Raker?

[EchoMan]

So what is a raker anyways? I know that in Cantr it's a floating vessel. But I can't find any references to some ship IRL. Does anyone have a clue?

[Doug R.]

Nope, I've also tried to look it up with no success. It's either entirely fabricated, or not a word that would come up on an English-based search engine.

[EchoMan]

Maybe rename it then, if someone can't come up with an explanation? Like a privateer, fregate, scooner or something people actually can refer to? Not sure how the size of the raker would fit with one of those actually.

[AlchemicRaker]

Maybe rename it then, if someone can't come up with an explanation? Like a privateer, fregate, scooner or something people actually can refer to? Not sure how the size of the raker would fit with one of those actually.

Frigate and schooner...

I don't mind it, really. I like the idea of having some new words/things in Cantr. Heck, it took until now to even raise question.

- Natso

[EchoMan]

Well, for one thing if a word doesn't have a real life meaning, it will cause confusion.

Secondly it causes even more confusion when translated to other languages if noone know what the heck it is. E.g. the current Swedish translation of it is "Raker (skepp)" ("Raker (Ship)"). Just causes unnecessary redundancy imho.

Edit: And the question was raised in 2003 and still didn't get an answer from what I could see...

http://forum.cantr.org/search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keywords=Raker&start=360

[nateflory]

Rakers were a type of ship in Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" books and were probably populated here to provide a choice of different sailing vessels that had a slightly "fantasy" flair when Resource Dept first created them?

Now, some quotes for context:

# Noal took up the tale he had left off when Egeanin and Domon appeared, as well, a story of some supposed voyage on a Sea Folk raker. —Knife of Dreams

# Elayne and Nynaeve should be aboard the raker by now, out of the way. —The Shadow Rising

# A new ship was sweeping into the harbor below, a Sea Folk raker with its towering masts and clouds of sail. —The Shadow Rising

[returner]

Uh, you know those things you heap leaves with? It's basically a large version of that.

Noobs.

[FrankieLeonie]

I picture a raker to be a boat with 3 sets of triangular sails that moves faster then a normal vessel of its size. It is meant to be a fast war type ship rather then a cargo ship. If you look at the types of boats that can dock to it you can get a general feeling of its size.

Docks to
coaster harbour

Docked to by
darter
dinghy
longboat
sloop

So it is bigger then all those boats and to big to dock to any other. The only bigger ship is the Galleon, which we know is meant as a cargo ship. It is also the fastest ship at 60 speed units where a Galleon is 45.

[Piscator]

the current Swedish translation of it is "Raker (skepp)" ("Raker (Ship)").

Why not translate it phonetically and call it "räka"? ^^

[EchoMan]

Beacause shrimps take so few passengers.

[Piscator]

But they are definitely sea-going.

[reve]

In Cantr it is tranaslated to polish... The name of this ship in polish means exactly the same as in english: nothing conected with sailing. But has some connection with bad people and stealing from abandoned or unprotected places. In an online dictionary I translated it into 'looter' if it means anything to you.

IMO it fits the ambience of Cantr and shouldn't be changed. In both languages.

In The Wheel of Time books it wasn't translated to polish, actually. Raker is raker.

[SekoETC]

I dunno, I've gotten used to the name raker being associated with fastest speed and good capacity. If it was changed to something else, it might get vague again.

[viktor]

i think raker should just be kept as is, so many years already.
was raker really the class of ship r just a part of the ship name in those books *shrugs*
abd there is one more ship bigger than a raker, a skimmer, 15 people 2.5 mil gram capacity

[raspberrytea]

I looked this up once because it was really bothering me, and I think I actually did find a real reference to a raker (and a picture!), but it required a lot of searching and I'm not sure I can find it again.

At any rate, I've grown accustomed to "raker," whether or not it's a real type of ship, and if it was to be changed, it would be more confusing than helpful (at least in English, I can't speak for the other languages).