A real ship's log sells for £40,000

As I was looking for examples of Copperplate handwriting for my recent post about handwriting, I came across this beautiful, striking image of a ship’s log and this article: Bounty logbook sells for £40,000.

A naval logbook detailing the first glimpse of the Bounty mutineers on a remote Pacific island sold for £40,000 at auction.

(…)

The weighty, yellowing tome, painstakingly inscribed by midshipman J.B. Hoodthorp of the HMS Briton, also contains a watercolour sketch of Pitcairn Island.

Painstakingly inscribed. And illustrated too. Now tell me that log book is not a work of art as well as a piece of history. Is there such a thing as ‘painstakingly inscribed’ nowadays?

Hoodthorp, a junior officer, probably aged no more than 18, was responsible for compiling a daily account of the 44-gun ship's course and sailing conditions.

On Saturday September 17 1814, his curling script recorded: "Several canoes came onboard.

"Found the island inhabited by the descendants of Mr F Christian. Mutinous crew of the Bounty settled here AD 1788 (sic)."

(…)

Royal Navy warships spent 25 years scouring the ocean for any trace of the mutineers who set captain William Bligh adrift in an open boat after seizing control of HMS Bounty in 1789.

Led by Fletcher Christian they took refuge on Pitcairn Island, 1350 miles off the coast of Tahiti, and established a thriving community in 1790.

This is interesting enough, and then we read:

The HMS Briton, a fifth rate frigate commanded by Sir Thomas Stanley, was in the South Pacific to intercept an American frigate, the USS Essex, which had been attacking the British whaling fleet.

En route to Pitcairn the Briton also stopped in Peru and the Galapagos Islands.

Does that remind you of a Patrick O’Brian book and movie?

Ship's log - June 2010

As above, so below; as within, so without; a sedentary lifestyle and stress are showing up in the body. I had a bit of low blood pressure last weekend, not a pleasant experience. Fortunately I was off this week and generally I have spent the time relaxing and eating healthy. I have never eaten so much fruit in my life. I feel much better, but I will be going in for a full check up and service soon. There is nothing like feeling ill to produce a shift in one’s thinking patterns and in one’s priorities. We know health is the top priority but didn’t someone say knowledge is only integrated when we take action?

Do not let competing priorities get in the way of good health. Paul Limburg

When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied. Herophilus

Ship's log - May 2010

Spring is here (even though it snowed in Montreal last week) and suddenly (it seems) there are far too many demands on my time and energy. The universal dinner lady insists on dancing even if I don’t feel like it. In the winter it seems acceptable to curl up and hibernate with a good book or 20. But not in spring. Now the garden demands attention, work demands attention, the stock market demands attention, and my health and sanity demand attention. Oh yes and the blog demands attention. The rise and fall of our energy level, our willingness to dance with the world, has a natural rhythm: sometimes we are full of Yin, sometimes full of Yang, sometimes there is a balance. When you know this, it is easier to accept and to manage your energy level and to begin to regain that balance.

To give you an idea how ‘bad’ it is, I bought 2 books last week: ‘The 150 Most Effective ways to Boost Your Energy’ and  ‘Intentions and Goals: A Journal to Help You Discover Your Best Life.’ I haven’t had the time and energy to read them yet (*cough*) but I did flick through a few pages and I will leave you with a few very inspiring and pertinent quotes from the latter book. After all this is an inspirational blog you know:

The unexamined life is not worth living. - Socrates

Our bodies communicate to us clearly and specifically, if we are willing to listen to them. – Shakti Gawain

What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ship's log - March 2010

The light is coming back, the cold retreats, our hearts are lifted. My Ipod I Ching app has renewed my interest in the book. The hexagram 19. Lin / Approach is associated with this time of the year, after the winter solstice when the warmth and light of the sun returns.

Spring is approaching. Joy and forbearance bring high and low together. Success is certain. But we must work with determination and perseverance to make full use of the propitiousness of the time.

This is a propitious time of the year to make resolutions: the change of air and aspect helps us to break with the winter of the past and follow the light of our new goals.

Ship's log - December 2009

You may have noticed I tried another header image for a while. But we are back to Andrew Beierle’s beautiful photo and my original motto. There is just too much power in this image and in this metaphor of harnessing your inner strength. Looking at the man we see he is strong in himself but there is a greater power available to him. He must use all his strength and ingenuity to master it but we see that he can do it. And then, on such a ‘horse’, how he will fly! I hope some of my posts live up to this promise for you.

Ship's log - October 2009

Well, shipmates, its nice to be back in Montreal. The long day of the flight back from England and the jet lag have been the devil to get over. But I am now at the point where I feel I can safely say I may live, with the blessing. I will resume more normal posting in the next few days.

