One of my favourite historical phenomena is technology that’s based on a totally off-the-wall theory about how the world works, but ends up being sort of effective because it’s close enough. Like those old-timey plague doctor masks, whose enormous beaks are an enclosed breathing apparatus stuffed full of dried aromatic herbs on the theory that disease is communicated by the odour of decay – which is completely wrong, of course, but the masks ended up being reasonable effective at their purpose anyway because it turns out that sticking a big wad of dried plant matter in front of your airway is a pretty effective way to avoid inhaling aerosolised bodily fluids.
My favorite is the fact that scurvy was cured, and then un-cured because a bunch of perfectly sensible and intelligent people didn’t know what a vitamin was.
Aww thank you! My primary hobby is being an armchair scholar of historical nautical disasters and polar exploration, so it… it is very very likely that I will do more art for The Terror.
I would have a serious caption for this because I love Fitzjames but the entire time I was painting this, all I could think of was a line from Cabin Pressure: “Look, I keep telling you, I didn’t ask for extra. It’s just the standard amount of gold braid they put on a captain’s hat these days!”
sir pelham grenville wodehouse coming up with story ideas
I would have a serious caption for this because I love Fitzjames but the entire time I was painting this, all I could think of was a line from Cabin Pressure: “Look, I keep telling you, I didn’t ask for extra. It’s just the standard amount of gold braid they put on a captain’s hat these days!”
I’m listening to a fado playlist right now, and the lyrics mentioned “água-furtada”, but it sounded like “agua fortada” and my mind went directly to “aqua fortis” and I experienced a moment of extreme confusion before google translate informed me that it means “attic”
The Terror confession: my interest in Fitzjames as a character increased like 150% when he admitted to Crozier that he was half Portuguese
A Pretty Taste for Paradox 