1.
Howard Pyle
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Howard Pyle was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. He was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, but he spent the last year of his life in Florence, in 1894, he began teaching illustration at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry. After 1900, he founded his own school of art and illustration named the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art, pitz later used the term Brandywine School for the illustration artists and Wyeth family artists of the Brandywine region, several of whom had studied with Pyle. Some of his notable students were N. C. Pyle taught his students at home and studio in Wilmington, which is standing and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. His 1883 classic publication The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood remains in print and he is also well known for his illustrations of pirates, and is credited with creating what has become the modern stereotype of pirate dress. He published his first novel Otto of the Silver Hand in 1888 and he also illustrated historical and adventure stories for periodicals such as Harpers Magazine and St. Nicholas Magazine. His novel Men of Iron was adapted as the movie The Black Shield of Falworth, Pyle travelled to Florence, Italy in 1910 to study mural painting. He died there in 1911 of a kidney infection. Pyle was the son of William Pyle and Margaret Churchman Painter, as a child, he attended private schools and was interested in drawing and writing from a very young age. He was an indifferent student, but his parents encouraged him to study art, in 1876, he visited the island of Chincoteague off Virginia and was inspired by what he saw. He wrote and illustrated an article about the island and submitted it to Scribners Monthly, one of the magazines owners was Roswell Smith, who encouraged him to move to New York and pursue illustration professionally. Pyle initially struggled in New York, his lack of experience made it difficult for him to translate his ideas into forms for publication. He was encouraged by several working artists, however, including Edwin Austin Abbey and he finally published a double-paged spread in the Harpers Weekly issue of March 9,1878 and was paid $75—five times what he had expected. He became increasingly successful and was an established artist by the time that he returned to Wilmington in 1880 and he also collaborated on several books, particularly in American history. He wrote and illustrated his own stories, beginning with The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood in 1883 and this book won international attention from critics such as William Morris. Over the following decades, he published many illustrated works for children. Pyle married singer Anne Poole on April 12,1881, in 1889, he and his wife sailed to Jamaica, leaving their children in the care of relatives
2.
Desert island
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A desert island, deserted island or uninhabited island is an island that is not permanently populated by humans. Uninhabited islands are used in movies or stories about shipwrecked people. Some uninhabited islands are protected as reserves and some are privately owned. Devon Island in Canada is claimed to be the largest uninhabited island in the world, small coral atolls or islands usually have no source of fresh water, but at times a fresh water lens can be reached with a well. Uninhabited islands are also called deserted islands or desert islands. In the latter, the adjective desert connotes not desert climate conditions, the word desert has been formerly applied more widely to any wild, uninhabited region, including forest-land, and it is this archaic meaning that appears in the phrase desert island. Similarly, the deserted island does not imply that the island was previously inhabited. The term desert island is commonly used figuratively to refer to objects or behavior in conditions of social isolation. Behavior on an island is a common thought experiment, for example. Appat Island, Greenland Kermadec Islands in the South Pacific, part of New Zealand Astola Island, Baluchistan Devon Island,55,247 km2, many small islands off the coast of Greece A majority of islands in the Barra Isles archipelago. The most famous of abandoned islands is located at the southernmost point of the outer Hebrides. The protagonists in both are children living in seclusion on a deserted island, until they eventually come in contact with castaways from the outside world who are stranded on the island. The story of Theologus Autodidactus, however, extends beyond the island setting when the castaways take Kamil back to civilization with them. William Shakespeares 1610–11 play, The Tempest, uses the idea of being stranded on an island as a pretext for the action of the play. In the late 17th century, Philosophus Autodidactus inspired Robert Boyle, Ibn al-Nafis Theologus Autodidactus was also eventually translated into English in the early 20th century. The novel features Man Friday, Crusoes personal assistant and it is also likely that he was inspired by the Latin or English translations of Ibn Tufails Philosophus Autodidactus. Tom Neale was a New Zealander who voluntarily spent 16 years in three sessions in the 1950s and 1960s living alone on the island of Suwarrow in the northern Cook Islands group and his time there is documented in his autobiography, An Island To Oneself. Significant novels set on deserted islands include The Swiss Family Robinson, The Coral Island, The Mysterious Island, Lord of the Flies, The Cay, juana Maria, a Native American woman, was stranded for 18 years on San Nicolas Island off California in the 19th century
3.
Maroon (people)
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Maroons were Africans who had escaped from slavery in the Americas and formed independent settlements. The term can also be applied to their descendants, in all likelihood, the words Maroon and Seminole share the same origin in the Spanish word cimarrón, meaning wild or untamed. This word usually referred to runaways or castaways and is derived from the word for thicket in Old Spanish. In the New World, as early as 1512, enslaved Africans escaped from Spanish captors, Sir Francis Drake enlisted several cimarrones during his raids on the Spanish. As early as 1655, escaped Africans had formed their own communities in inland Jamaica, when runaway Blacks and Amerindians banded together and subsisted independently they were called Maroons. On the Caribbean islands, they formed bands and on some islands, Maroon communities faced great odds to survive from colonists, obtain food for subsistence living, and to reproduce and increase their numbers. As the planters took over land for crops, the Maroons began to lose ground on the small islands. Only on some of the islands were organized Maroon communities able to thrive by growing crops. Here they grew in number as more Blacks escaped from plantations, the early Maroon communities were usually displaced. By 1700, Maroons had disappeared from the smaller islands, Survival was always difficult as the Maroons had to fight off attackers as well as attempt to grow food. In Cuba, there were communities in the mountains, where African refugees who escaped the brutality of slavery. Before roads were built into the mountains of Puerto Rico, heavy brush kept many escaped maroons hidden in the hills where many also intermarried with the natives. Escaped Blacks sought refuge away from the plantations of Ponce. Remnants of these remain to this day for example in Viñales, Cuba. Maroon communities emerged in many places in the Caribbean, but none were seen as such a threat to the British as the Jamaican Maroons. A British governor signed a treaty in 1738 and 1739 promising them 2,500 acres in two locations, to bring an end to the warfare between the communities, in exchange they were to agree to capture other escaped Blacks. They were paid a bounty of two dollars for each African returned, to this day, the Jamaican Maroons are to a significant extent autonomous and separate from Jamaican society. The physical isolation used to their advantage by their ancestors has today led to their communities remaining among the most inaccessible on the island, in their largest town, Accompong, in the parish of St. Elizabeth, the Leeward Maroons still possess a vibrant community of about 600
4.
