Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years War against the Kingdom of France; the modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century. From the middle decades of the 17th century, through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century, it was the world's most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War; the Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the unmatched world power during the 19th and first part of the 20th centuries. Due to this historical prominence, it is common among non-Britons, to refer to it as "the Royal Navy" without qualification. Following World War I, the Royal Navy was reduced in size, although at the onset of World War II it was still the world's largest.
By the end of the war, the United States Navy had emerged as the world's largest. During the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines and active in the GIUK gap. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, its focus has returned to expeditionary operations around the world and remains one of the world's foremost blue-water navies. However, 21st century reductions in naval spending have led to a personnel shortage and a reduction in the number of warships; the Royal Navy maintains a fleet of technologically sophisticated ships and submarines including two aircraft carriers, two amphibious transport docks, four ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear fleet submarines, six guided missile destroyers, 13 frigates, 13 mine-countermeasure vessels and 22 patrol vessels. As of November 2018, there are 74 commissioned ships in the Royal Navy, plus 12 ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary; the RFA replenishes Royal Navy warships at sea, augments the Royal Navy's amphibious warfare capabilities through its three Bay-class landing ship vessels.
It works as a force multiplier for the Royal Navy doing patrols that frigates used to do. The total displacement of the Royal Navy is 408,750 tonnes; the Royal Navy is part of Her Majesty's Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, an admiral and member of the Defence Council of the United Kingdom; the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The Royal Navy operates three bases in the United Kingdom; as the seaborne branch of HM Armed Forces, the RN has various roles. As it stands today, the RN has stated its 6 major roles as detailed below in umbrella terms. Preventing Conflict – On a global and regional level Providing Security At Sea – To ensure the stability of international trade at sea International Partnerships – To help cement the relationship with the United Kingdom's allies Maintaining a Readiness To Fight – To protect the United Kingdom's interests across the globe Protecting the Economy – To safe guard vital trade routes to guarantee the United Kingdom's and its allies' economic prosperity at sea Providing Humanitarian Aid – To deliver a fast and effective response to global catastrophes The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the kingdom's power in the 10th century.
At one point Aethelred II had an large fleet built by a national levy of one ship for every 310 hides of land, but it is uncertain whether this was a standard or exceptional model for raising fleets. During the period of Danish rule in the 11th century, the authorities maintained a standing fleet by taxation, this continued for a time under the restored English regime of Edward the Confessor, who commanded fleets in person. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Following the Battle of Hastings, the Norman navy that brought over William the Conqueror disappeared from records due to William receiving all of those ships from feudal obligations or because of some sort of leasing agreement which lasted only for the duration of the enterprise. More troubling, is the fact that there is no evidence that William adopted or kept the Anglo-Saxon ship mustering system, known as the scipfryd. Hardly noted after 1066, it appears that the Normans let the scipfryd languish so that by 1086, when the Doomsday Book was completed, it had ceased to exist.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 1068, Harold Godwinson's sons Godwine and Edmund conducted a ‘raiding-ship army’ which came from Ireland, raiding across the region and to the townships of Bristol and Somerset. In the following year of 1069, they returned with a bigger fleet which they sailed up the River Taw before being beaten back by a local earl near Devon. However, this made explicitly clear that the newly conquered England under Norman rule, in effect, ceded the Irish Sea to the Irish, the Vikings of Dublin, other Norwegians. Besides ceding away the Irish Sea, the Normans ceded the North Sea, a major area where Nordic peoples traveled. In 1069, this lack of naval presence in the North Sea allowed for the invasion an
Azores
The Azores the Autonomous Region of the Azores, is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal. It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the North Atlantic Ocean about 1,360 km west of continental Portugal, about 1,643 km west of Lisbon, in continental Portugal, about 1,507 km northwest of Morocco, about 1,925 km southeast of Newfoundland, Canada, its main industries are agriculture, dairy farming, livestock and tourism, becoming the major service activity in the region. In addition, the government of the Azores employs a large percentage of the population directly or indirectly in the service and tertiary sectors; the main capital of the Azores is Ponta Delgada. There are an islet cluster, in three main groups; these are Corvo, to the west. They lie in a northwest-southeast direction. All the islands have volcanic origins, although some, such as Santa Maria, have had no recorded activity since the islands were settled. Mount Pico, on the island of Pico, is the highest point in Portugal, at 2,351 m.
