When I got up at 5am for my first proper polar bear watch shift of the day, I was shocked how cold it had become. Winter has come. The new bear watch seating position in the long, narrow gap under the rowing seats on the deck came in handy in at least taking some of the edge off the cold winds. On the down side, the position is right on top of the daggerboard (the removable keel), which moves A LOT during strong winds. And erratically and furiously, not gently. I guess that’s one additional safety barrier against falling asleep on watch. It also makes all kinds of constant and surprisingly varied deep noises in close collaboration with the hull of the boat, against which it bangs inside its daggerboard-shaped hole in the hull.
MICHAEL PALIN’S BOOK
“Erebus” started a bit slow, in my opinion. A lot of information about a lot of aspects of no or extremely minor interest. Yes, I get it, painting a picture of the era, but there seemed to be no end to it.
THE CAPTAIN’S STOCKINGS?
At some stage, any normal man would have screamed: “What next, Sir Michael Palin, you are going to tell us about the captain’s stockings, aren’t you? At least in passing?!!”
Of course, that would have been a completely inappropriate utterance, and quite rude, to be frank. Michael Palin wouldn’t do such a monstrous thing.
NO, THE ASSISTANT SURGEON’S STOCKINGS
Instead, what he would do, is entitle the whole ‘Introduction’ of his chapter “Hooker’s Stockings.” And Joseph Hooker was not the captain. He was, at the time in question, a 22-year old botanist that quickly trained to become a doctor because the only available paid position on the Erebus was for an “Assistant Surgeon.” Later on Hooker would become the head honcho of Kew Gardens for several decades and one of the Empire’s chief botanists, the preeminent protagonist of “Botanical Imperialism.” He had rubber tree seeds taken from Brazil and germinated at Kew, then planted in Her Majesty’s Far Eastern colonies. Three decades later, the Brazilian rubber industry was almost gone, while the British one flourished, providing more funds for warships to dominate the seven seas.
MORE MEANDERINGS
Now at least that’s interesting, if nothing else, I hear you say, leave Palin alone. Oh… but the chapter doesn’t start with Hooker or his stockings! Not even close. No, the author starts by telling us about his preferred literature growing up, about his relationship with the sea, in general and in particular, about a speech he was asked to give at the Athenaeum Club in Pall Mall. And when he finally gets to Hooker, we still have to wait several pages before we reach Hooker’s stockings.
AT LEAST NOW, CHAPTER ONE?
In any other circumstances, you’d expect to be able to start digging into Chapter One now, but not here, oh no. We hear about ‘Monty Python’s One Down, Five To Go’ at the London’s O2 and an announcement by Canada’s Prime Minister. Before ‘Prologue: The Survivor’ starts. Chapter One is left for later.
A GREAT STORYTELLER
All of this is true. But needless to say that this is among others what makes Palin such a magnificent storyteller. He doesn’t let the traditional confines of literary practice limit his flow of consciousness and he draws connections between things others wouldn’t even have noticed in the first place.
MY FIRST TIME READING PALIN…
I can’t believe that this is the first time I ever read anything from this great man. And I’m a huge fan of his work from his early days with Monty Python. Like many Germans of my generation, I used to be able to quote pretty much every line of every Python movie and sketch when I was a kid.
…DESPITE GROWING UP WITH MONTY PYTHON
Back then, before the internet, there were three ways to watch TV in English, undubbed, on any of the 5 channels we had (two national, two Austrian, and one Bavarian channel): anything by Monty Python, Spitting Image, and, once a year on New Year’s Eve, ‘Dinner for One’, an English-language co-German production.
A COINCIDENCE
After three weeks at sea, I thought it appropriate to message a few of my buddies back home and around the world with an update from the Northwest Passage (only a tiny minority of them read my blog). My open water long distance swimming mate Nick and my main climbing buddy Miikka were among the recipients. They had only met once or twice before. What I didn’t know, was that they had just randomly bumped into each other today on a GO London trip to Shropshire. So it was nice getting a message back from the two with a picture of them grinning into the camera.
MORE SEALS, A FEW TERNS AND DUCKS
We spotted plenty more seals, a few terns and ducks, but nothing much else happened.
