Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Person, Place, And Thing: September 12-19

 



Persons.

On September 12, 1933, Hungarian-German-American physicist Leo Szilard was waiting at a red light in Southampton Row in Bloomsbury when he conceived the idea of a nuclear chain reaction. In 1939, Szilard wrote to Albert Einstein explaining his fears that Nazi Germany was working on an atomic bomb. Einstein then signed a letter (he didn't write it) to FDR urging US action; that letter led to the Manhattan Project.

While the Manhattan Project was underway, a top secret unit of spies, soldiers, and physicists formed the Alsos Mission, tasked initially with gathering intelligence about the German, then sabotaging German efforts, then capturing, interrogating, and even making plans to assassinate European physicists if necessary.

Podcaster and writer Sam Kean's 2019 book The Bastard Brigade is my favorite read so far this year with its history of the race to beat the Nazis to atomic bombs. The cast of characters is huge.

Moe Berg - professional baseball catcher, who spoke a dozen languages and became a spy

Boris Pash - high school science teacher and football coach who headed the Alsos group

Joe Kennedy Jr- his petty jealousy of his little brother John caused his meaningless death in a horrifically failed experiment

Irene and Frederick Joliot-Curie- Marie's daughter and SIL, important lab work, and Frederic became a leader of the French underground

Werner Heisenberg- refused to leave Germany and worked to make a German bomb. His greatest hope was that somehow Germany would win the war, but Hitler would lose.

Just to name a few. It's a fantastic story. I highly recommend it if you like to read about WWII, espionage, thrillers, science, biography, or science history.

Place.

On September 12, 1933, Hungarian-German-American physicist Leo Szilard was waiting at a red light in Southampton Row in Bloomsbury when he conceived the idea of a nuclear chain reaction. In 1939, Szilard wrote to Albert Einstein explaining his fears that Nazi Germany was working on an atomic bomb. Einstein then signed a letter (he didn't write it) to FDR urging US action; that letter led to the Manhattan Project.

While the Manhattan Project was underway, a top secret unit of spies, soldiers, and physicists formed the Alsos Mission, tasked initially with gathering intelligence about the German, then sabotaging German efforts, then capturing, interrogating, and even making plans to assassinate European physicists if necessary.

One of the targets of Alsos was the Norwegian hydroelectric plant near Telemark Norway, used by the Germans to produce heavy water, a necessary component for atomic research. The remote location made it a difficult target for the Allies. Between 1940 and 1944 a series of operations - code named Grouse, Freshman, and Gunnerside - used Norwegian troops, British commandos, and Allied bombing raids to knock out the facility.

Podcaster and writer Sam Kean's 2019 book The Bastard Brigade is my favorite read so far this year and the descriptions of the operations make for a very compelling story.

Thing.
Operation Epsilon.

On September 12, 1933, Hungarian-German-American physicist Leo Szilard was waiting at a red light in Southampton Row in Bloomsbury when he conceived the idea of a nuclear chain reaction. In 1939, Szilard wrote to Albert Einstein explaining his fears that Nazi Germany was working on an atomic bomb. Einstein then signed a letter (he didn't write it) to FDR urging US action; that letter led to the Manhattan Project.

From Wikipedia:
"Operation Epsilon was the codename of a program in which Allied forces near the end of WWII detained ten German scientists who were thought to have worked on Nazi Germany's atomic weapon program The scientists were captured between May 1 and June 30, 1945.

They were interned at Farm Hall, a bugged (violating Geneva Agreements on POWs) house in God Manchester, near Cambridge, England, from July 3, 1945, to January 3, 1946. The primary goal of the program was to determine how close Nazi Germany had been to constructing an atomic bomb by listening to their conversations."

When they learned about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the men were all totally shocked. They believed that it was impossible for any other country to have surpassed their work.




Persons.

This is for the Gen X ers like myself. "Scooby Doo Where Are You?" debuted on CBS on September 13, 1969. Scooby and the gang became a major part of my Saturday mornings in all of his iterations. Except, of course, for the versions with Scrappy Doo, the little kid, and the bumbling ghosts. I hope we can all agree those shows were garbage. I admit, I will still stop on a classic episode or an episode of a newer series once in a while.

