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| 1984 Gulf 32 Pilot House Sailboat |
Synopsis
of Vagabond Mariners
Upcoming Book
This is the
story of how a creatively-thinking, mariner vagabond, Wyman Wicket, captures
the attention of Firmin Finbarr, a Freeman investor/entrepreneur, and how real
American liberty goes from the drawing board to a geo-spatial demonstration of
its reality. A third main character, the winsome Rev. Charles Gumpus,
interposes a supernatural element into their joint project on liberty.
Wicket
has been stewing on some very innovative concepts and inventive marine technology.
At the same time he plans to drop out and just float around the world in a sailboat.
When he comes into a small inheritance he starts planning to do both and more. During
his preparatory phase he makes contact with Fluxom, a nautical design-build company
that has taken a keen interest in his patented, creative design ideas:- deep-sea trading
platforms
- sea-floor
habitation modules
- a
submersible sailboat w/hook-up capacity
After some intense wrangling, Finbarr manages
to obtain a majority share interest in Fluxom. Arrangements are soon made for
Firmin to meet Wyman at a certain port-of-call. They instantly hit it off and a
partnership is born—not a legal
partnership so much as an esprit de corps
they share toward liberty, with its attendant freedom to be left alone.
Cut to Rev. Gumpus, a nosy-yet-big-hearted
“Friar Tuck”-like character. Previously, he had made the acquaintance of Finbarr in their “Odd Fellows Church,”[2]
a Christian Church dedicated simply to Bible study, fasting, and prayer. Rev.
Gumpus is/was a Catholic priest who woke up to the serious corruption and
vagaries of the Roman Church—and once “red-pilled” he walks a fine line between
his priestly duties and living the gospels of Jesus.
Gumpus had latched onto Finbarr because he sensed
“some semblance of virtue in his heart and valor in his soul”; Finbarr finds
Gumpus good-natured but a bit overbearing, polemic and irritating—yet at the
same time (and paradoxically) he values Gumpus for these very same qualities. Besides
which, they share a wee fondness for the more grog-like spirits.
Finbarr brings Gumpus into his confidence
concerning Wicket’s project. Rev. Gumpus at once finds it ingenious and he insists
upon meeting this intrepid Wicket fellow. When he does, Wicket too senses an endearing
charm, a like-minded soul, and the three of them soon form a loose alliance, “a
confederation of dunces,” some might say. And as the sea-building quietly
proceeds, Wicket sets sail, and the trio gradually establishes their “reverse
beachhead.”
Along the way they encounter resistance,
mostly from military intelligence operatives and government agents working for
the Vatican and the usual globalist suspects. But in the end they manage to
pull-off their cockamamie scheme and have the last laugh.
Wyman
Wicket: Background and Initial Start-up
Once upon a time, Wyman Wicket had done a
stint as a merchant marine. This was the sum and substance of his nautical
experience. He never actually did any
sailing. He wouldn’t know the difference between a halyard and a hawser, or,
e.g., if he was told to check the “head-sail” (and, as a hint, further directed
to look for “jibs and staysails set between the bowsprit and the
fore”) it would all mean diddly-squat to him.
Still, he one day plans to drop out of
society to become a devoted “vagabond mariner.” In fact, that is the working title
of the journal he has begun and intends to keep.
When Wicket gets an inheritance from a
dead uncle, he buys a 30 ft. sailboat, takes a basic seamanship course, and gets
ready to set sail. But he keeps getting delayed. Fluxom, a design-build company
he had connected up with, keeps him busy with incessant questions and requirements.
Wicket wishes and prays that he had instead hooked up with some visionary
libertarian businessman/builder about his deep sea trading platforms, sea-floor
habitation modules, and submersible sailboat concepts. (Little does he know,
he’s about to fish-his-wish—and his prayers are soon to be answered when Firmin Finbarr comes into the picture.)
Deciding to escape from Fluxom’s nagging building
demands, Wicket gets underway; he has decided to more-or-less re-create Hal
Roth’s 1972 circumnavigation of the Pacific Ocean (together with his wife) entitled
Two on a Big Ocean. This will be his
trial run as a vagabond mariner adrift upon the freedom and the fury of the sea.
On a wing and a prayer he starts off by following
the inter-coastal waterway down to the Gulf of Mexico and on into the
Caribbean. Misadventures befall him until he chances to meet up with an old
salt, Sam Whenty, on an island stop-over in Cozumel. Sam’s become a down-on-his-luck
gambler/wastrel who’s been holed up on this island for a year or two—a Walter-Brennan-like
character, as lovable as he is wily. They bond and soon Wyman sets sail with his new seasoned, seafaring pilot and navigator aboard.