If measured from their base at the bottom of the ocean to their peaks, which thrust high above the surface of the Atlantic, the Azores are some of the tallest mountains on the planet. The climate of the Azores is mild for such a northerly location, being influenced by its distance from the continents and by the passing Gulf Stream. Due to the marine influence, temperatures remain mild year-round. Daytime temperatures fluctuate between 16 °C and 25 °C depending on season. Temperatures above 30 °C or below 3 °C are unknown in the major population centres, it is generally wet and cloudy. The culture, dialect and traditions of the Azorean islands vary because these once-uninhabited and remote islands were settled sporadically over a span of two centuries. A small number of alleged hypogea, earthen structures carved into rocks that were used for burials, have been identified on the islands of Corvo, Santa Maria and Terceira by Portuguese archaeologist Nuno Ribeiro, who speculated that they might date back 2000 years, implying a human presence on the island before the Portuguese.
These kinds of structures have been used in the Azores to store cereals and suggestions by Ribeiro that they might be burial sites are unconfirmed. Detailed examination and dating to authenticate the validity of these speculations is lacking, it is unclear whether these structures are natural or man-made and whether they predate the 15th-century Portuguese colonization of the Azores. Therefore, clear confirmation of a pre-Portuguese human presence in the archipelago has not yet been published; the islands were known in the fourteenth century, parts of them appear in the Catalan Atlas. In 1427, a captain sailing for Prince Henry the Navigator Gonçalo Velho, may have rediscovered the Azores, but this is not certain. In Thomas Ashe's 1813 work, A History of the Azores, the author identified a Fleming, Joshua Vander Berg of Bruges, who made landfall in the archipelago during a storm on his way to Lisbon, he stated that the Portuguese claimed it for Portugal. Other stories note the discovery of the first islands by sailors in the service of Henry the Navigator, although there are few documents to support the claims.
Although it is said that the archipelago received its name from the goshawk, a common bird at the time of discovery, it is unlikely that the bird nested or hunted in the islands. There were no large animals on Santa Maria, so after its discovery and before settlement began, sheep were let loose on the island to supply future settlers with food. Settlement did not take place however. There was not much interest among the Portuguese people to live in an isolated archipelago so far from civilization. Gonçalo Velho Cabral patiently gathered resources and settlers for the next three years and sailed to establish colonies first on Santa Maria and on São Miguel. Settlers cleared bush and rocks to plant crops—grain, grape vines, sugar cane, other plants suitable for local use and of commercial value, they brought domesticated animals, such as chickens, cattle, sheep and pigs and built houses and established villages. The archipelago was settled from mainland Portugal. Portuguese settlers came from the provinces of Algarve, Minho and Ribatejo as well as Madeira.
São Miguel was first settled in 1449, the settlers – from the Estremadura, Alto Alentejo and Algarve areas of mainland Portugal, under the command of Gonçalo Velho Cabral – landed at the site of modern-day Povoação. Many early settlers were Portuguese Sephardic Jews who fled the pressures of inquisition in mainland Portugal. In 1522, Vila Franca do Campo the capital of the island, was devastated by an earthquake and landslide that killed about 5,000 people, the capital was moved to Ponta Delgada; the town of Vila Franca do Campo was rebuilt on the original site and today is a thriving fishing and yachting port. Ponta Delgada received its city status in 1546. From the first settlement, the pioneers applied themselves to agriculture and by the 15th century Graciosa exported wheat, barley and brandy; the goods were sent to Terceira because of the proximity of the island. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Gra
Strand, London
Strand is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster, Central London. It runs just over 3⁄4 mile from Trafalgar Square eastwards to Temple Bar, where the road becomes Fleet Street inside the City of London, is part of the A4, a main road running west from inner London; the road's name comes from the Old English strond, meaning the edge of a river, as it ran alongside the north bank of the River Thames. The street was popular with the British upper classes between the 12th and 17th centuries, with many important mansions being built between the Strand and the river; these included Essex House, Arundel House, Somerset House, Savoy Palace, Durham House and Cecil House. The aristocracy moved to the West End over the 17th century, following which the Strand became well known for coffee shops and taverns; the street was a centre point for theatre and music hall during the 19th century, several venues remain on the Strand. At the east end of the street are two historic churches: St Mary le Strand and St Clement Danes.