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Scooby's producers, met in the MGM animation division in 1937, part of the team that won 7 Oscars for Best Short Subject between 1943 and 1953. In 1957, they formed H-B Enterprises which became Hanna-Barbera in 1959. They almost immediately had success with The Ruff and Ready Show, Huckleberry Hound, and Quick Draw McGraw. Then The Flintstones hit prime time in 1960.

When TV executive Fred Silverman was looking for a kids show that wouldn't be deemed as too violent by watch groups, he turned to Hanna and Barbera who gave the assignment to Joe Ruby, Ken Spears, and Iwao Takamoto. Eventually, Scooby Doo was born.

In 2017, Spanish born author Edgar Cantero, who writes in Spanish, published Meddling Kids. It is not a Scooby gang book, but let's say it's a riff on and homage to the Scooby Gang, with a little Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and even Lovecraft thrown in. While there is a clear link to the original characters, this new mystery solving gang has been updated and gotten a little edgier. The dog is a Weimaraner instead of a Great Dane. The "kids" are

Andy -the beautiful but confused girl looking for answers and getting into trouble with the law

Kerri- kid genius and biologist

Nate - horror nerd who has spent time in an asylum

Peter - handsome jock turned movie star, the former team leader, who died years before. Only Nate can see, hear, and talk with him.

Not my typical read or recommendation, but it was a lot of nostalgic fun. I could read a series.

Place.

This is for the Gen X ers like myself. "Scooby Doo Where Are You?" debuted on CBS on September 13, 1969. Scooby and the gang became a major part of my Saturday mornings in all of his iterations. Except, of course, for the versions with Scrappy Doo, the little kid, and the bumbling ghosts. I hope we can all agree those shows were garbage. I admit, I will still stop on a classic episode or an episode of a newer series once in a while.

Hanna-Barbera characters, like Scooby and the gang, have been a part of numerous amusement parks over the years, and many parks had a dedicated Hanna-Barbera Land area, but there was a real Hanna-Barbera Land in Houston Texas. For a variety of reasons it was only open 1984 and 1985.

In 2017, Spanish born author Edgar Cantero, who writes in Spanish, published Meddling Kids. It is not a Scooby gang book, but let's say it's a riff on and homage to the Scooby Gang, with a little Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and even Lovecraft thrown in. While there is a clear link to the original characters, this new mystery solving gang has been updated and gotten a little edgier.


Thing.

This is for the Gen X ers like myself. "Scooby Doo Where Are You?" debuted on CBS on September 13, 1969. Scooby and the gang became a major part of my Saturday mornings in all of his iterations. Except, of course, for the versions with Scrappy Doo, the little kid, and the bumbling ghosts. I hope we can all agree those shows were garbage. I admit, I will still stop on a classic episode or an episode of a newer series once in a while.

Scooby Doo and the gang have been a merchandising bonanza over the years, with literally tons and tons of products. In fact, Burger King and McDonald's both have featured Scooby Doo toys with their kids' meals multiple times.

In 2017, Spanish born author Edgar Cantero, who writes in Spanish, published Meddling Kids. It is not a Scooby gang book, but let's say it's a riff on and homage to the Scooby Gang, with a little Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and even Lovecraft thrown in. While there is a clear link to the original characters, this new mystery solving gang has been updated and gotten a little edgier.



Person.

Dante Alighieri died on September 14, 1321 at about age 56. His work, Divine Comedy, is considered one of the most important works of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.

Born in Florence, very little is known for certain about his true family background or early education. He and his family were embroiled in the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict and the following Guelph civil war between the White Guelphs and the Black Guelph over which party would control Florence. The Black Guelphs emerged victorious in 1301, and Dante was exiled. In exile, he seemed to have participated and supported several unsuccessful insurrections against the Black Guelphs, and he wrote Divine Comedy. He died in Ravenna of malaria.


Place.

Dante Alighieri died on September 14, 1321 at about age 56. His work, Divine Comedy, is considered one of the most important works of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.

From Wikipedia:
"Written in the first person, the poem tells of Dante's journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting from the night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after Easter in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice, Dante's ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Beatrice was a Florentine woman he had met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionable courtly love tradition, which is highlighted in Dante's earlier work La Vita Nuova.

