Posted on 06/01/2026 10:48:13 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Gustaf Erikson of Finland owned the last great fleet of sailing ships the world would ever see. We have rare first hand accounts from men who sailed from Europe to Australia to load grain and return to Europe by way of the treacherous Cape Horn. These sailings were known world wide as The Last Grain Gaces.
The Last Cape Horners | 1:11:39
garry Kerr | 16K subscribers | 1,697,158 views | May 17, 2023
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
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YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.
Sidebar:
Duncan Spencer, award winning author and blue water sailor, weaves the story of "Viking" and the last remaining commercial sailing ships through the diary of his mother, Josie, who booked passage on the "Viking" in 1933.The Last Sailing Ship - The Diary of Josie Choate Spencer | 30:46
T2PTV: Sailing On Demand | 10K subscribers | 75,846 views | Febuary 6, 2021
Saw this some time ago, it is good. Hard to imagine such a life. If it was as miserable as they say I can’t imagine why some did it for so long.
“Captain’s Courageous”, 1937, Spencer Tracy and a fair gang of notables was close enough in time to get close to what life at sea was like in one part of the business I suppose. The movie is based on an 1897 novel by Rudyard Kipling of course. What a magnificent writer and thinker.
I think I’ll add “Captain’s Courageous” to my audio book list. It’s hard for me to read print books since my right retina developed a “pucker.”
Finishing “Follow the River” right now (Mary Ingles years old on the Virginia frontier in 1755 is pregnant with her third child when Shawnee Indians invaded her peaceful Virginia settlement, left behind a bloody massacre, and took her captive for months. Then she escaped.) It’s ok, not great.
Also finishing “Who Killed Jane Stanford” on Spotify. Fascinating inside story of Stanford University in the 1890s and the murder of Leland Stanford’s widow. But WHOA is there a lot of detail! Overwhelming detail. Mind numbing, choking detail. The author needed a good editor to trim it by a third or maybe a half.
Hey, Finland, Australia — English is at best a second language in either place. 😁 I missed that one.
Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast tells the story even better, I believe... not only the treacherous Cape Horn crossing, but a very interesting look at pre-American California, circa 1835. If you love history as I do, its well worth a read.
Irving Johnson captured unique, high-angle movie footage from the mast of the four-masted barque Peking during huge storm during its 1929 voyage around Cape Horn. These black-and-white clips were later compiled into the classic documentary film “Around Cape Horn,” which Johnson personally narrated in 1980. It is available via the Mystic Seaport Museum.
It’s awesome video.
Thanks!
https://archive.org/details/thepekingbattlescapehornbyirvingjohnson
And now I wanna see the Lego thing:
https://mysticseaport.org/exhibit/brickwrecks/
The things Irving Johnson did as a young man tells a LOT about what an American used to be. The guy was crazy for adventure.
I know the eye problem. Different one though, need cataract surgery.
Mark 4 later
‘The things Irving Johnson did as a young man tells a LOT about what an American used to be’
Big time.
I had left eye cataract surgery last Jan, then right eye in Feb. Surgeon screwed up and gave me “monovision” lenses. Left eye is near-sighted, right eye is far-sighted. Be SURE you have a long, detailed talk with your surgeon about EXACTLY what lenses will be implanted.
This screw up by my surgeon really pisses me off. She’s scared I’m going to sue.
My favorite naval story after Midway is the tale of Count von Luckner, and his sailing voyage in WW1. Now there was a sea dog in the tradition of Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher.
LOL...Modesty forbids my detailing the horrors of my Cape Horn passages. But suffice it to say the first transit was smooth as glass...Whilst the second was the stuff of nightmares; my dinner soup actually spilled onto my service dress blue coat...Our 95,000 ton carrier was tossed around like a cork.
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