Throughout this maiden voyage, he stays in
contact with Fluxom. By the time they are approaching the Panama Canal Wyman begins
detecting a more favorable tone in their communiques. Unbeknownst to Wyman, this new turn of events has come about due
to the intervention of Finbarr in Fluxom. The plot thickens as Finbarr induces Wicket
to weigh anchor at Isla del Rey, just outside the south-western mouth of the
Canal, and he proposes to meet with him there.
Wyman and Sam go through the Panama Canal, intending
to sail on a westerly heading toward the Marquesas, the northern-most islands
of French Polynesia. But first they make a pit stop, and it is here that they make their initial encounter with Wicket’s curious patron.
Wyman
Wicket’s Journal
In Wicket’s early research into the lives of
mariners, he noticed that those who choose to go to sea as a serious endeavor—to actually live on board their boats—come in a range
of flavors and varieties but ultimately fall into three main categories:
Dreamers: pure romantics, delusional
escapees, and escapee lovers of the natural world
Realists: dedicated mariners who
believe that self-sufficiency makes the man; that the sea, as both mistress and
master, is an indifferent force of nature (begging questions concerning their sanity
and social fitness); some such mariners channel a natural survival inclination
by carrying goods for trade in order to pay for needed supplies to continue on and
have a tendency to avoid participation in matters of allegiance to governments (viz.,
bureaucratic officials.) Some refer
to this as the “Phoenician model.”
Opportunists: sportsmen, wealthy
bohemian elitists, pirates (freebooters), and privateers (state-sponsored mercenaries)
Wicket next explores the life of any vagabond
mariner, which he sees as being a life that at once rejects society’s many
rules and regulations while at the same time depends upon society’s production
of goods and services for his existence. Thus, the irony: the lives of vagabond
mariners are contingent upon society continuing to function. It is a sort of resentful
dependency upon supply, requiring
them to live “somewhere in-between”.[3]
In order to wean dedicated vagabond mariners
from their land-dependency needs, Wicket then envisions deep-sea-based trading platforms that serve as re-supply depots.[4]
Like having a space station in deep space or a tanker aircraft for in-flight
refueling, these way-stations could provide a convenient service for tramp
mariners; they would relieve a boat’s skipper from having to make special trips
to land-based ports in order to get re-supplied—while also avoiding the often
laborious and time-consuming task of dealing with immigration and customs
bureaucracy hassles (not to mention falling prey to “state surveillance”).
The obvious next step in Wicket’s mind
would then be to coordinate with some visionary libertarian businessman/builder
in order to design and build his platforms or safe harbors, unhitched from any would-be controlling kleptocracy.
These deep-sea-platforms would be discrete economic and lego-political entities
that enjoy their own de facto internal sovereignty of extraterritoriality; in
other words, no muss, no fuss—non-aligned free-trading
zones.
As if his idea for floating, deep sea trading
platforms was not novel enough, Wicket also proposes a second vision, this one
for undersea mariners: sea-floor habitation modules.
Sea-floor habitation modules could only be
accessed by submersible craft. Such craft would be outfitted with a special docking
mechanism, allowing a craft to link onto an interlocking door built into the
habitation module on the sea floor. This could establish a passageway which would
allow the mariner to pass freely from the submersible into the module; the
locked door connection also holds the submersible fast to the module, much the
same as a space craft docks onto a space station.
These sea-floor habitation modules can be
used as private trading/re-stocking
points, as opposed to the public deep-sea trading platforms.
Additionally, these modules can be seen as
a reconstituted form of the isolation caves of yore. Caves, like remote deserts,
are areas of retreat located in inhospitable places traditionally sought by those
wishing to seclude themselves, wherein one contemplates eternity and
meditatively communes with the depths of oneself, one’s soul, in an unfettered
interior journeying. Moreover, a sea-floor module is a place that is even more inaccessible while the occupation
within can be as daunting and unnerving as occupying a cave (or being in a
remote desert).
And so, according to Wicket, in order to
be the compleat vagabond mariner, one
would need a dual-purpose craft that can act as both sailing vessel and submarine.
Again, Wicket directs interested parties to coordinate with visionary
libertarian businessmen/builders to assemble his submersible sailboat. The obvious advantage of having such a
hybrid craft is that it can simply submerge to avoid and wait-out inclement
weather—gale winds, rain, and waves.
