1830s: The Spice of Danger and wild, rough, romance
October 27, 2018
By AHNZ
Many New Zealand towns started out as whaling stations. Riverton, which I visited and absorbed last week, was such a town. The clever thing they did was to transition to farming the land so that when the 20-odd years of whale fishery expired they would be able to go on.State (Nz) bureaucrat to the Pacific Islands, Rhys Richards, has devoted a great deal of time to writing history books. Especially books about whaling. He has dusted off an old memoir on whaling which has been used as a resource but not published in its own right. Captain Bill McKillop’s manuscript is to now be The Last of the Sail Whalers: Whaling off Tasmania and Southern New Zealand. The Captain relocated to Tasmania but was Stewart Island born. Having died in March 1938 the experiences authoritatively cover 25years of turn-of-the-century whaling. As such we can expect much candid and Politically Incorrect observations which the editor assures us will definitely be in his [Captain Bill’s] own words.
Richards’ introduction..
“Their life was unbelievably hard and ill paid; only the spice of danger and the wild, rough romance of the life kept them going, after sheer poverty had driven them to sign on for another voyage. Yet they had some compensations, some happiness in the [bravado of the] game, these pioneers of the [sail] whaling days.”
Exactly the words I was using to discuss truck drivers these days. I think a large recompense of their profession is the autonomy and romance they feed their ego. Yet this is exactly what is at risk as the likes of Fuso equip their fleet with all sorts of turning and speed and GPS sensors to analyse and subject the former free spirits to cybernetic control! They have to, Politically Correct H&S Nanny State demands it.
More and more the Clint Eastwoods of the world are being made obsolete. How can you be a free spirited man while being micromanaged by a matrix?
More and more the Clint Eastwoods of the world are being made obsolete. How can you be a free spirited man while being micromanaged by a matrix?
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Image ref. That’s not Clint, that’s Rambo from his 1987 film featuring a big rig truck. A fine family film.
Image ref. Scene from Futurama where they channel Moby Dick, complete with Maori harpoonman.
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