Kalm's account of his visit to England : on his way to America in 1748 / translated by Joseph Lucas ; with two maps and several illustrations.

  • Pehr Kalm
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Kalm's account of his visit to England : on his way to America in 1748 / translated by Joseph Lucas ; with two maps and several illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Angria* in which captivity he had been for more than two years [T. I. p. 370.] before he had made his escape. He told us what means this sea-rover used to make his ships sail very fast, so that no European ship could get away from him, so that he could not overtake it, med mindre han jn skulle få det fast, which consisted in this, that he never kept any of his ships in the sea over a month; after the lapse of which time he had it carried into some dock, tapped off the water, and afterwards made them polish the ship quite smooth and slippery with cocoa-nuts which were cloven in two. With these cocoa-nuts the ship was polished on the outside, that is to say, the part of the ship which was under water, so long that there was not much left of the cocoa- nut; and as the cocoa-nut has at the same time an abundance of oil in it, so the surface of the ship was doubly polished and made slippery, glatt och halt. First the cocoa-nut, by its hardness, made the ship in the polishing quite smooth and polished, slätt och glatt, and secondly, the oil of the cocoa-nut made it so slippery, halt, that it went incredibly fast through the water, and had from it very little resistance. After the lapse of a month the oil began to diminish, and a number of Testacea, or snails, snäckor, mussels, musslor, and such-like shell-fish, skal djur, fastened on to the ship, from which cause the ship took to going somewhat slower ; wherefore he at once had it drawn up on the land, or carried it into a dock, made them scrape off that which had fastened upon it, and polish it, as has been said. In this way he put himself in a position that no European ship could *The piratical state, founded by Konna Ji Angria, in the middle of the XVIIth century, flourished for more than 100 years, though the English, Portuguese and Dutch tried to destroy it. Col. Clive and Admiral Watson at last succeeded, andon the I3th February, 1757, took Geriah, then the chief stronghold of the Angrias, and broke their power. [F. W. L.]
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