This easternmost stretch of the Strand is home to King's College, one of the two founding colleges of the University of London. Several authors and philosophers have lived on or near the Strand, including Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Virginia Woolf; the street has been commemorated in the song "Let's All Go Down the Strand", now recognised as a typical piece of Cockney music hall. The street is the main link between the two cities of London, it runs eastward from Trafalgar Square, parallel to the River Thames, to Temple Bar, the boundary between the two cities at this point. Traffic travelling eastbound follows a short crescent around Aldwych, connected at both ends to the Strand; the road marks the southern boundary of the Covent Garden district and forms part of the Northbank business improvement district. The name was first recorded in 1002 as strondway in 1185 as Stronde and in 1220 as la Stranda, it is formed from the Old English word ` strond'. It referred to the shallow bank of the once much wider Thames, before the construction of the Victoria Embankment.
The name was applied to the road itself. In the 13th century it was known as'Densemanestret' or'street of the Danes', referring to the community of Danes in the area. Two London Underground stations were once named Strand: a Piccadilly line station that operated between 1907 and 1994 and a former Northern line station which today forms part of Charing Cross station.'Strand Bridge' was the name given to Waterloo Bridge during its construction. London Bus routes 6, 23, 139 and 176 all run along the Strand. During Roman Britain, what is now the Strand was part of the route to Silchester, known as "Iter VIII" on the Antonine Itinerary, which became known by the name Akeman Street, it was part of a trading town called Lundenwic that developed around 600 AD, stretched from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych. Alfred the Great moved the settlement into the old Roman town of Londinium from around 886 AD onwards, leaving no mark of the old town, the area returned to fields. In the Middle Ages, the Strand became the principal route between the separate settlements of the City of London and the royal Palace of Westminster.
In the archaeological record, there is considerable evidence of occupation to the north of Aldwych, but much along the former foreshore has been covered by rubble from the demolition of the Tudor Somerset Place, a former royal residence, to create a large platform for the building of the first Somerset House, in the 17th century. The landmark Eleanor's Cross was built in the 13th century at the western end of the Strand at Charing Cross by Edward I commemorating his wife Eleanor of Castile, it was demolished in 1647 by the request of Parliament during the First English Civil War, but reconstructed in 1865. The west part of the Strand was in the parish of St Martin in the Fields and in the east it extended into the parishes of St Clement Danes and St Mary le Strand. Most of its length was in the Liberty of Westminster, although part of the eastern section in St Clement Danes was in the Ossulstone hundred of Middlesex; the Strand was the northern boundary of the precinct of the Savoy, where the approach to Waterloo Bridge is now.
All of these parishes and places became part of the Strand District in 1855, except St Martin in the Fields, governed separately. The Strand District Board of Works was based at No. 22, Tavistock Street. Strand District was abolished in October 1900 and became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster. From the 12th century onwards, large mansions lined the Strand including several palaces and townhouses inhabited by bishops and royal courtiers on the south side, with their own river gates and landings directly on the Thames; the road was poorly maintained, with many pits and sloughs, a paving order was issued in 1532 to improve traffic. What became Essex House on the Strand was an Outer Temple of the Knights Templar in the 11th century. In 1313, ownership passed to the Knights of St John. Henry VIII gave the house to William, Baron Paget in the early 16th century. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, rebuilt the house in 1563 calling it Leicester House, it was renamed Essex House after being inherited by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, in 1588.
