I don't know much about the history of the slave trade--what's the route of the Middle Passage?

The Middle Passage. Note Mozambique on the east coast.

And why is the style of ship significant,

For dating it -- I'm assuming that if you know ships, it's like a car model or airplane style.

or the fact that they were intended to be miners?

Reinforcing that the American slave trade probably doesn't have anything to do with this vessel.

I was thinking that the slavers were looking to unload their cargo somewhere around Indonesia or thereabouts, but I could be wrong.

As for Bob Marley, I thought that Michael was just surprised that a seeming redneck like Sawyer would be that familiar with reggae. I'm not a redneck, and I couldn't quote you anything from that style except for "I Shot the Sheriff," and that's the Clapton version.

Redemption Song is not one of the very popular Marley tunes, as far as my experience goes -- not among non-Jamaicans. Was Sawyer singing lyrics too?

Yup.

Redemption Song is not one of the very popular Marley tunes, as far as my experience goes -- not among non-Jamaicans.

Huh. I wouldn't have thought it all that out there, myself.

Yeah, that'd make me look twice too.

Redemption Song is not one of the very popular Marley tunes, as far as my experience goes -- not among non-Jamaicans.

It's one of the songs that, in my experience, every single person who ever picked up a guitar learns the opening riff to. So it seems to me as if every one knows it. But I might just hang with a Reggae loving crowd.

I had never heard the song before. The one brief time when I tried to learn to play guitar, Bob Marley was not among my practice pieces. (If he had been, I might have stuck with it, though.)

The Middle Passage. Note Mozambique on the east coast.

Okay, thanks. So all the Middle Passage routes are westward from Africa to the Americas. I think I misread your comment as saying that the ship was travelling a Middle Passage route, when in fact you were saying the opposite. I'm still wondering why a ship would have gone east from Mozambique and ended up east of Australia in the South Pacific, but I'll just wave my hands and mutter about being blown wildly off-course, and let it go.

For dating it -- I'm assuming that if you know ships, it's like a car model or airplane style.

Gotcha. I can honestly say that never would have occurred to me! Signed, knows not a damn thing about car or airplane models.

Re: "Redemption Song", my experience has been -t's; seems like everyone knows that song. On the other hand, I went to a hippie college and then travelled the hippie backpacker route (and now live in a hippie-esque college town where bumper stickers that read "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds" are abundant), so my sample population might not be so broadly representative.

who does not know Bob Marley?

Yo.

I mean, I know who he is. But I couldn't identify a single one of his songs.

I mean, I know who he is. But I couldn't identify a single one of his songs.

Kalshane: Not A Hippy Backpacker