Spanish language
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Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania
5.
Mutiny
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Mutiny is a criminal conspiracy among a group of people to openly oppose, change, or overthrow a lawful authority to which they are subject. The term is used for a rebellion among members of the military against their superior officers. During the Age of Discovery, mutiny particularly meant open rebellion against a ships captain, until 1689, mutiny was regulated in England by Articles of War instituted by the monarch and effective only in a period of war. In 1689, the first Mutiny Act was passed which passed the responsibility to enforce discipline within the military to Parliament. The Mutiny Act, altered in 1803, and the Articles of War defined the nature and punishment of mutiny until the latter were replaced by the Army Discipline and this, in turn, was replaced by the Army Act in 1881. The same definition applies in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, the military law of England in early times existed, like the forces to which it applied, in a period of war only. Troops were raised for a service and were disbanded upon the cessation of hostilities. The crown, by prerogative, made known as Articles of War for the government and discipline of the troops while thus embodied. This power of law-making by prerogative was however held to be applicable during a state of war only. Subject to this limitation, it existed for more than a century after the passing of the first Mutiny Act. The Mutiny Act 1873 was passed in this manner, such matters remained until 1879 when the last Mutiny Act was passed and the last Articles of War were promulgated. The act and the articles were not to harmonize in all respects. Their general arrangement was faulty, and their sometimes obscure. In 1869, a commission recommended that both should be recast in a simple and intelligible shape. In 1878, a committee of the House of Commons endorsed this view, in 1879, passed into law a measure consolidating in one act both the Mutiny Act and the Articles of War, and amending their provisions in certain important respects. This measure was called the Army Discipline and Regulation Act 1879, as the punishment of every conceivable offence was provided, any articles made under the act could be no more than an empty formality having no practical effect. These rules, however, must not be inconsistent with the provisions of the Army Act itself, thus in 1879 the government and discipline of the army became for the first time completely subject either to the direct action or the close supervision of parliament. A further notable change took place at the same time, each session therefore the text of the act had to be passed through both Houses clause by clause and line by line
6.
Shoal
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Often it refers to those submerged ridges, banks, or bars that rise near enough to the surface of a body of water as to constitute a danger to navigation. Shoals are also known as sandbanks, sandbars, or gravelbars, two or more shoals that are either separated by shared troughs or interconnected by past and or present sedimentary and hydrographic processes are referred to as a shoal complex. The term shoal is also used in a number of ways that can be similar or quite different from how it is used in the geologic, geomorphic. Shoals are characteristically long and narrow ridges and they can develop where a stream, river, or ocean current promotes deposition of sediment and granular material, resulting in localized shallowing of the water. Marine shoals also develop either by the in place drowning of barrier islands as the result of sea level rise or by the erosion. Shoals can appear as a coastal landform in the sea, where they are classified as a type of bank, or as fluvial landforms in rivers, streams. A shoal–sandbar may seasonally separate a smaller body of water from the sea, such as, Marine lagoons Brackish water estuaries Freshwater seasonal stream and river mouths and deltas. They are typically composed of sand, although they could be of any matter that the moving water has access to and is capable of shifting around. Wave shoaling is the process when surface waves move towards shallow water, such as a beach, they slow down, their wave height increases and this behavior is called shoaling, and the waves are said to shoal. The waves may or may not build to the point where they break, depending on how large they were to begin with, in particular, waves shoal as they pass over submerged sandbanks or reefs. This can be treacherous for boats and ships, shoaling can also diffract waves, so the waves change direction. For example, if waves pass over a bank which is shallower at one end than the other. Thus the wave fronts will refract, changing direction like light passing through a prism, refraction also occurs as waves move towards a beach if the waves come in at an angle to the beach, or if the beach slopes more gradually at one end than the other. Sandbars, also known as a trough bars, form where the waves are breaking, sometimes this occurs seaward of a trough. Sand carried by the moving bottom current is deposited where the current reaches the wave break. Other longshore bars may lie further offshore, representing the point of even larger waves. A harbor or river bar is a sedimentary deposit formed at an entrance or river mouth by. Where beaches are suitably mobile, or the river’s suspended and/or bed loads are large enough, deposition can build up a sandbar that completely blocks a river mouth and damming the river
7.
Tide
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Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation of the Earth. Some shorelines experience a semi-diurnal tide—two nearly equal high and low tides each day, other locations experience a diurnal tide—only one high and low tide each day. A mixed tide—two uneven tides a day, or one high, Tides vary on timescales ranging from hours to years due to a number of factors. To make accurate records, tide gauges at fixed stations measure water level over time, gauges ignore variations caused by waves with periods shorter than minutes. These data are compared to the level usually called mean sea level. Tidal phenomena are not limited to the oceans, but can occur in other systems whenever a gravitational field varies in time. For example, the part of the Earth is affected by tides. Tide changes proceed via the following stages, Sea level rises over several hours, covering the intertidal zone, the water rises to its highest level, reaching high tide. Sea level falls over several hours, revealing the intertidal zone, the water stops falling, reaching low tide. Oscillating currents produced by tides are known as tidal streams, the moment that the tidal current ceases is called slack water or slack tide. The tide then reverses direction and is said to be turning, slack water usually occurs near high water and low water. But there are locations where the moments of slack tide differ significantly from those of high, Tides are commonly semi-diurnal, or diurnal. The two high waters on a day are typically not the same height, these are the higher high water. Similarly, the two low waters each day are the low water and the lower low water. The daily inequality is not consistent and is small when the Moon is over the equator. From the highest level to the lowest, Highest Astronomical Tide – The highest tide which can be predicted to occur, note that meteorological conditions may add extra height to the HAT. Mean High Water Springs – The average of the two high tides on the days of spring tides, mean High Water Neaps – The average of the two high tides on the days of neap tides. Mean Sea Level – This is the sea level
8.