Ship's log - September 2009

September is here and during most of this month I will be posting from old England. Besides visiting family I usually visit a few interesting historic places. I will not tell you which ones I intend to visit mainly because I don’t know yet. If you have any suggestions write me a comment and maybe I will go.
I did not plan it but my trip coincides perfectly with my last few posts about Patrick O’Brian and the Royal Navy. Strange that, innit?

Ship's log - September 2009

As I mention in my post I need Answers!, I have been ranging over the philosophic questions and answers to be found at Yahoo’Answers community.
There is a wide range of questions, from the banal to the sublime. But some of the most simple are strangely compelling to answer because they force you to think about what you really believe. How would you answer these questions?

What is the meaning of life?
Why should I want to live?
Is the human being essentially religious?
What are the most important philosophy books to read?
Do you think the world would be a better place if we did not have technology?
Does the past still live in the present?
What do you want out of life?

Ship's log - July 2009

The Story of Stuff video highlights the consumer-driven western culture of our time. Profit and consumerism are the driving forces of our society, rather than spiritual values, which is why everything is a mess. No wonder we are not happy. The housing bubble and credit crisis are the crowning ‘achievement’ of this mindless, shallow anti-philosophy. But at least they have now put the spotlight on something that lived in the shadows, half-perceived. Now we must face it. As Annie Leonard says, our consumer culture is not like gravity that we must just deal with. It is our own collective creation, and as such we can change it, and those changes are beginning. For one thing, I am here writing about it on a blog, and you are here reading about it. Two people more who won’t be deceived.

Ship's Log - June 2009

I always read the quotes on the top left-hand column of the blog every time I load the page. Some make me laugh out loud with pleasure. I think that we should take note of the quotes that do this for us as they surely reveal something about ourselves. These three quotes I copied to my desktop. Maybe they will give you pleasure too.

An artist is someone who produces things that people don’t need to have but that he for some reason thinks it would be a good idea to give them. Andy Warhol

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better. André Gide

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book. Edward Gibbon

Ship's Log - May 2009

I am working on a plan to simplify the blog by moving the links to another page. I have noticed the blog takes longer and longer to load the more you click on the post links. So I want to get to having only one post showing at any time and very few links. A less cluttered, less fattening, more zen-like page that always loads quickly. I am also working on a plan to simplify everything else in my life, but that’s another story…

Ship's log April 2009

Spring is here at last. We thought winter was never going to end. Unpleasant situations seem to drag on forever, pleasant ones seem to be over in the blink of an eye. This is what Einstein meant by relativity.
I am in mind to write some posts about Spring and the significance of the seasons. Here are a few quotes that translate quite accurately my feelings at this moment:

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. Shake-speare (De Vere)

Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world. Virgil A. Kraft

The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow. Now we just set the clocks an hour ahead and change the oil in the crankcase. E.B. White

For more quotes like this, go Famous inspirational quotes

Ship's log - March 2009

March already? Seems like yesterday we were celebrating New Year. Reminds me of Marcus Aurelius’ advice ‘Do not act as though you have a thousand years to live’.
Last month I half-promised you a surprise. Well, it ain’t ready yet, but I’ll tell you what it is. A comic strip. I have had it in the back of my mind for a while now. I have an artistic streak in me and I know there is a wide scope in this blog for some philosophic humour. But to do the thing right I need to work on it some more. Patience my friends…This month should see the publication of my guest post on sincerity on Henrik’s awesome Positivity Blog. He has some 12,000 readers so I hope to see a lot of new faces around the blog. Join the crew on the ‘Followers’ (Shipmates) gadget below. Free grog and very little flogging.

Ship's log February 2009

January saw the 100th post of Healing Philosophy. As time passes I feel I am finding my voice. Certainly my posts are always spontaneous affairs. I think of a topic and perhaps gather some quotes together and then let my mind, my subconscious, mull it over for a day or two. Then when I sit down to write the post, it usually flows very easily onto the page with very few changes. Also as time goes by I feel the interconnection of all these threads of thought, which I have found very rewarding.
I would like to thank my 8 or 9 faithful regular readers for their support. OK I’m exaggerating. My 5 or 6 regular readers. Why not take this unprecedented opportunity to immortalize yourselves by becoming the first inaugural shipmates in the ‘Followers’ gadget just below. You may not get a second chance because…I have a surprise in the works. It is still in the concept and creative phase but I hope to unleash it on an unsuspecting world soon, possibly in March. Then no doubt Healing Philosophy will become a household name. Hold fast.

