Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Shipwreck Blog: The Monkey Hangers

In 1772, a ship wrecked off the coast of Scotland, near a village named Boddam.

Scottish law forbade the villagers from looting the wreck if even one survivor remained aboard, so the villagers hauled off the remaining survivor and hanged him.

The survivor was hairy, ugly and dressed in a French uniform, so the villagers mistook him for a Frenchman. It was, in fact, a monkey. The tale made its way into folk song, The Boddamers Hung The Monkey-O.

Good stuff.
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3 comments:

  1. Barco Sin Vela II1/14/2009 04:53:00 PM

    Hey Bob,

    Off topic: I thought you might like this link to the Deyo crew site:
    http://navysite.de/crew.php?action=ship&squad=false&starty=1976&endy=1984&ship=DD%20989

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bob1/15/2009 01:35:00 AM

    Thanks! Maybe I should clarify that I wasn't a member of the crew myself, but served TAD onboard Deyo for several months in the early 1980's, as I did on a half-dozen ships when I was stationed at Naval Security Group Detachment Norfolk.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Barco Sin Vela II1/15/2009 07:56:00 AM

    Ohhh,

    Outboard cat.

    I was an Airdet type. That meant I slept every night unless I had to fly in the wee hours.

    ReplyDelete

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