This didn’t just happen overnight and we must imagine the privations he went through before he had shells enough to make a kind of Reservoir. He could not find any stones to strike against his knife to create a spark to light a fire. He was finally diving one day when he spied two stones that would do the trick. Then he had the job of keeping the fire always going through rain and storm. More turtle shell of course.
His shirt soon disintegrated and he lived in his birthday suit which he noticed started to sprout thick hair which gave him minimal protection from the sun. His hair after seven years was well bellow his waist and shaded his upper parts. When he finally induced a ship to come to his rescue, the boats crew turned to escape from him, thinking he was some sort of “devil”. Only by shouting out the Lord’s prayer over and over again did he convince the Spanish sailors that he could not be a devil as the devil was not aloud to use such devout words.
Eventually he returned to Europe where he showed himself off as a sort of freak show, as he had kept his hair and unkempt look. He was making a good living from this. A German king asked to see him and after journeying to see him he was feted and given an annual pension which he never lived to spend one penny of as he died at sea in suspicious circumstances returning to the New World
More tomorrow:
However I must say that after some great storm at sea it is very profitable and interesting to scour the high tide line. I still drink coffee from a cup I found on a beach with the inscription of “USS Enterprise” I look at it and wonder how it came to be washed off the carrier and end up on that little bit of beach I was searching. Fishing floats, bits of net and cork, EPIRBS (electronic position indicating radio beacons,) strange fish and hats are some of the more interesting finds.
One of the original castaway/beachcombers was a 15th century sailor called Pedro Serrano. The name stuck out when I read it as I recently wrote one of my blogs about a dinner I had on a yacht called Serrano. This particular gentleman was marooned on an island that was almost pure sand. No trees or grass of any description. He was wearing the shirt he was sleeping in and a belt with his sailor’s knife when he washed ashore. At first he ate shellfish and anything he could lay his hands on. Water was his biggest problem as there was no stream and no rocks along the shore to catch rain water in fissures. He over came this by catching turtles.
On catching his turtles Serrano would carefully cut out the flesh and open the shell to use the natural shape to catch and store rainwater. This didn’t just happen overnight and we must imagine the privations he went through before he had shells enough to make a kind of Reservoir. He could not find any stones to strike against his knife to create a spark to light a fire. He was finally diving one day when he spied two stones that would do the trick. Then he had the job of keeping the fire always going through rain and storm. More turtle shell of course.
His shirt soon disintegrated and he lived in his birthday suit which he noticed started to sprout thick hair which gave him minimal protection from the sun. His hair after seven years was well bellow his waist and shaded his upper parts. When he finally induced a ship to come to his rescue, the boats crew turned to escape from him, thinking he was some sort of “devil”. Only by shouting out the Lord’s prayer over and over again did he convince the Spanish sailors that he could not be a devil as the devil was not aloud to use such devout words.
Eventually he returned to Europe where he showed himself off as a sort of freak show, as he had kept his hair and unkempt look. He was making a good living from this. A German king asked to see him and after journeying to see him he was feted and given an annual pension which he never lived to spend one penny of as he died at sea in suspicious circumstances returning to the New World
More tomorrow:
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