Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“It was a fair trade...we gave the native Americans diseases and they gave us tobacco.”

                                                 Jay Leno

Here is a biography of a pirate (He did not invent spiced rum):

                                          Sir Henry Morgan

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 the equivalent of $4 million 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.

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.

Born today:

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