Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Your job is not to die for your country; it is to make the other poor dumb bastard die for his country”.

                                             US General George S. Patton

I just read where a surprise party/award was given to 48 year old Sandra Bullock. It was called “The Decade of Hotness Award”. The party was given by three of her “favorite” men and they are Hugh Grant, Keanu Reeves and Matthew McConaughey. The actual award was a trophy with gold plated deer antlers (horns) on top. All of y'all think about who this award should be given to of your friends and acquaintances (or whatever) in memory. Sandra was stunning in a blue dress with no straps. The top of the dress ended just below her shoulders. There is a name for this type dress but I don't know it. By the way, I totally agree with the award.

Here is a biography of a pirate.

                                                  Henry Morgan

                                                         A Privateer

Sometime in the year 1635 in Bamberg, Germany a son named Henry was born to Welshman Squire Robert Morgan and his German wife Anna Petronella von Polnitz. The early years of little Henry are very sketchy at best but it was legend that he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Barbados. But this probably is not the case because his uncle, Edward Morgan, was the Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica. Henry chose to marry one of Edward’s daughters making her Henry’s cousin but it put him in good stead with his uncle. On the manuscript of British Admiral Christopher Myng’s multi-ship attack and capture of the Spanish outposts of Vildemos, Trujillo and Granada a “Captain Morgan” is listed as one of his ship’s commanders. This almost certainly was Henry. He went on another expedition with a 15 ship armada commanded by Admiral Edward Mansfield. Mansfield was captured and killed by the Spanish and Morgan was elected to take Mansfield’s place. Morgan was tasked by the Governor of Jamaica, Sir Thomas Modyford, to go to Cuba and capture some Spanish sailors and find out, using torture if necessary, if there was a plan to attack Jamaica and when. Morgan assembled a 10 ship armada and 500 cutthroats and set out. Morgan was successful in his assignment, but could not resist this opportunity to do the obligatory rape, loot and pillage of the town of Puerto Principe, Cuba. Henry went back to Jamaica and reported his findings to Governor Modyford who did not chastise Morgan for the Puerto Principe thing and actually encouraged further attacks but on Spanish ships and properties only. He allowed Morgan to keep a large portion of whatever booty he recovered. This assignment made him a privateer, not a pirate. He was in effect, a contract worker for England. The next target was the considerable Spanish encampment at Portobello, Panama. Morgan approached Portobello and forced three Spanish ships aground and looted and burned them. Next he disembarked his men and attacked the Spanish fort from two directions. The Spanish had Morgan and his men outnumbered nearly three to one but they were untrained in combat. Morgan’s men were expert murderers and when the Spanish attacked, Morgan’s men cut them down like wheat. They recovered enough gold to equal three hundred thousand pounds Sterling but not before murdering whoever was left and burning the town to the ground. This was the most atrocious of acts of this Welshman. After getting back aboard their ships, the men chose to celebrate heartily and broke out the rum and wine. The largest ship in this task force went down in a thunderous explosion when one of his drunken sailors accidentally set fire to the powder magazine. Morgan barely escaped with his life. Morgan’s next target was Maracaibo, Venezuela and he recovered several ship loads of booty and sailed back to Jamaica. After landing at Jamaica he found out that England and Spain had signed a peace treaty months before making his most recent attacks an act of piracy. Morgan was ordered back to England to answer charges. He went back to England and was able to convince the judges that he knew nothing of the treaty and had continued his attacks on the Spanish as previously ordered by Governor Modyford. Not only was Morgan acquitted, he was knighted and made the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica and Sir Henry Morgan went back home. In 1681 the then acting Governor Morgan fell out of favor with the King. As with most monarchs, Charles II was not happy with any part of his realm being semi-autonomous as was Jamaica so he sent Morgan’s chief political enemy Charles Lynch to replace Morgan as Governor. Governor Lynch chose to live a life of excesses including oceans of rum and wine. Lynch drank himself to death in 1684 and Morgan’s friend Christopher Monck was appointed the new Governor and Morgan again was influential in the Jamaican Council. But Morgan’s health had been failing since 1681. He died on August 21, 1688 of “dropsy” at the age of 53. It was probably tuberculosis that he contracted in England when he went to answer charges.

Sir Henry Morgan life was a very opportune time for pirates. He was able to use the war between England and Spain to his advantage and made himself and most of his crews very wealthy. He also was able to retire from piracy and assume a respectable life with little or no legal retribution.

The pirates that followed him tried his methods and tactics with lesser success. The most successful of those that followed like Black Bart (Bartholomew Roberts) made a fortune several times over but was hunted down and killed by the British navy because Bart would capture and loot any and all ships, including the British. Black Bart spent a lot of time off the coast of Africa thinking the British would be looking for him in the Caribbean. He was wrong.

The pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach) prowled the Atlantic coast of America in addition to the Caribbean Sea. He set up his headquarter in Albemarle Sound, North Carolina after getting assurances from the Governor that he would have a safe haven if Blackbeard would split his booty with him. Governor Spotswood of Virginia was not thrilled because the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay was right next door and he knew that Blackbeard would be there preying on all that came and went. Governor Spotswood sent out an assassin team to run down and kill Blackbeard. They found Blackbeard but in the assassination attempt they found out that he was indeed a hand full. It took two gun shots and seven slashes with a saber before Blackbeard succumbed. Blackbeard thought he was safe in the arms of the Governor of North Carolina. He was wrong.

