History Literature / TheShipThatSailedToMars

* FlamingMeteor: The Ship encounters a meteor in its travels that emits a "shuddering glow" and throws off heat. The fairies reason that it is "a giant spark from the Anvil of some Industrious God who was forging, maybe, an iron circlet for the ankle of his Beloved."

* SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfDistance:: The work is definitely ScienceFantasy, but it depicts Mars as a celestial body near enough that a sailing ship (albeit a flying one) can reach within a few weeks of travel. Additionally, the "learned astronomers" of Earth that appear in the book assert that Mars is thirty thousand miles away... which is explicitly untrue (see the ArtisticLicenseSpace entry above for details). For comparison, the Earth's equator is 24,901 miles around -- 30,000 miles is enough to circle the globe one and one fifth times. Earth's moon sits [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon at an average of 239,000 miles away]] (between 251,900 miles at the apogee and 225,700 miles at the perigee). The distance from Earth to Mars was roughly calculated as early as 1672, when Giovanni Cassini and Jean Richer took measurements of the position of Mars from their positions in Paris and French Guiana, and triangulated those measurements with the known distance between their locations on Earth. This information would have been readily available to Timlin even in 1921, when he began work on his story.

* ScienceHero: The Old Man. Though he's described as being at odds with the stuffy scientists and astronomers of Earth, the Old Man nevertheless proves capable of fantastic feats of engineering and science.

** The inhabitants of Thunder City are saved when the Old Man arranges for the construction of a lightning rod, [[GuileHero tricking the tenants of Thunder City into building the structure]] and freeing them from the lightning's thrall.

** Astronomers tell the Old Man that Mars is "thirty thousand miles away." The absolute minimum distance from Earth to Mars is 33.9 million miles (54.6 million kilometers) from Earth, according to [[https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/night-sky/close-approach/ NASA]].
** The Old Man and his fairy companions are able to breathe in outer space, and every planet they encounter has a breathable atmosphere.

--> As they arrived at the City of Mars, it was coming on to evening, and the Ship floated down through a wonderful purple twilight and came to rest, buoyant as a flower, on the placid mirror of a broad canal, from whose pellucid depths came flashing a band of Mermaids to bear the Ship to where, on a marble causeway, stood many of importance in that City, to welcome the visitants.

--> Once the fiery breath of that One whose Name is shuddered at on Earth, and whispered to-and-fro on dark and windy nights, nearly engulfed the Ship, and shriveled it in the cascading flames that ascended from its myriad eyes and mouths. His horrible spouse, that evil that had troubled men through all the fabled days, wallowed at his side, and adding her voice to his, shrieked in maniac rage at her hatred of mankind.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The work is definitely ScienceFantasy, but it depicts Mars as a celestial body near enough that a sailing ship (albeit a flying one) can reach within a few weeks of travel. Additionally, the "learned astronomers" of Earth that appear in the book assert that Mars is thirty thousand miles away... which is explicitly untrue (see the ArtisticLicenseSpace entry above for details). For comparison, the Earth's equator is 24,901 miles around -- 30,000 miles is enough to circle the globe one and one fifth times. Earth's moon sits [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon at an average of 239,000 miles away]] (between 251,900 miles at the apogee and 225,700 miles at the perigee). The distance from Earth to Mars was roughly calculated as early as 1672, when Giovanni Cassini and Jean Richer took measurements of the position of Mars from their positions in Paris and French Guiana, and triangulated those measurements with the known distance between their locations on Earth. This information would have been readily available to Timlin even in 1921, when he began work on his story.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The work is definitely ScienceFantasy, but it depicts Mars as a celestial body near enough that a sailing ship (albeit a flying one) can reach within a few weeks of travel. Additionally, learned astronomers from Earth assert that Mars is thirty thousand miles away... which is [[ArtisticLicenseSpace explicitly untrue]]. The distance from Earth to Mars was roughly calculated as early as 1672, when Giovanni Cassini and Jean Richer took measurements of the position of Mars from their positions in Paris and French Guiana, and triangulated those measurements with the known distance between their locations on Earth. This information would have been readily available to Timlin even in 1921, when he began work on his story.

