#bosun

[skelleste]

Drew over some of Scratch's old reference to clean it up for Art Fight.

[oledavyjones]

Not sure about this one/ just thinking aloud: A veteran bosun is overseing the loading of the cargo in the hold, giving hand signals to the men in the hold - and perhaps to the guy operating the crane.

This photo feels like the 70s, but it's a guess. Found it at pinterest.

[midi8]

[davekopka]

“Go ahead, try ‘n see what happens…”

Say we try to fit an aggressively fed-up Sam Eagle personality into a Watership Down character type? 🥶

We love her anyway!

New addition to the DnD npc group ✍️

[uamariner]

Maritime English. Marine Stores Guide. Pneumatic & Electrical Tools. Part 2

[focsle]

Season’s Greasons

[ltwilliammowett]

A tiny silver bosun's call recovered from the wreck of the Tudor Ship Mary Rose, before 1545

[frau-kali]

[sidereous]

[here-be-descriptions]

Great Dragon Sphinxes: from “Bosun’s Journal”. Artwork by CaptainStroon.

“Bosun’s Journal, MET: 2’526’681’825’101’541 seconds with a possible deviation of 1 second

Long ago in a faraway ship… Well, actually not that far away, it’s this ship, the Nebukadnezar. But as we’re currently very far away from pretty much anything else, it still counts. So, let’s get back to my little story. Long ago in a faraway ship, which is also right here, the passengers of habitat one weren’t satisfied with owning cats and dogs and birds as pets, they wanted something more. And the genetech companies, seeing the opportunity to earn massive profits provided. They created new licensed human species, the petlings. Small cuddly critters inspired by cats and lapdogs. No longer sapient, but human nonetheless.

That was 80 million years ago. The pet owners, geneticists and biotech executives are long dead, along with all the other passengers. But the petlings outlived their creators. But they are neither small nor cuddly anymore. Well, the cuddly part might be debatable, but if I was a passenger from long ago, I wouldn’t try to cuddle with one of these petling descendants. There are many species of them which I collectively call sphinxes due to their carnivoran but still somewhat human appearance. The biggest and meanest of them are the great dragon sphinxes.

Reaching the length of a traincar, these apex predators feed on the wooly humie herds and the posthuman megafauna inhabiting the arid steppes of habitat one. They have oversized trapezoid muscles on either side of their neck, giving them immense strength to rip into their prey or shake it to death. Their bite strength might not be as strong as that of their rivals, the crushjaws.

Oh, I’ve not mentioned the rivalry between great dragon sphinxes and crushjaws yet. I haven’t mentioned the crushjaws at all yet. So here’s a rundown: Crushjaws are apex predators from habitat one just like great dragon sphinxes. They are the feral descendants of the desert ravers, who in fact shared some DNA with the petlings. But instead of tiny lap pets, they were bred to be fierce intimidating warriors with a biteforce to match. The same biteforce serves them well as animalistic hyper carnivores now. As the street reef network separates the surface of habitat one into various isolated biomes, the two species could evolve into a very similar niche. Occasionally they cross the natural borders which is the street reef and come across one another. Those meetings usually end in violence. The two species attack each other on sight seemingly aware of their natural competition.

But let’s return to great dragon sphinx biology for a bit. The face of a great dragon sphinx features elongated brow ridges which serve as display features. Some of their relatives like the changeling sphinxes portray vast sexual dimorphism. This isn’t the case for the great dragon sphinxes. Both sexes are similar in appearance and behavior. Both feature the elongated brow ridges and show them off to each other in their courtship dance.

What also plays a part in their courtship rituals is their love for shiny things. Which reminded me of their namesake mythical creature. Not the sphinx, but the dragon. Regardless of sex, they portray two distinct courtship behaviors: There are hoarders and seekers. Hoarders collect metal and crystal shards and basically anything which reflects light in fancy ways. Some have even realized that breaking apart rusted metal scrap might reveal shiny surfaces. They dig for ancient debris of the long gone civilizations of the past and gnaw on whatever metal they find to polish it. They then collect all their treasure in one big hoard which attracts potential seeker mates by glittering in the sunlamp light. The convex curvature of the habitat means that seekers just have to look up to see fellow great dragon sphinxes’ hoards glint in the distance. What happens when they reach those hoards depends on the mood of both sphinxes. Sometimes they mate, sometimes they fight for the hoard. Hoard thieves behave like seekers until they conquer a hoard, then they switch to a hoarder lifestyle. Hoarders generally have much smaller territories than the nomadic seekers. Which means that it’s usually the seekers which get into fights with crushjaws.

