#royal east african navy

[fatehbaz]

The link between warfare and technological innovation has been well documented [...]. World War II was a particularly intense crucible of technological change, and the repurposing of military technologies and industries in the forging of a new post-war consumer [economy] is crucial [...]. Processes of technological bricolage turned the machines of war onto the natural world as global powers competed to cement their economic and imperial hegemony. In Great Britain’s post-war “groundnut scheme” in its East African territories (1946–51), this collision of nature, military hardware, and technical expertise was part of efforts to both produce more fats for the British diet and to demonstrate to the world (most importantly the United States) that, through a newly energized science-led developmentalism, British colonialism still had a “progressive” role to play in the postwar world.

The aim was to produce millions of tons of peanuts across Tanganyika using the latest methods of advanced scientific agriculture. The environmental conditions in the north, where the scheme was to begin, were known to be especially trying, not least the dry climate [...]. But faith in the power of mechanized agriculture was such that any natural limits were thought to be readily surmountable.

The groundnut scheme was to be, as its Director put it in an interview with the Tanganyika Standard, a “war” with nature, and an “economic Battle of Alamein” waged over some three million acres by an army of colonial technicians -- many recruited from military ranks -- and local laborers, for many of whom the scheme represented their first entry into the wage labor market.

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But it wasn’t just the rhetoric of war that was repurposed.

Lancaster bombers were kitted out to survey and discover “new country” in East Africa for agricultural development. [...] [T]ractors and bulldozers from military surplus stores in Egypt proved unable to tackle the hard ground and tough vegetation, so the planners turned to a novel solution: repurposing surplus Sherman M4A2 tanks. The Vickers-Armstrong factory in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne set about rearranging key elements of the tanks’ construction [...]. The tractors, christened “Shervicks” for their hybrid origins, were [...] thought to be particularly suited to large-scale earth-moving and to the kind of heavy duty “bush clearing” that was required in Tanganyika.

Officials sought to dismiss concerns that large-scale bush clearing would have wider environmental consequences, using the well-worn colonial trope that any observed changes in local climate or erosion patterns were due to the “primitive” agricultural practices of the locals, not to the earth-moving practices of the colonists. 

Albert Walter, who had directed meteorology in East Africa since the 1920s, had been appointed as an advisor to the scheme and warned the other technical advisers of the low rainfall levels. [...] As the plants continued to wilt in the sun, Walter’s dense network of rain gauges made for an ideal field laboratory [...].

The stakes were high. As John Rosa of the Colonial Development Corporation put it in a letter: “Our standing as an Imperial power in Africa is to a substantial extent bound up with the future of this scheme. To abandon it would be a humiliating blow to our prestige everywhere.”

The only option left was to try and bend the weather itself to the scheme’s will, by seeding the clouds for rain. The scheme was nonetheless abandoned by the British government before charcoal burners could be lined up to seed clouds upwind of the growing area. But the experiments carried on under the aegis of the local colonial government and its meteorologists.

“Balloon bombs” (photographic film canisters tethered to weather balloons) and a repurposed Royal Navy flare gun were used to target individual clouds when the burners proved imprecise. [...] The rainmaking experiments lived on too, as a reference point for those who, to this day, seek to engineer the skies.

The scheme itself has survived as a cautionary tale of governmental hubris, but it is instructive too as a case study of how technologies of war have been turned against other foes.

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All images, captions, and text by: Martin Mahony. “The Enemy is Nature: Military Machines and Technological Bricolage in Britain’s ‘Great Agricultural Experiment.’“ Environment and Society Portal, Arcadia no. 11. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. Spring 2021. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

The British Crusade Against Slavery | Sargon of Akkad

What really bothers me is Frankie Boyle's attempt to make British people feel ashamed of Britain's involvement in the slave trade. That really gets my goat because Britain's involvement in the slave trade is one of the most proud accomplishments of British history. And i know what you're thinking: oh my, goodness slavery is bad. And that's correct. Which is why the British ended it. For everyone.

[..] The Portuguese did take a few Africans back to Europe, but they didn't need to set up operations, because they discovered that there were already thriving slave trades in Africa. And so they bought slaves from African rulers and traders. The vast majority of slaves taken out of Africa were sold by African rulers, traders and military aristocracy who grew wealthy from the business. Most slaves were acquired through wars or by kidnapping. And before you start thinking that this is excessively barbaric, this was the standard for almost every civilized society all across the world.

[..] The point is that slavery was ubiquitous. No matter where on Earth you traveled, you found slaves. In Europe, in China, in the Middle East, in the New World, in India, in Scandinavia, in Africa. Slavery was as common an institution as animal husbandry.

[..] The West Africa Squadron was a detachment of the Royal Navy that was given the task of blockading Africa, the continent, to make sure that slave traders were not taking slaves to the Americas. Needless to say, in 1807 there was only a token force performing this operation, comprising of two ships. This number was increased to five ships until the war of 1812 with the United States, but after 1815 with Britain victorious in Europe and supreme at sea, the Royal Navy turned its attention back to the challenge. The institution of slavery was formally abolished in the British Empire in 1833 and by the 1850s, around 25 vessels and 2 000 officers and men were on the station, supported by nearly a thousand "kroomen," experienced fishermen recruited as sailors from what is now the coast of modern Liberia.

[..] All of this was done against the vested financial interests of hundreds of thousands of people. Entire nations were against the idea of abolishing slavery and the slave trade. The very notion was alien to the human existence until Britain made it happen. In the 19th century if you saw a ship bearing down on you flying this flag and you were a slave trader, you knew that this flag stood for liberty. This was the flag of a nation that defied human convention for a point of principle, and spent its blood sweat, tears and treasure to enforce it on the world. This is the flag of the nation that accepted the absolute moral truth that slavery is wrong. No matter what riches can be amassed, no matter what power can be gained, no matter the cost, slavery had to be abolished. That was the British crusade. When Britain held the reigns of world power, that is what she did with it.

Reaction:

[nauticadreams]

During 1691, Jack Teague was born during a typhoon aboard a pirate ship. Named after the brother of his father, Edward Teague, Jack grew up without his unknown mother amid the seafaring outlaws at Shipwreck Cove on Shipwreck Island. Not eager to be yet another crewmate, Jack Teague insisted on one day becoming a captain of his own vessel. After serving as a cabin boy, he would find himself the captain of the Barnacle, a small fishing boat that had been left abandoned at Salty Cove on the island of Tortuga.

After a bout of adventures around the Gulf of Mexico, the Grand Barnacle would be destroyed in a confrontation with the English Royal Navy by cannonfire intended for Edward Teague’s ship, the Misty Lady.

After many more adventures, Jack would later find himself as a crewmember of the Wicked Wench, under the captaincy of Captain Morgan (not to be confused with the buccaneer and later governor of Port Royal of the same name), when they would be confronted by Capitan Armando Salazar around 1711. Salazar had been in command of the Spanish galleon, Silent Mary, and had been putting effort into the extermination of pirates in the West Indies out of vengeance for his father and grandfather who had perished at the hands of pirates. The battle would take place near the Devil’s Triangle west of the Windard Isles in the Lesser Antilles, and would see the Silent Mary destroyed as she ran aground a collection of rocks shortly after entering the triangle while in pursuit of the Wicked Wench - a result of actions spurred on by Jack “the Sparrow.” For a while, Jack found himself elected captain of the vessel, as their captain had perished in the confrontation.

Some time later, Jack no longer found himself aboard the Wicked Wench, as he had been press-ganged into service aboard a French brigantine named La Vipere, captained by Christophe-Julien de Rapier. Not long after, he had been left at sea in a longboat with fellow crewmate Robert Greene. Upon reaching dry land again, the duo began working for the East India Trade Company for five years, and Jack served as first mate aboard the brig Fair Wind. In 1716, after taking control of the Fair Wind, defending her from pirates, Jack Sparrow was offered captaincy of the merchant vessel Wicked Wench (which had apparently fallen into EITC hands by this point) by an impressed Lord Cutler Beckett, who was a director of the company regarding West Africa.

After a number of voyages on behalf of the East India Trading Company, Jack had been ordered to deliver a cargo of enslaved Africans to New Avalon in the Bahamas. Jack however despised the idea of humans being deemed as cargo and instead freed them, stealing Beckett’s ship. Shortly afterwards, a number of vessels were dispatched to capture the pirate Jack Sparrow, and before long he found himself imprisoned.

Months later, Jack would be brought to the coast of West Africa and be branded upon his arm with a “P” labeling him forever as a pirate. Just off the shore, he was made to watch as the Wicked Wench was torched. Breaking free from his captors, he swam for the ship but found himself trapped within her cabins as she sank beneath the waves.

Jack Sparrow found himself somewhere between life and death, on the path to Davy Jone’s Locker or the Land of the Dead. There, a deal was struck with Davy Jones that if Jones would raise his ship, after thirteen years he would forfeit his captaincy and serve onboard Jones’ ship, the Flying Dutchman. The blackened, charred ship would rise above the waves once more and be renamed the Black Pearl.

Two years later, in 1718, Jack would have Hector Barbossa aboard the Black Pearl, naming him first mate in a voyage to search for Aztec gold that had been stashed by Cortes. Prior to its discovery, the crew mutinied, an act which Barbossa spurred into being. Jack was marooned on a desert island, and Barbossa claimed captaincy of the Black Pearl.

Jack Sparrow would escape his solitude on the desert isle, and sail the seas having many more adventures over the next 11 years, until Jones would later reappear to him in 1729.