It was demolished around 1674 and Essex Street, leading up to the Strand, was built o
Seal hunting
Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. Seal hunting is practiced in nine countries and one region of Denmark: United States, Namibia, Norway, Finland and Greenland. Most of the world's seal hunting takes place in Greenland; the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans regulates the seal hunt in Canada. It sets quotas, monitors the hunt, studies the seal population, works with the Canadian Sealers' Association to train sealers on new regulations, promotes sealing through its website and spokespeople; the DFO set harvest quotas of over 90,000 seals in 2007. The actual kills in recent years have been less than the quotas: 82,800 in 2007. In 2007, Norway claimed that 29,000 harp seals were killed, Russia claimed that 5,479 seals were killed, Greenland claimed that 90,000 seals were killed in their respective seal hunts. Harp seal populations in the northwest Atlantic declined to 2 million in the late 1960s as a result of Canada's annual kill rates, which averaged to over 291,000 from 1952 to 1970.
Conservationists demanded reduced rates of killing and stronger regulations to avert the extinction of the harp seal. In 1971, the Canadian government responded by instituting a quota system; the system was competitive, with each boat catching as many seals as it could before the hunt closed, which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans did when they knew that year's quota had been reached. Because it was thought that the competitive element might cause sealers to cut corners, new regulations were introduced that limited the catch to 400 seals per day, 2000 per boat total. A 2007 population survey conducted by the DFO estimated the population at 5.5 million. It is illegal in Canada to hunt newborn harp seals and young hooded seals; when the seal pups begin to molt their downy white fur at the age of 12–14 days, they are called "ragged-jacket" and can be commercially hunted. After molting, the seals are called "beaters", named for the way they beat the water with their flippers; the hunt remains controversial, attracting significant media coverage and protests each year.
Images from past hunts have become iconic symbols for conservation, animal welfare, animal rights advocates. In 2009, Russia banned the hunting of harp seals less than one year old; the term seal is used to refer to a diverse group of animals. In science, they are grouped together in the Pinnipeds, which includes the walrus, not popularly thought of as a seal, not considered here; the two main families of seals are the Otariidae, Phocidae. The fur seal yields a valuable fur. Seals have been used for their pelts, their flesh, their fat, used as lamp fuel, cooking oil, a constituent of soap, the liquid base for red ochre paint, for processing materials such as leather and jute. Archeological evidence indicates the Native Americans and First Nations People in Canada have been hunting seals for at least 4,000 years. Traditionally, when an Inuit boy killed his first seal or caribou, a feast was held; the meat was an important source of fat, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and iron, the pelts were prized for their warmth.
The Inuit diet is rich in fish and seal. There were 150,000 circumpolar Inuit in 2005 in Greenland, Alaska and Canada. According to Kirt Ejesiak, former secretary and chief of staff to then-Premier of Nunavut, Paul Okalik and the first Inuk from Nunavut to attend Harvard, for the c. 46,000 Canadian Inuit, the seal was not "just a source of cash through fur sales, but the keystone of their culture. Although Inuit harvest and hunt many species that inhabit the desert tundra and ice platforms, the seal is their mainstay; the Inuktitut vocabulary designates specific objects made from seal bone, sinew and fur used as tools, thread, fuel, clothing and tents. There are words referring to seasons, place names and kinship relationships based on the seal. One region of Canada's north is inhabited by the Netsilingmiut, or "people of the seal." The title of Ejesiak's article acknowledged the pivotal 1991 publication entitled Animal Rights, Human Rights by George Wenzel, a McGill University geographer and anthropologist who worked more than two decades with the Clyde Inuit of Baffin Island.
