In the not too distant future we hope to have a dedication ceremony in the Blake Sea to honor it and its namesake, Sir Peter Blake, the New Zealand yachtsman who led his country to two successive America’s Cup victories. So this is as good a time as any to launch the Blake Sea Log. Among other things, the BSL will tell the story of the formation of the Blake Sea in Second Life.
But first, a bit more about Peter Blake. He previously won the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989, and the Jules Verne Trophy in 1994 by setting the fastest time around the world of 74 days 22 hours 17 minutes 22 seconds on catamaran Enza. Blake was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1995 for services to yachting. He was killed by pirates in Brazil in December 2001 during an environmental exploration trip in South America.
Yes we are aware that Blake Sea’s initials are BS and that the BS Log might bring up some negative connotation among certain mind sets in SL. However the very mind set that would make that connection strangely enough was also involved in the naming of the Blake Sea in a way.
We will dip deeper into the origins of the Blake Sea Project in a later post, but for the first entry in the Black Sea Log, we want to tell you how the Blake Sea got its name.
At an informal first meeting between Jack Linden, Nber Medici, and myself, Jack proposed a joint venture between Linden Lab and the United Sailing Sims. In that meeting Jack presented us with a proposed rough map of how what we now know as the Blake Sea might look. It showed a blocky map with Nautilus on the west and the United Sailing Sims on the east. Between the two was a 36 sim block called “Cornelius Bay”. The map illustrated isn’t that map, it’s just a bit block art to represent Jack’s map that I can no longer find.
The “Cornelius Bay?” we asked. “Yes” said Jack. “Since the Nautilus sims were named after the fictional submarine Nautilus we thought we would name the project ‘The Cornelius Bay’ after Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel who in 1620 built the first reliably documented submarine”.
The name and the explanation actually made my brain hurt as I thought on how this name might be received in the sailing community. However there were bigger issues on the table at that meeting than what the project name would be, so I held my peace.
But over the next 24 hours Nber and I thought long and hard about anything that might be done to make sure that the project ended up with a name more suited to sailing. Every day that the Cornelius Bay Project had that name we were afraid that it would become settled in Jack mind and the other minds at Linden Lab.
Less than 24 hours later Nber and I drafted and sent Jack an email indicating that we didn’t think Cornelius Bay would be a good name. First off, we said, The 36 sims of water was much larger than what SL sailors would think of as a “Bay”. Bays in the SL sailing experiences tended to be thought of as within in a single sim, something that can be crossed fairly quickly. Crossing 36 sims was much more in keeping with crossing a Sea or an Ocean.
Secondly, we suggested that a much more appropriate person to name the body of water after would be a sailor that was well known and beloved by the large community of sailors. We suggested Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail single-handedly around the world and the author of one of the holiest books in the sailing canon: “Sailing Alone Around the World”, as perfect sailor to honor. So we suggested Slocum Sea as the name of the project.
Jack took that suggested name back to the assembled Linden Lab Cornelius Bay team. A couple of days later Jack told us Slocum Sea wouldn’t work because it didn’t pass the 14 year old boy test. “The 14 year old boy test?” we asked. Apparently one of the naming guidelines at Linden Lab is to avoid any name that a typical 14 year old boy might make an obscene joke of.
As I mulled the typical 14 year old’s reaction to the name Slocum it occurred to me that, at least in theory, there were no 14 year olds on the main grid. I decided making that argument would be pointless and certainly not accurate. So Slocum Sea was out.
Feeling that the longer Cornelius Bay name survived the harder it would be to change it, we quickly tried to think of another nautical figure that would be renowned and beloved world wide or at least nearly so. That’s when we hit on Peter Blake and the Blake Sea. Jack immediately warmed up to it and so did the team back at Linden Lab.
And that boys and girls is how the Blake Sea name came to be.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I can imagine Mark, sitting by the Fireplace, smoking pipe, a large crowd of noobs around him, all fascinated by this story…
“it’s time go to bed kids!” said Mark
“Oh no, grandfather, please tell us more”…
It happened in 20×9….
What happened next pappy? Can’t start a tale like that and leave it just hanging out… gawd I was stuck to every word! Where’s your pub sense? I’ll buy you another round if it helps… grin
Thanks for the yarn! It came at a good moment, as before seeing your piece, I had just taken a look at the marvelous new Fastnet Lighthouse in Blake Sea Crows nest…Nber, I swear to god locking you in the cistern was an accident! The Blake Sea is a wonderful resource indeed, and like any ocean, a place that puts usual and accustomed issues in some perspective, should we care to slow down and pay attention.
don’t know whats wrong with Cornelius…
- Cornelius van Schouten named 1616 the south american cap after his home town: Hoorn ( the cap’s name doesn’t come from a bulls’s head extention), after he rounded it as the first european.
- Cornelius van Rietschoten won the Witbread twice.
- Last but not least and most important probably: “The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius”. You name it….
Stuart, well said. But allow this uncultured fool his humor. When Jack said Cornelius Bay all I got was an image of Cornelius from Planet of the Apes standing next to Taylor at the edge of the Great Sea at the end of the movie. Ok, so that wasn’t a Bay and the scene didn’t occur quite that way but iconic images are rarely “historically” accurate. Grin.
Cornelius Vanderbuilt – The person who broke the steamship monopoly and provided affordable steam ferries across the USA
I’m more wondering how they thought Cornelius passed the 14 year old test
Rael, I KNOW you did that on purpose! Bad boy!
Mark put you up to that didn’t he?
And not to mention Cornelius Vanderbilt III, the moneybags behind an America’s Cup defender or two.
The naming is a tremendous story. What resulted is a major feat of mastery in the art of skill and negotiation. Connecting the Blake Sea with USS and Nautilus and all the mainland that it touches makes the Oceans of Second Life worth it all. Thanks for all the water and the wind !
Don’t forget Robert Blake, General-at-Sea, who commanded the English Navy under Cromwell.