Politically Correct Pirate

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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 2:05 am

(This may be of particular interest to one of the forum moderators)

Alumni, history buffs up in arms over statue of Jamestown founder

NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia (AP)

The swashbuckling sea captain who helped found America's first permanent English settlement lost part of his right arm in battle nearly two decades before bringing the colonists to Jamestown 400 years ago.

But you wouldn't know it to look at a 24-foot bronze statue of Christopher Newport, with all his limbs intact, that now stands at the edge of the campus of the university named for him.

Annoyed and angry alumni and history buffs aren't letting the statue's creators off the hook.

They want to see a hook -- the kind Newport is believed to have used -- on the statue in place of a full arm.

Newport was captain of the Susan Constant, largest of the settlers' three ships.

He lost his arm in about 1590, when he was working in the West Indies as a privateer hired by London merchants to raid Spanish and Portuguese ships, said Mike Lund, ships interpretive supervisor at Jamestown Settlement, a state-run living history museum.

He died 10 years later on a voyage to the East Indies.

WAVY-TV Associated Press - September 8, 2007 1:15 PM ET
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20658655

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 2:13 am

That's utterly ridiculous.

Statues rarely depict a person in their state of being around the time of their death. Since he wasn't born with only one arm, who's to choose how he should be depicted, i.e. at what time between his birth and his death?

I've never seen a statue of George Washington as a really old guy sitting slumped in a chair, drooling out of the corner of his mouth. There are however plenty of statues of him riding on a horse. How old was he when he did that? In the uniform of the Continental Army?

Artists can choose any period of a person's life that they wish.

The "annoyed and angry alumni and history buffs" are idiots and should go stuff it. Confused

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Well, if they want to get picky, has the statue of him got a parrot on his shoulder, or does he wear an eye patch? Very Happy

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 6:27 am

What I want to know is, does it go "Arrrrrrgh" on the hour? That would be a good investment....

I think that the point of the history buffs is that when he got famous, he only had one arm. As a recognition of what differently abled/amputees can do... it's powerful stuff. And I like the idea of him having a hook....

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:55 pm

dr stephen williams wrote:

....I like the idea of him having a hook....

Just as long as he's not picking his nose. Very Happy

One armed pirate statues are very much like making love to a beautiful woman...firstly you put them up on a pedestal, but nature eventually takes its course and they don't always weather very well.

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