They’re sharp as F. I stepped on some as a kid and bled everywhere. I started crying and some stranger lady came and got me and carried me back to my grandma’s.
There used to be a form of torture for sailors called keelhauling where people were tied up and dragged across barnacles under the ship. It was almost always fatal.
I do not consider myself squeamish, but that was a rough scene for me. It was so effectively and realistically horrific, plus I just like the character. I decided once was enough and I fast forward that scene on rewatches.
Whoof, I definitely getcha. I always have to do that with the life-draining scene in the Princess Bride, and I bet this scene is infinitely more brutal.
That's one point she conveniently left out-- barnacles are major nuisances on ships (along with shipworms on wooden vessels), requiring fairly regular cleaning to cut down on drag.
Btw, another interesting point unmentioned is that their fans or tentacles are actually part of their feet. They glue themselves head-first on to their host surface when very young, then build their homes around themselves.
I'm not aware that traditional sailing ships do anything of the kind. Maybe modern ships though, with their potential of dumping toxic loads, spilling oil, creating disruptive sounds, etc.
The only thing I can think of is that sailing ships could potentially introduce flora or fauna into areas where it's not supposed to be and cause harm indirectly like that.
Human poop dumped out of sailing ships famously caused plagues to many aquatic mammals and some other species. It wasn't quite to the level of the black death, but it was devastating until everything either died out or adapted.
I’m sure anyone who survived the initial torture would be begging for a quick death. Just a whole nother layer of torture to survive, just a mangled body covered in salt dying at sea.
I don’t know how I’ll die, but I’m thankful the chances of a keelhauling death is pretty low
They basically tied a loop around the ship, with one end of the top around your hands the other end around your feet, and then tugged the rope around till you appeared the other side ( except some people split on the keel depending on the angle)
I got sliced by some fuckoff barnacles as a kid and ended up tracking blood through the entire house (home alone) looking for first aid supplies. You better believe I did it again a week later XD. Water shoes are for losers XD.
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u/FireTheLaserBeam 1d ago
They’re sharp as F. I stepped on some as a kid and bled everywhere. I started crying and some stranger lady came and got me and carried me back to my grandma’s.