"Cloud masses piled blackly out of the west, and a smoky-gray overcast hid Ay-set. Wind rose shrill in rigging and streets, surf roared on the breakwater, scud stung his face." (p. 123)
"The wind hooted and banged the shutters." (p. 125)
"The wind whipped his oath from him." (p. 129)
"Morning was gray over an icy-gray sea, where waves snorted from horizon to horizon. A dim streak in the east was land. The ship wallowed and yawed." (p. 131)
In Poul Anderson's works, our focus shifts from cosmic or galactic perspectives to detailed weather reports.
Lacking steam engines, Atlantean sea-dwellers can move a ship against the wind with an on-board windmill that turns a shaft whose rotation in turn turns a propeller. Like the Ythrians on Avalon in the Technic History, Atlantean women have found original ways to move on water.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And the stormy weather described by Anderson reminded me of the ominous thunder heard by a despairing King Ermanaric as he was dying at the end of "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth."
Even if Davis Bertram had not stumbled across Atlantis, I see no reason not to think the descendants of the stranded colonists could not have rediscovered steam power.
Ad astra! Sean
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