[reasoningdaily]

The slave trade and the British economy

Today, we view the history of slavery in terms of its horrific human impact but in the 18th and 19th Century financial considerations dominated the interests of those involved in the slave trade. Enslaved people were seen as property and their experience as human beings was not considered.

The British economy was transformed by the Atlantic slave trade. In 1700, 80 per cent of British trade went to Europe from ports on the east and south coasts.

By 1800, 60 per cent of British trade went to Africa and America, sailing from the three main west coast ports - Glasgow, Liverpool and Bristol.

Ports such as London, Bristol and Liverpool prospered as a direct result of involvement in the slave trade. Other ports, such as Glasgow, profited from the tobacco trade. Thousands of jobs were created in Britain supplying goods and services to slave traders.

In a period that saw Britain industrialise, profits could be made by exporting manufactured British goods to Africa and then further profits accrued from imported products made using enslaved labour, such as sugar, which became very fashionable with the British people.

The slave trade was important in the development of the wider economy - financial, commercial, legal and insurance institutions all emerged to support the activities of the slave trade. Some merchants became bankers and many new businesses were financed by profits made from slave trading.

The slave trade played an important role in providing British industry with access to raw materials. This contributed to the increased production of manufactured goods.

Slave trade and the British economy

British profits were made from exporting manufactured goods to Africa and importing products of enslaved labour such as sugar. Ports such as Glasgow, Bristol and Liverpool prospered as a result of the slave trade.

The importance of tropical crops

The climate and land in the West Indies were suited to the growing of luxury crops such as sugar, coffee, tobacco and cotton. The most important of these was sugar. 70 per cent of enslaved people worked producing sugar.

Sugar and tobacco grew very popular in the 18th century, and Britain made large profits from trade in these fashionable products.

As a result there was a dramatic change in the pattern of exports. Exports of manufactured goods to the Atlantic economy increased massively during the 1700s.

British exports in 1700 and 1800:17001800Europe82%21%North America (a)6%32%West Indies (b)5%25%Africa (c)2%4%Atlantic economy (a + b + c)13% (6 + 5 + 2)61% (32 + 25 + 4)

In 1700, 80 per cent of British trade went to Europe from ports on the east and south coasts.

By 1800, 60 per cent of British trade went to Africa and America, often sailing from the three main west coast ports of Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow. British exports in 1800 were four times higher than in 1700.

Were these changes due to the slave trade?

The Atlantic ports grew in part because so many of the slave ships sailed from these ports. But they grew as much from their general involvement with the Atlantic economy as from trading in enslaved people.

This provokes a ‘what if’ question. What if there had been no enslaved Africans in the Caribbean?

It is safe to guess that the trade would still have taken place. Trade regulations made sure that exports to the colonies came from Britain. But without the Atlantic slave trade it would have taken many, many years for a workforce to be established in the colonies. The growth of exports to the colonies would have been much, much slower.

The role of the trade in navigation

The slave trade contributed to the growth of the both the Royal Navy and the United Kingdom's merchant navy.

The Royal Navy grew during the period of conflict for control of the colonies. Once Britain had grown to dominate the Caribbean, the Navy was still needed to protect these colonies and British shipping.

The Atlantic economy in 1700s

The growth of trade in enslaved people, in plantation crops and in exports to American and Caribbean colonies led to a growth in shipping.

Overseas trade was carried out within the rules of the Navigation Acts. These stated that all commodity trade should take place in British ships, manned by British seamen, trading between British ports and those within the Empire.

Additional laws were introduced that gave British shipping companies an advantage over foreign competitors:

the Molasses Act of 1733 banned the import of foreign sugar to North America

the Direct Export Act of 1739, allowed British planters to ship goods directly to Europe

A network of trading links between Europe, Africa and the Americas developed. The most well-known part was the triangular trade route:

goods such as guns and brandy were taken from Britain to Africa to exchange for enslaved people

enslaved people were transported on the 'Middle Passage' across the Atlantic to sell in the West Indies and North America

cargoes of sugar, tobacco and other commodities were transported to Britain for sale

The slave trade was an important training ground for British seamen, providing experienced crews for the merchant marine and the Royal Navy.

However, the high death rate, particularly from disease, meant that the slave trade could also be considered a graveyard for seamen.

Manufacturing

Economic growth and the industrial revolution

Many historians describe the industrial revolution as a process rather than as an event. The part that exports played can be shown as a virtuous circle:

Cotton

From 1750 onwards a new industry emerged in Britain - the production of cotton cloth. Wool production had previously been Britain's major industry, but cotton had one key advantage - machinery could process cotton fibres better than wool.

Slaves picking cotton

As a result it was in cotton production that the industrial revolution began, particularly in and around Manchester. The cotton used was mostly imported from slave plantations. Slavery provided the raw material for industrial change and growth.

The growth of the Atlantic economy was an integral part of the growth of exports - for example manufactured cotton cloth was exported to Africa.

Key features of the industrial revolution included:

Products were made in factories instead of at home

Workers used machines instead of working by hand

The machines were driven by water or steam power

One worker could produce much more each day: eg a cotton spinner could spin 200 times as much in 1800 compared to 1700

Cotton became Britain's greatest export industry

Cotton being spun in a factory

The procurement of raw materials and trading patterns

The slave trade was important in providing British industries with raw materials. These were turned into manufactured goods in Britain and then sold for large profits in Europe and in the colonies.

Plantation-grown goods such as rum, tobacco, coffee, sugar, molasses and cotton were bought from the profits of selling enslaved African people to the plantation owners and sold for a profit in Britain and Europe.

The most obvious and dramatic effects of the Atlantic slave trade were changes to the Atlantic coast ports of Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow.

Growth of ports

Port Glasgow, 18th century

In 1700 Liverpool and Bristol were small towns. Glasgow’s population was around 12 000. This figure quadrupled in 100 years. These three ports had become important cities by 1800, largely as a result of trade in enslaved people or plantation-grown products:

Liverpool grew wealthy from plantation-grown cotton

Bristol’s wealth was partly based on sugar produced using enslaved people for labour

Glasgow became the United Kingdom's main tobacco port

Shipping

The shipping industry grew enormously. Most of the British slaving ships were fitted in these ports. There was as much work involved in building, fitting and repairing the ships as in sailing them. Liverpool became a major shipbuilding city as a result of the slave trade.

Trade with the Caribbean employed half of Britain’s long distance ships. Many ship owners involved in the slave trade were also plantation owners. Often profits were spent by merchants around the ports.

Impact of profits

Many plantation owners, especially in Scotland, built large town or country houses. Some endowed schools and other public buildings with money from plantation slavery. For example, in Bristol, the merchant Edward Colston, who made huge profits from the Triangular Trade, donated an estimated £100,000 to the city, including the foundation of a boys’ school named after him.

Industrial development

Industrial economy

There was a growth in manufacturing industries that supplied slave traders. Demand grew for goods such as guns, alcohol, pots, pans and textiles that were exchanged for captured Africans on the Outward Passage.

Profits from the slave trade were invested in the development of British industries. Canals and railways too were built as a result of investment of profits from the slave trade.

Wealth generated by the slave trade meant that domestic taxes could be kept low which further stimulated investment. However, by the end of the 18th century the slave trade had become less important in economic terms. It has been argued that only a small percentage of the profits from the slave trade were directly invested as capital in the industrial revolution.

There were other factors that contributed to industrial development in the UK:

Technological change brought new, cheaper, quicker and more efficient processes and manufacturing

The development of water and steam powered the Industrial Revolution. This powered the new machines for both spinning and weaving and led to the rapid spread of factories

Transport changes in the form of the canals and railways allowed heavy goods to be carried easily and cheaply

Increased production of coal and iron powered factories provided the fuel and materials for more manufacturing

Agricultural economy

Britain gradually changed between 1700 and 1850 from being mainly an agricultural economy, where people lived in the countryside, to mainly an industrial economy where people lived in cities. Changes in agriculture included:

enclosure

mechanisation

crop rotation

selective breeding

These changes helped create a food surplus. In turn this could feed an expanding population. This produced a labour force in the towns for use in factories and created a financial surplus for investment in industry and infrastructure.

Wealth of ports and merchants

Bristol

In the early 18th century Bristol dominated the British end of the slave trade. Bristol merchants established strong trade links with West Africa. The boom for Bristol was created through this slave trading success. Industries such as sugar-refining grew as a result of the slave trade.

Liverpool

Liverpool also grew into a powerful city, directly through the shipping of enslaved people. By the end of the 18th century Liverpool controlled over 60 per cent of the entire British slave trade. Liverpool's cotton and linen mills and other subsidiary industries such as rope-making created thousands of jobs supplying goods to slave traders. By the 1780s, Liverpool had become the largest slave ship building site in Britain.

Glasgow

London in the 18th century

Other ports such as Glasgow profited from the slave trade. In Glasgow the tobacco trade contributed hugely to the profits and development of the city. The 'tobacco lords' as the merchants of Glasgow became known, made a lot of money dealing in tobacco, not from dealing in enslaved people directly.

London

London was already trading in enslaved African people before 1700. It continued to be Britain's main port for slave ships, but merchants found other ways to make money. The Atlantic trade, including the slave trade, provided the impetus to develop merchant banking.

Growth of merchant banking

A satirical engraving on upper class wealth in the British Stock Exchange

Merchants made their money from buying goods at low prices and selling them at high prices. But they didn't receive this profit until after the voyage and after the goods had been sold. A voyage could take six months or longer.

In the meantime, merchants had to finance the voyage, paying for the ship and sailors. They also carried the risk that the ship might be lost at sea. It was also up to the merchant to find outlets to sell the goods.

Specialist skills developed around each part of the process of trading. Financial, commercial, legal and insurance institutions emerged to support the activities of the slave traders:

David and Alexander Barclay set up Barclays Bank

Sir Francis Baring started Barings Bank

London became a centre for marine insurance. Lloyds of London, founded in 1688, is still the world's leading insurance marketplace.

Atlantic slave trade profits also went to anyone who was wealthy enough to buy shares in the newly invented joint stock companies.

The South Sea Trading Company was set up in 1711, and it invested in the slave trade and in plantations. Its shares were very popular and rose rapidly in value. This led to the first "boom and bust" in Britain, the South Sea Bubble of 1720. The profits from the South Sea Trading Company were spread throughout the upper classes.

Wealth created by British slave traders

It is debatable how much the wealth created contributed to the British economy.

The slave trade offered an opportunity to get rich quick and many traders grew wealthy from its profits. But it was also a risky business with many investors making losses.

Merchants

Some merchants used their wealth to invest in British industries, banks and in new businesses. But other merchants and plantation owners invested elsewhere.

Much of the profits of slavery were spent on individual acquisition and dissipated in conspicuous consumption, for example merchants bought landed estates or had large town houses built as status symbols.

As regards funding the industrial revolution, profits from slavery roughly equated to the amount invested in new industries. Profits from the Atlantic economy were a recognisable contribution to the total profits of British businessmen. But it cannot be said that without these particular funds, investment in the industrial revolution would not have taken place.

Was Britain economically better off as a result of the slave trade?

Yes

Those that argue 'yes' point to houses, buildings and parks financed by the slave trade, and to the building of an empire.

No

Those that argue 'no' argue that only a narrow group of people profited. They claim that the estimates of those who support the 'yes' argument are exaggerated. They also point to the large costs of building and running an empire, including fighting wars related to its expansion and defence. These were paid for, in part by the taxpayer.

[xtruss]

The Notorious Pirate King Who Vanished With the Riches of a Mughal Treasure Ship

In the late 17th century, Henry Avery—the subject of the first global manhunt—bribed his way into the Bahamas

— Sean Kingsley and Rex Cowan | April 2, 2024

Some said the pirate king went to ground in London or Scotland, others that he died penniless and was buried in an unmarked grave in Devon. Or was he sipping fine French wine in the hills above Marseille? Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Henry Avery stealthily steered past Hog Island. In the English-controlled waters of the Bahamas, his crew was under strict orders to call him Captain Henry Bridgeman. The Fancy’s gold, silver and diamonds, plundered off the coast of India from a Mughal emperor’s treasure ship, the Gunsway (or Ganj-i Sawa’i), were tucked away under false floorboards in Avery’s cabin.

Palm trees bowed toward the battered ship and the newly nicknamed pirate king. Sea oats shimmered in the early morning breeze. With blue skies and light winds, it was going to be a beautiful day. The final leg into Nassau’s calm harbor was tricky. It took a skillful old hand to squeeze through the narrow channel. On either side, shifting sandbars waited to chew up and spit out wayward traders, nationality be damned. One false move, and all the months of jeopardy would be for nothing.

It was April 1, 1696—a day to make fools of the smartest of men. Luckily, Avery knew all about the island of New Providence. He understood what made the darkest of souls tick and was skilled at turning any man to his way of thinking.

New Providence was the perfect place to make landfall. It straddled the ancient sea lanes between the Province of Carolina and Jamaica (both British colonies) and the Caribbean Sea to the south. Havana was just a three days’ hop away. From Nassau, would-be pirates could watch the panorama of New World trade gliding by.

At 28 miles long and 11 miles wide, New Providence, the heart of the islands of the Bahamas, was big enough to lay low. Best of all, it had a reputation for aiding and abetting villains. The pirate mantra “Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies” could have been invented for this dodgy outback.

Avery knew the bad folk of New Providence were as rotten as a shipwrecked barrel of apples. In fact, he was banking on it. The Bahamas’ motley mob included experts in fishing wrecks sunk along the Florida coast, locals who rushed to salvage Spanish, British, Dutch and French valuables lost to hurricanes and storms. It was easy and generous work that beat breaking one’s back tilling the hateful earth.

A view of New Providence today. Sean Kingsley

The New Providence of 1696 was a long way from becoming the world’s wickedest Republic of Pirates, its chaotic lanes home to such notorious figures as Benjamin Hornigold, Blackbeard, Calico Jack Rackham, Charles Vane, Mary Read and Anne Bonny. By the fall of 1717, as many as 800 pirates would rendezvous in New Providence to divide spoils, fence looted cargo and party away their ill-gotten gains. At times, the lair swelled to a thousand cutthroats, commanded by a changing “who’s who” of crazed leaders. Brawn and brains were respected, but strength always won control. All pirate captains understood that on these shores, the “strongest man carries the day.”

Avery had a knack for reading places and people like others read books. As an ex-Royal Navy sailor who became the skipper of the meanest pirate ship on the high seas, he needed to decide in a blink of an eye who he could trust and what gossip peddled in some mosquito-infested East African tavern was hogwash. His gut rarely let him down.

Peering through his eyepiece, Long Ben—as Avery’s crew called him on deck—made out a few dozen makeshift huts inland of the trees screening the coast. He spied what was little more than a shantytown on the make. Locals were gathering salt to hawk to passing cod-fishing traders from Newfoundland and New England, who used it to stop shipboard meat from rotting too quickly. The New Providence of 1700, with 160 houses and a church, was still a few years away. Up the slope, piles of masonry were being cut and plastered into foundation trenches to build the town’s desperately needed Fort Nassau, paid for by port customs’ profits. Equipped with 28 cannons, its gates would only open in February 1697.

Aurangzeb sits on a golden throne while holding a hawk. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Avery, the man who put the world’s economy on a knife-edge by plundering the flagship of Aurangzeb of India, possibly the richest person in the world, drew deeply on a pipe filled with Virginia’s finest tobacco. The gray smoke billowed into the charred rafters of the Wheel of Fortune inn and out the chimney stack to freedom. Avery was thinking about liberty, too. The hard knocks of family life as a child, and betrayal by the Royal Navy, had shattered any dreams Avery once cherished. These days, he was a cold-blooded hyper-realist.

Avery had just become the first pirate commander to chase down a Mughal emperor’s treasure ship. Overnight, he and his crew were millionaires, celebrities, notorious. The pirate would enjoy the moment before deciding his fate. There was much to be said for staying in the Americas—the laid-back lifestyle, the tropical mood, the sun on your back standing next to the tiller.

But he viewed the people as vermin. And the culture. What culture? Avery had rolled out his deadly plans with all the guile and strategic know-how that his navy training had taught him. His scheming wasn’t over yet. Ever since he’d stripped the stricken Gunsway off the coast of Surat, Avery had been thinking about payback: to the family of his old governor who cheated him out of his fortune, to his country for betraying his men in A Coruña, Spain, and pushing him to mutiny.

An 18th-century illustration of Henry Avery. Public domain via the Internet Archive

Avery wondered how much power a man with a fortune like his could buy. To him, power meant returning home to England, the land of his fathers, and Bideford in Devon, a town thick with bittersweet memories. Yet again, he would prove the world wrong.

The nectar of the pirate’s sweet tobacco was a welcome respite from the anarchy of New Providence. The town had no proper governing body and little order. Human waste and garbage choked the alleys. Outside the tavern window, Avery saw the bones of repairs, abandoned hulls and burned-out prizes littering the shores. The island’s wide, open beaches were perfect for careening hulls, beaching ships and listing them to one side to scrape off the foul barnacles and shipworms that infest the tropical Caribbean.

Avery sipped his glass of wine. His plan had gone just how he’d hoped. On paper, Nicholas Trott, governor of New Providence, was an upstanding pillar of the community. Avery knew better. He had gained intelligence about the top dog’s true nature.

Trott liked to frog-march around the harbor with his crisp leather ledger tucked under his arm, all-important. But make no bones about it: Avery knew that the governor was a snake in the grass without a shred of experience serving king and country. As Richard Coote, the powerful First Earl of Bellomont and the governor of Massachusetts Bay, warned London in 1699, Trott was “the greatest pirate-broker that ever was in America.”

An 18th-century depiction of Avery, with the Fancy shown in the background. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

The king of the pirates would play nice, try diplomacy. If that failed, he would have no qualms strangling Trott’s neck until his eyes popped out.

To Avery, dropping into Nassau and dealing with Trott held no big risk of being slung into a dungeon for piracy. Trott was no gamble. Here was a man who could be bought, greedy to top up his demeaning £30 annual salary. Money meant power. Power meant status. The question was: What was Trott’s price?

To be sure his reckoning was sound, that morning Avery had moored the Fancy off the island’s coast and sent three of his men to New Providence with a personal note for the governor. Avery, in the guise of Bridgeman, pretended his ship was a slaver bending the rules as so many did, trafficking enslaved Africans and elephant tusks without the seal of approval from the Royal African Company, which owned the British crown’s monopoly over the trade.

The Fancy’s tall tale claimed the crew needed permission to take on provisions before going straight. Avery sent a purse stuffed with pieces of eight to make sure the governor got the point. In return for the courtesy of letting him land, Trott could expect a tip of 20 silver pieces of eight and 2 pieces of gold from each crew member. Avery would pay double as captain.

