Insecure and Invalid

April 7, 2017 by Roland Clarke

Apologies that I missed my monthly post for Insecure Writer’s Support Group Day, although only by about twenty-four hours. I even have a valid excuse and a doctor’s note – well pages of notes and homework.

Wind back to Monday – basically, I had woken early Monday morning with terrible MS spasms throughout my body. They were so bad that my wife Juanita thought she was losing me, but she helped me through the nightmare. Then throughout the day, there was a growing stream of MS symptoms starting with an inability to type coherently. That was very clear in my final post on Facebook:

“After a terrible night when Juanita Clarke was luckily tere for me, psting is very hard as mystyping everything. So apologies for siaslence.”

From then on, my wife had to keep everyone on Facebook informed of what happened. The shaking became uncontrollable and I slid out of my wheelchair at which point, Juanita rang her granddaughter Jessica, who dashed around to help. Her middle son Jason also arrived. I then vomited up my supper all over the office carpet. Jason phoned 911 and the paramedics arrived in a fire truck and an ambulance.

I was taken to the ER at St Luke’s Hospital, Meridian where they diagnosed pneumonia which had triggered those MS symptoms. In short, I ended up spending three nights in hospital being pumped with drugs and fluids, sucked of blood, and cared for by a great team at St Luke’s – too many to mention by name but you know who you are, especially if I grilled you about your ancestry or talked incessantly about my writing.

Throughout this all I missed my wife, Juanita, although she did visit me – at the hospital where she spent two night after her heart attack in late December. Our dogs were always on my thoughts as they couldn’t visit, but I had to confront everything I would lose if I gave up. So now I am back home and posting this explanation for my tardiness and failure to post yesterday.

Yes, I know I posted ‘D is for Donibane’ but some of my A to Z Challenge posts were written and scheduled in advance. However, the last one written and scheduled is ‘I is for Ice’. Hopefully, I can stay ahead, but I won’t be taking Sundays off unless the doctor orders me to rest…. which she has.

E is for Embabeh

April 6, 2017 by Roland Clarke

My 2017 theme is “The History of Kanata”, the parallel world that is the setting for “Eagle Passage, and the theme reveal is here. I also wrote about this world in my blog post ‘This could be Kanata.

E is for Embabeh: In 1798, the French Republic sought to capture Egypt as the first stage to threaten Albion-Norse trade in the East, and thus force them to make peace. Napoleon Bonaparte’s first target was the island of Malta, which was under the government of the Knights of St. John and granted its owner control of the Central Mediterranean. As a major location on the trading routes, the harbour of Valletta was a key location. Bonaparte’s forces landed on the island but were repelled by the Knights and a garrison of Mjölnir militia defending Anglo-Norse interests.

Napoleon sailed and landed at Alexandria, meeting the forces of the two local Mamluk rulers at the Battle of Embabeh, on July 21^st. He planned to keep the two Georgian Mamluk armies divided by fighting on one bank of the Nile, but Mjölnir militia transported the second stranded army across and helped rout the French. Meanwhile, the Albion navy under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson defeated the French navy at Aboukir Bay and the Battle of the Nile.

Although Napoleon fled to France, he engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic. His ambition inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. However, Albion led a successful coalition to restrict his attempted invasions out of France.

Bataille des Pyramides (1808) – Louis-Francois, Baron Lejeune (1775-1848)

In our timeline: Wikipedia – The Mediterranean campaign of 1798 was a series of major naval operations surrounding a French expeditionary force sent to Egypt under Napoleon Bonaparte during the French Revolutionary Wars. The French Republic sought to capture Egypt as the first stage in an effort to threaten British India, and thus force Great Britain to make peace. Departing Toulon in May 1798 with over 40,000 troops and hundreds of ships, Bonaparte’s fleet sailed southeastwards across the Mediterranean Sea. They were followed by a small British squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, later reinforced to 13 ships of the line… Bonaparte’s first target was the island of Malta, which was under the government of the Knights of St. John and theoretically granted its owner control of the Central Mediterranean. Bonaparte’s forces landed on the island and rapidly overwhelmed the defenders, securing the port city of Valletta before continuing to Egypt.

