Tuesday

Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The affair between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith is one of the greatest love stories in all of literature.”

                                                 Dorothy Parker

Trivia question of the day:

What happened to Edward Teach better known as “Blackbeard the Pirate”?  Answer at the end of the blog.

Back in the mid 1500's Spanish conquistadors came ashore in California (Coronado), Mexico (Cortez) and South America (Pizzaro). They found an enormous horde of gold, silver and precious gems in the hands of the natives. Their answer was to slaughter those that resisted and enslave those who didn't to gain the treasure. They eventually had several ports on the Caribbean used to load cargo ships with treasure and sail them back to Spain. Word of this conveyor belt of treasure was soon discovered and the Spanish treasure ships repeatedly came under attack by pirates and privateers. Spain's response as to station warships at several places along the sea lanes back to Spain. One deal location was on the south coast of Jamaica near what is now Kingston. There was a narrow strip of land that ran out from the shore into the Caribbean enclosing an ideal harbor. The Spanish established the town of Port Royal on the tip of this peninsula along with a fort to control who came and went in and out of the harbor. It also became a major slave trading port. The town thrived and grew to about 3,000 permanent residences. England and Spain were at war and therefore in addition to the British navy to worry about the Spanish had to be concerned about privateers (private warships hired by England to fight its enemies) and outright pirates that were only after the treasure. The British navy launched an all out effort to capture Port Royal and was successful in kicking the Spanish out of Jamaica. With the natural harbor (one of the greatest in the world at the time) and shallow sand bars that allowed “careening” that brought much traffic in and out of this harbor and the merchants in Port Royal grew very wealthy especially the bar and whorehouse owners.

Careening means the wooden ships would be pulled up to a sand bar, tilted on its side and the crew would scrape off the barnacles and seaweed and patch any cracks. Sir Henry Morgan and Sir Francis Drake had their headquarters at Port Royal.

Then on June 7, 1692 at about noon an earthquake struck Port Royal. The quake was so severe that the entire town slid in the Caribbean. The strange thing was that even when the ground was still quivering there were looters out stripping gold rings and bracelets off the dead. Many of the looters were killed when the houses they were in collapsed on them or took them out to sea and drowned them. The horror increased when several cemeteries were flooded and corpses floated to the surface and drifted around in the harbor. Naturally, cholera followed. What normally happens after an earthquake on seaside communities is, you guessed it, a tsunami. Sure enough an enormous tsunami showed up and swamped or capsized many ships in the harbor. There was one fair sized cargo ship that was lifted up, pushed inward 2 miles and deposited on a 30 foot high bluff. This ship was used as a hospital for several years. The actual number of dead is unknown because since it was a slave port there were undocumented slaves by the hundreds in the surrounding communities. It was hell for those that experienced it.

                     This Date in History  October 16

1925 Angela Lansbury is born in London. Angela was the daughter of an actress and started studying acting at an early age. At the outset of WWII and the bombing of London, Angela was sent to New York. At the age of 18 she was signed by MGM and was in the movie hit “Gaslight” with Ingrid Bergman and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She was also nominated for Oscars in “The Picture of Dorian Grey” and “The Manchurian Candidate”. She did her best work on the stage and won Tonys for “Mame” and “Gypsy”. In her later years she made the TV series “Murder, She Wrote” which is seen to this day. What a great talent.

1973 American negotiator Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc To are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Kissinger rejects his by saying “True peace has not been achieved”. Henry has some class, y'all.

1971 In Phoenix, Arizona apartment neighbors of Agnes LeRoi and Hedvig Samuelson hear screaming in the night be do not call the police. A day or two later Agnes and fellow worker Winnie Judd uncharacteristically do not show up for work. Winnie shows up at a train station with two large suitcases dripping a dark red substance. When this is pointed out by a station agent, Winnie turns and ran away. After opening the suitcases the dismembered parts of Agnes and Hedvig are found. After a few days Winnie surrenders at the behest of her husband. Winnie tells a tale of large sex orgies orchestrated by Agnes and Hedvig in their apartment one of which got out of hand. Winnie is convicted and sentenced to life. Winnie played the lunatic most of the time in prison but was paroled in 1971 and was never heard from again. Forty years in the slammer will do that.

Births and deaths:

1891 Poet/author Oscar Wilde in born in Dublin, Ireland. Oscar received a good education including a degree from Oxford with honors. Oscar once said “To lose one parent may be considered misfortune but to lose them both seems like carelessness”.

1888 World famous playwright Eugene O’Neill is born. When asked

about critics he said “Critics? I love every bone in their heads.”

1988 Actor and companion of Susan Sarandon Tim Robbins is born. When a column writer wrote a disparaging article about Tim’s family he tactfully retorted to the author of the article “If you write another “f______g” article about my family I will find you and “f______g hurt you”. Tim was upset.

1795 Marie Antoinette died on the guillotine. Just before going to meet her maker she said “I was a queen and you took away my crown, I was a wife and you killed my husband, I was a mother and you took my children from me, all I have left is my blood, at least do not make me suffer.” They didn’t.

1997 One of my favorite authors if not THE most favorite, James Michener dies. In my opinion James wrote some of the most engrossing books of all time, especially “Texas”, “Centennial” and “Hawaii”. He once said “I think it is remarkable that I write the thing I do, intricate, lengthy and with no sex or violence and have the readership that I do”. James was humble to the end. I miss him.

Answer to the trivia question

Blackbeard was beheaded in a sword fight with a Scottish highlander who was a mercenary for the British navy. Here is the story.

The governor of North Carolina gave Blackbeard and his fleet of three ships safe harbor in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina if Blackbeard would share some of his booty with the good governor. The governor of Virginia found out about this and knew that with the Chesapeake Bay being just next door Blackbeard would give him no rest.

He hired a group of about 65 British sailors to hunt down and kill Blackbeard. They trapped Blackbeard aboard one of his ships (Queen Anne's Revenge) on the sound side of Okracoke Island and the running battle ensued. During a saber fight between Blackbeard and a lieutenant Maynard a Scottish highlander using a very large two handed saber jumped between Blackbeard and the lieutenant and struck Blackbeard on the shoulder. Blackbeard complimented him on that stroke and the Scotsman said “Thanks you I am glad you liked it...and here is another”and came back across and beheaded Blackbeard. End of story.

             Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow