MAY YOUR SHIP HAVE IRONSIDES?

As the first month of my blogging experience comes to a close, there has lately been a significant rise in the amount of people reading (can I call it "reading"?) the ol' blog here. Whether you're genuinely interested in what I post or enjoy perusing my horrible grammar/spelling, I appreciate your "visits" cause let's be honest, blogs without readers usually suggest a mental deficiency in the writer.. or that we can't afford a journal.

Anyway, I've had a few questions about the name of the blog (this proves people have at least read that far) and so I wanted to provide a few answers. First, since this blog is meant, generally, to link people to sites that contain interesting information, I imagine I send most of my readers off in the first few minutes. (I think this might be contrary to what websites are supposed to do which is keep readers on the site to make ad dollars) Anyway, I chose a title that I think reflects the "see you off" part and that indeed is the point of the title, "May Your Ship Have Ironsides". It is a simple farewell, one that was lifted from a Brown Bird lyric actually (From the album "The Bottom of the Sea" -highly recommended). It is not a popular saying as far as I know, but as with most things Wallace, there is history behind this name.

Old "Ironsides" aka the U.S.S. Constitution in fact, did not have iron sides. No ships at the time it was built (1794) used metal siding (that didn't come till the mid-1800s). During the war of 1812, the Constitution earned its nickname by famously defeating the British vessel HMS Guerriere. According to the legend, the ship was said to be made of iron since it's thick wooden sides resisted British cannon fire. 116 years after its last "sail", the ship was reborn in 1997 when it was completely rebuilt.

This name was not particularly original though, as a British ship (the HMS Britannia) was given this nickname 30 years earlier and British military commander Oliver Cromwell held the title in the mid-1600s for leading his "ironsides" cavalry troops.