Trott’s fawning reply played the innocent to perfection. With a nudge and a wink, he embraced Avery’s crew as “soldiers of fortune” who “had done no Christian nation any damage and were the king’s subjects.” Trott sent the trio back to the Fancy, weighed down with a cask of wine, a hogshead of beer and a cask of sugar, as well as permission for Avery to land at his leisure.

A proclamation for Avery's apprehension. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Avery knew full well that the clincher for Trott would be the offer of the added tip of the Fancy, with its 46 guns and 100 barrels of gunpowder. French forces had recently seized the island of Exuma, 140 miles away. Rumor had it they were heading for Nassau with three warships and 320 men. Fear filled the air. Nassau had no men-of-war ships, and Trott’s stone fort was still a building site. But with dozens of guns lining the shore, the French would think twice about raping and pillaging.

By the time Trott grounded the Fancy on Hog Island and started stripping its bones bare, he had raked in a small fortune. The strong man was rich and had hardly needed to lift a finger.

As the weeks unfolded, however, only one winner emerged. Avery’s crew scattered. The pirates were spotted openly walking the streets of Philadelphia, thick as thieves with judges and sheriffs, the Gunsway’s riches buying influence and power. Others preferred spending their loot in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. A few of the crew stayed local. Two men settled in Bermuda. Some seven of Avery’s crew married in New Providence and bribed Trott to sign royal pardons. Most of the pirates went straight.

All the while, the rumor mill churned alarmingly. The wrecking ball of Avery’s recent past was catching up with him. East India Company agents were seeking the pirate king in Bombay and Calcutta. The Royal Navy was thinking about dispatching battleships to hunt for the Fancy in the waters between West Africa, Madagascar and Arabia. Bounty hunters crisscrossed the world from the Indian Ocean to the English Channel. Avery was the most wanted man in the world. The world’s first global manhunt was underway.

As the number of guns for hire searching for the pirate grew, proclamations for his apprehension flew from port to port. The legend of Avery the pirate king echoed through the world’s taverns, smoky coffee shops and fashionable ladies’ salons. Avery had shown the world how to unpick the richest treasure box on earth and revealed the wealth waiting to be stolen from heathens’ pockets.

A 19th-century illustration of Captain William Kidd. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Every pirate wanted to match Avery’s strike. The golden age of piracy had begun. Men of fortune flooded the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Captain William Kidd, the Scottish privateer sent on a mission in September 1696 to hunt down and destroy pirates, instead joined the free-for-all by seizing the Quedagh Merchant. Four years later, Kidd ended up dangling from the end of a rope at London’s Execution Dock.

Avery, for his part, wanted to keep his precious head on his neck. So far, his plan had worked like a dream. Trott was eating out of the palm of his hand. Avery was now the strongest man in Nassau.

The burning question in need of an urgent resolution was how to slip through the closing net. Should the pirate king hide out in the Caribbean or head to England for payback? Should he live a life of luxury in the West Indies or risk it all and be damned for retribution on far more dangerous British soil?

Within a few months of his arrival in the Bahamas, Avery was back on the waves. He was seen landing in Ireland in June 1696. That November, five of his crew members were hanged in England. But Avery himself escaped punishment. Some said the pirate king went to ground in London or Scotland, others that he died penniless and was buried in an unmarked grave in Devon. Or was he sipping fine French wine in the hills above Marseille?

Most ballads and books were convinced that Avery vanished in Madagascar, home to a supposed utopian pirate colony called Libertatia. But one fact was certain: When the Lords Justices of England offered the “assurance of our most gracious pardon” to all pirates in December 1698, only Kidd and Avery were excluded by name. The pirate king was still wanted, dead or alive.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.28 (after 1920)

1920 – FIDAC (The Interallied Federation of War Veterans Organisations), the first international organization of war veterans is established in Paris, France. 1920 – Irish War of Independence: Kilmichael Ambush: The Irish Republican Army ambush a convoy of British Auxiliaries and kill seventeen. 1925 – The Grand Ole Opry begins broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the WSM Barn Dance. 1942 – In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub kills 492 people. 1943 – World War II: Tehran Conference: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran, to discuss war strategy. 1958 – Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community. 1958 – First successful flight of SM-65 Atlas; the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. 1960 – Mauritania becomes independent of France. 1964 – Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars. 1964 – Vietnam War: National Security Council members agree to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam. 1965 – Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam. 1966 – Michel Micombero overthrows the monarchy of Burundi and makes himself the first president. 1967 – The first pulsar (PSR B1919+21, in the constellation of Vulpecula) is discovered by two astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish. 1971 – Fred Quilt, a leader of the Tsilhqot'in First Nation suffers severe abdominal injuries allegedly caused by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers; he dies two days later. 1971 – Wasfi al-Tal, Prime Minister of Jordan, is assassinated by the Black September unit of the Palestine Liberation Organization. 1972 – Last executions in Paris: Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems are guillotined at La Santé Prison. 1975 – East Timor declares its independence from Portugal. 1979 – Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashes into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board. 1980 – Iran–Iraq War: Operation Morvarid: The bulk of the Iraqi Navy is destroyed by the Iranian Navy in the Persian Gulf. (Commemorated in Iran as Navy Day.) 1987 – South African Airways Flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on board. 1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution: In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces it will give up its monopoly on political power. 1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigns as leader of the Conservative Party and, therefore, as Prime Minister. She is succeeded in both positions by John Major. 1990 – Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew resigns as Prime Minister. He is succeeded in positions by Goh Chok Tong. 1991 – South Ossetia declares independence from Georgia. 2002 – Suicide bombers blow up an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya; their colleagues fail in their attempt to bring down Arkia Israel Airlines Flight 582 with surface-to-air missiles. 2014 – Gunmen set off three bombs at the central mosque in the northern Nigerian city of Kano killing at least 120 people. 2020 – Over seven hundred civilians are massacred by the Ethiopian National Defense Force and Eritrean Army in Aksum, Ethiopia.

[quotesfrommyreading]

Sergeant George Booth, a twenty-nine-year-old observer with the RAF's No.107 Squadron, is usually credited as the first Briton to be taken prisoner in the Second World War. Booth's war ended the day after it had officially begun when his Bristol Blenheim was shot down over the German coast on 4 September 1939. The pilot was killed by the Wireless Operator, Air Gunner Larry Slattery, survived and, together with Booth, spent the next six years in captivity. They were among an estimated 170.000 to 200,000 British, Commonwealth and Empire men who were taken prisoner in Europe during the Second World War. This compares to the 90,000 Allied prisoners who were held in around a thousand camps around the Far East after Japan entered the war in late 1941.

Booth and Slattery left behind a country that was just embarking on what became known as the 'Phoney War' – when the population held its breath, waiting for a bombing onslaught that failed to appear. The first major influx of British POWs into German camps began nine months later in June 1940 when that phoniness gave way to a Blitzkrieg – or lightning war – as the Nazis swept down through the Low Countries into northern France. As the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), which had been sent to defend France, was evacuated from Dunkirk and other ports it was forced to abandon over 50,000 men who would spend the rest of the war as POWs. They entered captivity knowing that Britain faced the threat of invasion and that, if Hitler was successful, they were unlikely ever to see their homes again.

Each major Allied defeat made more men POWs. Germany's invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia in April 1941 was followed by the battle for Crete after which 11,370 Allied troops were captured in May 1941. The next big wave of POWs arrived from North Africa where Rommel was notching up significant victories. When he finally managed to break the siege of the Libyan port of Tobruk in June 1942, the garrison's 35,000 men, many of whom were South Africans, lost their freedom.

Since America did not enter the war until after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941 only 62,000 of her soldiers became POWs in Europe. Most American POWs before D-Day were airmen. Soldiers began to be taken in large numbers when the Allies landed in Italy in 1943 and Normandy in 1944 and began to claw back parts of occupied Europe. The Germans captured over 6,000 men in September 1944 as a result of Operation Market-Garden when the Allies tried to establish a bridgehead across the Rhine at Arnhem; Hitler's surprise attack on the Ardennes (also known as the Battle of the Bulge) in a bitterly cold December 1944 led to around 23,000 Americans becoming POWs.

Most prisoners were soldiers. The nature of sea battles meant that few men serving in the Royal or Merchant Navy survived to becomes prisoners or internees – about 5,500 from each category. Around 13,000 British and Commonwealth airmen and 33,000 US airmen became POWs but their experience was very different from the other services. Of the 10,000 members of Bomber Command (about eight per cent of its total) who became POWs, many started their day with a British breakfast on British soil, and ended it in a cell where the enemy was keen to extract as much information from them as possible. The RAF did not suffer anything like the military setbacks of Dunkirk or North Africa and the peak year for Bomber Command was 1943-44 when 3,596 of their members became prisoners.

Becoming a prisoner in 1944 or 1945 felt quite different from becoming a POW in the early days of the war. Although the later prisoners had a sense that the war was drawing to a conclusion and that the Allies were winning, they still faced an uncertain future. Would they become hostages or even suffer execution at the hands of an enemy who felt he had nothing to lose?

