Gentlemen, Choose Your Weapons

Gentlemen, Choose Your Weapons Gentlemen, Choose Your Weapons Gentlemen, Choose Your Weapons By Hugh Ashton Writing tools can affect your style. In the days of quill and dip pens, the length of sentences (or at least, phrases) was apparently determined by the amount of ink held by the pen, and prose rhythm was dictated by this simple physical constraint. Fountain pens extended the scope of the writer. No longer did (s)he have to pause in the composition of the sentence, reach over to the inkwell and use those few seconds to determine what to write next. Sentences could flow for ever, like those of Henry James. But even with a fountain pen, revisions don’t come easily. In Lamb House, Rye, where James lived for many years, some galley proofs of his works are on display, covered with major handwritten amendments. Whole paragraphs deleted and added, sentences turned on their heads, etc. No publisher today, even with modern technology, would accept such major revisions to a book at galley stage. It would appear, though, that typesetting really does crystallize a writer’s thoughts, and give a firm foundation for the next stage in the writing process. Of course, many authors used typewriters when they became available. Mark Twain, a neophile and early adopter, wrote: The machine has several virtues. I believe it will print faster than I can write. One may lean back in his chair work it. It piles an awful stack of words on one page. It don’t muss things or scatter ink blots around. Of course it saves paper. And as someone who grew up doing a lot of writing (books, articles, etc.) on a typewriter (manual Olivetti portable, and later an electric Facit golfball), I have to agree with Samuel Clemens. Mind you, corrections were tricky. I used a lot of correction fluid and paper, and rewriting a whole sentence often meant starting again from scratch on a new page. The sheer drudgery and physical labor involved in hitting typewriter keys (less with electric than a manual, of course) meant you had to think carefully about what you wrote. Planning a whole page in advance (or at least a paragraph) wasn’t uncommon. Certainly you tended to write a sentence before putting it down on paper, because it was too much trouble to recast it once it had been typed. Of course, all this refers to the first draft. Creating a second draft was often a question of starting again from scratch, or a literal â€Å"cut and paste† job. Another way of writing books was (still is for some) dictation to a shorthand secretary or a dictation machine. Dictation can produce long flowing streams of consciousness, poor style, and very clumsy or sloppy plotting in the worst cases, not to mention novels that are parodies of the author’s own style. But then came word-processors. But that’s for another week. In the meantime, your exercise for the week is to look at some older pieces of writing, and see if you can reconstruct how the authors got the words out of their heads onto paper. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Beautiful and Ugly Words50 Latin Phrases You Should KnowThe Uses of â€Å"The†

Definition of Clipper Ship

Definition of Clipper Ship A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the early to mid-1800s.   According to a comprehensive book published in 1911, The Clipper Ship Era by Arthur H. Clark, the term clipper was originally derived from slang in the early 19th century. To clip it or to go at a fast clip meant to travel fast. So it is reasonable to assume the word was simply attached to ships which had been built for speed, and as Clark put it,  seemed to clip over the waves rather than plough through them. Historians differ on when the first true clipper ships were built, but there is general agreement that they became well established in the 1840s. The typical clipper had three masts, was square-rigged, and had a hull designed to slice through the water. The most famous designer of clipper ships was Donald McKay, who designed the Flying Cloud, a clipper that set an astounding speed record of sailing from New York to San Francisco in less than 90 days. McKays shipyard in Boston produced notable clippers, but a number of the sleek and speedy boats were built alongside the East River, in shipyards in New York City. A New York shipbuilder, William H. Webb, was also known for producing clipper ships before they fell out of fashion. The Reign of the Clipper Ships Clipper ships became economically useful because they could deliver very valuable material faster than more ordinary packet ships. During the California Gold Rush, for instance, clippers were seen to be very useful as supplies, ranging from lumber to prospecting equipment, could be rushed to San Francisco. And, people who booked passage on clippers could expect to get to their destination faster than those who sailed on ordinary ships. During the Gold Rush, when fortune hunters wanted to race to the California gold fields, the clippers became extremely popular. Clippers became especially important for international the tea trade, as tea from China could be transported to England or America in record time. Clippers were also used to transport easterners to California during the Gold Rush, and to transport Australian wool to England. Clipper ships had some serious disadvantages. Because of their sleek designs, they could not carry as much cargo as a wider ship could. And sailing a clipper took extraordinary skill. They were the most complicated sailing ships of their time, and their captains needed to possess excellent seamanship to handle them, especially in high winds. Clipper ships were eventually made obsolete by steam ships, and also by the opening of the Suez Canal, which dramatically cut sailing time from Europe to Asia and made speedy sailing ships less necessary. Notable Clipper Ships Following are examples of illustrious clipper ships: The Flying Cloud: Designed by Donald McKay, the Flying Cloud became famous for setting a spectacular speed record, sailing from  New York City  to San Francisco in 89 days and 21 hours in the summer of 1851. To make the same run in less than 100 days was considered remarkable, and only 18 sailing ships ever accomplished that.The New York to San Francisco record was only bettered twice, once again by the Flying Cloud in 1854, and in 1860 by the clipper ship Andrew Jackson.The Great Republic: Designed and built by Donald McKay in 1853, it was intended to be the largest and fastest clipper. The launch of the ship in October 1853 was accompanied with great fanfare when the city of Boston declared a holiday and thousands watched the festivities. Two months later, on December 26, 1853, the ship was docked on the East River in lower Manhattan, being prepared for its first voyage. A fire broke out in the neighborhood and winter winds tossed burning embers in the air. The rigging of the G reat Republic caught fire and flames spread down to the ship. After being scuttled, the ship was raised and rebuilt. But some of the grandeur was lost.   Red Jacket: A  clipper built in Maine, it  set a speed record between New York City and Liverpool, England, of 13 days and one hour. The ship spent its glory years sailing between England and Australia, and eventually was used, as were many other clippers, transporting lumber from Canada.The Cutty Sark: A late era clipper, it was  built in Scotland in 1869. It is unusual as it still exists today as a museum ship, and is visited by tourists. The tea trade between England and China was very competitive, and Cutty Sark was built when clippers had been essentially perfected for speed. It served in the tea trade for about seven years, and later in the trade in wool between Australia and England. The ship was used as a training vessel well into the 20th century, and in the 1950s was placed in a dry dock to serve as a museum.