What immediately comes to Wicket’s mind
are USOs (Unidentified Submerged Objects). However, for Wicket, crafts capable
of flying through the air and water (and, presumably, outer space) would
be better described as Unidentified Transmersible
Objects (UTOs). And for Wicket, a craft that can navigate in all possible environs: the water’s surface, the water’s sub-surface, in the air and in outer space, would be the Optimal Travel Machine (OTM)—a liberty
vehicle extraordinaire, allowing the occupant to pursue and preserve absolute independence
via absolute freedom of movement—physical
movement that is.
The Ruminations of Firmin Finbarr
Firmin Finbarr self-styles himself as a 21st Century Schizoid Man.
The prescient, predictive-programming of the 1969 tune by King Crimson, 21st
Century Schizoid Man, is finally being fulfilled in the year 2020.
There is an ironic political paradox.
It’s bound up in socio-cultural baggage. It’s weird and goes something like
this:
Let’s start with the (then) current news: the
rioting peaceful protesters. They are agitators, leftists—communists, though
calling themselves "socialists"—who are leading a mass of younger,
educationally brainwashed, and just generally libtard masses.
What are they fighting against? Hold
that thought.
How many out there have any notion
about the difference between public law versus private law?—that the United
States is a corporate entity (covertly established by Congress around the time of the Civil War) debilitated by machinations of the FDR
administration that bankrupted the country in 1933?—that common law courts are dead
and that (preposterous as it sounds) you are really a straw man subject to
admiralty law? That the U.S. Constitution is, de facto, in
abeyance?—that the globalist British hegemony via its Pilgrims Society, the UN/NWO/Soros-Rockefeller cancers,
the Federal Reserve cabal and its unlawful IRS collection agency have enslaved
the People?—that the so-called Patriot Act is nothing of the sort?
—The facts in the foregoing paragraph are held to be true by genuine American patriots.
(Read, e.g.,You Know Something is Wrong When...: An American Affidavit of Probable Cause, Anna Maria Riezinger, James Clinton Belcher (2015); One Freeman’s
War: In the Second American Revolution, Mark Emery (2015); make the Gabriels' https://gab.com/Gabriels_Horn and aim4truth.org regular stops for daily
news)
What are patriots fighting
against?
They are fighting for the same thing
that the commie leftists are fighting for: to
bring down the corrupt, oppressive, false-fake-and-phony System.
Surprised? Most anyone would be.
Why?
The “why” revolves around the nature
of what should replace that corrupt System: lefties
want anything-goes fascio-communism; patriots want their constitutional republic
restored, along with time-tested, traditional values.
Both are entangled in a corporatized, technocratic,
digital milieu quickly coming under AI surveillance that confounds most
people’s ability to sort things out; and both sides are
blinded by disinformation from the System and the controlled
opposition to the System that caters willingly to each side.
The result? You guessed it: 21st Century
Schizoid Man.
----------------------
Resolution
The mantra insisted upon from
kneelers-to-the-hoodlum-agitators is: “Revolution is the solution, not voting”
—Voting, however, does work but only when:
1. the candidates are not cardboard
cut-outs put up by vested lobbying/party interests;
2. elections are conducted
without the fraud of outdated modes of operation and unreliable voter rolls, ballot harvesting
from early and mail-in voting; rigged electronic voting machines, as opposed to using paper ballots exclusively, and;
3. we’ve returned our Nation to the
true foundations of our constitutional republic
Finbarr’s mantra to all the People is:
“Resolution is the solution, then
voting”
That is, the true patriot solution is
to resolve by dissolving the corporate fiction version of America (including the Senior Executive Service and covert British intrusion via its Pilgrims Society and other tendrils of control) and instituting sound election processes*.
* clean up voter rolls, require proper
voter ID, paper ballots only, in-person voting with absentee ballots only for the
elderly (over 65), disabled and expatriates; concurrently—effectively reform money/contributions
into political coffers from lobbyists/NGOs and foundations and enact some sort of term
limits control on Congress, e.g., after serving one term a Congressman would be
prohibited from running again until another’s term for that same seat has run its course; reduce/limit
control of parties over candidates
All of this conventional conservative wisdom is just so much political tail-chasing and suddenly pales upon hearing of Wyman Wicket’s projects. A light bulb goes on in
the mind of Finbarr as he compares Wicket’s physical spaces to subtler aspects of
being.