The structure of the three realms follows a common numerical pattern of 9 plus 1, for a total of 10: 9 circles of the Inferno, followed by Lucifer contained at its bottom; 9 rings of Mount Purgatory, followed by the Garden of Eden crowning its summit; and the 9 celestial bodies of Paradiso, followed by the Empyrean containing the very essence of God. Within each group of 9, 7 elements correspond to a specific moral scheme, subdivided into three subcategories, while 2 others of greater particularity are added to total nine. For example, the seven deadly sins of the Catholic Church that are cleansed in Purgatory are joined by special realms for the late repentant and the excommunicated by the church. The core seven sins within Purgatory correspond to a moral scheme of love perverted, subdivided into three groups corresponding to excessive love (Lust, Gluttony, Greed), deficient love (Sloth), and malicious love (Wrath, Envy, Pride)."


Thing.

Dante Alighieri died on September 14, 1321. As he was officially exiled from Florence and was living in Ravenna. That's where he was buried. There are actually multiple tombs built to hold Dante's remains, and his remains and final resting place have been debated over the centuries

From Wikipedia:

In 1329, Bertrand du Pouget, Cardinal and nephew of Pope John XXII, classified Dante's Monarchia as heretical and sought to have his bones burned at the stake. Ostasio I da Polenta and Pino della Tosa, allies of Pouget, interceded to prevent the destruction of Dante's remains.

Florence eventually came to regret having exiled Dante. The city made repeated requests for the return of his remains. The custodians of the body in Ravenna refused, at one point going so far as to conceal the bones in a false wall of the monastery. Florence built a tomb for Dante in 1829, in the Basilica of Santa Croce. That tomb has been empty ever since, with Dante's body remaining in Ravenna. The front of his tomb in Florence reads Onorate l'altissimo poeta — which roughly translates as "Honor the most exalted poet" and is a quote from the fourth canto of the Inferno.

In 1945, the fascist government discussed bringing Dante’s remains to the Valtellina Redoubt, the Alpine valley in which the regime intended to make its last stand against the Allies. The case was made that "the greatest symbol of Italianness" should be present at fascism's "heroic" end.




Person-ish

Jumbo, the great African elephant that showman P.T. Barnum made into the star of his circus, was killed on September 15, 1885, at about 25 years of age.

Orphaned by hunters in Sudan, he was sold to and moved among several European zoos, from Germany to France to London. London public opinion was outraged when he was sold to circus showman P.T. Barnum and shipped to America. Barnum dubbed him "Jumbo," which Barnum claimed was an African word. It does resemble a couple of words in a couple of African languages, but it was being used in England in 1823 to mean "a slow, lazy person." Its etymology is hard to trace before then. It's because of the elephant that it came to mean "big." Jumbo stood 10 ft 7 in at the shoulder at his death, but, of course, he was billed at 13 ft, 1 in.

On September 15, 1885, Jumbo and the other elephants were being loaded into a train car in Ontario Canada when he was hit and killed by a train. Barnum's publicity machine immediately released the story that Jumbo was struck while attempting to save a younger elephant. Jumbo's skeleton now resides at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. His hide was stuffed. It traveled with the circus for two years and then was donated to Tufts University where it was destroyed in a fire in 1975. A peanut butter jar of the ashes is in the Tufts Athletic Director's office, and Jumbo's taxidermied tail, removed before the fire, is in the school's archives. Jumbo is Tufts' mascot.

Read The Great and Only Barnum, a biography.


Place.

Jumbo, the great African elephant that showman P.T. Barnum made into the star of his circus, was killed on September 15, 1885, at about 25 years of age.

In 1927, John Ringling made Sarasota Florida the official winter home of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, and many performers wintered there, along with their costumes, equipment, and memorabilia. It was only natural that the Ringling Circus Museum (officially the Tibbals Learning Center) opened there in 1948, on the same campus as the Ringlings' mansion Ca' d'Zan, and the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art.

For me, the highlight is the miniature circus display that contains thousands of miniature figures representing each and every aspect of circus life and performances.

Thing.

Jumbo, the great African elephant that showman P.T. Barnum made into the star of his circus, was killed on September 15, 1885, at about 25 years of age.

