Posted on 12/10/2018 5:22:36 AM PST by vannrox
Final resting place of Blackjack Davey!
A Musketeer? Maybe there were four?
Im ashamed I got that joke.
Those boots may have filled with water and caused his drowning.
Was his name 'Walken'?............
Thanks vannrox. Sounds like his disappearance is somehow linked to Brexit, or the Yellow Vests, or Russian collusion. /s
Death by drunken misadventure?
Young man, young man, get yourself off the ground..."
Those thigh-high leather boots would have been appropriate for a life on the water, as they would have kept a person’s legs and feet dry while wading through the Thames’ muck.
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Leather boots in water keeping a man’s feet dry?
Nope. Not. Even. Close.
Leather barely even slows water down. And even if slathered with grease, the stitching and bottom of the sole (leather too) allow water to wick right in to the feet.
I learned this the hard way as a boot in the Corps.
Got me a spiffy brand new pair of “parachuter boots” from the PX for my first outting to the field for training.
Leather soles. Wet environment.
Nearly got myself a case of trench foot out of it.
And yet strangely... there were animal skin boats known as coracles that float just fine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coracle
Not just any waders -- they are Darth Waders.
You can do water proofing things to leather stretched across a frame like for a boat that you can’t do with leather worn on feet.
Just as a larded leather cape can keep the wet off a man’s back in the rain, for awhile.
But good luck larding or oiling the sole of a boot well enough to water proof it and still be able to stand upright without planting yourself on your tail.
rather than oil, wax is an excellent waterproofer
Apples and oranges.
We can make this short by you actually putting on a pair of leather soled shoes and standing in the wet for an hour or so, or keep backing and forthing with stuff that is leather but in no way shoes.
If it’s a non flexing surface. True. And try standing up on boot soles waxed well enough to be water proof.
Jayzus people. This ain’t rocket surgery.
Thats what I’m talking about!
The Brendan Voyage (19761977)...Convinced that the legend was based in historical truth, in 1976 Severin built a replica of Brendan’s currach. Handcrafted using traditional tools, the 36-foot (11 m), two masted boat was built of Irish ash and oak, hand-lashed together with nearly two miles (3 km) of leather thong, wrapped with 49 traditionally tanned ox hides, and sealed with wool grease.
Between May 1976 and June 1977, Severin and his crew sailed the Brendan 4,500 miles (7,200 km) from Ireland to Peckford Island, Newfoundland, stopping at the Hebrides and Iceland en route.
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Wax and tar are quite good. And you can make a remarkably flexible pine pitch mixture with deer or rabbit crap pellets for fiber, and so ground charcoal that seals, too, and sticks like fiberglass.
Not to mention if you use sinew rather than commercially spun synthetic thread, the sinew when wet swells to tightly fill the holes- no doubt certain plant fibers or animal hairs spun into thread will swell when wet as well.
That said, I doubt the guy was wearing hip waders. Thigh high boots were probably more popular for riding, and he probably didn’t have to live in his boots like a soldier.
Also buried with incense, wine, and candles.
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