journal features

ferry mishap

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Sydney, 2001.02.27

A ferry ran aground in the harbour today. A German tourist came on the news spot, stating - in a surprisingly subtle way - that it appeared that no one was pilotting the craft at the time it plowed into an extremely obvious point of land in Mosman. He - and a number of other eye-witness accounts - described the event by stating that the ferry just plowed straight towards the rocks, eventually colliding minutes after the passengers first noticed that something was amiss. They all agreed that the ferry hadn't even slowed.

rand()m quote

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.