Wenzel's "scholarly examination" of "the impact of the animal rights movement upon the culture and economy of the Canadian Inuit" was among the first to reveal how animal rights groups, "well-meaning people in the dominant society through misunderstanding and ignorance can inflict destruction" on a vulnerable minority. Inuit seal hunting accounts for the majority of the seal hunt, but just three percent of the hunt in southern Canada. Ringed seals were once the main staple for food, have been used for clothing, fuel for lamps, as delicacy, igloo windows, in harnesses for huskies. Though no longer used to this extent, ringed seals are still an important food and clothing source for the people of Nunavut. Called nayiq by the Central Alaskan Yup'ik people, the ringed seal is
St Clement Danes
St Clement Danes is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London. It is situated outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. Although the first church on the site was reputedly founded in the 9th century by the Danes, the current building was completed in 1682 by Sir Christopher Wren. Wren's building was gutted during the Blitz and not restored until 1958, when it was adapted to its current function as the central church of the Royal Air Force; the church is sometimes claimed to be the one featured in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons and the bells do indeed play that tune. However, St Clement's Eastcheap, in the City of London claims to be the church from the rhyme. St Clement Danes is known as one of the other being St Mary-le-Strand. There are several possible theories as to the connection between the Danes and the origins of the church. A popular theory is that in the 9th century, the Danes colonized the village of Aldwych on the river between the City of London and the future site of Westminster.
This was at a time when half of England was Danish and London was on the dividing line between the English and the Danes. The Danes founded a church at hence the final part of its name. Alternatively, after Alfred the Great had driven the Danes out of the City of London and they had been required to accept Christianity, Alfred stipulated the building of the church. In either case, being a seafaring people, the Danes named the church they built after St Clement, patron saint of mariners. Other possible ideas are that in the 11th century after Siward, Earl of Northumbria killed the Dane Tosti, Earl of Huntingdon and his men, the deceased were buried in a field near London and a memorial church was subsequently built to honour the memory of the Danes. Possible is that the Danish connection was reinforced by a massacre recorded in the Jómsvíkinga saga when a group of unarmed Danes who had gathered for a church service were killed; the 12th-century historian William of Malmesbury wrote that the Danes burnt the church on the site of St Clement Danes before they were slain in the vicinity.
Another possible explanation for the name is that, as King Harold I "Harefoot" is recorded as having been buried in the church in March 1040, the church acquired its name on account of Harold's Danish connections. The church was first rebuilt by William the Conqueror, again in the Middle Ages. A new chancel was built over part of the churchyard in 1608, at a cost of more than £1,000, various repairs and improvements to the tower and other parts of the church cost £496 in 1618. Shortly after the Great Fire of 1666, further repairs to the steeple were attempted, but these were found impractical, the whole tower was rebuilt from the foundations. Work was completed in 1669. Soon afterwards it was decided that the rest of the church was in such a poor state that it too should be rebuilt. St Clement's was rebuilt between 1680 and 1682 to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, incorporating the existing tower, reclad; the new church was constructed with an apse at the east end. A steeple was added to the tower in 1719 by James Gibbs.
The interior has galleries on three sides supported by square pillars, continued above gallery level as Corinthian columns, supporting, in turn, a barrel-vaulted ceiling. Wren used the same scheme again at St James's Church, begun two years later. Above the galleries, each bay has a cross vault, allowing the building to be lit from large round-headed windows on the upper level. William Webb Ellis credited with the invention of Rugby football in 1823, was once rector of the church and is commemorated by a memorial tablet. In 1844, St. Clement Danes School was constructed on land on Houghton Road, Holborn which the churchwardens had purchased in 1552, it opened in 1862 and remained there until 1928 moved to Shepherd's Bush until 1975, when it was re-established as a comprehensive school in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire. The church was destroyed by German bombs during the London Blitz on 10 May 1941; the outer walls, the tower and Gibbs's steeple survived the bombing, but the interior was gutted by fire.
As a result of the blaze, the church's ten bells fell to the ground. Subsequently, they were recast after the war. Following an appeal for funds by the Royal Air Force, the church was restored under the supervision of Sam Lloyd, it was re-consecrated on 19 October 1958 to become the Central Church of the Royal Air Force. As part of the rebuilding, the following inscription was added under the restored Royal coat of arms: AEDIFICAVIT CHR WRENAD MDCLXXIIDIRUERUNT AERII BELLIFULMINA AD MCMXLIRESTITUIT REGINAE CLASSISAERONAUTICA AD MCMLVIII which may be translated as: "Christopher Wren built it 1672; the thunderbolts of aerial warfare destroyed it 1941. The Royal Air Force restored it 1958." Services are held to commemorate prominent occasions of the RAF and its associated organisations. Saint Clement is commemorated every April at a modern clementine custom/revival. Reverend William Pennington-Bickford initiated the service in 1919 to celebrate the restoration of the famous church bells and carillon, which he'd had altered to ring out the popular nursery rhyme.
