Argosy (Williams 1977) - Loading

An Argosy is a merchant sailing ship from the Age of Discovery.  In particular, the ship on this game's backglass is a ship from Venice, probably from the 16th century.  As luck would have it, I was able to find a picture of what is very likely the original artwork that the backglass artist used as his source material, so I integrated that into the video.  The original painting is by a man named Gordon Grant, who worked as an illustrator in the early to mid-20th century.  This picture appears in a book about sailing ships, although I'm not sure about the exact title since I only found the one page, not the whole book.

The downside for me is that from reading the rest of the page, I'm now acutely aware that Venetian Argosies were operated by slaves.  I hadn't thought about that very clearly, but of course that's the truth of it.  It's a historical artifact, I guess, and presumably no slaves were used in the production of this pinball machine.

Anyway, this video is made from elements of the game's backglass, plus the above mentioned print and a few other prints I was able to find of this type of galley ship.  The music is "Pavana Alla Venetiana," which originates from the same time period as the Argosy and is performed by the Toronto Consort.