Ship to shore to ship

Mauritius is a small country, struggling for identity.  It’s the most prosperous country in Africa, but it identifies with India.  It’s part of the British Commonwealth, and its official language is English, but its citizens speak Creole first, French second, and English a distant third.  It’s named after a Dutch prince, with a capitol city named after a French king (pronounced in the British way).  Pinning its economic hopes on technology, it is perhaps no surprise that it is home to many customer service call centers, places where people pretend to be what they are not.

The most famous animal of Mauritius is the dodo, a bird that became extinct only 100 years after its discovery by Europeans.  (Mauritius had no native population.)  Although our tour guide told us the dodo was eaten by the Dutch and its nests plundered by rats who came as stowaways on the Dutch ships, this is disputed.  It was an easy bird to catch, but not particularly tasty.  How disappointing:  a huge bird, which does not fly and is not afraid of humans, but whose meat is tough.  Perhaps best used as a croquet mallet (see Alice in Wonderland), although it’s unclear how a child could swing a 3 foot croquet mallet that weighed as much as 50 pounds. 

But every country finds its niche, and Mauritius has established one as a model ship builder.  They build them in bottles and they build them without the bottles, and they build them in a wide range of sizes.  You can take home a Mayflower, or a Bounty, or any number of other sailing ships.  Oddly, although the ships are painstakingly detailed and accurate, almost none of the ships in the showroom are labeled.

Vasa model in Stockholm--made in Mauritius?

They didn't get the memo about the paint colors in Mauritius.

Because I was studying the ships, I soon attracted a salesperson who told me what fine quality they were and how they will of course happily pack them for shipment around the world.  I was trying to pick out the Vasa, the Swedish ship that sunk on her maiden voyage, and remembering a lovely day I spent in Stockholm's Vasa Museum with Catherine.

Alas, no matter how I squinted, I could not find her in the crow's nest of this Vasa.