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Name	AWoL
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2016-01-31 14:20:33

Re: Comments are closed....... Hosannnah in the highest!?!?!?!

Board » General Discussion

"You might have noticed that comments are closed for all posts,"

No. I hadn't noticed that, but then I only visit SOL as an amateur for amusing entertainment and not to study it full-time as a professional would.

"this was decided few years ago"

An adequate reply for a child of 8yrs old, but insulting to any adult with a modicum of education.
Who decided, when, where and why?

"some spammers were able to create enough traffic so that the whole site crashed."

That, in a vague way nods in the direction of 'why?'. Have steps been taken to eliminate this possibility recurring?....apart from suppressing free expression of opinion amongst the membership?
We had a local school, where there was a lot of arson about.....but they didn't close the school down.

Final question.....Can the decision- makers review decisions and adapt to changing circumstances, or are their decisions, once taken, fully democratically(of course), irrevocable and forever set in stone?
For instance, the demonic spammers may have gone, or found other sites to provide amusement and entertainment.
2016-01-30 01:33:46

Comments are closed....... Hosannnah in the highest!?!?!?!

Board » General Discussion

"Comments are closed.

Comments have been closed for this post."
.....The Shetlands....the one place where I wish to comment. Interesting.

This is a sailing site, is it not? Or is it an agency of marxist propaganda, or .....amazingly....both, at the same time.
2015-03-24 02:41:23

Re: Objection to the potted history of the Shetlands

Board » General Discussion

"Sailonline should avoid taking sides"

And that, it could have easily done by simply adding.....This is the official English history, (which rudely calls itself British history, without ever bothering to ask for any authoritative Scottish input) and with which some nationalistic , rebellious, disruptive elements might disagree.

A lot of it is sheer, twisted ,anti-Scottish propaganda and it's time it was called to account.

What you're arguing for, Kroppyer, is the right to believe in fairy stories and English propaganda.See my note about the SNP increasing their membership in Shetland by 500%.
Some viking colony! What a load of baloney.

"stick to an internationally accepted story,"

Hearken to this from Mr High and Mighty..... a plea for an internationally recognised 'Ministry of Truth'.
"You will believe our stories.......lock, stock and barrel.....or else!"
Pity you didn't meet Lenin or Trotsky. You would have hit it off with them...... 100%.

" Is there an internationally accepted version of Scotlands history?"

Is there an internationally accepted version of Dutch history?
I can hardly believe this. This is like a return to the middle ages.
I am surprised that I haven't been summonsed to a court of law, tried and then burnt at the stake.

"Sailonline does not educate people in history, it educates people in navigation on oceans of our planet."

In Kroppyer's world, there is a little box with history in it and a separate one with ocean navigation in it.....and the two never meet. Possibly true, thanks to control- freaks like you.
Interestingly, the archaeologists and historians don't understand the capabilties of boats, sailing and navigation, and the sailors are re-living history and missing tons of useful information, but don't know it.

"He who knows nothing of history remains forever a child"...Cicero.(famous Roman poet, philosopher).
Kroppyer wants to remain forever a child...and wants everyone else in the same boat.
2015-03-23 21:49:17

Re: Objection to the potted history of the Shetlands

Board » General Discussion

"but SOL really isn't the place to discuss it,"

In your humble opinion.
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the title of this division of the forum.....
"General Discussion"
What is your definition of 'general'?
Even then I tried to impart some nautical lore about Norwegian and Scottish ships and the problems they face in the west and north of Scotland.

"have much the same problem between French Quebec and English Canada,"

They are nothing like the same.
Quebec has no defensible borders, a substantial indigenous population and no history of having existed as an independent nation.
While Scotland has existed for 1,200 yrs , 900 of which as a fully independent, self-governing nation. Every European nation of import, and Russia, has records of dealings with Scots and Scotland in their archives.

"I sincerely hope that these conflicts will fade away and leave humanity united in progress towards a better world."