  —  The Barbed-Wire University: The Real Lives of Allied Prisoners of War in the Second World War (Midge Gillies)

[sandyhookhistory]

“Action Off Africa” 80 Years Ago, Today - (Tuesday) November 10th, 1942: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, the waters off Africa are a hot spot today. All ships are British, unless specified. Also of note, simply getting off your sinking ship and into a lifeboat is, grimly, no guarantee of survival. Roughly 278 miles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands – and 746 miles west of the African mainland, aka the middle of nowhere, U-128 (Type IXC) attacks Convoy ON-141. She claims two ships in this attack. The steamer “SS Cerinthus.” (Photo 1) The crew escapes safely... but one lifeboat won’t be found until December 1st… another boat of 20 men will not be found until JANUARY 24TH, over two months later…. By then, only 6 will remain alive. All told, 20 men die of exposure on the open seas, and 20 are rescued. Her other victim is “SS Start Point” (Photo 2). She only loses two, but two more men are plucked from the lifeboats and carted off by the Germans as POWs. The remaining 43 men will survive 12 days on the open sea before rescue. Meanwhile, in the Indian Ocean, 170 miles southeast of East London, South Africa, U-181 (IXD2) bags the Norwegian steamer “SS K.G. Meldahl” (Photo 3) Two men go down with the ship, but 31 survivors are found by aircraft and rescued three days later. In the Mediterranean, the Allies lose another two: The British Royal Navy’s HMS Martin (G-44, M-Class, Photo 4) is in support of the Allied landings of Operation Torch when she is torpedoed and sunk by U-431 (VIIC) 80 miles northeast of Algiers, Algeria. A spread of torpedoes is fired at the Royal Navy’s “Force H” grouping of ships; the strike on HMS Martin is instantly fatal. She explodes in a massive detonation, and will take nearly her entire crew – 161 Officers and Men – to the bottom with her. Only 63 men will survive the sinking. Meanwhile, 50 miles northwest of Algiers, U-81 (VIIC) sinks the steamer “SS Garlinge.” (Photo 5) 25 men go down with the ship, and 15 others are rescued. Just another day... (at Fort Hancock, New Jersey) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkygM0gAGVe/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[kny111]

Slave Ships

Slave ships were large cargo ships specially converted for the purpose of transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast in West Africa.

Atlantic slave trade

In the early 1600s, more than a century after the arrival of Europeans to the Americas, demand for unpaid labor to work plantations made slave-trading a profitable business. The peak time of slave ships to the Atlantic passage was between the 18th and early-19th centuries, when large plantations developed in the southern colonies of North America.

To ensure profitability, the owners of the ships divided their hulls into holds with little headroom, so they could transport as many slaves as possible. Unhygienic conditions, dehydration, dysentery and scurvy led to a high mortality rate, on average 15% and up to a third of captives. Often the ships carried hundreds of slaves, who were chained tightly to plank beds. For example, the slave ship Henrietta Marie carried about 200 slaves on the long Middle Passage. They were confined to cargo holds with each slave chained with little room to move.

The most significant routes of the slave ships led from the north-western and western coasts of Africa to South America and the south-east coast of what is today the United States, and the Caribbean. As many as 20 million Africans were transported by ship. The transportation of slaves from Africa to America was known as the Middle Passage of the triangular trade.

Conditions On Slave Ships

Enslaved People

The Slave Trade Act 1788, also known as Dolben's Act, regulated conditions on board British slave ships for the first time since the slave trade started. It was introduced to the United Kingdom parliament by Sir William Dolben, an advocate for the abolition of slavery. For the first time, limits were placed on the number of enslaved people that could be carried. Under the terms of the act, ships could transport 1.67 slaves per ton up to a maximum of 207 tons burthen, after which only one slave per ton could be carried. The well-known slave ship Brookes was limited to carrying 454 people; it had previously transported as many as 609 enslaved. Olaudah Equiano was among the supporters of the act but it was opposed by some abolitionists, such as William Wilberforce, who feared it would establish the idea that the slave trade simply needed reform and regulation, rather than complete abolition. Slave counts can also be estimated by deck area rather than registered tonnage, which results in a lower number of errors and only 6% deviation from reported figures.

This limited reduction in the overcrowding on slave ships may have reduced the on-board death rate, but this is disputed by some historians

Sailors and crew

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the sailors on slave ships were often poorly paid and subject to brutal discipline and treatment. Furthermore, a crew mortality rate of around 20% was expected during a voyage, with sailors dying as a result of disease, flogging or slave uprisings. While conditions for the crew were far better than those of the enslaved people, they remained harsh and contributed to a high death rate. Sailors often had to live and sleep without shelter on the open deck for the entirety of the Atlantic voyage as the space below deck was occupied by slaves.

Disease, specifically malaria and yellow fever, was the most common cause of death among sailors. A high crew mortality rate on the return voyage was in the captain's interests as it reduced the number of sailors who had to be paid on reaching the home port. Crew members who survived were frequently cheated out of their wages on their return. These aspects of the slave trade were widely known; the notoriety of slave ships amongst sailors meant those joining slave ship crews did so through coercion or because they could find no other employment. This was often the case for sailors who had spent time in prison.

Abolition of the slave trade

The African slave trade was outlawed by the United States and the United Kingdom in 1807. The applicable UK act was the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and outlawed the slave trade throughout the British Empire. The US law took effect on 1 January 1808. After that date, all US and British slave ships leaving Africa were legally pirate vessels subject to capture by the United States Navy or Royal Navy. In 1815, at the Council of Vienna, Spain, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands also agreed to abolish their slave trade. Between 1807 and 1860 British vessels would capture slave ships and free the slaves; they captured 1,600 ships and freed 160,000 slaves in this time.

After abolition, slave ships adopted quicker, more maneuverable forms to evade capture by naval warships, one favorite form being the Baltimore Clipper. Some had hulls fitted with copper sheathing. This was very expensive work that at this time was only commonly done to Royal Navy vessels; however, it increased speed by preventing the growth of marine weed on the hull, which would otherwise cause drag. The speed of slave ships made them attractive ships to repurpose for piracy, and also made them attractive for naval use after capture; USS Nightingale and HMS Black Joke were examples of such vessels. HMS Black Joke had a notable career in Royal Navy service and was responsible for capturing a number of slave ships and freeing many hundreds of slaves.

There have been attempts by descendants of African slaves to sue Lloyd's of London for playing a key role in underwriting insurance policies taken out on slave ships bringing slaves from Africa to the Americas.

List of Slave Ships

Antelope, Spanish slave ship captured near Florida in 1820 with 283 slaves aboard, leading to The Antelope case.

Aurore, along with Duc du Maine, the first French slave ships that brought the first slaves to Louisiana.

La Amistad, general-purpose cargo ship that also carried slaves on occasion. A successful slave revolt on ship gave rise to a case that reached the Supreme Court in United States v. The Amistad.

Brookes, sailing in the 1780s.[25]

City of Norfolk, fitted out in New York City by Albert Horn.[26]

Clotilda, burned and sunk at Mobile, in 1859 or 1860.

Cora, captured by USS Constellation in 1860.

Creole, involved in the United States coastwise slave trade and the scene of a slave rebellion in 1841, leading to the Creole case.

Desire, first American slave ship.[27]

Duc du Maine, along with Aurore, the first French slave ships that brought the first slaves to Louisiana.

Elisabeth, sailing from Jamaica for West Africa.[citation needed]

Erie, the ship owned and captained by Nathaniel Gordon, the only American executed for slave trading

Esmeralda, captured 1 November 1864 off Loango, West Coast of Africa, by HMS Rattler (1864) and Taken to St. Helena to prize court by C.G. Nelson midshipman in command.[citation needed]

Fredensborg, Danish slave ship, sank in 1768 off Tromøya in Norway, after a journey in the triangular trade. Leif Svalesen [da] wrote a book about the journey.

Gallito, Spanish slave ship carrying 136 Africans when captured by HMS Nimble 16 November 1829.

Guerrero, Spanish slave ship wrecked in the Florida Keys in 1827 carrying 561 Africans.

Hannibal, an English slaver of the Atlantic slave trade.

The Hawk, The Hawk sailed for Calabar, with instructions to buy 340 slaves.[28]

Hebe, Portuguese slave ship carrying 401 Angolans when captured by HMS Nimble 13 July 1832.

Henrietta Marie, sank in 1700 near Marquesas Keys, Florida, excavated in 1980s.

Hermosa, a schooner whose 1840 grounding in the Bahamas led to a controversy between the US and Britain over the 38 slaves who had been on board the ship.

Hope, American brig that brought slaves to Rhode Island

Isabella, British slave ship that brought the first 150 African slaves to the American port of Philadelphia in 1684.

Joaquina, Spanish slave ship carrying 348 Africans when captured by HMS Nimble 10 November 1833.

Josefa, Spanish schooner carrying 206 slaves when captured by HMS Monkey 7 April 1829.

Jesus of Lübeck, a 700-ton ship used on the second voyage of John Hawkins to transport 400 captured Africans in 1564. Queen Elizabeth I was his partner and rented him the vessel.

King David, sailing from St Christophers, on St Kitts in the Caribbean 1749.[29]

La Concord, a slave ship captured by the pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach), used as his flagship and renamed Queen Anne's Revenge. Run aground in June 1718.

La Negrita, Spanish slave ship carrying 189 Africans when captured by HMS Nimble May 1833.

Lord Ligonier. See Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley.

Don Francisco, a slave ship captured in 1837. Sold as a colonial trader and renamed James Matthews. Excavated by Western Australian Museum in 1974.

Madre de Deus, 1567. John Hawkins captured this ship and transported 400 Africans.

Manuela, built as clipper ship Sunny South, captured by HMS Brisk in Mozambique Channel with over 800 slaves aboard.