Geo-spatial analogues to
reality/freedom are scrutinized:
Landè normative
reality = herd freedom
Water surfaceè alternate
reality = individualized freedom
Underwaterè esoteric
reality = spiritual freedom
Deep spaceè
extraterrestrial reality = transit meta-freedom
-
includes being able to pass-through, i.e., navigate
through “solid matter”
Finbarr instantly realizes that “land
thinking” has become as inordinately dull as the minds of its land dwellers.
And the long-touted, dry-sounding reformations advocated by conservatives and solutions offered by Freemen sovereigns such as himself are just that: they have become those trite and tedious answers that are dutifully
ignored by a populace too worn and weary from their conditioning and monotonous
existence to really give a shit.
His
grand hope is to capture the imagination of the public-at-large via Wicket’s
mind-bending marine technology and parlay that into a model for understanding the
originary underpinnings of the Republic. Specifically, this is the private law
that was instituted by the Founding Fathers to safeguard the individual liberties
of the People. This law is a far cry from today’s “judicial System,” which has removed
the remedies at law meant to be freely accessed and available to us as the true
sovereigns of the Republic.
First Meeting
At Isla del Rey they first meet at the
boat, then retreat inland to a simple outdoor restaurant. Soon the lads exchange their respective positions with respect to what they quickly come to understand
is a shared passion for being free and securing one’s liberty. (Sam hovers about in the wings.)
Though Wicket comes from a simple working
background and Finbarr comes from the creatively-tepid business world, each is a deep thinker. They are natural
philosophers. Each wishes to extend his notion of freedom and liberty to all as
that which is the common possession of humanity—unalienable rights endowed by
God the Creator.
Their sensibilities of God, soul and
spirit, are essentially populist ones steeped in tradition and time-tested values.
This is, of course, as it should be; one’s spiritual nature is part and parcel
of one’s unique sovereignty of being, not to be separated out and projected onto
the domain of experts, i.e., a priest class. And yet, from time immemorial, certain
individuals in society—whether shamans or priests—have come to be recognized as
special avatars of spiritual understanding, worthy of being consulted for
comfort and guidance.
[Enter Rev. Gumpus. See below.]
The more they talk, the more they have to
discuss, and the initial meeting stretches on for two more days. Subtler
overlays become evident as the two men discuss the project in greater depth. A main
point arises concerning two distinct spheres of “beingness.” These opposites, might
be depicted in a variety of ways: action vs. non-action; movement vs. stasis; nomadism
vs. sedentarism; exploration vs. parochialism; curiosity vs. indifference;
physical activity vs. physical inactivity; engagement vs. apathy; self-reliance
vs. dependency. Here, their purpose is to show that the former has more advantages over the latter.
However, this “dichotomy of opposites”
soon gives way to a “synergy of relatedness.” Strict dichotomies are false
delineations as far as laying out a course of conduct human beings should
adopt. As opposites, each represents an extreme that cannot be followed in
isolation from the other. A balance between the two is not only needed but is
necessary and optimal. Apparent opposites (or two-spheres-of-beingness) must be
apprehended for what they really are: polar
complementarities.
Whereas opposites negate each other, polar complementarities complete each other. That is, otherwise antithetical states of
being (e.g., physical activity vs. physical inactivity) can and should usefully
work together, viz., one needs to move
but also needs to rest. Thus, an
individual has an innate drive to balance-out
what otherwise appear to be seeming opposites so as to optimize the potential
benefits of each in a synergy of both.
Sam Whenty, at first hanging out in the
background, begins getting ever closer and listening in. He finds himself
becoming enamored with their big ideas. Before long he makes himself available
to assist as needed. Even though Sam has his faults (he drinks, gambles and gets into scrapes with people) he's struggling to overcome these bad habits and his "heart is in the right place." And despite his limitations and faults, Sam feels somehow redeemed
by keeping company with these gents. This interlude cements his loyalty and
dedication to his captain, Wyman Wicket, while holding this Firmin Finbarr in high
regard.
Now, the Rev. Charles Gumpus (known as Fr.
Charlie by his close friends) is a bigger-than-life character more akin to some
noted, early 20th century padres. For example, one might say that Gumpus
has the goodness of a Fr. Flanagan (of Boystown fame), with the acerbic good
sense of a tough Fr. Coughlin, yesteryear’s radio preacher, topped off by the understated
star quality of a Fr. O’Malley (from that old film, The Bells of St. Mary’s, starring Bing Crosby). But his sizable
girth and jovial manner remind most of Friar Tuck, the fat abbot in Robin
Hood’s Band of Merry Men.