Yes, all very nicey- nicey. Now, can we sober up and deal with the real world as we find it, without drifting off wistfully into never-never, La- La land, dripping sentiment from every pore?
2015-03-23 12:10:40

Re: Objection to the potted history of the Shetlands

Board » General Discussion

"a discussion which is better ended"

Yes, let's silence the people, and not let them talk about anything other than inconsequential tittle-tattle. Let's just give the ministry of truth a free ride all the time. That way we won't have to think.
Easy solution, Rod...don't read stuff you're not interested in.

"It goes nowhere,"

I disagree. The future of Scotland is very important to me and my relatives , not just in Scotland, but around the world.
Certainly it won't affect you, Rod, but that is no reason for suppressing free speech.

"becomes more heated as more is said,"

You exaggerate. Both Tyger and myself have aired our differences with remarkable restraint on both sides.
Which monastic order do you belong to? Do they let you out and about from time to time?

"contributes nothing to SOL."

Well, perhaps SOL should mind its own business when it comes to publishing a false narrative of the history and currently-sensitive politics of my own country......
It was probably done with the best of intentions, but was inaccurate.
Mistakes need correcting . Do they not?
2015-03-22 19:17:53

Re: Objection to the potted history of the Shetlands

Board » General Discussion

@Tyger......Part Two

"I think we are describing the same coin from different sides and both are happy with the side we have."

Yes, I think it is just a matter of emphasis. You obviously think, travelling the world, dipping into cultures here and there, is beneficial for the soul and character. I, personally and unfashionably think, it is not without value, but grossly overrated.

Despite being a stick-in-the-mud, I have travelled beyond Scotland, but only at someone else's expense and under threat of withdrawal of privileges.The truth is, that there is very little need for me to travel, when the world, and very accurate information on its state, comes to me, from relatives in California,Texas, Manitoba, and Germany...and even in remote Scotland, we have received visitors from Germany, France,Sweden,China, India, Japan, Russia and Prussia(alas, no more) Yes, I shook hands with a man that was a personal friend of Kaiser Wilhelm. He travelled the length and breadth of Russia and was presented to the late Tsar Nicholas 11. That's how insular I am.

However there is more to my make up than merely being a fearty stay-at-home. I am in the process of discouraging Scots from venturing forth except on a temporary basis because......
The population of Scotland is only 5 million, the same as it was in 1900, due to emigration, and England's absurd propensity for getting involved in, what are now, for us, unprofitable wars.
We must keep our best people at home...or Scotland will die.
Currently our best talent heads out for London, New York etc, while our universities, the potential birth-place of an engineering revival, fill up with arty-farty English cast-offs, dead-beats and third-raters.

On top of that we are subject to creeping anglification, our living rooms full of la-di-da English voices and forced to listen to the results of that incomprehensible game they call 'cricket', the only game I know where drug-taking should be mandatory.
( stimulants only!)

So while the survival of the country of my birth is in peril, you exhort me to get out and about, travel the world and meet interesting people and the many interesting diseases, mental and physical, that they carry about them.
This is tantamount to inciting treason. Like saying to one of my forbears at Mons Graupius,Largs or Bannockburn....forget about the tribe. Bunk off, mate. This fighting malarky could seriously damage your health. Be like me, the wanton raggle-taggle gypsy-o, travelling hither and thither with nothing in mind other than carefree hedonism and the pursuit of luxury.

...and there's the difference between us...as an economic vagrant, you Tyger, have ended up in a country with no Mons Graupius, Largs or Bannockburn...only Ned Kelly.

"Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there be go mark him well.....etc etc
( from the Lay of the Last Minstrel by Sir Walter Scott).

You can look up the rest for yourself.It may fail to alter your views, but it may help to sharpen your arguments.
As one famous Englishman observed.....
"We all have our prejudices, then find arguments to support them."
2015-03-22 17:57:38

Re: Objection to the potted history of the Shetlands

Board » General Discussion

@'Tyger'.....Part One

Sorry about the 'guest' bit. Not hiding , just didn't realise that I was logged in as such.

