World History

Ship's timbers mid 13thC Museum of LondonToday's research snippet. This is 12thC chronicler Wace on a ship getting underway.When they were all manned, they had tide and a good wind. Then you would see the anchors raised, the puling taut of stays, the tightening of shrouds, the sailors climbing over the vessels to break out the sails and canvas. Some work at the windlass; others are at the luff and the halyards. The pilots are aft – the master steersman, the finest – and each does his best at the steering oar. ‘Avant le hel!’ (‘Hard on the helm!’) and she goes to the left. ‘Sus le hel!’ (Up on the helm!) And she goes to the right. In order to gather the wind into the sails they make the outer edges taut and fasten the boltropes. Some pull on the ratlines, and some shorten sail, in order to get the ship to proceed more slowly. They fasten clew lines and sheets, and make the ropes fast; they slacken the runners and lower the sails. They pull on bowlines…they make fast the brails to the mast, that the wind may not escape underneath.Brails are lines which goes from top to bottom of the sail. Luff In the mediaeval period the luff was not the belly of the sail, but seems to be a sort of pole which was applied to the lower edge of the sail. Ratlines – a form of nautical ladder – thin ropes tied between the shrouds.Clew lines are ropes attached to the outer corners of the sail.Boltrope - A line sewn into the belly and foot of the sail. The boltrope slides through a groove in the mast for hoisting the sail.Sheets – rope used to control the moveable corners of a sail from Anglo Saxon ‘sceata’ meaning the lower corner of the sail. Lose those ropes and you may become ‘three sheets to the wind.’Halyards – used to hoist the sail.Stays – ropes used to support the weight of the mast – stabilisers basically.Shrouds – ropes that hold the mast up. Rigging.

Urbanisation zones in the French Concession I have often wondered how zones of Old Shanghai were urbanised, of there was any planning at all. I recently encountered a document showing occupation zones of the French Concession in 1934. The document is in French and I have not been able to ascertain its origin or its author, but here is it for sharing with the reader: “Zones of population dispatch in the French Concession in 1934. The dispatch of population was started from the beginning of the 20th century, continue following similar trends. From the cadaster study from 1934, the concentration of Chinese population is the highest near the Chinese city (Zone I). From the administration point of view, it is reserved for the native population; buildings of all styles can be erected, shops, factories in living quarters are mixed altogether. Zone II is next to the business district (located in the International Settlement), occupied by many living quarters and Chines shops. The French municipality wanted to transform it into a ‘European City’ because of its size and it proximity with the business district but ambitions of the French municipality was never realized due to heavy cost of such a project. However, in order to smooth traffic and create more space between the buildings, it is decided to erect higher buildings in this area and avoid the anarchy of older constructions. Zone III is occupied by shops and residence for the middle class. All constructions are allowed, but they must follow rules about aesthetic and keeping quiet around public facilities, including schools and hospital. Those exclude polluting or noise generating industries. European styles shops are favored on the street side, along with keeping space between buildings. Zone IV is reserved for residential area and was further extended up to Xu Jia Hui. As a consequence, any factory not following “aesthetic rules” of the French municipality were prohibited so as to guarantee a western type of architecture and avoid pollution in this upper class area.” It is interesting to compare this 1934 study with current urban development in Shanghai. Zone I is being totally transformed into a modern living area, along with the area  of Zone III where Xin Tian Di is located. At the same time, Zone VI has kept most of its charm and is now often referred as “the Former French Concession”, when it actually is part of it.

I just learned that I inadvertently disabled comments a month and a half ago. Sorry about that. I think it’s fixed now.

