The following quote about the mighty warships of the 1700s (from The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann) set my mind to thinking.
“Most of the wood was hard oak, but it was still susceptible to the pulverizing elements of storm and sea. Teredo navalis--a reddish shipworm, which can grow longer than a foot--ate through hulls. (Columbus lost two ships to these creatures during his fourth voyage to the West Indies.) Termites also bored through decks and masts and cabin doors, as did deathwatch beetles. A species of fungus further devoured the ship's wooden core. In 1684, Samuel Pepys, a secretary to the Admiralty, was stunned to discover that many new warships under construction were already so rotten they were ‘in danger of sinking at their very moorings.’
“The average man-of-war was estimated by a leading shipwright to last only fourteen years. And to survive that long, a ship had to be virtually remade after each extensive voyage, with new masts and sheathing and rigging. Otherwise, it risked disaster. In 1782, while the 180-foot Royal George--for a time the largest warship in the world--was anchored near Portsmouth, with a full crew onboard, water began flooding its hull. It sank. The cause has been disputed, but an investigation blamed the ‘general state of decay of her timbers.’ An estimated nine hundred people drowned.”
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Truth is...I am reminded of the words of Jesus about building our houses on sand or rock (Matthew 7:24-27) and Paul's words about reaping what we sow (Galatians 6:7). Whatever a person entrusts their physical or spiritual well-being to had better be trustworthy. And guard yourself against what you think are just little things...but could eat away at your integrity until you're sunk.
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