This special service for children ends with the distribution of oranges and lemons to the boys and girls. William Bickford, William Pennington-Bickford was Rector from 1910 to 1941 and he and his wife Louisa became known for their devotion to the welfare of the parish. In 2008, the church was one of the ven
Australia
Australia the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area; the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea and East Timor to the north. The population of 25 million is urbanised and concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, its largest city is Sydney; the country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians for about 60,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, it is documented. After the European exploration of the continent by Dutch explorers in 1606, who named it New Holland, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788, a date which became Australia's national day; the population grew in subsequent decades, by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored and an additional five self-governing crown colonies established.
On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, comprising six states and ten territories. Being the oldest and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils, Australia has a landmass of 7,617,930 square kilometres. A megadiverse country, its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east and mountain ranges in the south-east. A gold rush began in Australia in the early 1850s, its population density, 2.8 inhabitants per square kilometre, remains among the lowest in the world. Australia generates its income from various sources including mining-related exports, telecommunications and manufacturing. Indigenous Australian rock art is the oldest and richest in the world, dating as far back as 60,000 years and spread across hundreds of thousands of sites. Australia is a developed country, with the world's 14th-largest economy.
It has a high-income economy, with the world's tenth-highest per capita income. It is a regional power, has the world's 13th-highest military expenditure. Australia has the world's ninth-largest immigrant population, with immigrants accounting for 26% of the population. Having the third-highest human development index and the eighth-highest ranked democracy globally, the country ranks in quality of life, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights, with all its major cities faring well in global comparative livability surveys. Australia is a member of the United Nations, G20, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Trade Organization, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Pacific Islands Forum and the ASEAN Plus Six mechanism; the name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis, a name used for a hypothetical continent in the Southern Hemisphere since ancient times. When Europeans first began visiting and mapping Australia in the 17th century, the name Terra Australis was applied to the new territories.
Until the early 19th century, Australia was best known as "New Holland", a name first applied by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 and subsequently anglicised. Terra Australis still saw occasional usage, such as in scientific texts; the name Australia was popularised by the explorer Matthew Flinders, who said it was "more agreeable to the ear, an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth". The first time that Australia appears to have been used was in April 1817, when Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledged the receipt of Flinders' charts of Australia from Lord Bathurst. In December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office. In 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known by that name; the first official published use of the new name came with the publication in 1830 of The Australia Directory by the Hydrographic Office. Colloquial names for Australia include "Oz" and "the Land Down Under". Other epithets include "the Great Southern Land", "the Lucky Country", "the Sunburnt Country", "the Wide Brown Land".
The latter two both derive from Dorothea Mackellar's 1908 poem "My Country". Human habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to have begun around 65,000 to 70,000 years ago, with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea-crossings from what is now Southeast Asia; these first inhabitants were the ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. Aboriginal Australian culture is one of the oldest continual civilisations on earth. At the time of first European contact, most Indigenous Australians were hunter-gatherers with complex economies and societies. Recent archaeological finds suggest. Indigenous Australians have an oral culture with spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime; the Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas. The northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited s
Grog
Grog is any of a variety of alcoholic beverages. The word referred to a drink made with water and rum, which British Vice Admiral Edward Vernon introduced into the naval squadron he commanded in the West Indies on 21 August 1740. Vernon was nicknamed Old Grogram or Old Grog; the Merriam–Webster Collegiate Dictionary, which agrees with this story of the word's origin, states that the word grog was first used in this sense in 1770, though other sources cite 1749. In modern times, the term grog has had a variety of meanings in a number of different cultures. Sailors require significant quantities of fresh water on extended voyages. Since desalinating sea water was not practical, fresh water was taken on board in casks but developed algae and became slimy. Stagnant water was sweetened with beer or wine to make it palatable, which involved more casks and was subject to spoilage; as longer voyages became more common, the task of stowage became more and more difficult and the sailors' substantial daily ration of water plus beer or wine began to add up.