Yes, the United States Navy has teams of bottlenose dolphins trained to detect mines, other undersea objects and enemy divers. During training in the Pacific off the coast of San Diego, California, last month, a dolphin named Ten alerted his handlers to the presence of a suspicious object in an area where the trainers hadn’t planted anything. A week later a second dolphin, Spetz, alerted in the same area. He was sent back with a marker to pinpoint the precise location so the object could be retrieved. When the Navy divers recovered it, they found it was a Howell torpedo broken into two pieces. To train the dolphins, Navy specialists sink objects of various shapes in rocky and sandy undersea areas where visibility is poor. The shapes mimic those of the mines used by U.S. adversaries. [...] The dolphins have found unexpected things in the past, including a mine-shaped lobster trap during a mission off Canada with the Canadian navy. But a torpedo that was more than a century old and that the divers and trainers needed to consult explosives experts — and Google — to identify? “We’ve never found anything like this,” said [head of the marine mammal program Mike] Rothe, his voice full of admiration for the marine mammals. “Never.” The Howell torpedo was the first torpedo to be produced in any quantity by the US Navy. It was invented in 1870 by Navy Lieutenant Commander John A. Howell, head of the Department of Astronomy and Navigation at the U.S. Naval Academy, but development took almost two decades. In 1889, the Navy ordered 50 Howell torpedoes from the Hotchkiss Ordnance Co. of Providence, Rhode Island. Powered by a flywheel that was spun at high speed before launch, the 11-foot-long Howell required no fuel, left no visible wake for the enemy to detect and could be surface-launched from battleships or launched underwater by torpedo tubes. It had a range of 400 yards and could reach a speed of 25 knots. Its flywheel acted as a stabilizing gyroscope to keep it on target. It had some marked disadvantages however. It was unwieldy, hard to load and hard to charge. The flywheel had to be spun by massive winches to get it going and once it was finally in the water, the flywheel was so loud it obviated the stealth advantage of wakelessness. In 1892, American manufacturer E. W. Bliss Company secured the rights to producing Whitehead torpedoes. Invented by English inventor Robert Whitehead in 1866, over the next few decades Whitehead torpedoes became established in the Navies of Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and China. They were more expensive, but they were self-propelled with three-cylinder engines. For a while, the Navy tested both Howells and Whiteheads side by side (see this 1894 New York Times article about just such a test in Newport, Rhode Island), but by the late 1890s, the Whitehead was the undoubted victor. The Howells never made it past that initial 50 unit order. Before the kickass trained dolphins did their thing, there was only one known surviving Howell torpedo on display at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington. The discovery of a second one, by dolphin no less, is thus nothing short of epic. The newly recovered Howell is stamped “USN No. 24″ which puts it right in the middle of the production run. Explosive experts have examined it and found that its century plus in the Pacific has rendered it inert. It’s at a Navy base right now being cleaned and prepared for shipment to the Naval History and Heritage Command in the Washington Navy Yard.

September 1942. Fort Belvoir, Va. "Army Sgt. George Camblair on kitchen police duty." Our first example of the more than 200 photos shot by Jack Delano documenting this soldier's induction, training and home life. View full size.

September 1942. "New York. Looking north from the Ninth Street station on the Third Avenue elevated railway as a train leaves on the local track." Medium format negative by Marjory Collins, Office of War Information. View full size.

More Civil War cutups. "Unidentified men in Union uniforms, one pointing a revolver at another's head." Half-plate tintype, hand-colored. Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Library of Congress. View full size.

