Which maritime legend, factual or fictitious, would you choose as skipper on your vessel's maiden voyage?

He had nothing to do with ships, but I would train Jack Churchill in the ways of the sea and let him be my skipper because he would probably kick ass at it.

Gilligan.
I need somone to beat up.;)

Richard O’Kane, commander of USS TANG and recipient of the CMH.

@Fiddle Playing Creole Bastard “any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed.” I like him already!
@lucillelucillelucille XD Not dear old Quint then? ;¬}

@ucme—Hell,no! He was crazy!—AND WOULD BE LOCKED UP DOWN BELOW—XD

@ucme Jack Churchill was a total badass motherfucker. He’s one of my heroes :D

@lucillelucillelucille To be “played with” at your leisure XD
@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Once again you display impeccable judgement.

My “cousin” Gardner McKay. As in ” Adventures in Paradise.

Commander Ernest E. Evans, USS Johnston
Commander Leon S. Kintberger, USS Hoel
Lt. Commander Robert W. Copeland, USS Samuel B. Roberts
Commander Amos T. Hathaway, USS Heermann
and any one of the naval aviators who attacked the world’s largest battleship… with nothing at all, just to confuse, harrass and delay the deadly attacks that could have been made on the Allied landings at Leyte Gulf, Phillipines, in 1944.

If you don’t know who they are or what they did, you should.

@ucme Punished for being sassy!

Noah…anybody who can build an ark AND save all the species of the world and survive sailing through 40 days and 40 nights of hellacious rain and storms and 10 months adrift gets to take my helm!

@WasCy I fear those illustrious names are new to me. Please don’t spank me good sir!

The guy who steered the Titanic.
He can’t possibly be unlucky twice…

Sir Ernest Shackleton. Though he is known mostly as an explorer he was the ultimate ship’s captain and he is my first choice to captain the S.S. SuperMouse.

Erik Thorvaldsson, my illustrious and infamous ancestor.

Capt. Jack Sparrow!

@Brian1946 Really, don’t his crews/passengers all manage to end up dead or zombies somehow?

Jack Aubrey from the Patrick O’Brien series.

@janbb Is that with the doctor/botanicus?
If so, thanks for mentioning because I read a book of him once and couldn’t think of the writers name anymore!

Yes – Stephan Maturin is the doctor/botanist

Ceacrops, from Xena Warrior princess. The rest of my crew would be a buncha undead pirates. And it would rule.

Uh, Titanic. Knowing what I know now.

@SuperMouse

Excellent choice. What an amazing feat of leadership to keep all of his men alive during an Antarctic winter, and then to lead them out of the ice field to the “relative” safety of the Antarctic mainland. After that, to pilot a small, open boat without charts to a small island in the South Atlantic, and finally to cross the mountains in the center of that island to get help for the men he left behind. And he never lost a man.

@WasCy why thank you! Have you read Shackleton’s Way? It is a great read full of great life lessons. I would link it but I’m on the iPhone.

The only book I read so far on the topic was Albert Lansing’s Endurance. I’ll have to add this one to my list. Thanks.

I enjoyed Kenneth Branagh’s portrayal of Shackleton. I’m way more up to speed on British history.

I, too, love the story of Shackleton.

@janbb I learned of Shackleton’s Way when it was assigned reading for Leadership and Management in Libraries class. I now count him and the professor who assigned the reading among my heroes.