| Crosby, Stills & Nash – Wooden Ships Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I tend to think this is written about Magellan's effort to circumnavigate the globe. One commentator referenced the wars against the Muslims in Spain of the era, and a European asking who won. Most clearly though were these events where some were on the ship and others seemed to have an agreeable visit with the natives of Patagonia or what would become the Philippines, only to see their comrades hacked to pieces on the shore. The men left on the ship were helpless to save them. Magellan left Seville with 5 ships and 250 men in 1519. What returned a few years later was one ship and 18 men, not all of them European. Someone said the song referenced a genocide of natives, but that doesn't seem possible in this context. |
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