Manuelita, Spanish slave ship carrying 485 Africans when captured by HMS Nimble 7 December 1833.

Margaret Scott, confiscated and sunk as part of the Stone fleet in 1862

Meermin, a Dutch East India Company ship active between southern Africa and Madagascar, whose final voyage in 1766 ended in mutiny by the slaves: around half the crew and nearly 30 Malagasy died, and the ship was destroyed.[30]

Midas, 360-ton Spanish slave ship captured by HMS Monkey 27 June 1829. Midas had left Africa in April 1829 with 562 Africans, but only 369 were still alive when she was captured, and 72 more died of "smallpox, diarrhea & scurvy" before Monkey and HMS Nimble could take Midas into Havana.[31]

Nightingale, clipper ship captured by Saratoga near Cabinda, Angola in 1861 with 961 slaves aboard.

Pons, American-built barque captured by USS Yorktown on 1 December 1845 with 850–900 slaves.[32]

Providencia, Spanish brig carrying 400 slaves when captured by HMS Monkey in 1829.

São José Paquete Africa, a Portuguese slave ship which sank off the coast of South Africa in 1794 killing over 200 of the enslaved men and women.

Tecora, Portuguese slave ship that transported the slaves who would later revolt aboard La Amistad.

Triton captured by USS Constellation in 1861.[citation needed]

Trouvadore, wrecked in Turks and Caicos 1841. 193 slaves survived. Project commenced in 2004 to locate the ship.[33]

Wanderer, formerly last slave ship to the U.S. (November 1858) until Clotilda reported in 1859 or 1860.

Wildfire, a barque, arrested off the Florida coast by the US Navy in 1860; carrying 450 slaves.[34]

Whydah Gally, a ship that transported cargo, passengers, and slaves. Captured by the pirate Captain Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy and used for piracy, eventually grounded during a Nor'easter at Cape Cod and sunk in April 1717. 

Zong , a British slave ship infamous for the1781 massacre of 132 sick and dying slaves who were thrown overboard in an attempt to guarantee that the ship's owners could collect on their cargo insurance.

Source: Wikipedia / Slave ships

[greatworldwar2]

• Battle of Madagascar

The Battle of Madagascar was the British campaign to capture the Vichy French-controlled island Madagascar during World War II.

Following the Japanese conquest of Southeast Asia east of Burma by the end of February 1942, submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy were moving freely throughout the north and eastern expanses of the Indian Ocean. In March 1942, Japanese aircraft carriers conducted the Indian Ocean raid upon shipping in the Bay of Bengal and bases in Colombo and Trincomalee in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). This raid drove the British Eastern Fleet out of the area and they were forced to relocate to a new base at Kilindini, near Mombasa, in Kenya. The move made the British fleet more vulnerable to attack. The possibility of Japanese naval forces using forward bases in Madagascar had to be addressed. The potential use of these facilities particularly threatened Allied merchant shipping. If the Imperial Japanese Navy's submarines were able to utilise bases on Madagascar, Allied lines of communication would be affected across a region stretching from the Pacific and Australia, to the Middle East and as far as the South Atlantic.

On December 17th, 1941, Vice Admiral Fricke, Chief of Staff of Germany's Maritime Warfare Command (Seekriegsleitung), met Vice Admiral Naokuni Nomura, the Japanese Naval Attaché, in Berlin to discuss the delimitation of respective operational areas between the German Kriegsmarine and Imperial Japanese Navy forces. At another meeting on March 27th ,1942, Fricke stressed the importance of the Indian Ocean to the Axis powers and expressed the desire that the Japanese begin operations against the northern Indian Ocean sea routes. Fricke further emphasized that Ceylon, the Seychelles, and Madagascar should have a higher priority for the Axis navies. By April, the Japanese announced to Fricke that they intended to commit four or five submarines and two auxiliary cruisers for operations in the western Indian Ocean between Aden and the Cape of Good Hope, but they refused to disclose their plans for operations against Madagascar and Ceylon.

The Allies had heard the rumours of Japanese plans for the Indian Ocean, the British Chiefs of Staff discussed the possibility that the Vichy government might cede the whole of Madagascar to Japan, or alternatively permit the Japanese Navy to establish bases on the island. British naval advisors urged the occupation of the island as a precautionary measure. On December 16th, General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French in London, sent a letter to the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, in which he also urged a Free French operation against Madagascar. Churchill recognised the risk of a Japanese-controlled Madagascar to Indian Ocean shipping, particularly to the important sea route to India and Ceylon, and considered Madagascar's ports as the strategic key to Japanese influence. By March 12th, 1942, Churchill had been convinced of the importance of such an operation and the decision was reached that the planning of the invasion of Madagascar would begin in earnest. It was agreed that the Free French would be explicitly excluded from the operation.

On the 14th, Force 121 was constituted under the command of Major-General Robert Sturges of the Royal Marines with Rear-Admiral Edward Syfret being placed in command of naval Force H and the supporting sea force. The operation was planned to commence around April 30th,1942. This was to be the first British amphibious assault since the disastrous landings in the Dardanelles twenty-seven years earlier. The task was Operation Ironclad, it would include Allied naval, land and air forces. The Allied naval contingent consisted of over 50 vessels, drawn from Force H, the British Home Fleet and the British Eastern Fleet, commanded by Syfret. The landing force included the 29th Independent Infantry Brigade Group, No 5 (Army) Commando, and two brigades of the 5th Infantry Division, the latter en route to India with the remainder of their division.

Following many reconnaissance missions by the SAAF (South African Air Force), the first wave of the British 29th Infantry Brigade and No. 5 Commando landed in assault craft on May 5th, 1942. Follow-up waves were by two brigades of the 5th Infantry Division and Royal Marines. All were carried ashore by landing craft to Courrier Bay and Ambararata Bay, just west of the major port of Diego-Suarez, at the northern tip of Madagascar. Air cover was provided mainly by Fairey Albacore and Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers which attacked Vichy shipping. They were supported by Grumman Martlets fighters from the Fleet Air Arm. The defending Vichy forces, led by Governor General Armand Léon Annet, included about 8,000 troops, of whom about 6,000 were Malagasy tirailleurs (colonial infantry). A large proportion of the rest were Senegalese. Between 1,500 and 3,000 Vichy troops were concentrated around Diego-Suarez.

The beach landings met with virtually no resistance and these troops seized Vichy coastal batteries and barracks. The 17th Infantry Brigade, after toiling through mangrove swamp and thick bush took the town of Diego-Suarez taking a hundred prisoners. The 29th Independent Brigade, headed towards the French naval base of Antisarane. With assistance from six Valentines and six Tetrarch light tanks of B Special Service Squadron they advanced 21 miles overcoming light resistance with bayonet charges. Antisarane itself was heavily defended with trenches, two redoubts, pillboxes. On the morning of May 6th, 1942 a frontal assault on the defences failed with the loss of three Valentines and two Tetrarchs. Another assault by the South Lancashires worked their way around the defences but bad terrain meant they were broken up into groups. Nevertheless, they swung behind the Vichy line and caused chaos. The radio station and a barracks were seized, in all 200 prisoners were taken.

With the French defence highly effective, the deadlock was broken when the old destroyer HMS Anthony dashed straight past harbour defences and landed fifty Royal Marines from Ramillies amidst the Vichy rear area. The marines secured the French artillery command post along with its barracks and the naval depot. At the same time troops of the 17th Infantry Brigade had broken through the defences and were soon marching in the town. The Vichy defence was broken, although substantial Vichy forces withdrew to the south. Hostilities continued at a low level for several months. After May 19th, 1942 two brigades of the 5th Infantry Division were transferred. By June 1942, the 22nd (East Africa) Brigade Group arrived on Madagascar. On September 10th, 1942 the 29th Brigade and 22nd Brigade Group made an amphibious landing at Majunga, another port on the west coast of the island. No. 5 Commando spearheaded the landing and faced machine gun fire but despite this they stormed the quayside, took control of the local post office, stormed the governor's residence and raised the Union Jack.

the Allies intended to re-launch the offensive ahead of the rainy season. Progress was slow for the Allied forces. In addition to occasional small-scale clashes with Vichy forces, they also encountered scores of obstacles erected on the main roads by Vichy soldiers. The Allies eventually captured the capital, Tananarive, without much opposition, and then the town of Ambalavao, but the devoutly Vichy Governor Annet escaped. Eight days later a British force set out to seize Tamatave. Heavy surf interfered with the operation. As HMS Birmingham's launch was heading to shore it was fired at by French shore batteries and promptly turned around. Birmingham then opened her guns up on the shores batteries and within three minutes the French hauled up the white flag. Tamatave fell into British hands. The last major action took place in October, at Andramanalina, a U-shaped valley with the meandering Mangarahara River where an ambush was planned for British forces by Vichy troops. The King's African Rifles split into two columns and marched around the 'U' of the valley and met Vichy troops in the rear and then ambushed them. The Vichy troops suffered heavy losses which resulted in 800 of them surrendering.

An armistice was signed in Ambalavao on November 6th, 1942, and Annet surrendered two days later. The Allies suffered about 500 casualties in the landing at Diego-Suarez, and 30 more killed and 90 wounded in the operations which followed September 1942. With Madagascar in Allied hands, they established military and naval installations across the island. The island was crucial for the rest of the war. Its deep water ports were vital to control the passageway to India and the Persian corridor, and this was now beyond the grasp of the Axis. This was the first large-scale operation of World War II by the Allies combining sea, land, and air forces. In the makeshift Allied planning of the war's early years, the invasion of Madagascar held a prominent strategic place. Free French General Paul Legentilhomme was appointed High Commissioner for Madagascar.

