Oil, storms and knowing part 1: Seafarers Calm Waves with Oil

Abstract

• This post is to mark the period of the 25th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and is contributed by Andrea Deri, Cataloguer. A storm at sea is one of the most feared experiences, as it often presages shipwreck. Mariners would do anything to survive tempestuous waters, from weather forecasting to casting holy oil or auspicious soil from the tomb of a Persian Sufi saint, Abu Eshaq Kazaruni (d. 1035) on the waves. Occasionally, sailors wailing from fear were also briefly plunged into the sea: to calm them, not the waves though.