Kelly Smith | Made in Seattle

Tonight I was listening to some old MP3′s and it was the former front man of Dire Straights – Mark Knopfler – whose CD titled Sailing to Philadelphia got my attention.

The title track seemed a curiously thoughtful bit of verse and I began to get curious what “Sailing to Philadelphia” was really about. Listening to the lyrics it all began to get more clear that Mark Knopfler is a bit of a history buff. Turns out his song is a very romantic interpretation of two Englishman “sailing to Philadelphia” to conduct surveys for what would ultimately become known as the Mason Dixon line. Remember that from your basic history classes? The English team of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon are the focus of Knopfler’s (very compelling) song as they are tasked by wealthy English royals to resolve a long running dispute in colonial North America. In 1732 the proprietory governor of Maryland, Charles Calvert (British noble and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland), signed an agreement with William Penn’s sons (the other wealthy land owning English family) which drew a line somewhere in between, and also renounced the Calvert claim to Delaware. But later Lord Baltimore (as Calvert was also known and which is also the origin of the name for the city of Baltimore) claimed that the document he signed did not contain the terms he had agreed to, and refused to put the agreement into effect. The issue was unresolved until the Crown intervened in 1760, ordering the English team of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to survey the boundaries between the Province of Pennsylvania, the Province of Maryland, Delaware Colony and parts of Colony and Old Dominion of Virginia. Both Mason and Dixon were astronomers who first gained favor with the English crown when they traveled around the Cape of Good Hope to track the “Transit of Venus”. In fact the whole lot of characters in the story of the Mason Dixon line were privileged and that doesn’t just include the wealthy land barons for whom the line was drawn. Dixon’s father was a wealthy Quaker coal mine owner. He became interested in astronomy and mathematics during his education (at Barnard Castle) and early in life he made acquaintances with famed mathematician William Emerson and historic astronomers John Bird and Thomas Wright.

The Mason–Dixon Line was marked by stones every mile and ”crownstones” every five miles. The stone was shipped from England. The Maryland side says (M) and the Delaware and Pennsylvania sides say (P). Crownstones include the two coats-of-arms.

Today, while a number of the original stones are missing or buried, many are still visible, resting on public land and protected by iron cages.

The lyrics and the very choice of story clearly suggests that Mark Knopfler is quite a bit of a deeper individual than his “money for nothing and chicks for free” fame would otherwise cast him. In fact, the selection of the story of Mason Dixon couldn’t be more of an antiquated royal remembrance of United Kingdom aristocrats which really doesn’t encapsulate Britain the way it used to. Apparently we should be careful to judge a rock star by the pop CD’s that make them rich. Knopfler, in particular, is more of an academic than most of his earlier work would have otherwise suggested.