[huh-i-guess]

Now You Need Me

Erik Killmonger X Black!Reader

Warnings: Angst(?) 

Word Count: 1,854 

This is the first fic I have ever written and I have no clue if this is good or not, ngl. I am super nervous about posting this, I’ve read so much fanfic and been too scared to write but today I just said F it! The gif is not mine!

“Bye girl!”

“Bye Leigh! Thanks for the party, tell Marvin if he tries some shit imma beat his ass when I see him next!” I shout at one of my homegirls who has been fucking around with this high key chill but hella ignorant POS.

“Take yo fine ass to bed sis, GOODNIGHT!” She scoffs as she speeds off in her whip. I chuckle as I make my way into my shared apartment with one of my besties from college, Cameron. I have known her for the past 10 years and she truly has been a ride or die who makes sure that we both have our heads screwed on straight. As I make my way up into the apartment I notice that the lights are all off, which isn't unusual because it is about 2:30 and she heads off to bed hella early, always talking bout how she “got work in the morning”. She gets her ass up at 8:00 every morning… weekends included, I don’t know how somebody would willingly wake up that early on weekend but Cami does. I cut on the light over the kitchen and notice a note on the counter that just tells me that I’m on dish duty next week and that there is also a surprise in my room. I swear if I walk in that room and there is some random shit in it, Imma wake her up and keep her up till the sun say what’s poppin’. I trot into my room carrying my shoes and drop them by the side of my dresser, when they make contact with the floor the light abruptly turns on. I grab tightly on my clutch and get ready to swing.

“Damn Ma, chill, its just lil’ ole me”

“ERIK!” I scoff and sigh. Deciding to proceed with my nightly routine. “Was this the “Surprise” Cami had in store for me? You?” I state with a displeased voice.

“Yeah, you miss me? I ain’t gon lie… I’ve missed you” Erik said shamelessly. I have not seen this man in 3 and a half years. Not one text, nor call, nor note, nor flower, no nada.

“What the hell do you want? And why did Cami let you in?” I ask dismissively as  I put my purse on the hook and don’t even bother looking his way.

“That’s how we really gotta be, huh? You really ain’t happy to see me?” the nerve and balls this man has…“Erik, I’m not one of your little side pieces who drops her panties at the sight of you and begs to be at your knees. You know that. Now, Imma ask you one last time, What. Do. You. Want.” I am not in the mood for his shit especially after what he did to me and how he up and left me.

“You used to be one of them but,” he shrugs his shoulders.

“ERIK-” I shout as I whip around to face him. 

“Alright damn, you need to get laid,” he stated, and truthfully, he was not wrong, it’s been three years since anyone has made me feel the way that that man has but he does NOT need to know that. “I ain’t here to push your buttons and pipe in on your sex life, unless you want me to,” he winks and I grimace, “but I need your help with something, and before you try to bus a cap in me, I’ll let you know how much you’ll get paid.” He really must have lost his mind to think that after leaving me in the middle of the night, a day after one of our missions, in the middle of a foreign ass country, with no way to contact him, or his crew, that I would ever want to work with him again. Especially now with me being out of the game and trying to lead a semi-normal life. How did he even find me? I've taken myself off of the all government watchlists and made sure that I am always aware of anything relating to me and that I clear it asap. Actually, he’s Erik fucking Killmonger, nevermind.

“Do you want to explain to me why the hell I would want to work with you again, and possibly put myself back on the radar? I’ve spent so much time tryna clear my name from doing shit with you and now that I’m finally free of your ass, you prance your fine evil ass back into my life. You left me there Erik. YOU” I poke him in the chest for emphasis,  “LEFT me there, you didn’t leave a note, you didn’t call. You didn’t text. And you know what the worst part was? You let me take part of the fall for your shit. I had to bargain with the United States government to get my freedom back you piece of shit. They made me hack and cover up a bunch of shit for almost 2 years and you know I hate our government. THEN, S.H.I.E.L.D. made me do a helluva lot more tedious and time consuming shit, and they kept me as a prisoner for half a year. And you think that you get to waltz into my home after 3 years,  bat your eyelashes, lick your juicy ass lips and then ask me to go down for you again? You must have lost your goddamn mind. Truly!” I whisper scream at him hoping Cami stays asleep down the hall. I cannot believe this nigga.

“I didn’t even say what it was I needed your help with but you clearly stay  jumpin’ to conclusions, just like before. If you’d like to let me get a word in lil’ miss thing, I will” Erik stated. I really missed him but I should not miss a man who got me locked up in a superhero jail cell.

“Speak then, Killmonger.” I pushed. “Damn, aright, Imma tell you the price first. Its royalty. That is the price, I’ll make you royalty.”

Is he-Is he serious? What happened to him in those three years, I know I went to fuzzy, upscale, white people jail, and what the fuck did he do? Lose his mind, that’s what he did.

“Nigga, what kind of weed have you been smoking? Royalty. This ain’t Coming to America. We live in America and we don’t have royals. We have a fat, mentaly unstable, racist, orange thing  in the office right now. Where have you been for the past 3 years?” I exclaim.

“Look, bae, I know what the fuck is in office right now and I know that we are in the United States but, last I checked and according to Maps of the world, the U.S. ain’t it. Damn, Americans really do think they are the only ones on the planet. There is an East African country called Wakanda. You know it?” He questioned.

“Yeah, fool, I’m not dumb. And not all Americans think like that. You should know that soldier.”

“Well, Wakanda is seen as a third world country with major poverty and a major lack of developments, and Imma tell you, that shit ain’t true.” He shrugged.

“I’m sorry but what would you know?” I deadpanned.

“I’m from Wakanda, Ma.” He disclosed matter-of-factly.

“Ummmm, I must have missed something Oakland boy. You’re tryna tell me that you are NOT from Oakland, California? That makes little to no sense. But if you are from Wakanda, then how did you go into the Navy SEALS?” I question in disbelief.

“I was born in the states, baby girl. Pops was Wakandan. I’ve been telling you I was foreign.” He teased and pulled down his lower lip showing off an interesting blue tattoo.

“I’m supposed to believe you after all of the shit that you’ve done? I’m supposed to forgive you? Actually, pause, why would I even forgive you? You haven’t even apologized. You’re always so damn cocksure and I know you're not gonna apologize because the words, “I’m sorry” are not in your vocabulary. Knowing yo ass you probably thought I forgot because you think I’m mesmerized by yo “glorious” looks.” I pressed.

“You are really going in on me. I must have really hurt you. You want a kiss to make it better or do you want to kiss and make up?” He baited. I am at a loss for words.

“You, Erik “Killmonger” Stevens, disgust me. The fact that I was in love with yo cocky, unfiltered, disrespectful, heartless, ruthless, and twisted self, really makes me realize just how much I needed to grow. I told myself I would NEVER EVER take the blame and bit the bullet for a nigga. And guess what? That is exactly what I did. I lost myself and my dream tryna beg for your love and your attention and look where it got me. ON a GOVERNMENT watchlist, in prison and tired. Look I’m not Cookie from Empire, I’m not gonna take you back after taking the fall for your ass, so you can take that “royalty” shit and shove it up your ass because I am not gonna ruin my life any further for you. Cami let me make some mistakes and they were some really bad ones but I never told her about how I fell for you. She just thinks that you're some ex who wants me back and was good for me that I pushed you away because that’s what I do, welp, no. Not this time.” I voiced painfully not even feeling the tears falling from my eyes. I looked as Erik just stood there showing no type of emotion. No pain, no regret, no smugness, just looking like he was trying to find an emotion to react but he couldn’t find one. “Do you feel nothing Erik? You so damn, UGH!” I can’t even bring myself to finish my sentence as I collapse onto my bed. I feel an added weight on my bed and feel arms wrap around me.

“I’m so so sorry, baby girl. I know that what I did was wrong and I’ve watched for so long trying to figure out how to make this right and I can’t. I can’t think of a way to be there for you and I know it is hard especially since I’m the one who got you into this situation but that is exactly why I want you to come be my queen and rule Wakanda with me. To make this right, we can make our own laws, be our own government, have power, money and whatever you want. I’ve been gone a long time and I should have been there for you. I’m sorry, baby. Do you forgive me?” He admitted while he kissed my forehead. I am in complete disbelief. Erik Stevens just apologized, and did he propose or was I hallucinating? No, wait a minute I refuse to fall in love with this sweet talking piece of shit who got me sent to jail.

