It could be a 'manning' Monday

Sailors man the rigging on a formal occasion.

     I wrote this tonight to explain something to a friend who is facing the first day of the work week and then I decided it might be fun reading for others as well.

     I am up way late, a little wine and a lot of music and I thought I would tell you the story about manning the rigging. Several years ago I had the opportunity to spend a week on a boat with the head of British Petroleum’s shipping worldwide. Ha, now that I write that it sounds like Faber shipping world wide (If you have read any of the Bloody Jack books, you will get that reference). Anyway he told this story one night. He grew up an orphan in London but through some twists of fate he ended up in a maritime school that trained most of the great British sailors through the years, By his last year there, he had advanced to captain of the corps of cadets. 

     This coincided with the year Queen Elizabeth was crowned. After the coronation (which incidentally was one of the first things I ever saw on television) she took a trip around the world on the royal yacht Britannia. As the boat was approaching London on its return, the head of the school thought it would honor the queen properly if the corps of cadets manned the rigging on the tall ship the school used for training and at the time was berthed along the Thames River. 

     The picture shows a formal “manning”  of the rigging with the sailors standing on the spars. 

     Anyway, as captain of the corps this man had to go to the top of the mainmast, the highest point on the ship. Notice in the picture no one is standing at the absolute top of the mainmast.

      So the queen’s yacht is coming up the Thames and the cadets manned the rigging with the future head of BP shipping worldwide at the top of the mainmast, clinging to the tallest part of the ship with his knees. Unknown to the cadets, someone had the bright idea to fire a Beaufort gun as the queen approached. I can’t find a picture of one, but it looks like an old time cannon but with a really short barrel. It was made for close combat between sailing ships, firing a canon ball upward to come down from an arc onto a deck of an enemy ship close by.

     So the cadets are all set, the Britannia is approaching and someone fired the gun.

     Then the captain of the corps of cadets said from his perspective the ship heeled over so far the ends of the yardarms on one side hit the dock. Then it rolled way out over the water, all the time raining cadets out of the rigging onto the deck, onto the dock and then into the water with each roll back and forth. He said his knees were white from clinging to the top of the mainmast but he managed to hold on until the vessel settled down and the queen had passed by.

     I have to tell you our eyes were wet with tears from laughing so hard at hearing him describe this scene of total chaos at a most ceremonial moment. I am giggling now envisioning it. I still find manning the rigging majestic and hilarious at the same time.

    Just think on this Monday: Those guys fell out of the rigging into the water and onto the dock in front of the Queen of England! How awful could your Monday be?