"Reports of Cape Horn weather differ very much. I leave no other way to
account for the difference but by allowing that all men do not see and think
alike. I have observed the thermometer of men's minds to be filled with
light inflammatory matter, which rises easily and occasions them to see a
great deal of the dismal. Others are filled with genuine mercury, which will
not rise without a cause. These last seldom see such extraordinary
phenomena. For instance, Captain Neal, Captain Cook and Captain La Peyrouse,
three of the greatest mariners that ever traversed the globe, never
represented any terrible difficulty in doubling Cape Horn, or in navigating
other seas, as men of smaller abilities have. One reason why some captains
see things so magnified is their being new to them, and at a great distance
from home; but after being more acquainted with dangers and more accustomed
to traversing distant regions, they would become familiar and not appear so
terrible and would not be troubled with such uncommon difficulty
afterwards."

There was a hint of Amasa's further comment on the Cape Horn passage of
commanders who make themselves out heroes, or great captains, because of
meeting with dangerous weather which, were they more skillful and courageous
seamen, they would make nothing of. The Cape Horn passage (Amasa's judgment)
was nothing that a capable captain of a well-found ship need ever worry
about. After clearing the Horn, Amasa stood well in to the Pacific before
turning northerly. He was accepting the word of previous shipmasters that
from the Horn to the westerly end of Magellan Strait was a rough coast for a
castaway ship. Cape Pillar was at the westerly end of the Strait, and the
record was that no man had ever escaped alive from a ship wrecked at Cape
Pillar. Amasa gave the Pillar a wide berth.

He held his northerly course through ten degrees of latitude before
heading in to the coast of Chile. In this, the late end of summer, he met
with "pleasant weather, and three fourths of the time moderate steady
breezes from the south east." He noted the Andes "covered with snow, and in
appearance magnificent beyond description when seen from a ship's deck eight
or ten miles offshore, particularly when the sun is near setting, and the
atmosphere clear. The sun then shines on the westerly side of the mountains
next the sea, in some places beautifully shaded."



"Shen44" wrote in message
...
ubject: Neal Warren, Master Mariner
From: =?Windows-1252?Q?Capt._Neal=AE?=
Date: 12/21/2004 10:26 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

STOW IT, MISTER!

Master mariner is a title best assumed by those who qualify for it.

If I wish to call myself a master mariner then I shall and it's nobody
else's

dadblamed business. No matter the criterion, whether it be time at sea,
knowledge
of the sea, knowledge of the COLREGS, or expertise in single-handed
sailing,
I have as much or more knowledge than any other individual on the planet.


CN, Master Mariner (if ya don't like it, shove it!)


ROFLMAO
Now here's a prime example of the MIS-use of the term!!
However, to a degree you're correct. If you wish to apply the term to
yourself
for whatever presumed reason, that is your right.
Just don't get upset, that whenever you do so, I...... ROFLMAO!!!

Shen