"The Ship"

Cafe Society
1

Is anyone else besides me watching this on The History Channel? It’s a reailty show that has about 50 people spending 6 weeks aboard an 18th century sailing ship and attempting to recreate Captain Cook’s voyage from Australia to New Guinea.

I have to say that I normally hate reality TV shows. The premise is usually pretty stupid, interesting people get elimintaed (thus preventing any real plot development), the dramas are obviously very contrived, and the contests are idiotic.

“The Ship” has no elimination, the dramas are real life and death situations, and there are no stupid contests. What it does have is 50 people being put in a very perilous situation, having to to use dead reckoning and astronomy to navigate, nearly dying just to catch a fish, and having to deal with each other without the need for contrived “drama”.

So is anyone watching it besides me?

2

Yes! I was just talking about “The Ship” to some friends last night. I haven’t seen all the episodes yet, but on Sunday I think the History Channel will show all of them in a marathon(2pm-8pm, EST I believe), and I’m going to curl up on the couch and watch it.

Another thing that separates “The Ship” from the other reality tv is that I get the impression these people are fulfilling lifelong dreams, for the most part. I’m thinking of one of the navigators who spotted New Guinea and was utterly stoked to be able to shout “Land ho!” to the rest of the crew. As well as the historian who looked at the voyage as a way to actually live a bit of history instead of simply reading about it.

Nitpick: The Endeavour replica was meant to follow Cook’s original route from Cairns to Jakarta, but because of rioting in Jakarta they changed the destination to Bali.

I love the British Naval radar guy, with the tooth (I can’t remember his name); he seems to give some good commentary and has a great sense of humor.

3

Mickey’s the guy with(without) the tooth. It’s not “really” a reality show it’s more of a documentary. I just got finished with it last night. Actually a pretty good watch, I enjoyed it.

4

The tooth incident freaked me out. That must have been some really hard tack! British Naval radar guy is indeed awesome.

I can’t even imagine eating salt meat and rotting veggies for 6 weeks.

I get the same impression as well that alot of these people have waited they’re whole lives to do soemthing like this. I love the fact that the people chosen to be part of the crew had special talents that they were bringing to the table. They have historians, astronomers, a chef, a botanist, etc…

You’re right about “Land Ho!” guy. I could only imagine what that must feel like!

Another part that really got to me was when the news about Sept 11 was announced to the crew. I actually got a little choked up.

5

Loved it loved it loved it.

Also a big fan of The Frontier House and the 1900s House – both from PBS. I think these are far more fun than the current Reality Glurge on network TV.

6

I was planning to be in bed early last night. Instead I stayed up late watching The Ship because they were playing the whole thing at once. I love it. I read the Patrick O’brien books years ago and while that’s not actually the same time period a lot of aspects of ship life seem pretty much the same. There are some pretty important differences from Cook’s actual voyage though. The absence of grog among them. Can you imaging trying to climb the rigging after consuming a half pint of rum?

7

Add to that the fact that the ropes are coated with tallow, and you can see why the mortality rate among sailors was high!

8

And then wasn’t there the aspect of being blown off the ship and drowning while hitting the head? What an undignified way to go. I was also amused by the fact that they couldn’t smoke on board, and had to go in the water to have a cigarette.

9

I was rather disappointed in the show.

They had forty volunteers, and the fifteen crew. We have gotten to know, what, five of them?

Let’s see. Mickey, the funny fat guy who is a bit of a jerk. The cynical guy from LA. The girl from DC who got entirely too much camera time. The cook. And the whiney historian. (the Professor and MaryAnne… sorry.)

There were at least thirty other people I would have like to hear from. The botanist woman was cool. Anyone who gets a betel-nut buzz on camera is my type of person. We didn’t see enough of her. On the last show, I found out that there was a charming Scottish lass on board. We heard nothing about her, nothing.

I enjoyed the show (and I hope I win the sweepstakes) but I would have liked to meet more of the people.

10

I haven’t watched it, but from what I can see, that’s a really great idea for a reality show. I hope they do other kinds of situations in history.
I do have to ask though-with the camera crew and all, they do have preparations for emergencies, I hope!

11

They have the following modern equpment:

flushtoilet
emergency life raft with motor attached
modern navigation instruments(though I don’t think they have a GPS)
satellite phone
recording camera(obviously)

The ship itself is a sailing vessel, but it is also equipped with a modern turbine engine if they get in trouble. The goal of course is to use none of these things. I think it was day 4 before they started to rely solely on astronomy, dead reckoning, and 18th century maps to get around, a difficult task to be sure, but they have 3 astronomers on board who are the navigators (it is still an awful lot of math, though). The toilets are kind of a neccesity, since there are women in the crew.

12

While the volunteers play at being 18th century mariners, the captain and crew have fully modern navigation and communication gear, a well-equipped sickbay/ dispensary, a Zodiac, and the new Endeavour even has twin diesel engines. The boat is used for tall-ship cruises and had been chartered by the production company for the six week adventure.

Everyone is safe, reasonably.

13

Oh, and the marine heads are required nowadays. One cannot legally dump raw sewage onto the Great Barrier Reef. They were not able to use the 18th century heads until the ship was on the open sea (if they really used them at all).

14

I have seen the preview and it looks awesome. Unfortunatly I don’t have a TV at my house. What has happened? How much of 18th century life do they portray?

15

I had kinda hoped we’d learn more about the actual operation of the ship - which rope, sail, and mast is which, and how they work - and about the daily routine of the volunteer sailors. I assume they all have duties to perform. They seem to be more focused on teaching us about Cook and the historical perspective of the sailor’s life in the 18th century. Fair enough, it’s the History Channel.

And they have a limited amount of time in each episode. Not really enough time to get to meet 50 or so volunteers and crew. So far, all I remember are Melanie, the perky blonde from DC, who’s really seen only in the intro and the 9/11 stuff; Mickey, the colorful Royal Navy guy whose bridge, not tooth, comes out from the hardtack; Cole, the other colorful guy seen only at the beginning saying, “This ain’t no pleasure cruise, baby;” Iain the cranky historian who decides to leave with the aborigines; Cyril, the polite historian; Alan the gorgeous real (yacht?) sailor, hommina hommina hommina; the two botanists, sketching as fast as they can; the three navigators who are just having the TIME of their LIVES doing this; the cook who’s trying so hard to make everyone happy; and Claire the doctor. There are the two Maoris, one of whom is named Mario (spelling?) and who looks vaguely like the Rock (the Maoris didn’t leave the ship too, did they?), and Andrew the historian with the blood clot. Someone else got sick and was removed before him, and I’ve already forgotten who that was. Not to mention Chris, the captain, to whom we have not been introduced at all, and of whom we know nothing. The captain really should not be referred to by his first name, don’t you think?

But wow, that business of Claire trying to get medical advice from England on the satellite phone about Andrew’s suspected life-threatening blood clot at the same time as the crew are carefully, carefully trying to get the ship through the Great Barrier Reef - sailing into shallower waters - “Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?” - razor-sharp reef inches from the hull - “Yes, I have a 32-year-old white male-” - “Two, six, HEAVE!” - “Hello, yes, I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” - “Two, six, HEAVE!” Yes, I was in fact on the edge of my seat. And good diagnosis, Doctor Claire! Way to go!

I’ve learned a lot so far, and the more I watch the more it becomes apparent to me that their experience is nothing like that of 18th century sailors, beginning with the presence of women and the absence of rum. Oh, well. I’m still enjoying it a lot.