Error in The Fellowship of the Ring book regarding boats
 

According to one of the Elves as the Fellowship is making ready their departure, the boats will "Not sink, lade them you will" but later, indeed just a few short pages later, Gimli is mourning taking leave of Lorien, and then he says "But talk no more of it. Look to the boat! She is too low in the water with all this baggage, and the Great River is swift. I do not wish to drown my grief in cold water."

Is this not incongrous, friends?

I think Gimli is just saying something to avoid talking any more about his feelings for Galadriel. The boats weren't really going to sink.

Even if the boats weren't actually going to sink, it was perhaps possible to get a "boatful" of river water on a swift and rough river. Not a pleasant experience, though quite safe. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

While the boats of Lothlorien may be unsinkable, nothing is mentioned as to wether or not they may be capsized.

So perhaps Gimli is merely concerned about an unplanned dunking, through mis-management of the vessel while in rough waters.

Wasn't the Titanic supposed to be unsinkable too???
If you have a fear of something you will still be afraid no matter how many times people tell you it's safe.

Ah, but you see Harland and Wolff didn't employ Elven craftsmen. Perhaps that's where they went wrong. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

The Sil stated that the dwarves were afraid of the sea and dreaded its sound. Perhaps Gimli was nervous, especially when the craft he was sitting it was so small and narrow.

Yeah, i dont think these boats were actually going to sink just from burden. Perhaps an attack but not because of weight. Gimli was just being wishy-washy (for a dwarf). Just because Gimli was afraid the boats would sink does not mean they will. I bet the Brandybucks would like some boats like that. Unsinkable. Poor Leonardo.

An unsinkable boat can still capsize, and you end up in the river all the same. 'But we didn't sink, we merely capsized, so that's all right,' Gimli'd be thinking as he went down for the third time. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Unfortunately, the builders of the Titanic hired dark elves to do their unsinkability assessments.

It may be a bit of a contradiction, but we're talking about a world that doesn't quite obey the same laws of physics as we do, so the rules are different.

The fact that it's Gimli who's worried makes me inclined to believe that he was just being nervous; there's the previously-mentioned fact that Dwarves (like hobbits) don't seem to be big fans of water travel, and there's also the fact that Gimli is naturally inclined to mistrust Elves; his "Welcome to Lorien" was probably a rather unnerving experience. Yes, he did fall in love with Galadriel, but that doesn't mean he's going to shake all his convictions about the innate slipperiness of Elvish promises all in an instant (it takes him till TTT, after all, before he starts getting truly friendly with Legolas). Probably the only way he'd be inclined to have faith in the boats is if he was told that Galadriel made them personally.

And, it was Gimli's way of covering up. You know how, when you are caught at something (Gimli at his new-found admiration of Galadriel, an *gasp* Elf), you find an excuse? Well, that is was Gimli was doing. It was sort of like he was saying, "Hmm...well...darn...caught me...but look! We must be off! Now! Okay, had a nice stay and all, but, I must be off now...*clears throat nervously*". And he was probably nervous about water, like many others have suggested...

[ October 27, 2002: Message edited by: VanimaEdhel ]