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about
Becalmed
Before sea travel was supported by engines, seafarers were at the mercy of the whims of the wind. Becalmed for nine days, with no wind to fill the sails, a sailor starts to suspect that the weather is no accident but is, in fact, due to the Devil’s interference.
At the Equator, solar radiation from the sun beams down directly on the world’s oceans — put simplistically, this heating causes the air to warm and rise straight up rather than blow horizontally.
The result is little or no wind, sometimes for weeks on end; wildly erratic weather patterns and violent thunder and electric storms are also a feature.
This is the Doldrums, the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone — a place could strand ships for weeks on end, where water and food could run out — a place of scurvy, starvation, cabin fever and delirium.
lyrics
Becalmed
Lyrics — Kirsty Merryn
Windless, the Devil’s on the mast,
Nine miles only travelled, in the nine days past.
Salt under my fingernails, salt upon the deck,
The Devil’s caught the empty sails,
Nine days empty yet.
We cannot carry forward, we cannot carry back,
the devil’s on the deck my boys, the Devil’s on my back.
No biscuits in the larder,
no brandy in the kegs,
the Devil’s caught the captain
and he’s making him to beg.
credits
from The Devil's On The Mast,
released June 2, 2023
Music by Adam Summerhayes, Murray Grainger and Kirsty Merryn
Produced and mixed by Murray Grainger. Lyrics by Adam Summerhayes and Kirsty Merryn
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