[After landing in Egypt and fighting a minor skirmish, Napoleon advanced on Alexandria.] On 2 Thermidor (20 July), the French army arrived half a mile from the village of Embabé. The heat was unbearable and the army was exhausted and needed a rest, but there was not enough time and so Bonaparte drew up his 25,000 troops for battle approximately nine miles (15 km) from the Pyramids of Giza… This was the start of the so-called Battle of the Pyramids, [also known as the Battle of Embabeh], a French victory over an enemy force of about 21,000 Mamluks. (Around 40,000 Mamluk soldiers stayed away from the battle.) The French defeated the Mamluk cavalry with a giant infantry square, with cannons and supplies safely on the inside. In all 300 French and approximately 6,000 Egyptians were killed. The battle gave rise to dozens of stories and drawings.

On the scientific front, the expedition led to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, creating the field of Egyptology. Despite many decisive victories and an initially successful expedition into Syria, Napoleon and his Armée d’Orient were eventually forced to withdraw, after sowing political disharmony in France, experiencing conflict in Europe, and suffering the defeat [by Horatio Nelson] of the supporting French fleet at the Battle of the Nile.

However, could events have taken a different course? Napoleon did engineer the coup and later became the Emperor of the French and then invaded successive countries. But who could have stopped him before the retreat from Moscow, or later before Waterloo?

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D is for Donibane

April 5, 2017 by Roland Clarke

D is for Donibane: The firm of Migisi Rederi have decided to attempt winning the Daily Mail £10,000 Flight Across Atlantic prize that is on offer to the first person to make the trans-Atlantic crossing by air in seventy-two hours. This substantial prize is open to pilots of any nationality, and machines of foreign or Albion construction, so the Kanatian freight company builds a hundred and six-meter semi-rigid airship, Dajoji. On 14^th June 1914, the airship leaves Donibane, Vineland with its crew of seven including Juhán Allekuk, Arto Brune, and Janna Migisi.

27 hours later, Dajoji reaches Galway, in Ériu [Ireland], ahead of their competitors; although, they have rescued the French aviators from the downed Blériot Aéronautique plane. The Migisi Rederi achievement heralds a new dawn for airships as the principal means of air travel since their fleet of small airships is already carrying goods within Kanata.

The problem of flammable gases like hydrogen had been significantly reduced by the discovery of vast quantities of helium under the central Great Plains area of both Kanata and the Dixie States in 1903, following an oil drilling operation.

Landing of British dirigible R-34 at Mineola, Long Island, N.Y. 1919 – Photo: United States Library of Congress

In our timeline: Wikipedia – In April 1913 the London newspaper The Daily Mail offered a prize of £10,000 (₤887414 in 2015) to

“

“the aviator who shall first cross the Atlantic in an aeroplane in flight from any point in the United States of America, Canada or Newfoundland and any point in Great Britain or Ireland” in 72 continuous hours”.

”

The competition was suspended with the outbreak of war in 1914 but reopened after Armistice was declared in 1918. The possibility of transatlantic flight by aircraft emerged after the First World War, which had seen tremendous advances in aerial capabilities.

During 14–15 June 1919, the British aviators Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop transatlantic flight in a Vickers Vimy IV. The Vimy twin-engined bomber was converted for the long flight by replacing its bomb racks with extra petrol tanks.

Pilot John Alcock and navigator Arthur Brown flew the modified Vickers Vimy, powered by two Rolls-Royce Eagle 360 hp engines. It was not an easy flight, with unexpected fog, and a snow storm almost causing the crewmen to crash into the sea. They made landfall in Galway at 8:40 a.m. on 15 June 1919, not far from their intended landing place, after less than sixteen hours of flying.

The Secretary of State for Air, Winston Churchill, presented Alcock and Brown with the Daily Mail prize for the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in “less than 72 consecutive hours”. There was a small amount of mail carried on the flight making it also the first transatlantic airmail flight.

The first transatlantic flight by rigid airship, and the first return transatlantic flight, was made just a couple of weeks after the flight of Alcock and Brown, on 2 July 1919. Major George Herbert Scott of the Royal Air Force flew the airship R34 with his crew and passengers from RAF East Fortune, Scotland to Mineola, New York (on Long Island), covering a distance of about 3,000 statute miles (4,800 km) in about four and a half days. The flight was intended as a testing ground for post-war commercial services by airship (see Imperial Airship Scheme), and it was the first flight to transport paying passengers. The R34 wasn’t built as a passenger carrier, and extra accommodation was arranged by slinging hammocks in the keel walkway. The return journey to Pulham in Norfolk, England, was from 10 to 13 July and it took 75 hours.

The two primary lifting gases used by airships have been hydrogen and helium.

Hydrogen is the earth’s lightest element, and it can be obtained easily and inexpensively, but its flammability makes it unacceptable for manned airship operations.

In addition to the famous Hindenburg disaster, dozens of hydrogen airships were destroyed by fire, and no American airship has been inflated with hydrogen since the crash of the U.S. Army airship Roma in 1922. The use of hydrogen as a lifting gas for passenger airships was completely abandoned by the late 1930s.

Helium’s non-flammable nature makes it the only practical lifting gas for manned lighter-than-air flight, but it is scarce and expensive, and the use of helium can reduce a rigid airship’s payload by more than half. The USS Shenandoah ZR-1 made its first flight on September 4, 1923. It was the first ascent of a helium inflated rigid airship in history.

After an oil drilling operation in 1903 in Dexter, Kansas, helium was found concentrated in large quantities under the American Great Plains, available for extraction as a by-product of natural gas. However, it was not available in any quantity until the 1920s.

Could airships have ever out-performed planes? Was the earlier discovery of helium as a lifting gas the catalyst?

www.aeroscraft.com

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C is for Cristóbal Colón

April 4, 2017 by Roland Clarke

My 2017 theme is “The History of Kanata”, the parallel world that is the setting for “Eagle Passage, and the theme reveal is here. I also wrote about this world in my blog post ‘This could be Kanata.

C is for Cristóbal Colón: On 12 October 1492, the three ships of Cristóbal Colón are met off the Bahamas by two well-armed vessels that echo Viking longships with dragon prows, but with caravel features like three masts and lateen sails. Although the Spanish are armed so are the ‘Vikings’, who also have swivel cannons on their ships. The Norse commander says that he is, “Njal Migisi, follower of Thor, here by the blessings of the people of these islands. The Lukku-Cairi are under the protection of the Kanata Konføderasjon.”

Cristóbal Colón orders his men to stand down and the Spaniards are granted anchorage and re-supplied from an established trading port, but then sent away. The Kanatians know that the Spanish will try to settle on the mainland, but will face a Mesoamerican alliance that is prepared for Europeans, their weapons, and diseases.

The Spanish do establish settlements but are forced to co-operate with the Mesoamericans, although with consequences for their neighbours.

This is how Courtney imagines things would have happened in 1492 if Simon and River were present. Copyright and more at http://bunnies-and-sunshine.blogspot/2012/happy-columbus-day.html

In our timeline:

“In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.”

Do I need to recite the rest of the poem, or remind people of all the controversy surrounding Columbus’ arrival in the New World and how the continent was settled by Europeans and other nations? History is a good starting link for the Columbus story, and then there is the view from the other perspective that some might call revisionist. Although, this is a 1992 article, the movement keeps growing, especially on Columbus Day. Personally, as a historian and of Chilean origin, I lean heavily towards the indigenous rights viewpoint, as will become clear as Kanata evolves.

But if Leif Eriksson and the Vikings had stayed in Newfoundland and spread inland, would the First Nations have fared any better, although Eriksson had converted to Christianity? I have chosen a Saami shamaness as my catalyst for change, but what would have been needed to avoid the terrible mistakes made by the later Europeans?

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B is for Bouvines

April 3, 2017 by Roland Clarke

B is for Bouvines: 1214 – A dynasty of Norse-Anglo-Saxons has ruled Albion [Great Britain] for over one hundred and fifty years after some settlers from Kanata ensured the dynasty of Cnut the Great continued. King Arthur II of Albion and his allies in Normandy and Anjou face a claim by Phillipe of France on their French territories. On 27 July 1214, backed by the Holy Roman Emperor, Otto IV. the Albion infantry along with the might of their Mjölnir Militia and the Norman cavalry, prevails at the Battle of Bouvines, leaving the French struggling for allies. Bouvines shifts the balance of power in Europe, but can the nation states avoid war sweeping across the continent or can the extensive Norse trade network from Kanata to Constantinople hold sway?

Mjölnir is the hammer of Thor, worn as an amulet by many Viking warriors, although the bow symbol of the goddess Skaði was favoured by her followers. The Mjölnir Militia arose in Kanata to protect the trading settlements not as Viking marauders. The militia had a strict code of honour and indigenous warriors joined their ranks willingly. A detachment of the Mjölnir Militia was instrumental in ensuring that Cnut the Great’s dynasty continued in 1036, having amalgamated with the legendary Jomsvikings at the request of Magnus I of Norway.

Stained glass inside St. Peter’s church, in Bouvines, Nord. France: Saint-Pol endangers the Flemish army. Photo – Copyright Benjamin Smith / Wikimedia Commons

In our timeline: Wikipedia – The Battle of Bouvines, which took place on 27 July 1214, was a medieval battle which ended the 1202–1214 Anglo-French War. It was fundamental in the early development of France in the Middle Ages by confirming the French crown’s sovereignty over the Angevin lands of Brittany and Normandy.

Philip Augustus of France defeated an army consisting of Imperial German, English and Flemish soldiers, led by Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor in the north…and King John of England, Otto’s maternal uncle and ally. Allied with Philip was Frederick II Hohenstaufen, who controlled the southern Holy Roman Empire and afterwards deposed Otto.

Philip returned to Paris triumphant, marching his captive prisoners behind him in a long procession, as his grateful subjects came out to greet the victorious king. In the aftermath of the battle, Otto retreated to his castle of Harzburg and was soon overthrown as Holy Roman Emperor by Frederick II, who had already been recognised as emperor in the south a year and a half prior.

King John obtained a five-year truce, on very lenient terms given the circumstances.

Philip’s decisive victory was crucial in ordering politics in both England and France. In the former, so weakened was the defeated King John of England that he soon needed to submit to his barons’ demands and agree to the Magna Carta, limiting the power of the crown and establishing the basis for common law.^[19] In the latter, the battle was instrumental in forming the strong central monarchy that would characterize France until the first French Revolution. It was also the first battle in the Middle Ages in which the full value of infantry was realised.

Philip conquered most of Plantagenet’s continental possessions, namely Anjou, Brittany, Maine, Normandy, and the Touraine, leading to the effective end of the Angevin Empire.

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A is for Aquidneck

April 1, 2017 by Roland Clarke

A is for Aquidneck Island: On 28^th September 1638, Samuel Hopkins and his congregation of Separatist settlers are welcomed by the Migisi clan mother, Klasina to discuss their needs, including land requirements. Klasina has called a gathering of local sachems or chief from various indigenous tribes. The Migisi are attempting to stop the spread of firearms. The Vikings, guided by the goddess Skaði, have learnt about the dangers of armed factions from their experiences in Europe, as well as encounters with the Iroquois League and the Council of the Three Fires. The native alliances acted as a nonaggression pact that provided their closely related bands or tribes with peace in their backyards but allowed them to fight outsiders. However, occasional unresolved disputes erupted into wars that the Migisi clan wish to restrict while encouraging the trade in goods that help the tribes thrive.

Samuel and his fellow Congregationalists are offered hospitality and invited to participate in their harvest celebrations. Samuel is stunned to discover that Klasina’s father was a Dutch trader that married her Migisi mother. When his religious morality questions this pagan-Christian alliance, he reminds himself, “If the church-burning Vikings have learnt to live with the natives, even inter-marry, then I must adjust my attitudes.” But will his soul be moved by the clan mother’s daughter, Kateri who wears a pagan bow pendant? When he discovers that the bow is the symbol of her goddess Skaði that guided the Vikings to settle in Kanata, he is forced to remember that some Christians wear a plain cross around their necks. But that is not the way to show one’s faith.

Photo of the Miantonomoh Monument – Karen L. Houle (Wikimedia Commons)

In our timeline: Wikipedia – English colonists first settled on present-day Aquidneck Island in 1638 in the region called by the natives “Pocasset” (meaning “where the stream widens”)… At one time, Aquidneck Island was controlled by the Wampanoags, whose leader was Sachem Massasoit. Traditionally, Massasoit greeted the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621… A group of European settlers engaged Roger Williams in 1638 to negotiate the terms of their purchase of the island from a sachem named Miantonomi.

Aeon – In early Quebec, Jamestown and Plymouth, colonists held an advantage in firearms only for a handful of years before Native people began building their own arsenals… Except under the rarest circumstances, no one state authority had the ability to choke Indians off from guns, powder and shot… Native tribes competed furiously to control emerging gun markets. They knew that firearms were the new key to military and political dominance, and if they did not seize the opportunity, their enemies would. As a result, indigenous arms races erupted across North America… Indians saw the colonies as potential trade partners, especially for firearms, and new, powerful allies to direct against their Native rivals. https://aeon.co/essays/how-did-the-introduction-of-guns-change-native-america?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=77c10692cb-Daily_Newsletter_13_October_201610_12_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-77c10692cb-68908769

In our timeline, the Europeans encouraged the conflicts between the tribes, in certain cases resulting in tribes being decimated and their lands acquired often by Europeans.

Could an early Viking involvement, led by traders, not warriors, have influenced the ways that the indigenous people settled their disputes, especially 500 years before other Europeans arrived?

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