Edward England
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Edward England, born Edward Seegar was a famous African coast and Indian Ocean pirate captain from 1717 to 1720. The ships he sailed on included the Pearl and later the Fancy and his flag was the classic Jolly Roger — almost exactly as Black Sam Bellamy used — with a skull above two crossed bones on a black background. Born in Wales as Edward Seegar sometime around 1685 He was probably raised as a Catholic and was said to be an educated man, Seegar changed his surname to England when he turned pirate. England made his way to Jamaica and during the War of Spanish Succession he served as a privateer and he was captured by the pirate captain Christopher Winter and forced to join the crew. Winter most likely took England to the base on Nassau. England took part in Henry Jennings assault on the Spanish salvage camp at Palma de Ayz, Florida, stealing £87,000 in gold, England is next reported as Charles Vanes quartermaster, in March 1718. Vanes sloop, the Lark was captured by the Royal Navy, but England, England was granted captaincy of his own ship in mid-1718. England decided not to accept the pardon along with Vane and a few others, along the way he and the crew took several ships. One of the ships was the Cadogan from Bristol, captained by a man named Skinner, some of Englands crew knew Skinner and recognized him instantly because he never paid them for their work previously. According to Charles Johnson, the member said, ″Ah. Captain Skinner is it you, I am much in your debt, next they simply executed the captain by shooting him in the head with a flintlock pistol. Given the crew of the Cadogan was without a captain, England offered them a choice to join his crew, aboard the crew was Howell Davis who refused to sign the articles of the pirates. Howell said he would die than become a pirate, however England refused to kill him. This began the start of Davis pirate career, Davis would go on to spawn the career of Bartholomew Roberts as well and the careers of many other pirates. After some time, England and his crew captured a larger brig or frigate named the Pearl, taking the ship as their own, they renamed it the Royal James and went off in search of plunder in Africa in the spring of 1719. Between the River Gambia and the Cape Coast the pirates seized and looted ten ships, after looting the ten ships, England made John Taylor the captain of his next prize, the Victory. After looting two additional ships, England and the decided to make port in a small African town. However the pirates grew increasingly belligerent and conflicts arose with the locals over the treatment of women, soon a fight broke out, resulting in the pirates burning the entire town and departing
9.
Piracy
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Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship- or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable items or properties. Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates, the earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, a land-based parallel is the ambushing of travelers by bandits and brigands in highways and mountain passes. While the term can include acts committed in the air, on land, or in major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against people traveling on the vessel as the perpetrator. Piracy or pirating is the name of a crime under customary international law. They also use larger vessels, known as ships, to supply the smaller motorboats. The international community is facing challenges in bringing modern pirates to justice. In the 2000s, a number of nations have used their naval forces to protect ships from pirate attacks. The English pirate is derived from the Latin term pirata and that from Greek πειρατής, brigand, in turn from πειράομαι, I attempt, from πεῖρα, attempt, the meaning of the Greek word peiratēs literally is one who attacks. The word is cognate to peril. The term is first attested to c, spelling was not standardised until the eighteenth century, and spellings such as pirrot, pyrate and pyrat were used until this period. It may be reasonable to assume that piracy has existed for as long as the oceans were plied for commerce, the earliest documented instances of piracy are the exploits of the Sea Peoples who threatened the ships sailing in the Aegean and Mediterranean waters in the 14th century BC. In classical antiquity, the Phoenicians, Illyrians and Tyrrhenians were known as pirates, the ancient Greeks condoned piracy as a viable profession, it apparently was widespread and regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living. References are made to its perfectly normal occurrence many texts including in Homers Iliad and Odyssey, by the era of Classical Greece, piracy was looked upon as a disgrace to have as a profession. In the 3rd century BC, pirate attacks on Olympos brought impoverishment, among some of the most famous ancient pirateering peoples were the Illyrians, a people populating the western Balkan peninsula. Constantly raiding the Adriatic Sea, the Illyrians caused many conflicts with the Roman Republic and it was not until 229 BC when the Romans finally decisively beat the Illyrian fleets that their threat was ended
10.
Pirate code
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A pirate code, pirate articles or articles of agreement were a code of conduct for governing pirates. A group of sailors, on turning pirate, would draw up their own code or articles, which provided rules for discipline, division of stolen goods, and compensation for injured pirates. Buccaneers began operating under a set of rules called the Chasse-Partie, Charter Party, Custom of the Coast. These eventually became known as Articles of Agreement, or the pirates code, each crew member was asked to sign or make his mark on the articles, then swear an oath of allegiance or honor. The oath was taken on a Bible, but John Phillips men, lacking a Bible. Legend suggests that other pirates swore on crossed pistols, swords, or on a human skull, or astride a cannon. This act formally inducted the signer into the crew, generally entitling him to vote for officers and on other affairs of moment, to bear arms. The articles having been signed, they were posted in a prominent place. After a piratical cruise began, new recruits from captured ships would sometimes sign the articles, in some cases voluntarily, in other cases under threat of torture or death. Valuable sea artisans, such as carpenters and navigators, were likely to be forced to sign articles under duress. In some cases, even willing recruits would ask the pirates to pretend to them to sign. Generally, men who had not signed the articles had a better chance of acquittal at trial if captured by the law. Pirate articles are related to, and in some cases derived from, privateering articles. By the 19th century, ordinary merchant ships also had articles specifying wages and rules, merchant articles and privateering articles can be traced back to Europe in the Middle Ages when there was a system of joint hands agreements between merchants, owners and seamen to share profits. Four complete or nearly complete sets of articles have survived, chiefly from Charles Johnsons A General History of the Pyrates. A partial code from Henry Morgan is preserved in Alexandre Exquemelins 1678 book The Buccaneers of America, many other pirates are known to have had articles. Few pirate articles have survived, because pirates on the verge of capture or surrender usually burned their articles or threw them overboard, No person to game at cards or dice for money. The lights and candles to be put out at eight oclock at night, if any of the crew, after that hour still remained inclined for drinking, to keep their piece, pistols, and cutlass clean and fit for service
11.