Ship's log - January 2009

Another year has passed. For myself, it was a mixed year (aren’t they all?) I know it was not a year of increase on the material wealth plane. Nor on the physical health plane. Nor on many another plane. But it was the year I started Healing Philosophy. And so it cannot be considered a bad year. What started out as a project to share philosophy has become something of a journey of discovery. I revisited old shores and took bearings in some unknown waters, all the while advancing into the open seas with the prospect of some new discovery only a day’s sail away.
It seems very providential to me that this year should end with my posts on Habit. It would be the world’s pity not to use our new philosophy in our daily life. 2008 was the year of discovering some great truths. 2009 must be the year of putting them into action. As we have seen, we can choose what we wish to become. And as we gain in wisdom, we will choose more and more wisely…

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable. Francis Bacon

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle

We first make our habits, and then our habits make us. John Dryden

Ship's log - December 2008

December has started off by my being sick. Sick as a dog. How true it is that if we do not have health we have nothing. Things we take for granted, little things like, say, BREATHING suddenly become the only thing we really care about. Being able to sleep soundly, peacefully, suddenly becomes something eagerly desired.
With sickness comes an instant paradigm shift in our perception of priorities. From this different standpoint, I see clearly that, once I have my health and energy back, there are going to be a few changes around here. Oh dearie me yes.
Since my sickness came after all these posts on gratitude, the following quote came often to my mind and I took a great comfort in it. That in itself is a change for me.

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. Buddha

Ship's log - November 2008

The raging storm in the financial world and thereby in my personal financial world has preoccupied me lately. Rather than rising above such mundane, material considerations like a spiritual albatross, I have been plunging my head into every huge frothing wave and surfacing now and then in a sea of emotional turmoil. All of which has been very revealing, as you may imagine. I find that, having lacked the foresight to avoid the market crash, I have at least had the courage not to panic and sell. However, I have not had much patient fortitude while being courageous; I am ashamed to say that I have had many an angry feeling unworthy of the author of a blog on healing philosophy. Then again, as I have said in the past, the only reason I know something about philosophy is because I need it. Especially now.
Learning from mistakes is a large part of wisdom. Being prepared is another. I have promised myself not to make the same mistake of being unprepared for the next financial storm. But the major part of my preparation will continue to be improving my mind, and for this all storms are one.
If you would like to join me on this philosophical voyage, put your X on the line and join the ship’s crew below.

Ship's log - October 2008

We often take our health for granted until we lose it. My body has been complaining about that to me lately. So in my post on Health I offer a reminder that health should be our first priority. You will also find I have updated the sidebar text on Health with some very powerful quotes that I dug up. For example: ‘The groundwork of all happiness is health’ - Leigh Hunt.
I remember when I was going through a very bad patch many years ago, I devoted a lot of time to karate. I didn’t know it fully then, but this was an excellent thing to do under the circumstances. It was probably karate and exercise that got me through. Very often we neglect our health when facing other problems. So if you are going through a bad patch also, the first and best thing to do is to look at your health and vitality level and concentrate on bringing it up to par. It makes everything else easier to handle. By the way I have added a ‘Followers’ gadget just below this log (‘Ship’s crew’). So if you can ‘hand, reef and steer’, or want to learn, put your thumbprint on the dotted line and join the ship.

Ship's log - September 2008

Well shipmates, we have left the familiar waters of my most memorable philosophical haunts. Whuch is not to say there will not be more as and when I think of them. We are far from land, and I have made some surprising discoveries in the anger and patience line, recently. Where before I would not hesitate to revolt and utter a pretty warm expletive over a nothing, now my conscience jerks me back to some of the posts I have written, to some of the striking quotations I have read:
If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size? Sydney J. Harris
The casual reader must not get the impression that I am some kind of guru (my regular readers know I am not): the only reason I know something about this stuff is because I need it. I searched for it and I am sharing it with you, so you don’t have to. Welcome aboard.

Ship's log - August 2008

No matter where we are in our life, we are like the captain of a ship taking stock of the situation. We must take stock of the condition and the sailing qualities of our ship – (our talents and our energies). We must take stock of the elements and geography – (our environment and our opportunities). And of course we must take stock of where are we going – (our hopes and our goals).
So in philosophy we take stock: we must know our ship and the sea; we must know where we have been, where we are, and where we are going; we must know what to do in every kind of sea and weather. Of course, we cannot have experienced personally every condition, every contingency. Therefore philosophy is also about profiting from the wisdom and experience of other great captains. We can read their logs, look at the maps they made, and benefit from their trials and errors on our own voyage. And we can be inspired to sail closer to the wind, travel to goals we never thought possible or, most importantly, to continue our voyage when we were on the verge of losing hope. And that is a fine thing indeed.