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Authors Notes for Flowers of Bermuda
Oct. 1st, 2009 09:01 pmMy notes for Flowers of Bermuda
First of all, I had been thinking of the idea for this fic for a while, but thought I would never be able to pull it off. Luckily, like about 90% of the writing I've done so far, it came to me pretty easily (unfortunately, that's 90% of every fic, which is why I have about 6 fics that are 90% done and languishing right now...). Anyway, I actually did some research for this one, which is why the authors note.
I wanted to stay true to the song, so I did some research to try to figure out the context around certain lyrics. For example, “21 days from Clyde in coal.” I found two places that could refer to (assuming it refers to a place), one in Nova Scotia, and one, the River Clyde, in Scotland. Since Stan Rogers is from Canada, I at first assumed he was referring to Nova Scotia; however, I also found that it takes considerably less than 21 days to get from Nova Scotia to Bermuda, so based on that, I went with Scotland instead.
I had questions about some of the other lyrics as well, such as can you really crew a collier with only 19 men? But again, I was trying to stay true to the song, so I chose the accuracy of the lyrics over historical accuracy. As I was researching, I found a couple quotes regarding Stan Rogers’ writing of the song and questions regarding its accuracy. He apparently wrote the song after seeing a chart of shipwrecks off Bermuda, which noted that a collier ship called Nightingale had sunk off the North Rock. According to one quote, “Stan himself said, ‘the rest of the details are pure invention’. So, he made the story up mostly. So, Stan wasn't well versed in intercontinental coal shipment economics.” And neither am I, so there ya go.
Strangely enough, as I was poking around looking for references to this song, I came across a short Star Trek XI fic inspired by this same song (albeit much more loosely). It’s here, if you’re interested.
First of all, I had been thinking of the idea for this fic for a while, but thought I would never be able to pull it off. Luckily, like about 90% of the writing I've done so far, it came to me pretty easily (unfortunately, that's 90% of every fic, which is why I have about 6 fics that are 90% done and languishing right now...). Anyway, I actually did some research for this one, which is why the authors note.
I wanted to stay true to the song, so I did some research to try to figure out the context around certain lyrics. For example, “21 days from Clyde in coal.” I found two places that could refer to (assuming it refers to a place), one in Nova Scotia, and one, the River Clyde, in Scotland. Since Stan Rogers is from Canada, I at first assumed he was referring to Nova Scotia; however, I also found that it takes considerably less than 21 days to get from Nova Scotia to Bermuda, so based on that, I went with Scotland instead.
I had questions about some of the other lyrics as well, such as can you really crew a collier with only 19 men? But again, I was trying to stay true to the song, so I chose the accuracy of the lyrics over historical accuracy. As I was researching, I found a couple quotes regarding Stan Rogers’ writing of the song and questions regarding its accuracy. He apparently wrote the song after seeing a chart of shipwrecks off Bermuda, which noted that a collier ship called Nightingale had sunk off the North Rock. According to one quote, “Stan himself said, ‘the rest of the details are pure invention’. So, he made the story up mostly. So, Stan wasn't well versed in intercontinental coal shipment economics.” And neither am I, so there ya go.
Strangely enough, as I was poking around looking for references to this song, I came across a short Star Trek XI fic inspired by this same song (albeit much more loosely). It’s here, if you’re interested.
