I was fully expecting this to be about a micronation founded by the crews of the stranded freighters last week. Wouldn't have been the strangest thing to happen recently.
I did see a few ships that were attached to each other; would not be surprised if the crews had a get-together on there. I mean they would all have been quarantined for weeks already (broadly speaking), so low chance of getting the 'rona.
That's a great way to end up in turbo-prison en route to execution -- unless you're a prince of some sort. They're not a fan of drugs, to put it mildly.
Without a second ship at the other end to trap people in, no one was gonna be stuck more than a couple weeks; they'd all eventually decide to unload at a port or go around Africa.
That's already standard. The Asia-Europe route the Suez is used primarily for takes weeks already. Sailors get good at isolation and getting to know the dozen or two people on the boat.
The 1.5 million beer bottles sounded like a gross exaggeration, but with 14 ships, over 8 years, that's about 34 bottles per day per ship, which makes it seem potentially plausible for a bunch of very bored sailors, depending on how big the skeleton crews were.
I like that apparently some form of agreement was reached to keep them well supplied.
Reminds me of a few years ago. We did a fishing trip on vacation in Costa Rica. Just myself and my wife, and two crew members on the fishing boat.
We came across a giant trawling boat and the captain of our fishing boat asked if we wanted to change what we were fishing for. We said yes, and our guys gathered a bunch of random stuff from the galley and put it into a plastic sack: open bags of chips, beer, soda, other snacks, etc.
We pulled up next to the trawler and the captain negotiated a trade: our food and drinks for a giant basket of their bait.
Both boats ended up happy and we had a great time using their bait!
Only if we build things like we used to... West Germany and Germany in general has been known for the reliability and durability of their goods. German quality is top notch.
I’d guess it was as much an issue of keeping up regular maintenance as the initial quality of the vessels. I mean, if your ship was stuck in one place for years it’d be pretty natural to start letting things slide...
i would think so as well. Where are ships made anyway? It's more like only the Germans cared enough (about the ship or the cargo) to maintain it. I very much doubt the other companies were negligent.
IIRC Sealand sells post cards, as part of its general merchandise thing (along with nobility titles). Not sure about stamps though.
Another quasi-governmental curio is that, again IIRC, Spain has several, maybe even a dozen or something, local currencies. All being traded just fine in their communities. (I think the US also has or had at least a couple, though those were essentially just checks of some co-op banks, and thus nothing new in the country.)
Also I remember reading about a currency established by a gang that controlled a part of a city—and which currency ended up being used more actively in the city than the country's currency, because it was more stable. Don't recall where it was: possibly northern Africa, maybe Ethiopia or Eritrea.
> Spain has several, maybe even a dozen or something, local currencies. All being traded just fine in their communities.
I've lived in Spain for decades, never heard of such thing. Depending how you count you could argue there are a dozen spoken languages, but currencies? That requires a big citation.
Not GP, but I presume they're talking about alternative currencies¹. Things like the Ehki in Bilbao or Eusko across the border in Basque France. I'm picking those two on purpose because they make a point about it sometimes simply being about regional politics and not generic fiscal localism².
Depending on how you draw the line you could, for example, include the Barcelona Rec³ too. I think I draw the line at physical notes, but YMMV.
Edit to add: Looks like the ehki is digital only now.
Might've mistaken with Basque country in particular and France in general—guess I majorly botched all those vague recollections in the comment.
Wikipedia lists four local currencies in France: Abeille, Eusko, Krôkô, Occitan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_currency). And also says, “The eusko is one of a number of currencies that are active in the Basque Country”.
Fell in to this rabbit hole a little earlier, so I'll try to drag you in as well. If you switch languages on Wikipedia the list grows a whole lot¹.
FWIW, I've only ever seen one local note in the UK and that was on somebody's fridge ~100km from Bristol where it would actually be valid. I suspect there is a fair amount of money trapped in scrapbooks and on fridges ;)
Good idea, I've perused the Spanish page on ‘local currencies’ and count seven of them (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneda_local)—though on the English WP the topic is split across several articles. I'm also guessing the list might easily be incomplete.
(Also the ‘eQ’ thing on this page sounds like someone's marketing campaign, so perhaps should be cleaned up or removed. E.g.: “aims to promote local consumption, increase the purchasing power of people (for €1 you get 1.50eQ)”—wow very smart, much increase; but later suddenly “€1 = 1eQ”.)
Didn't know what I was clicking on here... totally worth it. Great little piece of history. I love this kind of weird ripple effect that happens in the world.
This happened in the sixties, during and after the six-day war between Israel and Egypt. Therefore I think a movie could be made out of this story any day now.
It's been a couple of years since I watched it, but I don't recall the GBLA being mentioned in the film.
For anyone interested, the film we're talking about is the 2015 documentary "Bitter Lake" by Adam Curtis which tells the story of how an agreement signed on the Great Bitter Lake back in 1945 could have had an unexpectedly huge impact on how the modern world developed through the next 60+ years.
Indeed, coincidentally just watched this a week before the Ever Given blockage. It's relevant to this thread. The soundtrack, the archival footage and the pairing between them makes for fantastic viewing, although I personally found this not as intellectually interesting and even more 'tenuous' than Hypernormalisation or Can't Get You Out of My Head.
What would you do as a plot? The pilot episode with the start of the war would surely be interesting, but the wait+party time of the next 8 years would probably not make for a good plot. Except if you'd want to make a party movie, but that would probably go against the spirit of the GBLA.
There's certainly been successful films made around much less. Hell, Castaway is basically 3 hours of Tom Hanks talking to a coconut and it grossed over $400 million.
Opening scenes - war, realising they were stuck. Then the drama of eight years of hanging about and drinking - there must have been romances, conflicts, gossip, smuggling, fights among the crew. And what's the story of the one female member? Plenty to make a great film out of I bet. And if not someone could always 'base' it on 'real life events'.
Yes, sure. It also will be developed four tourists, so even non owners can visit. It is only possible to buy one share. We voted on which island to buy. I would have preferred a gigantic island in the Philippines but the legal work was too risky in this jurisdiction.
I know some of the people behind the project and they are sound. This is why I joined.
You're right. I thought you were being a pedant, and I stand corrected. Vertical is a relative orientation, so the usage applies in all of the cases you indicated.
Related : As the article mentioned, if you are a serious collector then ebay is your place. Even the most obscure of items can be found and in some cases in significant quantity to let you get an understanding on value.