Gumpus comes along with Finbarr on the second
meet-up with Wicket, which occurs in the early summer, about a year after
their first meeting. (By this time, Wyman and Sam have sailed the entire length
of the South Pacific archipelago and then some, stopping in at, e.g., the
Society Islands, the southern Cook Islands; on to Samoa, past the Gilbert, Marshall
and Caroline Islands; and then to Guam, from which they head to Japan.) They
rendezvous at Ogijima Island in the Seto Inland Sea off the coast of Shikoku
Island, Japan, part of the Kagawa prefecture.
Of course Sam Whenty also tags along. Together
they all duck out of the sultry mid-day heat for an extended lunch in a charming,
traditional-style restaurant in the harbor town.
Tremendous excitement is in the air as
hands are shaken and sea stories of their voyage spill forth. Peppered in with general news are stories of intrigue at Fluxom, mingled with the design-build techno-marine advances
being made on Wicket’s original concepts.
It’s
terribly exciting to be a part of this group, thought Gumpus. These men are doers, by golly—giants
of intellect, nautical know-how, and soulful adventure!
By-and-by the conversation drifts to the
more subtle realms. Talk begins centering on the metaphorical parallels between
the concrete constructions of the sea hideaways knocking up against the liberty
bell dinging in its benefactor’s ears. For Finbarr, a macro-demonstration of
political liberty is key; Wicket’s concerns center more on establishing a
model of liberty that enables the flourishing of personal autonomy in order for an
individual to “know one’s self.”
Wicket has visions of his sea-floor
modules also serving as meditation chambers or isolation tanks—replacing the caves and
remote deserts of yore—wherein a person communes in selfless, non-duality of
“not-being.” Then he met the Rev. Gumpus.
Rev. Gumpus proposes a third “sphere of
beingness” to the beingness-of-doing and the beingness-of-resting—the
beingness-of-adoration. For him, this third sphere is the essential part of
every sentient being; it recognizes the immense majesty of God and our humble
place in Creation. At the same time it acknowledges the old saw:
“There is no religion that is not
Christianity.”[5]
Rev. Gumpus
proceeds to hold court at the
luncheon for some few minutes, unpacking his peculiar brand of catholic
Christianity. His listeners, knowing he is an ordained Catholic priest,
experience an awkward dissonance between the intriguing, Gumpian perspective
they are hearing and his role as a robed
cleric representing a corrupt, occult, and controlling Roman Church.
Indeed, the cognitive dissonance goes deeper—it is much more personal; these
are free men, men holding liberty
and free-thinking in the highest esteem. This Rev. Gumpus stymied them as he
spoke of humbling oneself before the
Lord by submitting to the yoke of worshipful adoration. After all, are we not self-reliant, sovereign men?
Strange thoughts surface. For example,
Sam’s mind conjures up the words of an old ‘60s comic book hipster: “Then burn with your dream drug priest, I bow to no one!”
Finbarr knows his old friend from their Church
of odd fellows and he knows well his friend’s outlier stance. And yet each time
Gumpus guides the conversation back to the more traditional Godhead he felt a slight
freakish shiver go up his spine.
Old, hard-boiled Wicket, too, felt a near-physical
wincing sensation upon hearing this
gimmee-that-old-time-religion-seeming stump speech. Still, he listened, enthralled,
in spite of himself.
Somehow Gumpus spoke his truth as
one-of-them and it could not, on that account, be dismissed so easily. His
words worked quickly on all of their minds, arousing sympathy, or rather, an empathetic
love. Gumpus is not a wordy man; he is direct and his words convey strength, vigor, meaning. He said just enough and no more. And he spoke with
such a surety of conviction, couched in the red pill vernacular so familiar to
them, that they could hardly help wanting to rush toward embracing this beingness-of-adoration
sphere.
There is one other piece of the puzzle-of-being
that Rev. Gumpus shares with his new companions. When Wicket mentioned the USOs
this dredges up the "ET file" he carries around in his head, some of which was culled from sources close to the
Vatican, and some of which he drudged up himself deep from within the
muck-of-unknowing. On this very first meet-up Gumpus begins to divulge some
intriguing believe-it-or-not facts relating to extraterrestrials. Due to some credible,
well-placed contacts (and his own sleuthing) he has been privy to some beyond-top-secret
intel on visitors from outside our ken (or is it “kin”?—more details to follow.)
