A man's hand dwarfed by the brawny girth of rope.
Rope is the wheel of the ocean. Man has used it to bind together and control materials for millennia, from raftsmen navigating the rabid waters of the Nile to nomadic whale hunters rolling over the dark fathoms of the sea. It is a tool that predates all but the most rudimentary instruments of survival — the sharpened stone, the blunt hand tool — and like these objects, versions of it are found in nature: the vine, the twisted branches of plants, even the muscle fiber beneath your skin.
Aluminum Canoes
There's nothing like a good old-fashioned canoe adventure. Movie poster from "Deliverance." Via Cinema Masterpieces.
An inexpensive alternative to hand-carved wooden canoes (which are very nice thank you, à la Mad River) was inevitable but it was the end of WWII that precipitated the rush. In terms of production it was a perfect storm of war-accelerated technology and idle airplane factories. In terms of demand, there was a new perception and importance placed on leisure after WWII, with young marrieds and their families enjoying their hard fought freedoms.
Fishing, and so canoeing and boating, was one of the activities that exploded in the 50s… look at any Kodachrome collection you can find and damn me if every third plaid-shirted man isn’t holding up a string of trout or stripers with his son in tow.
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