Bartholomew Roberts
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Bartholomew Roberts, born John Roberts, was a Welsh pirate who raided ships off the Americas and West Africa between 1719 and 1722. He was the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy as measured by vessels captured and he is also known as Black Bart, but this name was never used in his lifetime. He is sometimes confused with Charles Bolles, called the Black Bart of the American West and he was born John Roberts in 1682 in Casnewydd-Bach, between Fishguard and Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, Wales. His father was most likely George Roberts and its not clear why Roberts changed his name from John to Bartholomew, but pirates often adopted aliases. He may have chosen his first name after the well-known buccaneer Bartholomew Sharp and he is thought to have gone to sea when he was 13 in 1695, but there is no further record of him until 1718, when he was mate of a Barbados sloop. In 1719, Roberts was third mate on the slave ship Princess under Captain Abraham Plumb, in early June that year, the Princess was anchored at Anomabu when she was captured by pirates. The pirates were in two vessels, the Royal Rover and the Royal James, and were led by captain Howell Davis, Davis, like Roberts, was a Welshman, originally from Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire. Roberts and several other of the crew of the Princess were forced to join the pirates, Davis quickly discovered Roberts abilities as a navigator and took to consulting him. He was also able to confide information to Roberts in Welsh, Roberts is said to have been reluctant to become a pirate at first, but soon came to see the advantages of this new lifestyle. Captain Charles Johnson reports him as saying, In an honest service there is thin commons, low wages, no, a merry life and a short one shall be my motto. In the merchant navy, Roberts wage was less than £4 per month, a few weeks after Roberts capture, the Royal James had to be abandoned because of worm damage. The Royal Rover headed for the island of Príncipe, Davis hoisted the flags of a British man-of-war and was allowed to enter the harbour. After a few days, Davis invited the governor to lunch on board his ship, Davis had to send boats to collect the governor, and he was invited to call at the fort for a glass of wine first. The Portuguese had discovered that their visitors were pirates and they ambushed Davis party on its way to the fort, shooting Davis dead. A new captain had to be elected, Davis crew was divided into Lords and Commons, and it was the Lords who had the right to propose a name to the remainder of the crew. Within six weeks of his capture, Roberts was elected captain and this was unusual, especially as he had objected to serving on the vessel. Historians believe he was elected for his abilities and his personality. He accepted of the Honour, saying, that since he had dippd his Hands in Muddy Water, Roberts first act as captain was to lead the crew back to Príncipe to avenge the death of Captain Davis
12.
John Phillips (pirate)
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John Phillips was an English pirate captain. He started his career in 1721 under Thomas Anstis. He died in an attack by his own prisoners. He is noted for the articles of his ship, the Revenge, Phillips was a ships carpenter by trade. While voyaging from England to Newfoundland, his ship was captured on April 19,1721 by Thomas Anstiss pirates, Phillips was forced to join the pirates, as skilled artisans often were. Phillips was soon reconciled to the life of a Pirate, in April,1722, Anstis sent Phillips and some other men ashore on Tobago to careen a captured frigate. A British warship soon arrived, forcing Anstis to flee and abandon Phillips, Phillips avoided capture by hiding in the woods, and later returned to Bristol in England with other abandoned shipmates, where they gave up piracy for a time. Some of Phillips pirate comrades were arrested and imprisoned shortly after their arrival in Bristol, there, he conspired to steal a ship and return to piracy. On August 29,1723, with four companions, Phillips seized a schooner belonging to William Minott from Petty Harbour, renamed her Revenge. Phillips crewmen were John Nutt, James Sparks, Thomas Fern and they agreed promptly to a set of articles. Significantly, Phillips articles forbade rape under penalty of death, Anstiss crew had committed a notorious gang rape, Phillips set sail for the West Indies, capturing several fishing vessels on the way. Aboard one of these prizes was John Rose Archer, reputed to be a crewman of Blackbeard. On September 5, Phillips captured John Fillmore, great-grandfather of later U. S. president Millard Fillmore, aboard the sloop Dolphin and this increased the Revenges total crew to 11. Proceeding to the Caribbean, Phillips and his men hunted for merchantmen near Barbados and they made no captures for three months, and ran severely short of food and supplies, before finally taking some French and English vessels. They went on to Tobago, where Phillips searched for some of his comrades from Anstiss crew, but found only one survivor. Phillips careened the Revenge and took Pedro aboard, the Revenge captured another vessel after leaving Tobago, and the carpenter Thomas Fern, in charge of the prize crew, attempted to escape with the stolen vessel. The Revenge overtook Fern and captured him, killing one of the prize crew, Fern and one of his crewmates tried and failed to escape again later that winter, and Phillips killed them both. The pirates continued northward arriving at Cape Sable, Nova Scotia on April 1,1723, here Phillips met great success as he raided New England fishing vessels working the fishing banks between Cape Sable and Sable Island
13.