While P.T. Barnum may or may not have said "A sucker is born every minute," he did make quite a fortune by displaying fakes and hoaxes throughout his career. One of his first was the "Feejee" (Fiji) Mermaid. Touted as the mummy of a mermaid, it was really the head and torso of a monkey or small ape attached to the body of a fish. Barnum was not the creator of this hoax; there were many floating around over the centuries, but he probably made it more famous than anyone else.




Person.

At 12:01 pm on September 16, 1920 a horse- drawn wagon containing 100 pounds of dynamite and 500 pounds of iron weights exploded on Wall Street, Manhattan. Thirty people died on the scene, ten more died later. 143 people were seriously wounded; the total number of people wounded was in the hundreds. It was the greatest act of domestic terrorism on American soil until the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.

There were never any convictions, but it was and us believed to have been the work of Italian anarchists who had been responsible for anti-capitalist bombings and social agitation in previous years.

US Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer had been a victim of one of two earlier failed bombings by anarchists. In April 1919 a mail bomb addressed to him was intercepted and defused. Two months later, an anarchist exploded a bomb on the family's front porch in DC. In November 1919, he launched a series of raids, called the "Palmer Raids" that harassed thousands of resident aliens. Many were arrested, detained, and deported without proper warrants, evidence, representation, or hearings. Socialists, political activists, anarchists, and labor union organizers were especially targeted. Leading the charge was a young, newly recruited J. Edgar Hoover, who headed the newly created General Intelligence Division of the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation - leading to his own fifty-year reign of terror as director of the FBI.

The Day Wall Street Exploded was published in 2008.

Place.

On September 16, 1920, a horse drawn wagon loaded with dynamite and iron weights exploded killing dozens and injuring hundreds.

From Wikipedia:
"Wall Street was originally known in Dutch as "de Waalstraat" when it was part of New Amsterdam in the 17th century, though the origins of the name vary. An actual wall existed on the street from 1685 to 1699. During the 17th century, Wall Street was a slave trading marketplace and a securities trading site, and from the early eighteenth century (1703) the location of Federal Hall, New York's first city hall. In the early 19th century, both residences and businesses occupied the area, but increasingly business predominated, and New York City's financial industry became centered on Wall Street. In the 20th century, several early skyscrapers were built on Wall Street, including 40 Wall Street, once the world's tallest building.

The Wall Street area is home to the New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock exchange by total market capitalization, as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and many commercial banks and insurance companies. Several other stock and commodity exchanges have also been located in downtown Manhattan near Wall Street, including the New York Mercantile Exchange and other commodity futures exchanges, and the American Stock Exchange. To support the business they did on the exchanges, many brokerage firms had offices nearby. However the direct economic impacts of Wall Street activities extend worldwide."


Thing

On September 16, 1920, a horse drawn wagon loaded with dynamite and iron weights exploded killing dozens and injuring hundreds.

The Galleanisti movement consisted of Italians in the US following the leadership of Luigi Galleani, who called for bombings and assassinations against corporate and capitalist targets in order to stir up public unrest, a workers uprising, and ultimately anarchy. Between 1914 and 1920, they are believed to have been responsible for numerous bombings, including the one on Wall Street.

None of their efforts killed their actual chosen targets, like J.P. Morgan, the Rockefellers, A. Mitchell Palmer, etc. . Their only victims were themselves and innocent bystanders. Most Wall Street victims were messenger boys, newsboys, and working people.




Person.

Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr. (1924-1997) served in the Korean War as a surgeon in a mobile field hospital. Following the war, he went into private practice in Maine. He started writing about his experiences, and, 11 years later, he had completed MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, a dark comedy and commentary in war that became a huge hit. In 1970, a film was released based on the book,cand it won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. Unfortunately, Hornberger, going by his pen name Richard Hooker, grew very bitter because he had sold the rights for a few hundred dollars. He is credited with a series of sequels (14 to be exact) to the original, but they weren't as popular, and they were actually written by someone else.

MASH the tv show debuted in CBS on September 17, 1972, running 11 years as one of the highest rated series ever. Its series finale was the most watched broadcast event in American history from 1983 to 2010.

Place.

Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (M*A*S*H units) were first conceptualized in 1946. They had 60 beds, and surgical and nursing staff available at all times. They were used from the Korean War through the Gulf War and phased out in the early 2000s.

The played a vital role and lowered mortality rates because of their proximity to the front lines. Their successor is the Combat Support Hospital. The CSH is designed as cargo containers capable of being transported by plane and truck. They can be deployed with 44 beds, but by adding tents and containers, capacity is really not limited. They are not designed to be on the front lines. Wounded soldiers are first treated at Battalion Aid Stations, stabilized and then flown by helicopter to a CSH.

MASH the tv show debuted in CBS on September 17, 1972, running 11 years as one of the highest rated series ever. Its series finale was the most watched broadcast event in American history from 1983 to 2010.


Thing.

Of course, there were MASH toys. In 1982, a company called TriStar released a MASH playset, vehicles, and action figures based on these TV show characters:

Captain B.F. Hawkeye Pierce
Captain B.J. Hunnicutt
Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger
Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger in Drag
Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan
Colonel Sherman T. Potter
Father John P. Mulcahy
Major Charles Emerson Winchester III

MASH the tv show debuted in CBS on September 17, 1972, running 11 years as one of the highest rated series ever. Its series finale was the most watched broadcast event in American history from 1983 to 2010.



Person.

On September 18, 1895, Booker T Washington made his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta Georgia, advocating for the education of black Americans so that they are economically integrated into the US, even if social integration had to wait.

Washington assembled a network of institutions and individuals, dubbed the "Tuskegee Machine," to recruit supporters and donors and to promote his agenda of education, accommodation, and self-help.

Charles Banks (1873-1923) was one of Washington's chief spokesmen and a very valuable member of the "machine." He met Washington in Boston at the 1900 meeting of the National Negro Business League, which Washington founded. Inspired, he opened a bank in the all-black town of Mound Bayou Mississippi, quickly becoming the town's leading citizen. By 1907, he had risen to Vice-President of the Negro Business League, becoming Washington's eyes and ears in Mississippi and promoting his cause. He also secured financial support from Andrew Carnegie and the Rosenwald Fund among others to build libraries and schools in and around Mound Bayou.

His accomplishments earned him the nicknames "the Wizard of Mound Bayou" and " the most public-spirited citizen in the history of Mississippi" before his death from food poisoning in 1923.


Place.

On September 18, 1895, Booker T Washington made his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta Georgia, advocating for the education of black Americans so that they are economically integrated into the US, even if social integration had to wait.

Washington assembled a network of institutions and individuals, dubbed the "Tuskegee Machine," to recruit supporters and donors and to promote his agenda of education, accommodation, and self-help.

Charles Banks (1873-1923) was one of Washington's chief spokesmen and a very valuable member of the "machine." Banks became a civic leader in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, touted as the oldest all-black municipality in America.
From Wikipedia:
Isaiah T. Montgomery led the founding of Mound Bayou in 1887 in wilderness in northwest Mississippi. The bottomlands of the Delta were a relatively undeveloped frontier, and blacks had a chance to make money by clearing land and use the profits to buy lands in such frontier areas. By 1900 two-thirds of the owners of land in the bottomlands were black farmers. With the loss of political power due to state disenfranchisement, high debt and continuing agricultural problems, most of them lost their land and by 1920 were landless sharecroppers. As cotton prices fell, the town suffered a severe economic decline in the 1920s and 1930s.

Shortly after a fire destroyed much of the business district, Mound Bayou began to revive in 1942 after the opening of the Taborian Hospital by the International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor, a fraternal organization. For more than two decades, under its Chief Grand Mentor Perry M. Smith, the hospital provided low-cost health care to thousands of blacks in the Mississippi Delta. The chief surgeon was Dr. T.R.M. Howard, who eventually became one of the wealthiest black men in the state. Howard owned a plantation of more than 1,000 acres, a home-construction firm, and a small zoo, and he built the first swimming pool for blacks in Mississippi.


Thing

On September 18, 1895, Booker T Washington made his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta Georgia, advocating for the education of black Americans so that they are economically integrated into the US, even if social integration had to wait.

Washington assembled a network of institutions and individuals, dubbed the "Tuskegee Machine," to recruit supporters and donors and to promote his agenda of education, accommodation, and self-help.

