Xah Lee's Unixism

[Larry Elmore]

Anne & Lynn Wheeler wrote:

> the two spoof stories in the aftermath
> 
> 1) one about sectioning the boats for columbus because they had to be
> built in the mountains where the trees grew and then used tar to stick
> the sections together for the trip across the atlantic. lots of ships
> were lost at sea for all sorts of reasons ... but hopefully none
> because the ship was built in sections and tar was used to stick them
> together.

No, but some Liberty ships built in WWII, welded together from pre-fab 
sections, literally broke in half when the welds failed (IIRC, in very 
cold water like the Barents sea). The problem was fixed by welding large 
reinforcing "patches" on either side of the weak point in the hull.

--Larry