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The Nina, the Pinta and the Rancho Bernardo
"What are you making for the kids this year?" my wife asked about a week ago as we ate breakfast. Total blank. I was cracking walnuts to eat with chunks of Korean pears; I'd forgotten all about making gifts for the grandkids. "Little boats," I lied. "In fact, I'm working on them right now." I continued to crack walnuts with the blade of my pocket-knife while I told her about Duke Haliburton and how he'd persuaded King Charles of Spain to out-source the transportation between Mexico and the Philippines, back around 1665. She gave me a suspicious look. "Seriously. Duke Haliburton convinced crazy King Charles that out- sourcing would save him a buncha money. Then the Duke hired some Chinese guys to sail back & forth between Manila and Acapulco..." "Chinese guys?" Her eyebrow arched up the way it does when she's on to me. "Sure. It was a lot cheaper than building a galleon..." "I suppose these Chinese guys used a Chris-Craft." "Don't be silly." I crunched my way through a couple of chunks of Korean pear. "Chinese guys sail junks." "So... you're making the kids Chinese junks?" "Right!" Whew, that was a close one. "Three of them?" "That's how many Duke Haliburton hired. Cost him twenty pieces of eight a month, each. For which he charged King Charles something like a million dollars." That got a smile. "Things haven't changed much," she laughed. Then she gave me that look: "I don't suppose you remember the names of those Chinese junks." "Ah... the Nina, the Pinta and... uh... the Rancho Bernardo." At which point she said something rude. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aircraft content: I made the spars out of Sita Spruce. (pix on bobhooversblog.blogspot.com ) -R.S.Hoover |
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