Posted by Mike Field on April 21, 2010 at 15:21:30 user mikefield.
In Reply to: Re: Turks Yard Auction posted by andy clayton on April 21, 2010 at 09:16:44:
"...the old brown sail with its well-remembered patch."
Thanks Andy, that's exactly the phrase I remembered. I was pretty sure it wasn't in S&A because of the 'well-remembrance,' but for the life of me I couldn't think where it was.
(I suppose "long-memoried patch" would have been a bit extreme, wouldn't it? :-) And in any case it wasn't Dorothea doing the remembering.)
In my long-but-not-necessarily-accurate memory, in the books Swallow was painted while Amazon was varnished. But with the real boats (albeit with Swallow now only a replica) it seems to be the other way round. Curious. The way AR had it would have been more logical. Paint lasts longer than varnish, while varnish looks nicer (at least in many people's view) than paint. Swallow was essentially a work-boat so paint was a better choice for the preservation of her hull. But Amazon was essentially the Pirates' pleasure vessel, for which brightwork could well have been considered more attractive.