Southern United States
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The Southern United States, commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South, is a region of the United States of America. The South does not fully match the geographic south of the United States, arizona and New Mexico, which are geographically in the southern part of the country, are rarely considered part, while West Virginia, which separated from Virginia in 1863, commonly is. Some scholars have proposed definitions of the South that do not coincide neatly with state boundaries, while the states of Delaware and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia permitted slavery prior to the start of the Civil War, they remained with the Union. However, the United States Census Bureau puts them in the South, usually, the South is defined as including the southeastern and south-central United States. The region is known for its culture and history, having developed its own customs, musical styles, and cuisines, the Southern ethnic heritage is diverse and includes strong European, African, and some Native American components. Since the late 1960s, black people have many offices in Southern states, especially in the coastal states of Virginia. Historically, the South relied heavily on agriculture, and was rural until after 1945. It has since become more industrialized and urban and has attracted national and international migrants, the American South is now among the fastest-growing areas in the United States. Houston is the largest city in the Southern United States, sociological research indicates that Southern collective identity stems from political, demographic, and cultural distinctiveness from the rest of the United States. The region contains almost all of the Bible Belt, an area of high Protestant church attendance and predominantly conservative, indeed, studies have shown that Southerners are more conservative than non-Southerners in several areas, including religion, morality, international relations and race relations. Apart from its climate, the experience in the South increasingly resembles the rest of the nation. The arrival of millions of Northerners and millions of Hispanics meant the introduction of cultural values, the process has worked both ways, however, with aspects of Southern culture spreading throughout a greater portion of the rest of the United States in a process termed Southernization. The question of how to define the subregions in the South has been the focus of research for nearly a century, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, the Southern region of the United States includes sixteen states. As of 2010, an estimated 114,555,744 people, or thirty-seven percent of all U. S. residents, lived in the South, the nations most populous region. Other terms related to the South include, The Old South, the New South, usually including the South Atlantic States. The Solid South, region largely controlled by the Democratic Party from 1877 to 1964, before that, blacks were elected to national office and many to local office through the 1880s, Populist-Republican coalitions gained victories for Fusionist candidates for governors in the 1890s. Includes at least all the 11 former Confederate States, Southeastern United States, usually including the Carolinas, the Virginias, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. The Deep South, various definitions, usually including Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, occasionally, parts of adjoining states are included
14.
Treaty of Utrecht
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The treaties between several European states, including Spain, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Savoy and the Dutch Republic, helped end the war. They marked the end of French ambitions of hegemony in Europe expressed in the wars of Louis XIV, the War of the Spanish Succession was occasioned by the failure of the Habsburg king, Charles II of Spain, to produce an heir. Dispute followed the death of Charles II in 1700, and fourteen years of war were the result, France and Great Britain had come to terms in October 1711, when the preliminaries of peace had been signed in London. The preliminaries were based on an acceptance of the partition of Spains European possessions. Following this, the Congress of Utrecht opened on 29 January 1712, with the British representatives being John Robinson, Bishop of Bristol, and Thomas Wentworth, Lord Strafford. Reluctantly the United Provinces accepted the preliminaries and sent representatives, and this assurance was given, and so in February the Imperial representatives made their appearance. As Philip was not yet recognized as its king, Spain did not at first send plenipotentiaries, but the Duke of Savoy sent one, and the Kingdom of Portugal was represented by Luís da Cunha. With Great Britain and France having agreed upon a truce, the pace of negotiation now quickened, and the main treaties were finally signed on 11 April 1713. The treaty recognised Louis XIVs grandson Philip, Duke of Anjou, as King of Spain, however, Philip was compelled to renounce for himself and his descendants any right to the French throne. In similar fashion various French princelings, including most notably the Duke of Berry, Utrecht marked the rise of Great Britain under Anne and later the House of Hanover, her exploits martial were due to Marlborough. Portugal had its sovereignty recognised over the lands between the Amazon and Oyapock rivers, in Brazil, in 1715, the Portuguese also recovered Colónia do Sacramento, previously taken by Spain in Uruguay. In North America, France ceded to Great Britain its claims to Newfoundland and they also ceded the Acadian colony of Nova Scotia. The formerly partitioned island of Saint Kitts was also ceded in its entirety to Britain, France was required to recognise British suzerainty over the Iroquois and commerce with the Far Indians was to be open to traders of all nations. France retained its other pre-war North American possessions, including Île-Saint-Jean, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, as well as Île Royale, a series of commercial treaties were also signed. The treatys territorial provisions did not go as far as the Whigs in Britain would have liked, considering that the French had made overtures for peace in 1706, the Whigs considered themselves the heirs of the staunch anti-French policies of William III and the Duke of Marlborough. However, in the Parliament of 1710 the Tories had gained control of the House of Commons, Queen Anne and her advisors had also come to agree. The French negotiator Melchior de Polignac taunted the Dutch with the scathing remark de vous, chez vous, sans vous, meaning that negotiations would be held about you, around you, without you. In any case, the Dutch achieved their condominium in the Austrian Netherlands with the Austro-Dutch Barrier Treaty of 1715
15.