Following England's conquest of Jamaica in 1655, a half-pint of rum replaced beer and brandy as the drink of choice. Given to the sailor straight, this caused additional problems, as some sailors saved the rum rations for several days to drink all at once. Due to the subsequent illness and disciplinary problems, the rum was mixed with water; this both accelerated its spoilage, preventing hoarding of the allowance. Vernon's 1740 order that the daily rum issue of a half pint of rum be mixed with one quart of water and issued in two servings, before noon and after the end of the working day, became part of the official regulations of the Royal Navy in 1756 and lasted for more than two centuries; this gives a water-to-rum ratio of 4:1. Some writers have claimed that Vernon added citrus juice to prevent spoilage and that it was found to prevent scurvy; this is not the case and is based on a misreading of Vernon's order in which, having instructed his captains to dilute the sailors's daily allowance of rum with water, he says that those members of the crew "which... are good husbandmen may from the saving of their salt provisions and bread, purchase sugar and limes to make it more palatable to them."
In other words, there was no official addition of lime juice or other substance at this time – any addition was the result of a voluntary choice, made by and paid for by the men themselves, done if they wanted to improve the taste. It seems unlikely, it had nothing to do with combating scurvy, a disease of long ocean voyages – not of squadrons operating among islands where there was an abundance of fruits and fresh foodstuffs – and was seen by the medical establishment as the consequence of poor digestion and internal putrefaction. Standard medical remedies focussed on "gingering up" the system by imbibing a variety of fizzy or fermenting drinks; until an official daily issue of lemon juice was introduced into the Royal Navy in 1795, scurvy continued to be a debilitating disease which destroyed men and disabled ships and whole fleets. Practical seamen and surgeons however had known from practical experience that vitamin C, in the form of citrus juice, cured scurvy and in 1795, in defiance of medical opinion, the Admiralty introduced lemon juice and sugar as a regular part of the naval diet.
When a few years Spain allied itself with France and lemons became unobtainable, West Indian limes were substituted. It was from this time; the name "grog" came from the nickname of Admiral Vernon, known as "Old Grog" because he wore a grogram cloak. American Dialect Society member Stephen Goranson has shown that the term was in use by 1749, when Vernon was still alive. A biographer of Daniel Defoe has suggested that the derivation from "Old Grog" is wrong because Defoe used the term in 1718, but this is based on an erroneous citation of Defoe's work, which used the word "ginger"; the practice of serving grog twice a day carried over into the U. S. Navy. Robert Smith Secretary of the Navy, experimented with substituting native rye whiskey for the imported rum concoction. Finding the American sailors preferred it, he made the change permanent, it is said his sailors followed the practice of their British antecedents and took to calling it "Bob Smith" instead of grog. Unlike their Navy counterparts, American merchant seamen were not encouraged to partake of grog.
In his 1848 testimony before a parliamentary committee, Robert Minturn of Grinnell, Minturn & Co "stated that teetotalism not only was encouraged by American ship-owners, but earned a bonus from underwriters, who offered a return of ten percent of the insurance premium upon voyages performed without the consumption of spirits.... The sailors were allowed plenty of hot coffee, night or day, in heavy weather, but grog was unknown on board American merchant ships."Although the American Navy ended the rum ration on 1 September 1862, the ration continued in the Royal Navy. The temperance movements of the late 19th century began to change the attitude toward drink and the days of grog came to an end. In 1850 the size of the tot was halved to a quarter of a pint per day; the issue of grog to officers ended in 1881, to warrant officers in 1918. On 28 January 1970, the "Great Rum Debate" took place in the House of Commons, on 31 July 1970, the last pipe of "Up Spirits" in the Royal Navy was heard and is referred today as "Black Tot Day".
Until the grog rat
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