Musings
and History
Quote
of the day:
“Everyone
is entitled to my opinion.”
Madonna
Yesterday
for breakfast I had two eggs soft scrambled, fried salmon patties,
yellow grits, toast and strong coffee. You can't get that just
anywhere.
I
have started research of the most successful pirates in the western
hemisphere. The most successful of all was a Chinese woman named
Mrs. Cheng. Here is the first installment of pirates of the western
hemisphere.
Bartholomew
Roberts
There
have been four pirates and/or “privateers” in the western
hemisphere that have excelled at their craft. The difference between
a pirate and a privateer is a pirate will attack any and all ships
whereas a privateer is operating under the auspices of a particular
nation and will only prey upon that nations enemies. In return the
privateer will have safe passage in any of this nations harbors but
must share a portion of the booty. Bartholomew Roberts was an out
and out pirate.
He
was living a grinding existence on a British cargo ship when the ship
was attacked and captured by pirate Howell Davis. Davis and Roberts
were both Welshmen. After Davis threatened his life, Roberts agreed
to join Davis' crew as navigator. A short while later Davis was
killed during a land assault and the crew elected Roberts as captain
because of his navigation skills. All pirate ships operated as a
democracy. If they were not happy with the captain they had the
authority to fire him and elect another one.
Roberts
decided to establish his base of operations in the Cape Verde Islands
off the tip of extreme western Africa. This way he could prey upon
the Portuguese, French, Dutch and English slave ships heading south
to the Ivory, Gold and Slave coast of Africa and then have another
crack at them when they are northwest bound toward the Leeward
Islands and the Bahamas loaded with slaves. On occasion he and his
fleet could be found near the island of Tortola in the Leeward
Islands preying on Spanish treasure ships.
Roberts
captured and looted many ships and became a very wealthy man. On
occasion he would keep one the ships he looted and transform it to
fit his purposes. At one point he had four pirate ships in his
fleet. He also was known as “Black Bart”.
The
English admiralty was desperate to stop Roberts. The Crown was
losing millions due to his piracy and sent their one of their best
marine commanders in Admiral Chaloner Ogle aboard the HMS
Swallow to stop
Roberts at any cost. He found Bartholomew Roberts during a raging
thunderstorm aboard his flagship, the Royal
Fortune, off
the west coast of Africa near Cape Lopez.
After
Roberts spotted the Swallow
he
went below and changed clothes. He reappeared resplendent in a
scarlet waist coat, scarlet pants, white stockings, a white blouse, a
scarlet hat with a white egret feather and around his neck was a gold
chain with a huge diamond encrusted gold cross.
He
stood on the rail directing fire at the Swallow.
A sniper on the Swallow
found
Roberts and he fell over the side into a stormy sea and was never
seen again. He was 39 years old. The crew of the Royal
Fortune surrendered
and most were hanged and all that is left is the legend of
Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts.
Here
is two instances of how people’s lives change in an instant never
to be the same again.
A
Marine sergeant on Iwo Jima was assigned the duty as night guard of
the Company CP (command post) during the first night of that infamous
battle. Very shortly after taking his post a Japanese soldier
attacked with his bayoneted rifle. The Marine was able to parry the
attack and threw the Japanese soldier to the ground. The Japanese
soldier pulled out a hand grenade and tried to throw it at the
Marine. The Marine was able to wrestle the grenade from the Japanese
but the pin had already been pulled. The Marine grabbed the soldier
and initiated a “bear hug” holding the sputtering grenade against
the soldier’s back. The grenade exploded taking the Marines hand
and most of his arm with it. The Japanese was literally cut into.
The Marine later said that just before the grenade exploded, he and
the soldier were so close that they were touching noses and looking
at each others eyes only inches apart. He said that the look on the
soldier’s face stayed with him forever as did the smell of the
soldier before and after the explosion and even the texture of his
uniform.
In
the battle for Fallujah, Iraq a US Marine unit led by a Captain
Howell burst into a house known to be occupied by al-Qaeda
insurgents. There was no lights in the building. Captain Howell
entered a pitch black room and was struck on the left shoulder with a
two by four which broke his collar bone. Captain Howell grabbed the
attacker with his good arm and finally was able to get his arm around
his neck. He could not reach his knife because of the incapacitated
left arm so he bit a chunk out of the man’s neck which included a
piece of the jugular and held on until he bled out. He said the
man’s mouth was just a couple of inches from his face and as he
struggled to live he started yelling curses at the Captain Howell but
at the last he was praying to Allah. Captain Howell said that the
smell and feel of his struggles for life and even the taste of the
man’s sweat will stay with him forever.
This
Date in History March 1
1864
On this date the United States Congress chose to promote Major
General Ulysses S. Grant to Lieutenant General effective on this
date. Grant is an interesting study in success. He was born in Ohio
in 1822. He graduated from West Point in 1843 an unimpressive 21st
out a class of 39. He was assigned to the western frontier and
fought in the Mexican War. He resigned his commission and became a
manger of a clothing store for several years in Ohio. After the
attack on Fort Sumter Grant reenlisted and was given the rank of
Colonel and assigned to the 21st
Illinois Brigade. In the fall of 1861 he was promoted to Brigadier
General after he brilliantly captured the Confederate strongholds of
Fort Henry and Fort Donelson on the Tennessee River, which virtually
gave the Union the control of the entire state of Tennessee. After a
series of successes, and some failures, he was able to neutralize the
city of Vicksburg which was a Confederate bastion on the Mississippi
River giving the Union control of that great artery and the
essentially split the Confederacy in half. After this he was brought
back east to capture or destroy the Confederate Army of Northern
Virginia, CSA General Robert E. Lee commanding. After a series of
ferocious battles, Lee ran out of food and ammo and eventually
surrendered to Grant in April of 1865. There were only two other
three star Generals in the United States Army up to that time, they
were Grant, Washington and Henry Halleck. Halleck’s rank was more
an honorary one. He never was in command of a military unit in the
field with that rank. Grant was the only commander of the Union
military that understood his advantage over the Confederate Generals.
He could afford to lose more men than the Confederacy. He had more
cannon fodder. He was willing to sacrifice his men just so he could
take out some of the Confederates knowing that they had few if any
replacements. He fought a war of attrition and won.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