"no desire to claim to be a scotsman. I have moved on from haggis and black pudding"

Excellent news. Almost as good news, is that I have no desire to be an Australian. You're welcome to your witchety grubs, the flies and funnel web spiders, dust storms, forest fires, hovering on the edge of perpetual drought. An island continent, 90% of which is dry dusty desert as flat as a pancake.
I gave up asking Australians how much of their country they had seen. The answer was invariably, nothing much outside their local area, accompanied by some strange looks. The same looks that you would get if you asked the average Scotsman if he had visited Spitzbergen or Timbuctu.

"citizens of the UK living in the part known as Scotland"

Scotland is a country with its own educational system, legal system, religion and parliament. Scotland was happy when the English left it alone to function as a separate country, but now they are poking their noses into everything, slowly but steadily trying to anglify it.....but there has been a reaction to this.
Even the most hedonistic, ill-informed of itinerant gypsies have some ken of this.

"they have viking heritage (their claim). It's as simple as that."

No, it's not so simple.All this viking ballyhoo started when the Scots Independence movement gathered momentum and at the same time oil was discovered in the Shetlands. Prior to that, other than a few romantic krankies, nobody had the slightest notion of this supposedly great viking Shetland culture.
It is just cheap English propaganda to belittle Scotland, implying that if she did attain independence then she would fall down like a house of cards into a collection of Ruritanian principalities and fiefdoms. The press and television have had a field day on this one, but to any that know the history of that area, then it is just so much utter tripe.
Up Helly Aa has become popular in recent times. It is in fact not very old....largely a modern invention of some mischievous, English, commercially-minded dead-beats and escapists, who have chosen to live there, possibly for reasons best kept to themselves.

"go and tell the Shetlanders. I'd be very interested in how you are received ... and whether you survive the encounter."

"A 500 per cent rise in membership has seen Shetland SNP appoint new staff to handle the surge in numbers."......from the Shetland Times, 22/03/15.

Check it out for yourself on their website.

Somehow or other, I think I, a typical swivel-eyed, knuckle- dragging, petty-nationalistic, raving re-actionary, inbred genetic throwback, will be safe visiting Shetland.

--- Last Edited by AWoL at 2015-03-22 18:06:26 ---

--- Last Edited by AWoL at 2015-03-22 18:57:27 ---
2015-02-03 18:47:05

Re: Objection to the potted history of the Shetlands

Board » General Discussion

Tyger says........
"I do not think the issue is about geographical location or sovereign allegiance. "

I have to disagree.Geography -wise, the Scots are hardly going to sit back and let the islands that surround the mainland provide a safe refuge for a foreign power, from which it can launch raids on the mainland with impunity.....are they?
.....and sovereignty was everything back in the 10,11,12hundreds.
While genealogy was important and always has been in Scotland, it was always trumped by sovereignty and allegiance. Also the Hebrides and the Northern Isles were not the backwater they are today, but a major trade route of the times.On top of that, during the viking era, two kingdoms gradually developed...Scotland and Norway. Who was going to own what?
The Scots were in the stronger position....They owned the mainland. By contrast, the Norwegians, to maintain their bases in the islands, had a long and stormy sea voyage ahead of them and would only be able to transport limited supplies.
So the writing was on the wall, as soon as the Scots said....."Right, this is going to be ours."
As long as nobody else had the viking habit, essentially a combination of agriculture augmented by piracy, then they were sitting pretty. But what if others picked up the viking habit, and they became the raided and pillaged? Not so good for them....and that is what began to develop. The Scots copied the basic design of the viking longship, but with some important modifications.They made their boats straight-keeled and shorter...so that they could be hauled up on any beach. Why was that important? It's an oddity of the west of Scotland that convenient anchorages are relatively few and far between. Of the many, most are either too deep to take an anchor or they dry out at low tide.Better to have three small ships that could go anywhere, rather than one super efficient one....and three ships attacking one, gives tactical advantage.
You can go on about genes all day long, but they are of little importance in the practicalities of island life. Take Shetland today. Yes, Bergen is closer than Aberdeen, but the Orkneys are only 50 mls away. Interestingly too, even in this day and age....the ferry service between Lerwick (Shetland) and Bergen(Norway) only runs during the summer. For some reason, they decide to go into hibernation during the stormy winter months.
The practicalities of island life, and sovereignty, which are intimately linked, overcome any notions of genealogy and cultural affiliation.
The Shetlands owe a huge debt to Scotland. Every summer,in the middle ages, large fleets of fishing boats set out from Holland and Germany for their share of the vast herring shoals off Shetland and Orkney.( which fed half of Europe) Everyone got their fair share....but only thanks to the Scottish Navy that policed those waters and ensured the rule of the Laws of Scotland.....otherwise it would have been a free-for-all....with dire consequences for the Shetlanders and the rest of Scotland.

