The new sleek design that's cool with the kids these days
Many of us remember the stories of Christopher Columbus and the three ships he sailed in to reach the Americas, namely, the Nińa, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. These three iconic ships have defined the human imagination for centuries, and with their captain they have sailed into the lands of legend...
...It's quite terrible, then, that they were so bad at their jobs.
Enter the 16th century galleon, the newest model in a legacy of ocean traversers. Unlike previous models offered at the local dealer, this achievement in naval technology was able to maintain a stability previously unheard for ships at it's time. By simply elongating the hull (and lowering that large compartment in the front called the "Forecastle") the ship was able to reduce air resistance by a large margin, improving not just maneuverability, but pure speed as well. The best part of this deal was, that the Galleons were far more cheap to produce compared to the leading brand of the time, the "Carrack", which was reduced to being the 16th century equivalent of a minivan compared to the Galleon's horsepower. After all, when you've got a boat that's faster, easier to use and costs less to make, it's hard not to follow the trend.
While I might not be old enough to remember the major innovations in the automobile industry, and not even a twinkle in my Great-Great-Grandmother's eye for the improvements in naval technology, I was old enough to witness the increasing innovations in the internet, watching as internet speeds climbed higher and higher and more and more websites were being created. This combined with new programs being created each day has lead me to compare the progress of the internet to the genesis of the Galleon, and how much it changed the world of transportation. No longer would there need to be month-long journeys from one European country to the next simply due to a bad current, now the ships (and the captains who commanded them) could go where they wanted to go, and with Colombus' discoveries in the 15th century, there was all the more incentive to go out and explore. And now in this modern age, where we have hundreds of libraries at our fingertips, I think it's high time we go out and explore some more ourselves.
Image Credit: "French Galleon" via Wikimedia Commons
Well, if Pirates of the Caribbean took place in the 16th century, it would make sense that the Black Pearl was simply a first edition beta model of the new Galleon.
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note, I love your analogy about computers. It's very interesting how hunger for knowledge disappears once knowledge is already available. We don't want to know something other people know, we want to know something NOBODY has EVER known. And so the information on the internet by definition cannot do this, since it is literally all posted by other people...