Tzadkiel's ship

Tony Ellis · 28 Nov 2007, 14:10 · from 2007-November.txt.gz

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From: tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com (Tony Ellis)
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:10:51 +0000
Subject: (urth) Tzadkiel's ship
Message-ID: <9a33123d0711280610g2ebe9adbte27022bd9af837ca at mail.gmail.com>

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> The ship on Sev's tomb *is* Tzadkiel's ship; at one point, it is implied
> that there is only one ship of this sort in the Universe.

And Jeff Wilson:
>Do you have a cite supporting this? A bas relief of the Tzadkiel
>(polygon cross-section, with masts on all sides) would not really
>resemble a single water vessel.

Ah, but it doesn't have to resemble a water vessel, does it? In
TBotNS, the word 'ship' is used interchangeably for sailing vessels
and spacecraft. A ship on a coat of arms could be either.

The fact that we're told this armorial ship is 'a ship volant' is a
punning clue that in this case, it's probably a spaceship. Since
Tzadkiel's ship plays such a key role in Severian's life, it seems a
pretty safe bet that it's meant to be Tzad's.

The whole "The Captain says there is only one ship" business, on the
other hand, has never made much sense to me, as we've been told of at
least two different (space)ships previously. The idea that humanity
forged their great space empire solely by hitching a lift on someone
else's spacecraft doesn't exactly sound plausible, either.

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