The book, alive · The position

Where the ship is, now.

A finished book is a monument; a logbook is alive. Every other leaf of this volume tells you something. This one only reports: the hour struck where you are standing, the sun worked at the fix, and every reckoning run since. Each figure names the instrument it came from, and an instrument with nothing to say says so.

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Ship’s time

Struck by your own clock, which is asleep at present, scripts being off. The rest of this leaf is exact.

By the reader’s own clock

The fix

Position Salerno, the coast this book comes from By chart 40°40′57″N · 14°46′05″E
The sun at the fix — Not worked By sight · worked from the chart and your own clock — A sight is worked, never stored. With scripts off there is nothing here to work it with, and nothing has been put in its place.
The fix itself 23 October MMXXVI By the yard’s book The hour and the sun above are worked now, in your own browser. Everything below was true at this fix, and has been reckoned forward since.

The reckoning

This book has been open 217 days By reckoning, from 20 March MMXXVI
Last entry in the yard’s book today By the yard’s book · 3c1779f9 · DXX entries in all La carta di Antonio Di Landro torna esatta, una figlia e ventisette anni prima della seconda guerra, con la correzione negli errata
Last passage of the Logbook Caffeine’s half-life, drawn as a clock By the Logbook today
Next examination No date entered Instrument silent The examination book of this ship is open and empty. When a date is written in it, it appears here by itself.

The hour above is yours, not his: the log keeps its watch wherever it is read. A monument does not need to know what day it is. A book that intends to stay alive does.

No figure on this leaf was typed by hand. The yard’s book is the repository of this volume and nothing else: no other work, no other yard, and nobody else’s affairs. The sun is worked in your own browser, so that reading this page sends nothing about you anywhere: the colophon promises no tracking of any kind, and a promise kept only when convenient is not a promise. Examination dates appear only if the author has written them in his own book, and then only the name and the days.

Continue reading →The Logbook †The Wreck Register ≡The Frontispiece