", those from the Hebrides have long considered themselves to be Celts "
Not so.In the history I read, most clans of the Western Isles received the classification "Gallgael"....a mixture of Norse and Celt. Even today, an astute observer can see the effects of the contact between those two different tribes.....but the Gaelic/ Celtic culture dominates, but not completely.Considerable Norse influence remains, even after all those centuries, in place names and even personal names. I've known a few Torquil(Torkel) McLeods in my time.
Scots certainly are not all Celts....and many would be offended if you said so.
We are indeed a mongrel race...but a high quality mongrel race, begat from the finest ingredients.
Sovereignty and willingness to fight for Scotland outweigh( nearly) all other considerations.
Given the right up-bringing and learning to speak properly, even you , Tyger, could become a true and steadfast Scotsman....subject to the outcome of some 'loyalty' tests.
2015-01-24 20:23:54

Objection to the potted history of the Shetlands

Board » General Discussion

The Scottish point of view on the Shetlands...
1) Tthe Pictish inhabitants were killed, enslaved and sold on as slaves. Let's not mince words by employing euphemistic terms like 'displaced'
2) The Shetlands are no more 'viking' than my aunty Fanny or the outer Hebridean islands of Lewis and Harris.
3) All the inner and outer Hebrides and part of the mainland of Scotland, were under Norwegian rule, but the Scots never relented in their battle to oust them from all Scotland. They out-sailed them, out-fought them, and out-terrorised them.
It took two hundred odd years to do it, a greater struggle in many ways than against the Romans.
4)The Shetlands were about to fall to the Lewis men who had conducted many successful expeditions to those islands.
They were about to fall to the Scots when King Christian, very wisely, decided to palm them off as a dowry for marriage of the Maid of Norway to the Scottish king.
The poor wee lassie died. Too bad. The Shetlands became Scottish, but were always destined to be so, and have been Scottish ever since.( that's getting on for 600 yrs)
Any of the inhabitants that wish to return to their Scandinavian roots are free to do so.....and always have been......but the Shetlands are staying right where they are.....in Scotland.
2013-06-22 02:29:13

Dundee to Danesvik/ Danskin/ Danzig/ Gdansk and thence forth

Board » Sailonline Race Committee » Race proposals

Post annotated by RainbowChaser :
This post was moved from the category Races.

I was intrigued to learn of this old trade route which was part of Scotland's lifeline when it was separate from England.
What sort of journey would be faced by my fellow Scots of the middle ages? Perhaps we might get some idea, if a race between those two locations employed something like a Class C tall ship polar?
What about a mandatory break of 24hrs for all competitors at the entrance to the Oresund, to simulate customs clearance and payment of fees for right of passage?...the magnitude of which irked many a Scottish captain.
That led to an invasion of Norway by Scots attempting to reach Sweden....the battle of Kringen where, sadly, I have to report the Scots were thoroughly annihilated.

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