On They Trudge…OR…Sailing Thru the Sludge
The duo is soon on the return side of their
Hal Roth circumnavigation-of-the-Pacific re-enactment. They sail on to a few
more pit-stops in Japan, before continuing on to chillier climes across the
Bering Sea, stopping at various Aleutian Islands; then, onto the Queen
Charlotte Islands off the coast of Canada. Finally, they set their sights on San
Francisco (the Roth's original jumping-off point and return port).
Finbarr, in the meantime, has been putting
the word out on Wicket’s projects and tying them by analogy into his Freeman
private law discourses. Subsequently, he begins getting public speaking engagements
wherein he waxes eloquently on these subjects near and dear to his heart:
What is liberty?
What is a conservative?—a traditionalist?
What’s wrong with each designation: neither fully
accounts for eccentrics who wander off the normative understanding of either
term.
He names names of currently in-vogue CINOs
(Conservatives In Name Only) and calls them out for their two-faced behaviors.
He chastises corporate interests who bend
to mindless social pressure because they fear the mob; like the true
institutional cowards that all globalists are, corporatists too know they are
safe only so long as The People don’t get wind of their betrayals.
All the publicity is working the magic
that Finbarr had predicted: there is a groundswell of interest in private law
from many quarters as never before, due to the Wicket-Whenty “publicity stunt.” The success,
however, is a double-edged sword; those with vested interests in preserving that
sham known as “public law” are now on high alert and scheming to put an end to
this marine escapade.
Wyman and Sam tie up in SF. Sam gets
drunk. Wyman looks after him. The next day, a mob of illegal alien/leftist
thug/Antifa opportunist types try to stir up trouble. Sam still
feels punchy from the night before. He chides them. They are provoked and they
attack. Wyman and Sam both put up a valorous defense, but one hoodlum pulls a gun. Sam sees
what’s happening. He steps in front of Wyman and takes a slug for him. The cowards
then run away.
Wyman applies first aid, can’t get an
ambulance, and decides to carry Sam to the emergency room on his back, three
blocks away. Sam survives (to fight another day).
In the meantime, Wyman discovers from Finbarr that his marine technology patents have been stolen. Finbarr takes up Wyman’s
cause and Sam, too, supports his captain. Wyman is sickened over the theft of his patents by back-stabbing former
associates now defending against a lawsuit initiated by Finbarr. He longs to get
away, forget all of this land-dweller nonsense, and once more breathe the salt
air of the open sea.
As soon as Sam gets his sea legs back, off
they go, reversing course down the west coast of California, past Baja and
Central America, and back through the Panama Canal. They have set a new course
for Morocco, North Africa.
On the way, Wyman tells the story of long-suffering Africans (hunted by slave
traders, brutalized by the British, Dutch, and Germans battling it out for colonial
rights and privileges, and lately, guinea pigs for vaccines); it is all set out in Wicket’s journal
as they proceed sluggishly through the horse latitudes. (Wicket compares this becalmed
area to his lawsuit.)
Wicket keeps Finbarr informed of his latest
destination. Finbarr is intrigued because he has been eyeing a visit to the Souss
Valley in Morocco for some time. He proposes a third remote meeting (which also
serves as an excuse to hopefully visit the valley of his namesake).
Back on the home front, their legal case
threatens to become yet another “Bleak House” miasma, that tangled legal web of skullduggery described
so well by Charles Dickens. Finbarr soon fires his “counsel” which he never wanted
to hire in the first place, but for
the complexities of patent law. Instead, he takes on the case himself, assisted by some outside adviser-Freemen. After some intense wrangling a quick resolution seems at-hand.
Suddenly, even more suddenly than expected, “Finbarr's private law team” triumphs!
Unfortunately, however, Wicket won’t live
long enough to savor the victory because another fight ensues—this time it’s a
mob of ignorant, traditionalist ass-hats in the back streets of Agadir,
Morocco, who attack them with knives for simply not being Muslims (a set-up). Wicket is
mortally wounded; Sam, again seriously injured, barely escapes with his life.
Before long Finbarr arrives on the scene with
Rev. Gumpus in tow. The latter arranges for Wyman Wicket to be laid to rest in a
cemetery located at one of the last surviving Christian monasteries in Morocco.
From his hospital bed Sam brings attention to Wyman’s papers, secured in a
water proof container aboard the boat. He tells his compatriots that they
should inspect them—that he recalls Wyman speaking about a Last Will and Testament.
When they do, they discover that Wyman has left everything, even his boat, to both Finbarr and
Whenty, or to the survivor of either of them, “to continue the vagrant marine tromping
where-so-ever the winds may direct you.”