Sombrero, Anguilla
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Sombrero, also known as Hat Island, is part of the British overseas territory of Anguilla and is the northernmost island of the Lesser Antilles. It lies 54 km north-west of Anguilla across the Dog and Prickly Pear Passage, the distance to Dog Island, the next nearest island of Anguilla, is 38 kilometres. Sombrero is 1.67 kilometres long north-south, and 0.38 km wide, the land area is 0.38 km2. The surface of the island is rough, and vegetation is sparse, the guano-mining operation yielded some 3000 tons of phosphate a year by 1870. By 1890, the reserves had been exhausted. The lighthouse marks the Anegada Passage, which is the route from Europe into the Caribbean, the first lighthouse was erected in 1868. In 1960, Hurricane Donna damaged this lighthouse, with the result that a new lighthouse replaced it in 1962, the lighthouses were manned from 1868 to 2001. In that year, Trinity House donated and installed the current, automated tower, anguillas Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources is responsible for the maintenance of the navigational aids. As a result of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1714, Sombrero passed into the hands of the British, captain Warwick Lake of Recruit marooned an impressed seaman, Robert Jeffrey, there on 13 December 1807. As it turned out, Jeffrey survived, a passing American vessel, the schooner Adams from Marblehead, Massachusetts, had rescued him. Still, a court martial dismissed Lake from the Royal Navy, in 1814, and again in 1825, a British geologist surveyed the island and found that it abounded in guano and reported this to the British government. In 1856 the Americans claimed the island, and in a short period of time quarried 100,000 tons of phosphate that served as fertilizer for the exhausted lands of the Southern States. Uniquely, an important insurrection occurred when West Indian black workers revolted against the “slavery proclivities” of a white American superintendent vis-à-vis wage-earning free men, four of the 200 workers fatally injured Superintendent Snow and commandeered the island and company money and stores. The British later intervened and demanded compensation from the United States for the occupation, the conflicting claims to the island were settled in Britains favour in 1867. Sombrero, lying in the route of shipping from England to South and Central America, lay in an area with many hazards and in 1848 the Admiralty was asked to install a light on it. On 30 June 1859, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Companys ship Paramatta was wrecked on her voyage on Horseshoe Reef. The lighthouse was built and first exhibited its light on the evening of 1 January 1868. Paramatta was the last ship launched from their Middlesex bank, while the lighthouse was built on the Essex side, from the early 1870s until 1885, a Cornish mining engineer, Thomas Corfield, was Superintendent of Sombrero
16.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
17.
Viscount Lake
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Viscount Lake, of Delhi and Laswary and of Aston Clinton in the County of Buckingham, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1807 for the prominent soldier Gerard Lake and he was Commander-in-Chief of India from 1801 to 1805 and from 1805 to 1807. Lake had already been created Baron Lake, of Delhi and Laswary and of Aston Clinton in the County of Buckingham, in 1804, the titles became extinct on the death of the third Viscount in 1848. Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake Francis Gerard Lake, 2nd Viscount Lake Warwick Lake, 3rd Viscount Lake. On 13 December 1807, when he was captain of HMS Recruit, Lake marooned an impressed seaman, Robert Jeffrey, on Sombrero Island for having stolen rum. John Dennis of the American schooner Adam, out of Marblehead, saw Jeffrey waving his arms, apparently, Jeffrey was only slightly emaciated but initially incapable of speech. He went on to live in Marblehead, where he pursued his trade of blacksmith. Some months later, Lakes commanding officer, Sir Alexander Cochrane, discovered what had happened, when Recruit arrived at Sombrero, Jeffrey could not be found. Eventually, when the Royal Navy found out Jeffreys whereabouts, it repatriated him, on 14 June 1810, HMS Frolic arrived at Sombrero Island in the West Indies. A party from the vessel searched the island to assess the prospects for someone landed at this place without food. A subsequent court-martial dismissed Lake, who in the meantime had become captain of HMS Ulysses, Lake settled with Jeffrey out of court for £600 to avoid a civil suit. Leigh Rayments Peerage Pages David Beamishs Peerage Page
18.
HMS Recruit (1806)
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HMS Recruit was an 18-gun Cruizer class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1806 at Sandwich, Kent. She is best known for an act of pique by Cmdr, Warwick Lake, who marooned a seaman, and for an inconclusive but hard fought ship action under Cmdr. Charles John Napier against the French corvette Diligente and she captured a number of American vessels as prizes during the War of 1812 before being laid up in 1815 and sold for breaking up in 1822. Recruit was ordered on 27 January 1806 from the shipwright Andrew Hills, of Sandwich and she was laid down in April 1806 and launched on 31 August 1806. Recruit was commissioned under Commander George Ackholm in March 1807, on 28 August, Tromp detained the Danish ships Diamond and Karen Louisa. Recruit, Humber, Cheerful, and experiment were in sight, next, Recruit sailed to the Caribbean under Commander Warwick Lake, supposedly in July, but clearly later. During the voyage, a sailor named Robert Jeffery was discovered to have stolen the midshipmens beer. Some months later, Lakes commanding officer Sir Alexander Cochrane discovered what had happened, when Recruit arrived at Sombrero, Jeffery could not be found. Eventually the story got out and a court martial dismissed Lake from the service for his actions, as it turned out, Jeffery had been picked up by an American ship and was eventually discovered in Massachusetts three years later, working as a blacksmith. He returned to Britain and received compensation, command passed to Commander Charles Napier, who led Recruit into action against the French corvette Diligente, under Jean-François Lemaresquier, on 6 September 1808. The action was fierce and resulted in Recruit losing her mainmast and suffering casualties, including Napier. Diligente was only driven off after a shot from Recruit ignited an ammunition store. Recruit lost six killed and 23 wounded, half of them mortally, following repairs, Recruit participated in the invasion of Martinique in January 1809. Napier observed that Fort Edward at Fort Royal Bay appeared abandoned and he took a gig and with four men, landed, scaled the forts walls, and hoisted a British flag. Sir Alexander Cochrane immediately landed marines to occupy the fort and turn its mortars, in 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp Martinique to all survivors of the campaign. Shortly thereafter, Napier received promotion to Post-captain and appointment to command of Jason, in April 1809, a strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes, south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until 14 April, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland and Captain Philip Beaver in Acasta, Recruit was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands. Recruit participated in the defeat of a French reinforcement squadron in April, Recruit was present at the surrender of the DHautpoult and Napier was temporarily appointed to command the captured ship of the line, but then transferred to Jason and sailed her back to Britain
19.
