On 18/09/2010 08:16, Roger Chapman wrote:
On 18/09/2010 01:47, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember
saying something like:

What's that prog on TV where they climb the rigging and stand aloft? Now
that would scare me.

Hornblower, final scene in one of the early episodes. Helicopter shot,
rather well done, from close-up to pulling away into the distance.

Probably stuffed left right and centre with hidden safety features.

Pete mentioned up-thread about going aloft on a square rigger but back
in the days when that was commonplace there was no safety gear.

And not so long ago when HMS Ganges (stone frigate at Shotley) was
operational as a training school for boy sailors they used to dress the
mast at the passing out parade with one boy standing on the button.

They used to do it at the Royal Tournament at Earl's Court too, until it
was shelved 11 years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhj9WcdXMqo

I saw it once - quite a spectacle.
I see it's being revived again this year: http://www.royaltournament.org/

David