OK, so I'm re-reading "A Pirate Looks at Fifty"
Posted: December 10, 2011 12:48 pm
...and in the book (in the section titled "A Visit with Mr. Twain") he mentions thumbing through an old LIFE magazine from the week he was born and seeing a picture of a ship called the 'Del Norte'; he goes on to say that it had been built in Pascagoula (true), and that the ship that followed off the slipways was named the 'Del Mundo'.
I was kinda curious to see a picture of the vessel, but it's too cold (and I'm too lazy) to go to the main branch of the library where I know from first-hand experience that they have copies of LIFE magazine going back to the very beginning; besides, I have the internet and Google, right? So I Google "Del Norte" and get a couple of very nice pictures and more information than I really needed about the three ships of the Delta Line that came to be known as the "Del Triplets", but interesting reading anyway. However, the three ships were, in turn, 'Del Norte', 'Del Sud', and 'Del Mar'. Nowhere is there any mention of 'Del Mundo'. In fact, the only reference to any vessel named 'Del Mundo' was the Delta Line's 'SS Delmundo', a 5000-ton steamer constructed in Pennsylvania and launched in 1919; while part of a convoy from Buenos Aires to NYC she was torpedoed and lost off Cuba's Guantanamo Bay in August 1942.
Also, elsewhere in the book he mentions that his grandfather's five-masted bark was the 'Chickamauga', and I know we've discussed and dissected the facts of that little bit of history on this website before and come up with the conclusion that while we're still not sure what her actual name was, it *wasn't* 'Chickamauga'.
While these inaccuracies in no way distract from the stories Jimmy is telling (and the points he is trying to make), it does make me wonder just how much of the rest of what is '"known" about Jimmy — including what he says himself — is incorrect, or has been tweaked for public consumption (or to make for a better story....), or is an outright fabrication?
-"BB"-
I was kinda curious to see a picture of the vessel, but it's too cold (and I'm too lazy) to go to the main branch of the library where I know from first-hand experience that they have copies of LIFE magazine going back to the very beginning; besides, I have the internet and Google, right? So I Google "Del Norte" and get a couple of very nice pictures and more information than I really needed about the three ships of the Delta Line that came to be known as the "Del Triplets", but interesting reading anyway. However, the three ships were, in turn, 'Del Norte', 'Del Sud', and 'Del Mar'. Nowhere is there any mention of 'Del Mundo'. In fact, the only reference to any vessel named 'Del Mundo' was the Delta Line's 'SS Delmundo', a 5000-ton steamer constructed in Pennsylvania and launched in 1919; while part of a convoy from Buenos Aires to NYC she was torpedoed and lost off Cuba's Guantanamo Bay in August 1942.
Also, elsewhere in the book he mentions that his grandfather's five-masted bark was the 'Chickamauga', and I know we've discussed and dissected the facts of that little bit of history on this website before and come up with the conclusion that while we're still not sure what her actual name was, it *wasn't* 'Chickamauga'.
While these inaccuracies in no way distract from the stories Jimmy is telling (and the points he is trying to make), it does make me wonder just how much of the rest of what is '"known" about Jimmy — including what he says himself — is incorrect, or has been tweaked for public consumption (or to make for a better story....), or is an outright fabrication?
-"BB"-
....and often mentions making stuff up. I don't think he does a whole lot of rechecks about stuff....Just says or writes them as he remembers them.
Same here.![[smilie=gt-happyup.gif]](./images/smilies/gt-happyup.gif "gt-happyup"){kind=small}
