the indefinable
creative ability
to produce better
I happened to pick up a copy of Life in Nelson’s Navy by Dudley Pope, (Annapolis, Md. : Naval Institute Press, 1981) and read:
Different nations produced different types of fighting ship. Often their needs varied, sometimes they had different geographical problems, occasionally they produced brilliant or uninspired or incompetent designers. Because of their shallow coasts, Dutch designers were given limits on the draught of their designs; Danish and Swedish designers usually had to make provisions for oars, or sweeps, in the smaller ships because, although tideless, the Skagerrak, Kattegat and Baltic could often be windless, and sometimes a current could run in the same direction for days on end so that ships had to be rowed against it.
British designers were left puzzled. French ships were longer — and faster. Spanish ships were shorter, beamier — and faster. Now the French were producing longer and beamier ships which were faster. The fact was the old rules about length and beam were being overturned; frigates particularly would have to be larger.
Designing was at this stage clearly a curious mixture of art and science: the science could be called experience, the art the indefinable creative ability that one man had to produce a ship that was better than that designed by a rival.
I liked that last bit.
A curious mixture of art and science.
The science could be called experience.
The art?
The indefinable creative ability that one man had to produce a ship that was better than that designed by a rival.
The indefinable creative ability that one man had to produce.
I find comfort knowing I will always be able unplug artificial intelligence.
Where are those Von Neumann machines anyway?
By the way, I happen to be aware that 1) The USS Constitution is the oldest ship still in active commission in any navy in the world and 2) It is the only ship in the US Navy to have sunk an enemy ship in action.
No Haiku For You 