Finbarr retrieves the Wicket sailboat, and gathers
up Sam, with the help of Gumpus. Together they embark on an ambitious sail
southward, past the Canary Islands and on around the huge hump of West Africa,
and then southeasterly to the island country of São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic
of São Tomé and Príncipe, in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial
coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main
islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, about 87 miles apart and about 155 and 140 miles
off the northwestern coast of Gabon.
During the voyage the good “Friar Tuck”
nurtures Sam back to health. Gumpus considers himself a healer-of-sorts who
just happens to have a bag of medico-tricks up his sleeve, and Sam springs back
to fighting form in no time. In his spare moments, Finbarr pores over Wicket’s
journal, discovering more, lesser known facts, crumbs and morsels about Africa's dark past and troubled present.
Future Considerations
All hail and fit, the crew arrives at São
Tomé’s small harbor, looking forward to enjoying a leisurely sit-down meal
while they figure out their next move.
Even before the conclusion of the lawsuit,
the bad seeds had been promptly rooted out of Fluxom. The actual building of
the first deep-sea platform had been ongoing and is nearing completion. It is
located at 6º south latitude and 110º west longitude, about halfway between the
Marquesas and the Galapagos Islands on a direct, long-established sea route through the Pacific from Aukland, on the north island of New Zealand, to Panama.
Here, the company is experimenting with
the sea-floor modules. The first was pre-fabricated and shipped there. But
Fluxom has built a fully mechanized factory shop within the platform where they
intend to proceed with further construction of the modules, adapting their
designs as may be needed.
One is prone to immediately dismiss such
sea floor modules as the fantasy-stuff of science fiction. Why?—because of the
crushing water pressure that would exist on the sea floor in excess of 100 feet
below the surface. As a rule of thumb, the pressure increases by one atmosphere
for every 32.8 feet of descent.
The most advanced submarine (little more
than a “pressure sphere”) is the Trieste,
a U.S. Navy two-man bathyscape. With its 5” thick hulls of steel it reached a
depth of 35,813 feet (almost 6.8 miles down)—not quite to the bottom of the deepest
of the deep in the Marianas Trench—while withstanding water pressure of more
than 1,000 atmospheres.
One nuclear-powered Russian military sub, K-278 Komsomolets, made of titanium, is designed to be able to reach a depth of 4,265 feet (.8 miles).
One nuclear-powered Russian military sub, K-278 Komsomolets, made of titanium, is designed to be able to reach a depth of 4,265 feet (.8 miles).
The best American nuclear submarines, of
the Seawolf class, have an estimated crush depth of about 2400 feet (.45 miles
deep) The Seawolf submarines are constructed of a high grade steel called
HY-100, capable of withstanding 100 atmospheres of pressure.
The ocean
deep is just that: deep. The pressure
down there does funny things to humans,
Similarly, the submersible sailboat,
though it has moved from the drawing board to the construction phase, suffers
from a similar disability. Partly pre-assembled ashore it too was shipped to
the platform for further testing and refinements. But as most sailboat owners
know, it is difficult enough to ensure that their vessels are leak-proof while
sailing on the water’s surface. Hybrid
vessels that must be absolutely leak-proof underwater—and
at relatively deep depths—pose incredibly complex, seemingly impossible,
techno-challenges.
However, one must, at the same time, stay open to the possibility of a science and technology that is “beyond the textbooks”—that draws on future technology, e.g., technology and techniques as are used in the secret space program. This is not to say that Finbarr is particularly privy to such information, but he does lay claim to a certain degree of know-how on new technology, which in turn is based upon a new, more advanced physics. (As with Rev. Gumpus’s mastery of novel medical arts, Firmin Finbarr, too, is ahead of the power curve in esoteric techno-realms that align with his interests.)
However, one must, at the same time, stay open to the possibility of a science and technology that is “beyond the textbooks”—that draws on future technology, e.g., technology and techniques as are used in the secret space program. This is not to say that Finbarr is particularly privy to such information, but he does lay claim to a certain degree of know-how on new technology, which in turn is based upon a new, more advanced physics. (As with Rev. Gumpus’s mastery of novel medical arts, Firmin Finbarr, too, is ahead of the power curve in esoteric techno-realms that align with his interests.)
In any event, once the three men are fully
apprised of their situation and the future of the three-pronged project, they
toast their late visionary mate, Wyman Wicket. They generally agree that when they depart their present location, they’ll need to aim for the new platform as
their intended destination. They qualify this, however, by reminding themselves
that true vagabond mariners are on their own timetable.
