Thalassa - a primordial sea goddess, perhaps the mother of Aphrodite with Uranus or Zeus; a moon of Neptune; a genus of ladybug; a Dutch tall ship, temporarily docked in Galway.

Elegant, three-masted, and pointy-prowed, the barquentine is the whiskey of ships. Imagine spying the full moon beneath those white sails, surrounded by perilous deep waters.

Only the other day, a tall ship sank off the Cork coast. Astrid, formerly Bide Your Time. Here's the brief history of a shipwreck: first, a Dutch trader's brig, following Baltic trade routes; then, a smuggler's vessel, burned off the coast of England; finally salvaged, a ship for the perilous leisure of rich transnational hobbyists. Now Astrid bides still, at last, in time, as the Kinsale harbourmaster ponders her fate, and a deep mist swirls in off the Atlantic.





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