Impressment
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Impressment, colloquially, the press or the press gang, refers to the act of taking men into a military or naval force by compulsion, with or without notice. Navies of several nations used forced recruitment by various means, the large size of the British Royal Navy in the Age of Sail meant impressment was most commonly associated with Britain. The Royal Navy impressed many merchant sailors, as well as some sailors from other nations, people liable to impressment were eligible men of seafaring habits between the ages of 18 and 55 years. Non-seamen were impressed as well, though rarely, though the public opposed conscription in general, impressment was repeatedly upheld by the courts, as it was deemed vital to the strength of the navy and, by extension, to the survival of the realm. Impressment was essentially a Royal Navy practice, reflecting the size of the British fleet, Continental Navy did however apply a form of impressment during the American War of Independence. The impressment of seamen from American ships caused serious tensions between Britain and the United States in the leading up to the War of 1812. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, Britain ended the practice, later conscription was not limited to the Royal Navy, working and living conditions for the average sailor in the Royal Navy in the 18th century were harsh by modern standards. Naval pay was attractive in the 1750s, but towards the end of the century its value had been eroded by rising prices, sailors pay on merchant ships was somewhat higher during peacetime, and could increase to double naval pay during wartime. Until 19th century reforms improved conditions, the Royal Navy was additionally known to pay wages up to two years in arrears, and it always withheld six months pay to discourage desertion. Naval wages had been set in 1653, and were not increased until April 1797 after sailors on 80 ships of the Channel Fleet based at Spithead mutinied, despite this, there were many volunteers for naval service. Also the food supplied by the Navy was plentiful and good by the standards of the day. The main problem with recruitment, though, was a shortage of qualified seamen during wartime, privateers, the Royal Navy, and the Merchant Navy all competed for a small pool of ordinary and able seamen in wartime, and all three groups were usually short-handed. Volunteering also protected the sailor from creditors, as the law forbade collecting debts accrued before enlistment, the main disadvantage was that enlisted deserters who were recaptured would be hanged, whereas pressed men would simply be returned to service. Other records confirm similar percentages throughout the 18th century, average annual recruitment 1736–1783 All three groups also suffered high levels of desertion. In the 18th century, British desertion rates on naval ships averaged 25% annually, if a naval ship had taken a prize, a deserting seaman would also forfeit his share of the prize money. In a report on proposed changes to the RN written by Admiral Nelson in 1803, the Impress Service was formed to force sailors to serve on naval vessels. There was no concept of joining the navy as a fixed career-path for non-officers at the time since seamen remained attached to a ship only for the duration of its commission. They were encouraged to stay in the Navy after the commission, Impressment relied on the legal power of the King to call men to military service, as well as to recruit volunteers
20.
Leendert Hasenbosch
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Leendert Hasenbosch, was a Dutch employee of the Dutch East India Company who was set ashore as a castaway on uninhabited Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, as a punishment for sodomy. He wrote a diary until his presumed death, Leendert Hasenbosch was likely born in The Hague, Holland in 1695. Around the year 1709 his father, a widower, moved himself, on 17 January 1714, Hasenbosch became a soldier of the Dutch East India Company, and boarded the flute-ship Korssloot in Enkhuizen bound for Batavia where he served for about a year. From 1715 to 1720 he served in Cochin, a Dutch possession at the time, in 1720 he returned to Batavia and was promoted to corporal. He later became a writer, responsible for small-scale bookkeeping. In 1724, he took a position aboard a VOC ship as the ships bookkeeper, on 17 April 1725, Hasenboch was convicted of sodomy following the ships compulsory stop in Cape Town. On 5 May 1725, he was set ashore on Ascension Island as punishment, during his time as a castaway, Hasenbosch kept a diary. He began with a tent, a months-worth of water, some seeds, instruments, prayer books and he searched the barren island for water. Unable to find any, he began drinking the blood of turtles and seabirds. He likely died of thirst after about six months, Ascension Island does have two sources of fresh water, a strong water spring in the high interior of the island, and a much smaller water source named Dampiers Drip. One of these two water sources allowed some sixty men from HMS Roebuck to survive a shipwreck on Ascension for two starting in February 1701. In January 1726 British sailors discovered the castaways tent and things, the British concluded that a Dutchman had been set ashore as a punishment for sodomy. They did not find a skeleton but they were pretty sure that the man had died of thirst, the diary was brought to Britain. In 1726 the diary was first published under the title Sodomy Punishd, in 1728 another version, entitled An Authentick Relation, was published. The version of 1726 mentions the name of the castaway, misspelled as Leondert Hussenlosch, the qualities of both translations are uncertain since the original diary has been lost. Apart from entries about desperate searches for water and firewood, a few mention the mans act of sodomy. A few entries can be interpreted as reflections of a guilty conscience, including the apparitions of demons and former friends, in 1730 another version was published under the title The Just Vengeance of Heaven Exemplifyd. This version contains many extra anti-sodomy passages as well as many extra demons harassing the castaway, the publisher also wrote that the castaways skeleton would have been found alongside the diary – which never happened
21.
