they could have used johnny depps
Thursday, 14 February 2008 | | |
They could have used Johnny Depp's Compass
Anyone intrigued by Adam Goodheart's recent New York Times piece on
"10 Days that Changed History" (little known events, or non-events,
with big and unexpected repercussions) should turn to Nathaniel
Philbrick's book, "Mayflower," for a much bigger surprise. The
Pilgrims had been en route to settle the mouth of the Hudson River,
but were more than 200 miles off course when they hit the outer
reaches of Cape Cod. They knew it, and the ship's master, Christopher
Jones, started to sail south, to where the religious separatists had
the Crown's permission to settle. The Mayflower quickly ran into a
notorious area of shoals and sandbars, however, known as Pollack Rip,
and when the wind started blowing from the south, progress was
impossible. On impulse but feeling the necessity of the season -- it
was November, with winter approaching fast -- the group reversed
direction and headed north instead. A fickle wind and snap decision,
in other words, changed the history of North America. It left the
mouth of the Hudson open to the Dutch, who were to settle it and the
Hudson Valley shortly afterward, a history chronicled by Russell
Shorto's "The Island at the Center of the World."
-- Art Winslow
**
posted by Critical Mass 12:25 PM
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