Title: The Creation of Anne Boleyn Author: Susan Bordo Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Pub Date: April 9, 2013 How Acquired: Bought What it's about: Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne’s life and an illuminating look at her afterlife in the popular imagination. Why is Anne so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? What did she really look like? Was she the flaxen-haired martyr of Romantic paintings or the raven-haired seductress of twenty-first-century portrayals? (Answer: neither.) And perhaps the most provocative questions concern Anne’s death more than her life. How could Henry order the execution of a once beloved wife? Drawing on scholarship and critical analysis, Bordo probes the complexities of one of history’s most infamous relationships. Bordo also shows how generations of polemicists, biographers, novelists, and filmmakers imagined and re-imagined Anne: whore, martyr, cautionary tale, proto “mean girl,” feminist icon, and everything in between. In this lively book, Bordo steps off the well-trodden paths of Tudoriana to expertly tease out the human being behind the competing mythologies. What the critics are saying: "A great read for Boleyn fans and fanatics alike"—Kirkus Reviews "Ms. Bordo offers a fascinating discussion... a strangely tasty book."—The New York Times "The University of Kentucky humanities chair does a superb job of separating fact from fiction in contemporary accounts of Boleyn’s life, before deftly deconstructing the myriad and contradictory portraits of her that have arisen in the centuries since her death. . . . The young queen has been the source of fascination for nearly half a millennium, and her legacy continues; this engaging portrait culminates with an intriguing exploration of Boleyn’s recent reemergence in pop culture." —Publishers Weekly About the author: SUSAN BORDO, Otis A. Singletary Chair in the Humanities at University of Kentucky, is the author of Unbearable Weight and The Male Body. My thoughts: It seemed fitting that I should choose The Creation of Anne Boleyn on the anniversary of Anne Boleyn's execution. When I first picked up this book, I felt a sense of schadenfreude. This was a book that I wish that I had written but once I started reading it, I felt a sense of kinship with the author. She gets it! She was just as obssessed with Anne Boleyn as I am! If you were annoyed with The Tudors or you just want to dig deep into the life of Anne Boleyn and how people's perceptions of her have changed over the centuries, I urge you to pick up a copy of this book. It is must for every Anne Boleyn fan out tehre. http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Today's research snippet.Purbeck Marble - in briefPurbeck columns at the Temple ChurchPurbeck marble was a highly prized building material in the 11th through to 16th centuries, with its heyday in the 12th and 13th.It can only be obtained from one place and that's land in the area of Corfe on the Isle of Purbeck in south-eastern Dorset. It's not a marble technically speaking, but actually a polishable limestone and his characterised by tightly packed fossil shells of the water snail viviparus carinfer. It comes in a variety of shades including blue-grey, red-brown and green. The vein of this limestone is between 18 and 24 inches thick and was worked from the surface.Thousands of architectural objects have been fashioned by Purbeck stone, including columns at the Temple Church, William Marshal's effigy, and a magnificent fountain that used to stand outside the private apartments at the palace of Westminster. Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester and brother to King Stephen, used Purbeck for wall shafts, capitals and bases at Wolvesey Palace in the mid 12thc and also for elaborate colonnettes at Hyde Abbey.Working the marble is tricky because of its denseness and required expert workers in the craft. Such craftsmen worked in the Purbeck area itself, and in London. One of the reasons for the success of Purbeck was the coastal location which made transportation easy. Columns were shipped up to Durham Cathedral in 1175. Capitals and bases went to Norwich, to Westminster, to Vale Royal. In 1375, a ship called The Margarite out of Wareham was listed as transporting cargoes of Purbeck to London, including two high tombs for the Earl of Arundel and a large slab for the Bishop of Winchester. In 1386 the same ship took Purbeck from Dorset to London intended for the tomb of Edward III.Tomb of King John: Worcester cathedralThe London crafstmen originally came from Corfe but settled in their own community in the capital. The biggest influx seems to have come with the requirement for building and beautifying at Westminster Abbey instigated by Henry III in 1245. By 1253 there were 49 marblers on the site all cutting and polishing the marble blocks and shafts. There were probably also centres of marbling at other great ecclesiastical sites - Salisbury cathedral for example, which was sending worked marble to Southampton in 1231-2.The most successful Purbeck items for the mass market in its 12th and 13thc must-have period were tomb slabs and effigies. William Marshal as aforementioned, Henry Bishop of Winchester, King John, Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury. Later on, Purbeck continued to be in high demand when funeral brass effigies became the rage, and the marble was used as the background slab. It was still also being used for panelled tomb chests and large, canopied wall tombs. Today it's no longer quarried on the former sites except for specialist projects such as restoration.

An earlier GeoCurrents post mentioned Finns among the nationalities deported by the Soviets before and during World War II. As it turns out, the situation in the Finnish borderlands is rather more complicated than that. The territory between St. Petersburg and Helsinki is home to a number of ethnic groups whose histories range from cultural and linguistic assimilation to population transfer to outright ethnic cleansing.This post is from GeoCurrents