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Old 28-12-2006, 14:10   #1
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Sailing the 7 Seas - Where are they ? And why are there 9!???

Planning (far far ahead in the future!) - no real destination in mind, but thought it would be kinda cool to be able to answer the question "where have you been", with "I have sailed the 7 seas"............I was however somewhat surprised to find that (according to Wikipedia) their are in fact 9 of them!

"Medieval European and Arabic literature often spoke of the Seven Seas. Which seven seas are intended depends on the context. The "Seven Seas" was a commonplace phrase in many ancient literatures before it was taken up by the Greeks and Romans; it appears in a translation of one of Enheduanna's hymns to Inanna (Hymn 8), written about 2300 BC in Sumer (Meador 2001). The number seven has ancient magic of its own in many traditions, informing many groupings of seven. "Seven" as an indefinite number remains for a long time synonymous with "several", as in the Greek Seven Seas[1]. In Greek and Western culture, the "seven" seas were arbitrary and changed over time, varying depending upon the part of the world and the period of time. However, they were usually seven out of the following list of nine bodies of water:"I can't say that up to now I have given this a great deal of thought.

"Sailing the 7 Seas" has for me just been a saying that has been known since I was a kid, and means "have been sailing everywhere" and is a phrase usually used by 16th and 17th Century Privateers (Hey, my Ancestors were NOT Pirates, we had licences ).

It is surprisingly hard to pick "just" 7 Seas!! - I guess the solution is to do all 9??.......BUT, interestingly (??!) if I had to name the 7 off the top of my head I would have chosen:
  • Mediteranean Sea
  • Indian Ocean
  • The Carribean
  • Black Sea
  • The Pacific Ocean
  • The Atlantic Ocean
  • The South China Sea
........which add a couple more

I wonder if my GPS has a button for "Goto the 7 Seas" ??
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Old 29-12-2006, 03:28   #2
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What are the seven seas?
Although seamen of long ago are popularly known to have stated "I've sailed the seven seas," there really wasn't a good definition of those seas. However, today, the seven seas are the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, Antarctic, and Arctic Oceans.

What are the seven seas?
To the ancients, "seven" often meant "many," and before the fifteenth century, the many seas of the world were: I think Wikipedia has it right:
Seven Seas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval"]Medieval[/url]European and Arabic literature often spoke of the Seven Seas. Which seven seas are intended depends on the context. The "Seven Seas" was a commonplace phrase in many ancient literatures before it was taken up by the Greeks and Romans; it appears in a translation of one of Enheduanna's hymns to Inanna (Hymn 8), written about 2300 BC in Sumer (Meador 2001). The number seven has ancient magic of its own in many traditions, informing many groupings of seven. "Seven" as an indefinite number remains for a long time synonymous with "several", as in the Greek Seven Seas[1]. In Greek and Western culture, the "seven" seas were arbitrary and changed over time, varying depending upon the part of the world and the period of time. However, they were usually seven out of the following list of nine bodies of water:
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Old 29-12-2006, 20:02   #3
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My favourite, the Coral Sea, isn't on any of those lists.
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Old 29-12-2006, 22:08   #4
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My least favourite is the Tasman Sea between Oz & NZ. Nothing to do with our Ocker cousins, just a nasty patch of water.
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Old 06-03-2009, 22:57   #5
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like the world is not big enough...getting smaller grant you, in this space travel advent, but it is still big for a small boat..new seas await the adventurer
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Old 07-03-2009, 02:13   #6
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Wow, this thread is a blast from the past - Dec 06 almost like a different world for me......

Quote:
Originally Posted by kismet View Post
big for a small boat..new seas await the adventurer
I guess "adventure" is to a large extent a matter of choice.......
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Old 07-03-2009, 02:28   #7
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How about

Welcome to the Seven Seas Cruising Association
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Old 07-03-2009, 08:42   #8
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No one has mentioned The North Sea. And that's the only one I have sailed on. I think. Some of those mentioned above are Oceans.
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Old 07-03-2009, 13:09   #9
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When the world was alot smaller there was only 7 seas and no oceans.
Arabian sea
Aegean sea
Adriatic sea
Black sea
Caspian sea
Mediterranean sea
Red sea
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Old 07-03-2009, 13:24   #10
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Quote:
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When the world was alot smaller there was only 7 seas and no oceans.
Arabian sea
Aegean sea
Adriatic sea
Black sea
Caspian sea
Mediterranean sea
Red sea
Well, not exactly . . . the oceans and other seas were there, of course, but, from a Euro-centric point-of-view, the seven you named were all they knew definitively or cared about. It was a time when most people never strayed more than about 25 miles from the place they were born, so "The Seven Seas" must have seemed as vast to them as our Milky Way galaxy now seems to us.

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Old 07-03-2009, 14:10   #11
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Since i have just finished watching "The Deadliest Catch" I would have to also mention the Bering Sea, although I doubt I will ever be sailing there. Brrrrrr
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Old 07-03-2009, 14:48   #12
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Yeah Greenman. Brilliant series. Love it.

We're gonna end up with about 70 seas.

Sea of Irkutsk. (Got no idea where it is, but remember hearing of it - probably havn't spelt it right either.).
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Old 07-03-2009, 15:17   #13
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I've never heard of the Sea of Irkutsk. Irkutsk is located near Lake Baikal. Actually it is spelled "Иркутск".
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Old 10-03-2009, 12:32   #14
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Thanks DeepFrz. How do you pronounce that? I shall research where on earth I heard it from. For now, I'll pick one more local:

Irish Sea.
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Old 10-03-2009, 21:45   #15
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Thanks DeepFrz. How do you pronounce that? I shall research where on earth I heard it from. For now, I'll pick one more local:

Irish Sea.
"Иркутск" is pronounced just like it looks. Sorry, couldn't resist.

The "backwards N" has the sound "ee." The letter that looks like our "p" is the equivalent of our "r." The first two letters make up the first syllable and are pronounced "ear."

The "k" is identical to our k. The "y" sounds like "oo," the "t" is pronounced "tay," and is the same as our "t." The "c" is equivalent to our "s," and the "k" is, again, like our k. These letters comprise the second syllable and are pronounced "kootsk."

So it's literally true that "Иркутск," pronounced "ear KOOTSK," sounds just like it looks - Irkutsk.

TaoJones

PS: In the days of the Soviet Union, we all remember their teams sporting CCCP on their uniforms. Of course, most westerners pronounced this sea-sea-sea-pee, but it's actually pronounced ess-ess-ess-air and would have been transliterated SSSR, which stood for Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, or Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR). Soviet means council.
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