--> Then, slowly, a nearby cloud swelled, and dropped a single tremendous raindrop, that fell on the land with a heavy sullen sound, burying for itself a pit and hurtling mud and crawling creatures into the fetid air.

* SadlyMythtaken: The "Star of Classical Mythology" features Calypso, Jason, Medea, Icarus, Orpheus, Eurydice, and other figures of Greek Mythology -- but all somewhat {{Bowdlerized}} and given happy endings inconsistent with their source material. Calypso is a gracious hostess, Medea is defanged, Icarus appears to have survived his flight, and Orpheus appears to have escaped the underworld with his dear Eurydice.
--> The light flashing from sails and gilded prow showed them the far-famed Argo returning, bearing again the triumphant Jason and the Golden Fleece; and Medea was there, but wonderfully changed, and not the horrific witch the fable knows.

--> Here it is that this most brief account must end, but there is much more yet to be told concerning certain great and little happenings on the World of Mars. Of the Old Man's visit to the Forest Fairies, and his stay amongst the Goblins in the heart of that far distant Planet. Of how the Fairies left in the Shipyard on Earth, distressed and anxious about the Old Man's lengthy absence, built a ship according to his design, and finally arrived on Mars.

-> ''"The Captain and Crew had the utmost difficulty in persuading the homestaying Fairies to release the ropes, but at last the ship was free; and with a curtsey it slid up a sunbeam through the clouds. As they sailed past those impalpable towers that the Westing wind had piled up, the Captain and the Crew were fairly swollen with elation. They could not conceive the dangers that they must inevitably meet. Nor had they knowledge enough to turn their course aside from the Sorrowful Planet, where tears as big as mountains are wrung rom lowering purple clouds; nor from that repellant dwelling of Hate, the Thunder City amongst the Iron Hills of Mars, or from those other Sinister Things that, driven from inhabited spheres, brood in uncanny silences on ancient horrid stars forgotten of the Gods."''

The sole published work of Creator/WilliamTimlin, ''The Ship That Sailed to Mars'' is an early (1923) work of ScienceFantasy distinguished by the author's four dozen fanciful watercolor illustrations and calligraphic text accompaniment.

* ConstellationsAsLocations: The Pleiades Star Cluster is depicted as seven floating, spherical houses where the Pleiades of mythology (the seven daughters of Pleione) have been imprisoned after pestering the gods to judge which of them had the fairest singing voice.

* CrapsackWorld: Several of the planets the Ship flies past on its way to Mars are detailed to be filled with monsters or atmospheric conditions so horrible that no-one would willingly choose to live there. On the "Sorrowful Planet", all the rain in the clouds falls as a single massive drop:

* GemTissue: The Snake of Eden has a pair of massive jewels for eyes.

* NoNameGiven: The Old Man is never referred to by his name, only as "the Old Man." Likewise, the King, Princess, and Prince of Mars are never given names besides their titles. The only named characters are the ones borrowed from Classical Mythology, and the "Snake of Eden" that menaces the Ship.

* SadlyMythtaken: The "Star of Classical Mythology" features Calypso, Jason, Medea, Orpheus, Eurydice, and other figures of Greek Mythology -- but all somewhat {{Bowdlerized}} and given happy endings inconsistent with their source material. Calypso is a gracious hostess, Medea is defanged, Icarus appears to have survived his flight, and Orpheus appears to have escaped the underworld with his dear Eurydice.

--> Once the fiery breath of that One whose Name is shuddered at on Earth, and whispered to-and-fro on dark and windy nights, nearly engulfed the Ship, and shrivelled it in the cascading flames that ascended from its myriad eyes and mouths. His horrible spouse, that evil that had troubled men through all the fabled days, wallowed at his side, and adding her voice to his, shrieked in maniac rage at her hatred of mankind.