Ascension Island
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It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, of which the main island, Saint Helena, is around 1,300 kilometres to the southeast. The territory also includes the sparsely populated Tristan da Cunha archipelago, some 3,730 kilometres to the south, the island is named after the day of its recorded discovery, Ascension Day. It played a role as an important safe haven and coaling station to mariners, during World War II it was an important naval and air station, especially providing antisubmarine warfare bases in the Battle of the Atlantic. Ascension Island was garrisoned by the British Admiralty from 22 October 1815 to 1922, the island was used extensively by the British military during the Falklands War. Ascension Island hosts one of four antennas that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System navigational system. Ascension is a young formation, the tip of an undersea volcano which rose above the waves only a million years ago. It is associated both with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge plate boundary 80 km to the west and with a hotspot 25–300 km to the south east and its last eruption may have occurred in the 16th Century. Due to its short history, its soil consists mostly of clinker. In 1501, the Portuguese navigator Afonso de Albuquerque sighted the island on Ascension Day, dry and barren, the island had little appeal for passing ships except for collecting fresh meat, and was not claimed for the Portuguese Crown. Mariners could hunt for the seabirds and the enormous female green turtles that laid their eggs on the sandy beaches. The Portuguese also introduced goats as a source of meat for future mariners. In February 1701, HMS Roebuck, commanded by William Dampier, sixty men survived for two months until they were rescued. Almost certainly, after a few days they found the water spring in the high interior of the island. British mariners found the Dutchmans tent, belongings and diary in January 1726, organised settlement of Ascension Island began in 1815, when the British garrisoned it as a precaution after imprisoning Napoleon I on Saint Helena to the southeast. On 22 October the Cruizer class brig-sloops Zenobia and Peruvian claimed the island for His Britannic Majesty King George III, the Royal Navy designated the island as a stone frigate, HMS Ascension, with the classification of Sloop of War of the smaller class. The location of the island made it a useful stopping-point for ships, the Royal Navy used the island as a victualling station for ships, particularly those of the West Africa Squadron working against the slave trade. A garrison of Royal Marines was based at Ascension from 1823, in 1836 the Beagle voyage visited Ascension. Charles Darwin described it as a treeless island, with nothing growing near the coast
22.
Sodomy
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Sodomy is generally anal or oral sex between people or sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal, but it may also mean any non-procreative sexual activity. Originally, the sodomy, which is derived from the story of Sodom. Sodomy laws in many countries criminalized these behaviors, and other disfavored sexual activities as well, in the Western world, many of these laws have been overturned or are not routinely enforced. The term is derived from the Ecclesiastical Latin peccatum Sodomiticum or sin of Sodom, Genesis tells how God wished to destroy the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Two angels are invited by Lot to take refuge with his family for the night, the men of Sodom surround Lots house and demand that he bring the messengers out so that they may know them. Lot protests that the messengers are his guests and offers the Sodomites his virgin daughters instead, then the angels strike the Sodomites blind, so that they wearied themselves to find the door. In current usage, the term is used in law. Laws prohibiting sodomy were seen frequently in past Jewish, Christian, and Islamic civilizations, but the term has little modern usage outside Africa, Islamic countries, and these laws in the United States have been challenged and have sometimes been found unconstitutional or been replaced with different legislation. Many cognates in other languages, such as French sodomie, Spanish sodomía, in modern German, the word Sodomie has no connotation of anal or oral sex and specifically refers to bestiality. The same goes for the Polish sodomia, the Norwegian word sodomi carries both senses. In Danish, sodomi is rendered as unnatural carnal knowledge with someone of the sex or with animals. In Arabic and Persian, the word for sodomy, لواط, is derived from the source as in Western culture. Its direct reference is to Lot and a literal interpretation of the word is the practice of Lot. The word sod, a noun or verb used as an insult, is derived from sodomite and it is a general-purpose insult term for anyone the speaker dislikes without specific reference to their sexual behaviour. Sod is used as slang in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth and is mildly offensive. However, in New Zealand and Australia it is not considered offensive at all, but only coarse, because it is assumed, even if incorrect. While religion and the law have had a role in the historical definition and punishment of sodomy, sodomitical texts present considerable opportunities for ambiguity. Sodomy is both a real occurrence and an imagined category, in the course of the eighteenth century, what is identifiable as sodomy often becomes identified with effeminacy, for example, or in opposition to a discourse of manliness
23.
Robert Louis Stevenson
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Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks as the 26th most translated author in the world. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he seemed to pick the word up on the point of his pen. Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, Scotland, on 13 November 1850, to Thomas Stevenson, a lighthouse engineer. He was christened Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson, at about age 18, Stevenson was to change the spelling of Lewis to Louis, and in 1873, he dropped Balfour. Lighthouse design was the profession, Thomass father was the famous Robert Stevenson. Indeed, even Thomass maternal grandfather, Thomas Smith, had been in the same profession, however, Roberts mothers family were not of the same profession. Margarets natal family, the Balfours, were gentry, tracing their lineage back to a certain Alexander Balfour who had held the lands of Inchyra in Fife in the fifteenth century. Margarets father, Lewis Balfour, was a minister of the Church of Scotland at nearby Colinton, and her siblings included the physician George William Balfour, Stevenson spent the greater part of his boyhood holidays in his maternal grandfathers house. Now I often wonder, wrote Stevenson, what I inherited from this old minister, I must suppose, indeed, that he was fond of preaching sermons, and so am I, though I never heard it maintained that either of us loved to hear them. Lewis Balfour and his daughter both had weak chests, so they often needed to stay in warmer climates for their health, Stevenson inherited a tendency to coughs and fevers, exacerbated when the family moved to a damp, chilly house at 1 Inverleith Terrace in 1851. The family moved again to the sunnier 17 Heriot Row when Stevenson was six years old, illness would be a recurrent feature of his adult life and left him extraordinarily thin. Contemporary views were that he had tuberculosis, but more recent views are that it was bronchiectasis or even sarcoidosis, Stevensons parents were both devout and serious Presbyterians, but the household was not strict in its adherence to Calvinist principles. His nurse, Alison Cunningham, was fervently religious. Her Calvinism and folk beliefs were a source of nightmares for the child. But she also cared for him tenderly in illness, reading to him from Bunyan, Stevenson recalled this time of sickness in The Land of Counterpane in A Childs Garden of Verses, dedicating the book to his nurse. In any case, his frequent illnesses often kept him away from his first school and he was a late reader, first learning at age seven or eight, but even before this he dictated stories to his mother and nurse. He compulsively wrote stories throughout his childhood and his father was proud of this interest, he had also written stories in his spare time until his own father found them and told him to give up such nonsense and mind your business
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