Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Disability: In The Workplace

I wonder if you had a captain with an eyepatch, missing an eye, would he get pissed at subordinates saying "aye aye" to him all the time?

Another thing, what's the deal with all the hook-hands, peg-legs and eyepatches in the old-school nautical realm, when you hardly ever see those sorts of things in say, depictions of soldiers guarding forts? Those dudes weren't necessarily any less able to man the walls than a seaman to man the decks. Was it just not done? Did anyone with a serious wound put in a transfer to the maritime arm? "Sure! We can use 'im!"

3 comments:

Mel said...

Aye aye does seem unnecessarily cruel. I reckon it probably also stung to have it referred to as the "maritime arm" when a lot of them were missing, ya know, arms.

dogimo said...

That's why they need a spare!

Mel said...

Perhaps the whole selection of limbless recruits was a savvy, cunning plan to make the enemy underestimate the crew's abilities.

The enemy'd be all like "Cap'n, there's a boat approachin of scurvy ne'er-do-wells but I've 'ad a look and they seem pretty 'armless"

So they get ready to rumble, thinking it's an easy target, a battle ensues, and BAM, they get a hook in their guts.