I like your explanation even if I do think it came out of the end of a
bottle...or off a funny smelling cigarette.

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: Joel Walker <jwalker17@EARTHLINK.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 2:46 PM
Subject: Re: How fast should a 1.9L go??

> > someone on the list, in sheerest ignorance, asked:
> > I wanna go to OLD Zealand.  Anyone know where it is?
>
>  there is no Olde Zealand. the name "New Zealand" is a tragic example
> of historical blundering and miscommunication.
>
>  the boat that "discovered" New Zealand was a crew of ... well ...
> unsavory characters, most of which had been paroled from European
> prisons specifically for that voyage. qualified crewmembers were hard
> to find at that time, and shipowners were rather desparate, so they
> paid off the prison sentences/fines/bribes of anyone who had even seen
> a sailing ship, and stuck them on a boat before they woke up ... er,
> wised up.
> this was the crew of the Endeavour, captained by James Cook, in 1768.
>
>  in about October of 1769, the ship reached what is now known as New
> Zealand. it was late at night when the north island was seen by the
> lookout waaaaaay up in the crow's nest of the ship ... unfortunately
> for history, this lookout had somewhat of a mental deficiency (which
> is why he was waaaay up there, all alone). and the helmsman on duty
> was hard of hearing. so when the lookout called out "Hey, Boss... de
> land, de land!!!" the helmsman, whose name was Waycross, thinking in
> his own native tongue, heard "Waycross, Zee Land, Zee Land".
>
>  so the helmsman ties down the wheel of the ship, runs down into the
> captain's cabin and wakes up the captain, yelling "Zee Land, Zee
> land". so the captain gets kinda riled at the crew for naming the
> place before he got a chance, and flogged them all. :)
>
>  a dimwitted cook receives credit for the naming of a major city area
> ... when coming topside to throw the garbage over, he was startled by
> the sudden appearance of land and managed to gurgle "Auck!! Land!!!",
> much to the amusement of captain and crew. so they named the place
> Auckland. :)
>
>  but New Zealand had been "discovered" years before by another ship
> navigated by Abdul Tasman (Tasmania, get it?) and that same ship had
> discovered Tasmania, which they stupidly named Van Dieman's Land,
> after the rather uppity "administratige support" person for the
> voyage. that discovery was in 1642. just goes to show: if you've got
> enough money, you can get anything named after you. :)
>
>  unca joel
> historian, philosopher, bowery bum. :)
>