My Writing Goals

 

Courtesy: https://www.wikihow.com/Set-Writing-Goals 

It's high time to set up my writing goals to show my strategy.

I would like to continue developing my site at the Academia: see https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael

I intend to expose the articles from my second and third books on Discussions. By the way, you can view the paper on the current discussion, which will end in a week  

https://www.academia.edu/45063380/Jerusalem_on_European_Mind_Maps

I have started collecting materials for the next chapter from my third book; it is devoted to light and great galleys. I will try to explain why the long-lived  Age of the Galleys on the Mediterranean was coming to the end and what efforts were undertaken to prolong it. 

I am going to extend my blog and keep in contact with my readers. Building a platform is a multi-year enterprise and I hope you will assist me in these efforts. 

I will look for additional opportunities, like giving lectures and publishing. You will know the details if I am successful. 

I strongly believe in what I am doing. I am mastering my research skills to find unconventional topics or still unpopular sides of the familiar subjects. I am honing my writing skills to convey to my readers the best content that I can produce. I am not chasing popularity but hope you will find my articles authentic and entertaining to a certain extent. 

I find it difficult to speak about myself in length before the public. I feel I am not the subject of my writing but an instrument through which new wine is poured in old wineskins. I bet it is possible and maybe I know how to do it. 

Galleys versus Sailing Ships: Plying the Waters of the Medieval Mediterranean

 

Venetian War Galley, late sixteenth century

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/511721576383894517/

Genoese Merchant Vessel

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/313915036504583191/

The first chapter of a new unit compares and contrasts galleys and sailing ships negotiating maritime routes in the medieval Mediterranean. It discusses shipbuilding approaches and the diet of seafarers. The paper is based on my previous version penned about seven years ago but sustained major corrections. Due to personal reasons, I will keep the draft intact but I cannot help uploading the first page for you. 

A curious landlubber gazing at the sea could discern with ease two broad types of watercraft hugging the coast: oared vessels (galleys) and sailing ships. These breeds epitomized the unabated contest between seaworthiness and speed.

Oared vessels were born for speed and doomed to fight; not for nothing tags like "dromon" (Greek: "racer") in Byzantium and "sagitta" (Latin: "arrow") in the West stuck to them. Endowed with a cigar-like body and shallow draft, which rendered them minimum water resistance, galleys boasted of their built-in velocity.  When the hull was normally laden, the freeboard amidships could descend as low as half a meter. A Byzantine chronicler mocks at Sicilian triremes at the outbound voyage from a successful raid, claiming that they were so overloaded with trophies that literally "submerged down to the oars". 

Routinely propelled by wind, which would inflate fore-and-aft sails, galleys switched to sweeps in standard situations, when they were becalmed or had to get in or out of the port, or in emergencies, to avoid running aground or encountering reefs, rocks, or shallows. They also took to oars when tempo and maneuverability were counted, for example in maritime engagements, coastal raids, or transportation of diplomatic missions. The use of human power imparted remarkable freedom of movement to their banana-shaped bodies.  

Galleys were discerned by the number of rowing seats on a bank of oars, by and large, from one to three, known as monoremes, biremes, and triremes. The experiments of naval architects with four and five sweeps did not give polyremes a competitive edge over less crowded models.

In contrast to their mobility, longships were mediocre and capricious sailers. Traveling under canvas to preserve muscle power, they made the most of the sail under the wind astern and at flat seas but found fault with an air current stronger than a light breeze.

Long-hulled warships could make a good headway, cutting coastal waves at ease on short stretches of sea travel and under favorable conditions. However, when confronted even with mild winds, they performed badly and would withdraw from the race on the brink of storms. The galley masters would rather linger away the foul weather in the comfort of taverns than put the craft's safety at risk. 

Jerusalem on European Mind Maps

 This is a new version of my article that is taken from my second manuscript, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". The paper studies the role of Jerusalem in the European Middle Ages. I draw on medieval travelogues, "world maps", and modern research. You are invited to read the draft and leave comments in the Discussions section.

https://www.academia.edu/45063380/Jerusalem_on_European_Mind_Maps

It might take a few hours until my contribution is converted so don't be in a hurry. Discussions are open for 3 weeks.

I have started writing the first chapter of Unit II of my third manuscript. It is called Galleys versus Sailing Ships: Plying the Waters of the Medieval Mediterranean. Here, I would like to compare and contrast the two types of medieval craft. I have nearly completed three sections out of five or six: galleys, sailing ships, pros & cons. I will add a few words about shipbuilding technology in the medieval Mediterranean as well as about sailors' diet. There will be the Bottom Line where I will rationalize my findings in contrast with describing them. 

https://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/medieval-ships/