                       This Date in History June 9

1973 Three years earlier a stallion colt was born on Doswell Farm in Virginia. He was sired by the prolific Bold Ruler, a former Preakness winner, and was foaled by Somethingroyal. Bold Ruler was known for his stamina and so was his foal, Secretariat. Secretariat began racing as a two year old and he did not have a spectacular record. But when he began racing as a three year old, his owners knew they had a horse among many, one in a million. He won seven out of nine races as a three-year old before beginning his try at the Triple Crown. He won the Kentucky Derby after a spirited duel, the Preakness going away and everybody was waiting for the longest race of the three, The Belmont Stakes. The Derby and the Preakness were designed to test a horse’s pure speed but the Belmont was meant to test stamina. The press gave Secretariat the nickname of Big Red. In the Belmont Secretariat left the gate on the far outside and closed to third or forth before the first turn and by the end of the back stretch he had a small lead but when he completed the last turn he had a two length lead and his jockey Ron Turcotte just let Big Red have his head and he thundered across the finish line 30 lengths ahead of the nearest horse. Big Red ran the Belmont in record time that has not been equaled before or since. Secretariat was the first Triple Crown winner since Citation in 1948. Big Red stood over 16 hands high with a blaze face and a chestnut coat making him very handsome. Beyond that he was just mediocre at producing colts. He spent the rest of his days frolicking on Claiborne Farms in Kentucky and providing an occasional stud service. He fell ill in 1989 and was euthanized. An autopsy revealed that he had a heart twice as large as other Thoroughbreds which may have been the reason for his success. Anyway, it has been my pleasure to have seen this athlete run. A few years ago there was a list made of the fifty best athletes of the century, number 35 was Big Red, the only animal on the list. He deserved it.

1863   After the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville, CSA General Robert E. Lee decided to head for an invasion of the north and sends CSA General J.E.B. Stuart and his vaunted cavalry to Culpepper to screen the CSA movements. The vain Stuart decided to hold a parade in the meantime. The natives of Culpepper were thrilled at the pomp and circumstance of the parade but observing across the Rappahannock River was US General Alfred Pleasanton and his Yankee cavalry. After the parade General Pleasanton moved his cavalry to intercept Stuart near a small crossroad named Brandy Station. The result was the largest cavalry engagement in American history. There were over 5,000 cavalrymen engaged either by slashing sabers from horseback or dismounted and fighting hand-to-hand, It was absolute chaos The Confederates took the field and after hours of fighting around St. James Church, the Yankees withdrew. But this battle proved that the Yankee cavalry could finally hold its own against the better trained and mounted Confederates.

1856    On this date one of the most arduous and difficult trips ever attempted began at Ames City, Iowa. About 500 Mormons left Ames City headed for Salt Lake City hauling all of their belongings in two wheeled carts across the prairie. The historical sequence I read did not tell me how many people survived this trek but there losses had to be phenomenal. These folks were pulling/pushing an oxcart by hand, folks, by hand. The sheer difficulty of moving a cart by hand not to mention the weather and the hostile Indians that hated us honkies. But they finally arrived at Salt Lake City and were welcomed by Brigham Young. These trips continued for four more years. One girl that made the trip said that her family took about one million steps to get to Salt Lake City. That is determination, y'all.

1772     The New England traders were really pissed off at England for implementing the Townshend Act which deeply restricted the colonies from trading with any other country other than England. It also imposed restrictions on American fishermen from fishing in the rich North Atlantic for Cod which the colonies depended greatly. Now they would have to buy their Cod from the English. On this day an American sloop loaded with fresh Cod swept by an English blockade ship the HMS Gaspee. The Gaspee took off in pursuit following the sloop toward Newport, Rhode Island. The sly skipper of the sloop led the Gaspee over a shoal that was deep enough for the sloop but too shallow for the Gaspee and the British ship ran aground. This night an American trader named John Brown and several other colonists rowed out to the Gaspee, shot the Captain, and captured the crew. They sent the crew ashore and torched the ship burned that puppy down to the waterline. English authorities tried to find the perpetrators in the “Gaspee Affair” but none of the New Englanders would tell who did it. This event was known as the first naval action in the Revolutionary War. The Patriot actions of defiance against the British was so inspiring that an outfit called the “Committee of Correspondence” was formed which told of any act of defiance toward the British anywhere in the colonies to all the other colonies. It was a kind of gossip telegraph but it kept people’s blood hot for independence.

Born today:

1892    US songwriter Cole Porter. When asked “Who wrote ‘Some Enchanted Evening” he said “Rogers and Hammerstein, if you can imagine it taking two men to write one song.” Cole was married but that was just for show, he was a flaming homosexual. He was a brilliant songwriter, though. He gave us “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “You Would Be So Nice To Come Home To,” “Begin the Beguine”, “You do Something to Me”, “What is This Thing Called Love?”, and many, many others that are the recognized standards of American music. Cole died of kidney failure at the age of 73 in Santa Monica, California. He was buried in his home town of Peru, Indiana.

1934    US standup comic Jackie Mason. He said “I have enough money to last the rest of my life, unless I want to buy something.” Me too.

1940    US sportscaster Dick Vitale. He said “12 for 23. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that is less than 50%.” Dick, shut the hell up.

1947    US musician Mitch Mitchell. When speaking of “The Jimi Hendricks Experience” he said “There were three of us in the band so we split everything right down the middle.” Mitch, why don’t you shut the hell up too?

                 Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow