May 27, 2008: Slaver

Standardization is the secret of success, in the shipping business.
They even knew that way back in days of wooden sailing ships.
Unfortunately, it took a long time for humanity to catch up with efficiency

I remember that exact drawing in a textbook in high school.

Horrible.
But a good reminder of how far things can go when other people aren't regarded as human beings.

some school did that very thing: laid people end to end like that. I'd hate me, too, if I were them.

That diagram was designed by anti-slavery campaigners to illustrate the appalling conditions. The Brookes ship was built to carry something like 400 people, but was actually carrying abotu 600. If you look at the captions on the diagram they underline words like 'under' to increase the effect.

It was actually not such an efficient system. High losses made it very inefficient.....just very, very profitable. The temptation to pack ever greater numbers onto each voyage led to greater numbers of losses, which in turn seemed to drive for even greater numbers to offset the losses on each voyage :P

I get nauseated just looking at this...

Instead of tut-tutting over historical inequities, I'd rather see people get passionate about ending slavery for once and for all.

What, you think that's all in the past? Think again.

Free the Slaves

ajaccio;457231 wrote:

I get nauseated just looking at this...

Congratulation. Good for you. :thumb:

Not a humorous subject at all, but does anyone else see the similarity to a 747? With the exception of being able to lie down and the food service, of course.

Diaphone Jim;457281 wrote:

Not a humorous subject at all, but does anyone else see the similarity to a 747? With the exception of being able to lie down and the food service, of course.

I am pretty sure the food service is the same.

Cloud;457248 wrote:

Instead of tut-tutting over historical inequities, I'd rather see people get passionate about ending slavery for once and for all.

What, you think that's all in the past? Think again.

Free the Slaves

None of my ancestors ever owned slaves in the New World.

Merc, you obviously didn't follow her link.

OK. Who left the Cellar door open and let all the fun out?