With this, they next toast Sam Whenty,
their resilient, indefatigable pilot/navigator, without whom even Wicket would
likely have lost his way on his maiden voyage and they, themselves, would otherwise
have been stymied in their efforts to sail on from Morocco.
Sam is humbled and overcome with emotion
as he recalls his odyssey over the past few years. He never expected that his
life, wasting away as it was, to have taken the serendipitous turn that it
has. He honors the memory of his late, tried-and-true friend, Wyman Wicket, and
extends his warm thanks to Finbarr and Gumpus for their continued belief in him
and their recognition of his considerable nautical skills.
The book closes with their vowing to see
Wicket’s dream become an established reality in today’s world—one that furthers
the cause célèbre of liberty made
tangible via those sailors who dare to go vagabonding on the sea.
Comments
This book is designed to flesh out the true
nature of liberty, conservatism, and visionary capitalism by a background showing
of how these very sound qualities have been denigrated, compromised, and
co-opted.
It contrasts two mindless groups who are
in opposition: spoiled, mind-controlled leftist-nihilists (the SF mob) and
backward, ignorantly mind-hollowed traditionalists (the Muslim mob). The latter "traditionalists" are differentiated from real traditionalism, one steeped in knowledge and the power of soul.
It succeeds by demonstrating the triumph
of reaching for one’s dreams and living one’s convictions even when it seems
that everything, all the odds, are stacked hugely against you.
It is a testament to courage and the
resiliency of the human spirit; it honors the ingenious capabilities of the mind
and the values that inhere in the goodness of God; and it models the sacredness
of the soul’s free-will ability to make moral choices and to accept responsibility
for those choices (e.g., Wicket’s honest examination and search for the truth;
the Freeman, private law sensibilities that Finbarr stands up for; Sam’s dogged
determination to overcome his obvious vices, frailties and faults; the fragile,
red-pilled stance of the big-hearted cleric, Rev. Gumpus, vis-à-vis his
pastoral duties grounded in obedience and humility).
The drama in the book balances notions of
physical freedom and freedom’s mental trappings—the individual's right to be left alone—with
an over-arching and essential spiritual component: life must be lived to both
witness God’s wrath and engender the greater glory of God’s love coming from a
distinctly American notion of liberty.
The book also stands for the victory of
rugged individualism over a rigged System that shelters cliques of pandering
corporate cowards and thieving patent whores.
And
finally, while the sea—on the water and under the
water—is a very real and powerfully awesome force, “the sea” is also a metaphor for God on many levels: freedom and liberty, space, time, reality/alt-reality; as
teacher, revelator, vindicator, consciousness expander, Spirit leveler—it means
all of this and more (in contra-distinction to the land)—and is counterpoised
to the air and cosmos above-and-beyond both the water and the
land.
Concomitantly, a “vagabond mariner” refers to all riders
on the storm on this prison planet—all who ride the tiger—whether that’s on or under
the sea, on land, through the air or outer space—all are traversing the
universal, inter-dimensional, cosmic by-ways that wind around and end up as one
with our ever-present origin, the Source.
[NOTE: This might easily be Part 1 of a book/drama
series that tracks the development of the story line into the future.]
[1] One who has reclaimed his
sovereignty and unalienable natural rights by not consenting to live under the
jurisdiction of a web of de-facto-government-contract complexity meant to
control corporate persons; one who instead preserves his or her freedom and
liberty by applying the true, private law applicable to all living, flesh and
blood, sentient beings.
[2] Firmin never joined a secret
society but he always liked the “Odd Fellows” designation. Granted, he has no
idea of their mission or even their origins (though Rev. Gumpus is intimately
familiar with them). Still, they both use this tag in a more colloquial sense
to refer to themselves and others who are drawn together by a faith as steadfast as that of the Old
Believers of Russia (which, in these days of secularized decomposition seems
quaint) and are, thus, odd-seeming fellows indeed!
[3] Somewhat like truckers, an independent lot who also depend upon supply, and who owe their daily work to a high demand for the freight they haul
[4] Somewhat akin to truck
stops
[5] Attributed to the mystical
philosopher, Novalis. See, Soul Enticed:
Essays in Unlearning, p.68 (quoting from Douglas Gabriel’s Spirit Awakening Through Novalis
(2018), https://neoanthroposophy.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/spirit-awakening-through-novalis2.pdf)