* ScienceHero: The Old Man. Though he's described as being at odds with scientists and astronomers of Earth, he nevertheless proves capable of great feats of science. He designs a ship capable of interplanetary travel, and is able to construct it with the aid of some scientifically minded fairies. Later, the Princess of Mars seeks out his aid in saving her beloved Prince from Thunder City, recognizing that the Old Man has a greater breadth of experience and understanding of meteorological phenomena. The inhabitants of Thunder City are saved when the Old Man arranges for the construction of a lightning rod.

* WillReturnCaption: The Epilogue confirms that there are further adventures of the Old Man, and of the Fairies left behind on Earth, that aren't covered in ''The Ship That Sailed to Mars''. Timlin always intended to write a sequel, ''The Building of a Fairy City'', but died before he had finished it.

** The Pleiades Star Cluster is depicted as seven floating spherical houses where the seven Pleiades are imprisoned after pestering the gods to judge which of them had the fairest singing voice.

* GentleGiant: In the Fairy Forest that rests between the Martian Capital and the Iron Hills, the Old Man encounters "a Monster worse than any in all the Zoo of Mars." A monster whose "eyes glimmered madly red," and that had "spiky, craggy teeth," and a heaving bloated body -- but the creature is only the lost pet of a band of Forest Fairies. Once the Fairies and their pet monster are reunited, it is revealed to be totally harmless.
* GuileHero: The Old Man tricks the melancholic residents of Thunder City into creating a lightning rod by positing that it will ''increase'' their melancholy to have all the land's lightning concentrated in a single spire, rather than spread throughout the Iron Hills. After the tower is constructed and the lightning is grounded, the air of melancholy pervading the Iron Hills is dissolved and the fairies who had made their home their leave of their own accord.

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: ''The Ship That Sailed to Mars'' is quintessentially ScienceFantasy (heavy on the fantasy side), but ''none'' of the astronomy in the tale has any basis in reality:

* ConvenientlyClosePlanet: Not only can the Old Man and his crew of fairies fly to Mars in a sailing ship, there are [[ArtisticLicenseAstronomy multiple planets situated on the route between Earth and Mars]] where they take stopovers to stretch their legs.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The work is definitely ScienceFantasy, but it depicts Mars as a celestial body near enough that a sailing ship (albeit a flying one) can reach within a few weeks of travel. Additionally, learned astronomers from Earth assert that Mars is thirty thousand miles away... which is [[ArtisticLicenseAstronomy explicitly untrue]]. The distance from Earth to Mars was roughly calculated as early as 1672, when Giovanni Cassini and Jean Richer took measurements of the position of Mars from their positions in Paris and French Guiana, and triangulated those measurements with the known distance between their locations on Earth. This information would have been readily available to Timlin even in 1921, when he began work on his story.

-> ''"The Captain and Crew had the utmost difficulty in persuading the homestaying Fairies to release the ropes, but at last the ship was free; and with a curtsey it slid up a sunbeam through the clouds. As they sailed past those impalpable towers that the Westing wind had piled up, the Captain and the Crew were fairly swollen with elation. They could not conceive the dangers that they must inevitably meet. Nor had they knowledge enough to turn their course aside from the Sorrowful Planet, where tears as big as mountains are wrung rom lowering purple clouds; nor from that repellant dwelling of Hate, the Thunder City amongst the Iron Hills of Mars, or from those other Sinister Things that, driven driven from inhabited spheres, brood in uncanny silences on ancient horrid stars forgotten of the Gods."''

Broken into three parts, the adventure follows the motley crew -- a single elderly human man and ten fairy craftsmen and seamstresses -- of a ship bound for Mars. They encounter many strange worlds and dangerous obstacles on the way to their destination, including worlds populated solely by Pirates, monsters, and characters from Greek Mythology. Upon their arrival at Mars' Fairy City, the crew is befriended by the Martian King's daughter. The Princess begs for their help in rescuing her beloved Prince from the treacherous Thunder City, and the certain doom that awaits him there.

