Cutty Sark is a famous three-masted clipper ship, launched on the river Clyde at Dumbarton on 22 November 1869 for the Jock Willis shipping line. After a few short years as a record breaker in the China tea trade, she shipped wool from Australia to Britain. In 1895 Jock Willis sold Cutty Sark to the Portuguese firm Joaquim Antunes Ferreira. She was renamed Ferreira after the firm. Her crews referred to her as Pequena Camisola (little shirt, a straight translation of the Scots cutty sark).
Fragile walls at Richmond Castle bear rare first-hand testimonial from men who refused to be conscripted during the First World War. In 1916 a conscientious objector, condemned by a tribunal for refusing to serve in the armed services, took up a pencil and expressed his plight on the whitewashed wall of his cell in Richmond Castle in Yorkshire.
“‘I Percy F Goldsbrough of Mirfield was brought up from Pontefract on Friday August 11 1916 and put in this cell for refusing to be made into a soldier”
In this second article, on the same general theme as Belief and Disbelief , material is based largely upon G R Elton’s The Practice of History, and Huston Smith’s Forgotten Truth: The Primordial Tradition. Brief biographical information is at the conclusion.
“The study of History amounts to the search for the truth”
Today it is almost taken for granted that man cannot be certain what is truth. Continue reading Belief and Disbelief, (Part 2)
As described in the previous post The Marked Year 1914 , many historians and analysts have declared that 1914 was a turning point in human history. At the close of centenary year 2014, here are more. For instance, columnist Joe Chapman writing in The Spectator of Hamilton, Ontario:
“How innocent, how mercifully ignorant, was the world of August, 1914! And yet, in many ways, the First World War, in a macabre sense at least, may well deserve the title ‘great’. It was the first war which could, with justification, be called a world conflict, involving nearly every important nation, with campaigns fought on many fronts, from Arctic wastes to steaming jungles. It was the first ‘total’ war, in which the whole nation became deeply involved, with the entire apparatus of civilian life becoming an integral part of the war effort. It was the first war in which technology played such an important part. No other war saw the introduction of so many new weapons used on a large scale: The machine-gun, the tank, the airplane, the submarine, poison gas, motor transport, telephones and other items, and artillery used on a truly grand scale. In short, it was the first of our modern wars.”
Radio-carbon dating of camel bones discovered in the Arava Valley has challenged Biblical accuracy, that is, according to reports based on an article published in Tel Aviv the journal of Tel Aviv University‘s Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures. In recent weeks, this has, as might be expected, attracted media attention.
The claim is also made that this anachronism is direct proof that the texts were compiled perhaps centuries after the events described..
During the tidal storm of 3rd and 4th January 2014, a breach in the front of the sea wall below the Bathrock shelter revealed the remains of basement walls relating to a historic bath house.
The Marine Baths were built in 1810 by Doctor Rice Williams at the north end of Marine Terrace. By this time salt water bathing had acquired a reputation for curing a wealth of medical ills, and bath-houses were being built for those who did not want to or could not brave the open sea.
Within the bastion of the promenade wall, the remains of basement walls belonging to the Marine Baths have been revealed. Cast-iron pipes ran far out into Cardigan Bay to ensure a supply of clean and sand-free saline water. Basement boilers heated the water for those wanting baths of a less invigorating nature.
Guédelon: A Castle in the Making (2011) by Maryline Martin & Florian Renucci
In Yonne, Burgundy, a unique construction site is creating a genuine fortified chateau of yesteryear. Starting in 1997, completion date is scheduled for 2022. At first sight, the men are grinning, and completely crazy. Dressed in authentic homespun clothing, and working in a quarry in the depths of the dense forest, this could be a film-set, but they are recreating the year 1246, in the reign of Louis IX of France.
This outstanding ‘Living History’ project was inspired by Michel Guyot, who owns the nearby Chateau de Saint-Fargeau, and had the idea of building a 13th-century style fortress following the discovery that the 15th-century red bricks of his castle obscured the stone walls of a much older stronghold.
Contary to some revisionist historians and Bible critics, but just as ancient Greek and Roman writers insisted, and incidentally supporting Biblical descriptions of Canaanite practices, the Carthaginians did kill their own infant children, burying them with sacrificed animals and ritual inscriptions in special cemeteries to give thanks for favours from their gods, according to a new study.
Continue reading Did the Ancient Carthaginians sacrifice their new-born children?
Countless items that we take for granted in modern life originated in ancient China, from paper and printing, silk to gunpowder, kites, and sophisticated medicine and surgery. However, the Chinese exhibited their greatest skill and ingenuity in the creation of tens of thousands of bridges that were vital in unifying their diverse land. Two thousand years ago, their architects developed iron suspension bridges and daring arch designs that had no rivals in the West until the coming of the industrial age. Whether spanning a yawning gorge or crossing a placid canal, they were masters at integrating function and aesthetics in their bridge construction… Continue reading Jinze Rainbow Bridge, Shanghai
Part One: The Inquisition – Hell on Earth
Giordano Bruno, burnt alive at the Campo di Fiora, Rome, February 17th 1600
First the case of Galileo, the well-known astronomer noted for using the telescope to systematically observe the stars and planets. By writing the book entitled Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, in effect advocating Heliocentrism– Copernicus’ theory the earth revolves around the sun– Galileo took one step too far for the Roman Catholic Inquisition. The author was ordered to present himself to the court in 1632, but Galileo delayed, being ill and almost 70 years old. He made the trip to Rome the following year, after being threatened with bonds and forced transportation. By order of the pope, he was interrogated and threatened with torture. (Galileo Galilei 1564– 1642)
