In the summer of 2016, I took some time off for the first time in years. I joined the Cloud Appreciation Club, and simply let my mind wander and open up to new ideas and inspirations. I read more, and one book I sunk my teeth into was an early 20th century swashbuckling novel about the heights of the British Navy, during the time of Lord Horatio Nelson, in the late 1700’s.
I became fascinated by those times, how different they were in terms of materials that shaped their lives. I was also blown away actually by how similar those times were to now, especially in terms of trade and globalization. The Brits, and the Spanish and French, were all setting the table for what civilization is like today; global trade routes, bringing in goods from around the world, plantations, plundering the natural world, using and abusing other cultures for the betterment of the West and etc.
I was also very interested in how slow life was back then, simply because they didn’t have electricity yet. Stoves were heated by burning wood. Ships were set in motion by the wind. Things were made by hand, and machines run by human effort. I became fascinated by what they built and how they built them, the materials they used, and how the task at hand was more important than the health of the people who were performing those tasks. On the Man of War battleships, with three masts, sailors had virtually no private space, ate horribly, had to crouch to walk around, were hardly ever let off the ships during years of service, and slept hanging above the tables and canons.
It was a frigid December day in this small coastal town on the English Channel. I walked around for hours, exploring the two ships they had there: The HMS Victory, Lord Nelson’s Man of War wooden ship from 1805, and the HMS Warrior, an entirely iron built Man of War from 1860 that changed things forever. These images are a small portion of the images I took that day, and it’s really just a personal interest post today. I’m not sure where this interest will lead me, but that’s the beauty of it. Unlike my business efforts, this doesn’t have to have a plan behind it.