** Astronomers tell the Old Man that Mars is "thirty thousand miles away." The absolute minimum distance from Earth to Mars, provided both planets are is 33.9 million miles (54.6 million kilometers) from Earth, according to [[https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/night-sky/close-approach/ NASA]].
** The Old Man and his fairy companions are able to breathe in outer space.
** The Milky Way is depicted as a veil of stardust closer to Earth than any other celestial body (bar the Moon). When the Ship sails through the barrier, two things happen:

** Numerous "stars" and planets are encountered between Earth and Mars. Even if Mars and Earth were the furthest distance apart possible (if both planets were at aphelion (i.e. the farthest distance from the sun in their respective orbits) on opposite sides of the sun, they'd be 250 million miles apart according to [[https://www.space.com/16875-how-far-away-is-mars.html [=Space.com=]]]), the only astrological bodies of note between the two would be the Sun, Mercury, and Venus.

* CityOfCanals: The Martian Fairy City is built with a system of canals laced throughout. Timlin's depiction played off the popular idea of the time that Mars was covered with a network of canals. The trope of Martian canals can be traced back to a mistranslation of Giovanni Schiaparelli observations of the red planet in the 1870's, wherein he called the network of dark areas he saw through his telescope "canali," meaning channel. "Canali" was translated into English as “canals,” which are always man-made. The idea of canals built by Martians flourished in popular culture and fictional depictions of the Red Planet, of which ''The Ship That Sailed to Mars'' is only one example.

* CoolShip: The Ship built by the Old Man and the fairy craftsmen. It can fly, and it's decked out with ropes made from gemstones and a golden figurehead in the shape of the phoenix.
* CrapsackWorld: Several of the planets the Ship flies past on its way to Mars are detailed to be filled with monsters or atmospheric conditions so horrible that no-one would willing choose to live there. On the "Sorrowful Planet", all the rain in the clouds falls as a single massive drop:

* GentleGiant: In the Fairy Forest that rests between the Martian Capital and the Iron Hills, the Old Man encounters "a Monster worse than any in all the Zoo of Mars." A monster with "eyes glimmered madly red," and "spiky, craggy teeth," and a heaving bloated body -- but the creature is only the lost pet of a band of Forest Fairies. Once the Fairies and their pet monster are reunited, it is revealed to be totally harmless.

* NoNameGiven: The Old Man is never referred to by his name, only as "the Old Man." Likewise, the King, Princess, and Prince of Mars are never given names besides their titles. The only named characters are the ones borrowed from Classical Mythology.

* OurFairiesAreDifferent: The fairies from Earth look like little old men and women in turn-of-the-century clothes, with their only distinguishing feature being pointed ears, slightly pinched faces, and deft craftsmanship. On Mars the fairy women all appear to be beautiful maidens, while the fairy men appear either as little trolls/ goblins or men with pointed ears.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The work is definitely ScienceFantasy, but it depicts Mars as a celestial body near enough that a sailing ship (albeit a flying one) can reach within a few weeks of travel. Additionally, learned astronomers from Earth assert that Mars is thirty thousand miles away... which is [[ArtisticLicenseAstronomy explicitly untrue]]. The distance from Earth to Mars was roughly calculated as early as 1672, when Giovanni Cassini and Jean Richer took measurements of the position of Mars from their positions in Paris and French Guiana, and triangulated those measurements with the known distance between Paris and French Guiana. This information would have been readily available to Timlin even in 1921, when he began work on his story.
* ScienceFantasy: Arguably the best descriptor for this work, where fairycraft enables a man to fly to mars.

* Purple Prose: Exuberantly so. Although the passages that accompany each illustration are brief (usually not more than three or four short paragraphs), the text contains florid descriptions of the beautiful sights the crew sees and brave deeds the Old Man accomplishes.