Tristan Jones

Dear Mike,

I am honored by your intended naming of your new vessel “Tansy” after my first skipper. He must be smiling somewhere up there in the port of heaven and saying to St. Peter, well, those Californians are a …bit much…”

I hope you realize that the name “Tansy” comes from that of a very tough weed that grows in British gardens( I don’t know if its American, too), and is extremely hard to get rid of, and has a bitter-sweet aroma. The name derives from middle English “Tannesey”, through Middle French”Tanesie”, through Middle Latin “Athanasia” to old Greek “Athanatos”, meaning “Immorality”. or ” of the immortal”. ( Incredible , but check Webster’s)

In short, an eminently acceptable name for a good, sturdy vessel, which shall be “of the immortals”.

May she guide and defend you through storms and calms as sturdily and faithfully as did Captain Tansy Lee guide and defend the “Second Apprentice” and the ship’s nipper aboard her .May she be as tough and unkillable as the little weed from which her name stems, and like that weed, may her flowers be bright and perennial…

I have looked closely at the pictures of the building of Tansy. I know that the old boy must be looking over my shoulder, too, and as pleased as am I at the obvious well – being and the care that is going into her.

Bless you and Tansy Lee,
Sincerely,
Tristan Jones