I’ve used my old population survey algorithms to monitor the population of both species. Currently there are 141’227 great dragon sphinxes and 53’098 crushjaws living in habitat one. If their habitats keep overlapping, one species will eventually drive the other to extinction. And looking at the numbers, it will probably be the great dragon sphinxes winning this evolutionary arms race. Which is a shame for the crushjaws, sure, but that’s natural selection. I could play zookeeper and micromanage the ship’s biosphere, but leaving nature run its course will for sure lead to a more organic rise of sapience eventually. There are already a few very promising candidates for that. But neither great dragon sphinxes nor crushjaws are among them. Still, both are fascinating creatures, even if they might not last forever, as all animal species sadly do.”

[acowardinmordor]

There is this song that YouTube algorithmed to me. And good job. This is exactly my jam. Tale of the Shadow.

And unexpectedly, my brain wants to make it a Max and El thing.

You should pause and listen real fast.

Okay, you’re back? Good.

Something about El having escaped it before, Henry was trying to use her and the powers she has to try to capture it. Henry got taken, and El barely escaped. Max is the daughter of a privateer, and has been on and off the ocean all her life. She has heard stories about The Shadow for years, Billy has always sworn he’d take it one day. Max meets El in one of the rare seasons she spends on land, this strange, sweet girl who was found on flotsam after a storm.

A year or two later, in which Max has made sure to come to port more often, just to see her friend, she and her brother lose their dad, and Billy inherits the ship, the Camaro. Max hugs El goodbye at the dock and climbs abroad expecting the trip to be rough as she proves to his newly hired crew that she’s more than the young woman they see. It’s worse than she knew. Billy is going after The Shadow, but Max doesn’t find out til they’re at sea.

And, to be fair, Billy does catch it, which few ever do. They board. And for whatever reason, Max is the one to touch the helm. She watches The Shadow kill her brother and his crew before it takes her eyes, and shackles her to it.

Another ship nearby saw them in pursuit of the Shadow, and brings the story back to land, along with the empty and battered Camaro. El is brought a letter that Max wrote after finding out what her brother intended to do. The second crew had the decency to deliver it since they found it while salvaging what they could.

It's an apology, and an explanation of what Billy wants to do. Everyone knows that no one survives the wrath of The Shadow.

But El did. And now it’s taken her friend. Henry was a bad man, but he was smart, and he was sure that El was strong enough to defeat it.

She finds the captain of the ship that hauled the husk of Max’s ship back to shore. She demands they help her. Demands they believe her when she says she can defeat it. Throws an entire fit when they don’t, until the walls shake and thunder rolls, until they see a bit of the power she holds that made Henry steal her and try to use her.

The Captain refuses to put his crew in danger. A few of his crew start to argue for her. The captain holds the line until the scarred sailor with frizzy dark hair who has been fiddling with dice the whole time joins in on El's side. With a sigh, the captain stands, looking to his second in command, a woman with a sharp wit.

And thats how Elle Hopper meets Captain Steve Harrington and his crew. Who are not pirates, but they’re not not-pirates.

It doesn’t matter. She needs them. They sail a few days later, Elle going on the ocean for the first time since Henry, chasing the Shadow, so she can save her friend.

—

This is a Hot potato fic. Add to it if you know more pieces of the story or the world.

[cobra-creampuff]

"morale is the highest it's ever been!" while buttons looks like he's about to die of torment from having his selkie skin off for too long

[dirtybg3confessions]

Confession: the way i'd let bosun gannet do shots off my body if he wanted. fuck me w a beer bottle. idc i just need that grumpy bartender in ways that will banish me from the gates of heaven

[focsle]

Lou and I have been watching black sails and when Anne Bonny’s on the screen he’s like ‘she’s Bosun’.

Same energy.

[ltwilliammowett]

Silver Bosun's call, 19th century