Thursday

                          Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“When Frank Sinatra dies they are going to give his pants zipper to the Smithsonian.”

                                               Dean Martin

Trivia question of the day:

How many men accompanied Columbus on his exploration of the “New World”? Answer at the end of the blog.

I read an item on Facebook by a paranoid woman saying that she never touches the magazines in doctor's offices. She was concerned about all those people sneezing and coughing and touching them. She did not mention the door handles at Wal-Mart, Publix, Costco, Bi-Lo, etc. that have a hell of a lot more traffic than her doctor. Not everyone going to the doctor has the flu. She did not mention the handles on the carts in those places mentioned above. She did not mention the chairs or stools in restaurants that you handle to sit down. She did not mention the table tops, silverware, plates, cups and saucers and the hands of the servers in those same places, there is no guarantee that they are bacteria free. Life is too short to worry about stuff like that.

Here is the second installment about successful pirates and privateers.

                                Sir Francis Drake

This is a tale about one the greatest heroes in English history. He essentially was a pirate preying on the enemies of England, mostly Spain making him a privateer.

It was known that Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro had invaded the land of the Inca in Bolivia and Peru and found fortunes in gold, silver and precious gems generated by the Inca. The problem was how to get it back to Spain. Bolivia and Peru are on the Pacific coast of South America meaning their choices were to bring the treasure overland by mule train through Colombia to Panama then across the isthmus to the Caribbean where Spanish treasure ships could carry back to Spain. This was not feasible because of the nearly impenetrable jungle, oppressive heat and humidity and being way too far.

The other alternatives was to load ships on the Pacific coast and sail south, east through the Straits of Magellan into the south Atlantic and then northeast to Spain. This was not feasible because the prevailing winds and currents would be against them the entire route. Sailing west essentially taking them around the world was not feasible also. The only other answer was to load the treasure ships on the Pacific coast and sail north to the isthmus of Panama and transport the treasure by mule train the 60 miles to the Caribbean where Spanish cargo ships waited. After a spy trip Sir Francis Drake took all of this into consideration and decided that the most vulnerable points were ports in Panama on the Caribbean and/or the mule trains. Drake brought three war ships near a known Spanish treasure port on the Caribbean side of Panama and attacked. There was no treasure stored anywhere. He found out that a Spanish treasure fleet had departed just a few weeks before and it would months before another mule train was scheduled. Drake was patient. He attacked and looted several other Spanish ports before returning to Panama. After he arrived he met a French treasure hunter in Panama who told him that his troops had detected a mule train headed their way. Drake and his troops along with the Frenchman and his troops waylaid the mule train in the jungle. It was beyond their wildest dreams. There was 180 mules each carrying 300 pounds of gold, silver and precious gems. The treasure was split with the French and Drake sailed home loaded to the scuppers with treasure.

Drake persuaded the Queen to finance another expedition to attack the Spanish treasure ships leaving the Pacific coast. He departed Plymouth with four ships. His flag ship was originally the Pelican but he renamed it the Golden Hind . A hind is a European deer. On the prow of his ship was a carved deer head, antlers included, painted gold.

He and his fleet sailed southwest to a point near the Platte river delta in Uruguay and turned south. By the time they reached the Straits of Magellan, two of the ships had run aground and were abandoned. The other ship lost contact with Drake and turned back to England. Drake, now alone, transited the Straits of Magellan into the Pacific and turned north. Somehow Drake knew that one of the largest Spanish treasure ships ever built was scheduled to depart somewhere on the Pacific coast headed to Panama full of treasure. He had many lookouts and promised a gold chain to the first person to sight the Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion'. Off the coast of Chile' the Concepcion was sighted. Drake put out all of his sails but was dragging mattresses, pots and pans, etc. to slow him down. Once the Concepcion got within hailing distance and asked Drake what ship it was and from what port, Drake answered “Strike your sails or go to the bottom”. He then cut the ropes carrying the mattresses, etc. and his hidden troops rose up and launched a hailstorm of arrows and lead. The Concepcion surrendered and Drake retrieved about 9,000 pound of gold, silver and precious gems worth about $60 million today. It took six days for the treasure to be transferred to the Golden Hind.

From there Drake continued sailing north and visited North America somewhere on the Oregon Coast. He turned south and stopped somewhere in northern California before continuing south, catching the trade winds just north of the equator and headed across the wide Pacific. He sailed across the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, the Arabian sea and around the southern tip of Africa then sailed into Plymouth harbor in September of 1580. He had been gone a little over two years. He was not the first to circumnavigate the Earth, that was a Magellan expedition. But Magellan was killed in the Philippines by a poison dart and did not finish the trip. Drake was there the entire trip. It was after this that he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. He continued to torment the Spanish navy and there was a bounty on his head of what would be $2 million today. They never caught him and at the age of 48 he and his 2^nd cousin John Hawkins commanded sections of the British navy in the utter rout of the Spanish Armada in 1588. At the age of 56 he died of dysentery near present day Colon, Panama...still tormenting the Spanish.

Born today:

1945 British comic Jasper Carrott. He said “I am amazed at radio DJ’s today. I am convinced that AM stands for “Absolute Moron”. I am not going to being to tell you what FM stands for.”

Answer to the trivia question:

There was 52 men with Columbus on his flagship the Santa Maria and 18 each aboard the Nina and Pinta making a total of 88.

              Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow