So. History is full of incredible stories. Many of which, we rarely hear about.
Today marks the anniversary of one really good, but sad story. Titanic-like. A big passenger ship went down… a brig actually. The vessel had departed from Belfast on April 8, 1833, and it was bound for bound for Quebec.
Dang them Icebergs, anyhow. At 8:00 a.m. on May 11, 1833, Lady of the Lake was struck by large ice masses on the starboard bow and began to sink. They were about 250 miles east of Cape St. Francis, Newfoundland. The Canadian Province, not the dog.
So here’s the deal. They hit ice. Started to sink. So. They put about 80 people in one of the lifeboats. Just after they lowered it, the thing capsized. All 80 gone. Now my guess is, some goofball, like little Perry, kept standing up. And the mate kept saying… “Sit down, you little ruffian. You are going to tip this thing… and everyone in it….. right over.” And then looked what happened. Parents… let that be a lesson.
Anyway. As for the rest of the folks on board….. Lady of the Lake continued to sink with only about 30 passengers clinging to the maintop mast. And then…. those survivors spent 75 hours in an open boat before being rescued by the ship Amazon. In all, they estimate that about 265 people were lost.
Not as many as the tragedy of the Titanic, where 1500 lives were lost. But even still… a bad, bad day for the Lady In The Lake.
So I am guessing, she was named for The Lady of the Lake…. who was the foster-mother of Sir Lancelot. Now THAT is a very cool story in and of itself.
She raised him beneath the murky waters of her Lake. But that wasn’t her biggest accomplishment. She is best known for handing old King Arthur his famed sword Excalibur. Of course… she needed the intervention of the King’s druidic advisor, Merlin. And that old Merlin was a worry-wart. He was constantly concerned that his monarch would fall in battle….. hence… the big-honking sword.
Merlin had met the Lady and fallen so deeply in love with her that he agreed to teach her all his mystical powers. So, she became Merlin’s scribe, who recorded his prophecies. And of course…. Merlin and the Lady In The Lake had it “going on” as well. Yep. They were getting busy.
Unfortunately however, over the years, the Lady got pretty big for her britches. She became so powerful that her magical skills outshone even her teacher. And how did she repay him? She imprisoned him in a Glass Tower.
To some extent…. she stepped into Merlin’s role at King Arthur’s side. But once Merlin was off the scene… Arthur took a nose dive. Yes… their great Monarch fell. The Lady of the Lake was eventually obliged to reclaim her sword when Arthur was fatally wounded at the Battle of Camlann.
I am not sure who did the hurling… but yes….. Excalibur was hurled back to misty waters. Kersplash.
So there you have it. A little bit of history from two different forks in the road. Or, waves on the lake. They say “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
I am not sure what is to be learned from this. Other than… don’t sail big boats in ice-chunk filled waters. OOOORRRR… if you are a wizard… don’t be a sap and lose all your powers to someone who will lock you in a glass tower. Big weenie wizard. So there you have it again. A helping hand from history.
“History is a set of lies agreed upon.” ― Napoléon Bonaparte