MARITIME TRIVIA BY BRYAN HENRY
Of the approximately 400 species of sharks, only nine have ever killed humans.
The longest confirmed great white shark was 19 and one-half feet.
Some great white sharks weigh more than 4,500 pounds. Some fish can change from female to male.
Some sharks have sharp, front teeth as well as flat teeth in their throats for crushing shellfish.
Female sharks can store sperm after mating until the following year to fertilize new eggs. Hawksbill turtles have been hunted for thousands of years to make jewelry, combs, eyeglasses and other objects. The term “tortoiseshell” refers to these turtles exclusively.
Hawksbill turtles sleep underwater. They can hold their breath for several hours while sleeping.
Fish make up more than 80 percent of Iceland’s exports. Basking sharks hibernate in winter. The beluga is the only whale that can bend its neck.
Australian scientists think the orange roughy fish is exceptionally long-lived, perhaps surviving up to 200 years.
Pearls formed attached to the oyster shell are called blister pearls. Baroque pearls are large, misshapen free pearls, not attached.
Human blood, devoid of its cells and proteins, has the same general makeup as seawater.
British sailors have been called limeys, and were at one time called lime-juicers, because they were required to drink lime juice to ward off scurvy.
English sailors of the 18th century - even the most ruffian - wore skirts.
The shortest river in the world is Oregon’s D River. At 120 feet long, it’s shorter than an Olympic-size swimming pool.
The surface area of more than 17 Arctic Oceans would fit into the surface area of the Pacific Ocean.
Some icebergs can be a thousand feet tall, but only 10 percent of any iceberg is visible above water.
During the last ice age, about 23,000 years ago, there were icebergs in the ocean as far south as Mexico.
They’re called the Freakin’ Old Guys, FOGs for short. Six geezers who love their small sailboats and cruise
the Pacific Northwest for weeks at a time, enjoying the comradeship and sharing small adventures. It all turns serious when they pick up a fifteen-year-old juvenile delinquent, and becomes deadly when the Russian Ma- fia comes after one of them. The FOGs make a run for cover and hide in fog bank.
But when they emerge into an open sea, they are not anywhere near the Pacific Northwest and they’re miss- ing a man. Six retired men, all from different back- grounds with different personalities and capabilities, find themselves catapulted into the wildest adventure of their lives – their own Odyssey packed with the ex- citement, monsters, mysterious women, and capricious gods who tormented Ulysses.
Their greatest enemy may be a demigoddess. She may also be their best ally.
The FOGs are in a strange time and a very strange place. They have to find their way home somehow.
They have a long, long way to go. Available at:
Amazon.com •
BarnesAndNoble.com 48° NORTH, MAY 2011 PAGE 31
NEW!
Lowtide
from Master Storyteller… and Small Craft Sailor
DICK HERMAN National Bestselling Author
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