The Tuskegee Machine was a network of organizations, like the National Negro Business League, , businesses, schools modeled after Tuskegee, and black-owned newspapers. The term was applied by Washington's leading critic, W.E.B. DuBois who even argued that the network gave Washington "quadi-dictatorial power." Meanwhile, many anti-Bookerites,including DuBois, coalesced to form the NAACP.

The Machine succeeded in making Washington the de facto voice for black Americans, and Tuskegee a center of black life. The constant positive publicity brought partnerships with powerful and wealthy white patrons like Carnegie, Morgan, and Rockefeller. The Rosenwald School Building Program was an important partner, building black schools across the South

Charles Banks (1873-1923) was one of Washington's chief spokesmen and a very valuable member of the "machine." Banks became a civic leader in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, touted as the oldest all-black municipality in America.



Person

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Argh. Mateys.

How about a new Pirates history, published in May 2022? In Born to Be Hanged, Keith Thomson follows the adventures of pirates in the Pacific in the 1680s, pirates who tried to follow the example of Captain Henry Morgan - that Captain Morgan (c. 1635-1688).

Morgan was a Welsh privateer who first plundered his way through the Caribbean during the Anglo-Spanish war of the 1660s, attacking Spanish ships in the name of the King. At the end of the war, he was arrested by the English to appease the Spanish, but he returned a hero, and he accumulated enough wealth from his piracy - err, privateering, to purchase three large sugar plantations in Jamaica. In fact, he was knighted for his service. Upon his return to Jamaica, he retired from his life of pira - er, privateering- and went into politics, serving on the Assembly of Jamaica, as Lieutenant Governor, and briefly as Acting Governor. When he died in 1688, the Governor ordered a state funeral and issued an amnesty so that pirates and privateers could pay their respects without fear of arrest. A 22- gun salute followed his burial

The pirates in Thomson's book followed his example, first attacking Spanish settlements and shipping in Panama. Then, they crossed the Isthmus to terrorize the Pacific coast, probably hoping to find a little less competition.

Place.

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Argh. Mateys.

How about a new Pirates history, published in May 2022? In Born to Be Hanged, Keith Thomson follows the adventures of pirates in the Pacific in the 1680s, pirates who tried to follow the example of Captain Henry Morgan - that Captain Morgan (c. 1635-1688), who made his fame and fortune attacking the Spanish in Panama

Until the completion of the Panama Canal in 1915, European and American travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific was was quite arduous, either around Cape Horn or by crossing the Isthmus of Panama overland through the jungles.

In 1513, Spanish conquistadors led by Balboa became the first Europeans to see the Pacific from the Americas. In 1671, Morgan crossed the Isthmus and destroyed the city of Panama. The pirates in Thomson's book choose to follow his lead.

The Isthmus is only 30-120 miles wide but those who attempt crossing it have to contend with jungles, hear, humidity, rain, jaguars, anacondas, fers-de-lance snakes, caimans, dark rivers 200 yards across that snake back and forth on themselves like intestines, insects like disease carrying mosquitoes, and botflies that implant eggs into open wounds and pores. Those eggs hatch into larvae with barbs that burrow deep into human skin and incubate before emerging.

Just another day at the office


Thing.

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Argh. Mateys.

How about a new Pirates history, published in May 2022? In Born to Be Hanged, Keith Thomson follows the adventures of pirates in the Pacific in the 1680s, pirates who tried to follow the example of Captain Henry Morgan - that Captain Morgan (c. 1635-1688), who made his fame and fortune attacking the Spanish in Panama

Most pirate ships had articles of agreement, or codes, drawn up and signed by the crew. (It is a misconception that pirates were illiterate. Some historians estimate that up to 75% were literate, a high figure compared to other groups.) The codes themselves were often drawn up by the pirates themselves, and they established rules, penalties, and most importantly how the booty was to be divided, including bonuses for particular actions (like leading a charge) and payments for lost eyes, arms, or legs.

Many pirate ships were more democratic than most polities. Votes were taken and majorities sometimes decided destinations, actions, and even whether or not to replace the captain. Also crews included men (and a few women) from all ethnicities, religions, and backgrounds.

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