“What if I say no, Erik?”

~~~~~This is so bad. I’m so sorry~~~~~

It is ALSO 3:36AM, Imma sleep. 4/25/2020

[fatehbaz]

Oz Rock bands were big in Brazil in the 1990s. Australian surfers know its breaks. [...] [I]n the past decade [2005-2015] Brazil has had the second fastest rate of migration to Australia [...].

Australia’s connection with Brazil began in 1787 with the First Fleet voyage. This was thanks to the port of Rio’s location in the South Atlantic and a centuries-long British-Portuguese alliance – unique among European powers in the Age of Empires. The First Fleet had three layovers on its relatively cautious eight month voyage from Britain: a week in the Spanish colony of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, a month at Rio in the Portuguese colony of Brazil and a month at the Dutch East India Company’s Cape colony in South Africa. Fleet commander Arthur Phillip had not intended to rest and resupply at Rio but sailing conditions made it prudent to do so. And Phillip’s former service in the Portuguese navy ensured a cordial welcome from Rio’s colonial authorities.  

At this time, as Bruno Carvalho writes in Porous City: A Cultural History of Rio de Janeiro (2013), Rio enjoyed rising status within the Portuguese Empire. In 1763 it had been named the new capital of Brazil. In 1808 Portuguese royals fled to Rio to escape Napoleon and remained there at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. As a consequence, Rio could boast of being the only American city to serve as a centre of European power.

One First Fleet official lamented how little the British knew of Rio. This came to be addressed, as Luciana Martins notes in A Bay to be Dreamed Of: British Visions of Rio de Janeiro (2006), as increasing numbers of British visitors ventured there during the 19th century. Visitors included New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie, and later Charles Darwin – along with thousands of convict and free migrants on board ships calling at the port of Rio.

Writing in Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective (2005), Emma Christopher observed that in Australian history books, travel from Britain to Australia seemed to have been “covered as if in the blink of an eye”.

This inspired her to write of the “watery non-places” of the journey not as voids, but rather as places where much transnational history was lived [...].

[J]ournals by intending Australian colonists such as Macquarie’s wife Elizabeth allow glimpses of colonial Rio through colonial Australian eyes. Elizabeth Macquarie assessed Rio with keen intelligence and, more challengingly – as Jane McDermid has argued in recent research on histories of the British abroad – a callously casual racism.

First Fleet journals tell us that, in 1787, convicts confined to ship at Rio witnessed enslaved West Africans rowing Portuguese fruit sellers around the anchored Fleet transports in decoratively festooned boats.

Convicts overheard and exchanged stories from officials permitted shore leave: stories of the songs of captive West Africans awaiting sale at the port marketplace; of colourful Portuguese Catholic institutions and festivities that were exotic to straight-laced British Protestants. Stories of being forbidden, on pain of death, to venture to hinterland jewel mines. Onshore at Rio, colonial migrants bound for Australia befriended Portuguese colonists, despite the language barrier. They purchased curios. They passed judgement – glowing and harsh – on the people of the Portuguese colony, its natural and built environment, just as Brazilians in turn scrutinised them.

---

Text by: Julie McIntyre. “I Go to Rio: Australia’s forgotten history with Brazil.” The Conversation. 16 September 2015. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[ajbrooks-writes]

Character Intro: Elthian

Role: Protagonist WIP: Blood Ties Trilogy (high fantasy, adventure, romance) Appears in: For The Crown (book one), For The King, For The Country WIP Intro for For The Crown - link

Basics:

Age: 29 Nickname/title: El (to close friends), Sir, Your Highness, My Lord, My Prince, Crown Prince Elthian Species: shapeshifter (african lion) Home: Royal (Versillian) Castle, above Cossalier City, West Mantha Profession: Crown Prince, High Chancellor Identifies as: male, straight (he/him) Family: King Parthian, Prince Orrian (half-brother), Queen Lilanna (step-mother) Relationships before trilogy: No known long term relationships. Relationships during For The Crown: Ryvaeryn (love interest and confidant), Joal (best friend), Orrian (brother), Parthian (father), Kalen (friend) Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Excerpt from an early scene:

The darkness was cool. Soft, lazy clouds floated past a half moon over the trees, swallowing the rest of the cares of my human life; those I had left behind, and those yet to face me.

I waited by the maze entrance, though Joal had gone south for a moment, and sensed my friend before he returned through the trees.

‘Ready?’ his voice appeared in my mind as clearly as if he had stood beside me. A pair of bright eyes appeared in the underbrush, the rest of him melding with the blackness. Communicating through thought made our adventures much easier, and our conversations private.

‘To give you an advantage?’ I responded. ‘Of course.’ The cloud passed, and a large, dark wolf stopped in front of me, turning to the east. Our domain.

‘Confidence will always be your downfall, El.’ After the day I’d had, Joal’s words hit like a punch in the stomach, and I took a moment to recompose.

‘I suppose we will see who is right.’ I extended my claws into the earth and arched my back, turning to our path as well. ‘Whenever you’re—’

Joal launched himself into the underbrush, cutting through tight spaces he knew I wouldn’t fit.

‘Ready,’ he called back.

‘Good luck.’ I shook my head, waited a few moments, then crouched low and sprung after him, following his trail once he found the one I could run along.

‘You’ll need it.’  He sped up after his words, but I extended my lion’s stride and quickly fell in step with him.

Entrance:

Elthian enters the story at Cossalier’s marina, interrupted by the commotion of a young woman being pulled by city guards toward a navy ship to be deported, which he intervenes to prevent. Having grown up with the expectations of the crown, and the same compassionate temperament as his late mother, he wants more than anything to do right by his people. This on-the-ground approach directly conflicts with his father’s authoritarian rule. Elthian refuses to compromise his ideals, and that stubbornness won’t always be forgiven.

Journey:

After a decade of pushing boundaries with his father, overruling the guards again is the last straw for Elthian, and the King gives him an ultimatum. The certainty of his inheriting the crown is removed, he must choose between compromising his values for the throne, or compromise his authority for his values. With no younger siblings or cousins, Elthian has no knowledge where the crown will go, or what that will mean for the country he has pledged to serve.

Relationships:

At first comfortable in his environment, the first installment sees Elthian’s relationships with family and friends change. His connection with Ryvaeryn starts as curiosity, developing into friendship, then so much more. He remains close to his best friend, Joal, and older brother, Orrian. His admiration of his father, however, immediately struggles as Parthian reduces his authority and threatens his future.

As his relationship with Ryn strengthens, the rest of Elthian’s support network begins to crumble. Secrets are discovered that open old wounds, straining his relationships with everyone he trusted most. His pursuit of further understanding risks the antagonists’ being revealed, but as the belief he is safe in his own home is challenged, he doesn’t stand alone.

Writing Elthian:

Elthian is true to his upbringing. He has control over his body language, and verbal and facial expression, but his internal monologue has some delightfully sarcastic undertones. El doesn’t get angry but does get dramatic with those he trusts. He keeps to himself what would be better confided, convinces himself the ‘correct’ thing is actually what he wants to do, and loses himself to long reflections. Writing him is like writing an approaching storm. I will pile on pressure and torment till he breaks, and we will see the man he is under that decorum.

--

Links to: Character intro - Ryvaeryn Character Intro - Joal

(Taglist below the cut)

Blood Ties tag list:  @whisperswritings @stand-inthe-rain @fantasy-shadows @halrose @romanticatheart-posts @hopefulmoonobject @angelolytle @albarnesauthor @fantasy-penman @ofinscriptions @jynecca @jc-shay @venomouspen @k-nazario @raenawrites @the-starlight-chills @crazycoffeemermaid @ardawyn @bookish-actor @waterfallofinkandpages @the-writister @thewriteblrarchives @kryskakikomi @theredscreech @ardawyn @jcckwrites @kryskakikomi @hiding-between-words @thewordsinthesky-andstars @mc-hill @the-orangeauthor​

(If you would like to be added to or removed from this list, please let me know!)

[britishguy2003]

THE NEW ARRIVAL-A MINECRAFT STORY MODE FANFICTION

After The New Order of The Stone defeated Romeo also known, Beacontown has now been restored. With the leadership of The Town's 'Hero of Residence' Jesse and his Friends, the Town is now back into its origin as a peaceful town for its Citizen

    But then, a New kind of Evil emerges from the other Dimension. This new kind of Enemy had already taken over the Eastern Territory of the Overworld. They are known as "The Axis'. They even threatened to invade Beacontown and conquer the overworld

    Jesse and his Friends, meet a Group of Resistance group seperated from their Army who also comes from the dimension where the Nazis emerges as they fought together alongside their allies against this new threat

    Will they be able to defeat this threat and bring justice and peace to the world or Will they destined to be defeated and heel to this threat? Find out in 'The New Arrival'

THE UNITED ALLIANCE

BRIEF HISTORY

The United Alliance or famously called the Allies is a Democratic Military Alliance consisted of Federal, Liberal, Capitalist, and Democratic Countries that bands together to fight the Axis Forces in 1960 after the defeat of their Predecessor, the Democratic Allies. This Alliance is formed when the Germans and it's Allies, the Axis Forces conquered the Earth. The Allies escaped their own world using a newly invented a Portal that was invented by British scientists. When they got transported to Minecraft world, they're scattered. They don't know where's each other so they just went through it. At first, they thought that they're safe here and rebuild their own nations here. But suddenly, the Germans and its Allies, the new Axis Power arrived in Minecraft World

THE COUNTRIES

1.) THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, A Democratic Capitalism-Liberal Country that was formed in 1776 after the American Patriots and French Troops defeated the British in the siege of Yorktown. It's one of the Alliance's major combatants in the war. USA is governed by a President with the Senate of the Republic along with vice president. Its military is consisted of three main branch: US Army, US Navy, and US Air Force

2.) GREAT BRITAIN AND IT'S EMPIRE, A Constitutional Monarchy and World Wide Imperial power that was formed after the English Civil War in 1648 three act of Union between the Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland in the 19th Century. It's one of the Alliance's major combatants in the war. Great Britain along with it's Colony is governed by a King/Queen with the Prime Minister along with the Dukes of Wellington. Its military is divided into 6 Aerial Military branches: the British Armed Forces for mainland Great Britain. the ANZAC Forces for Australia and New Zealand, the Indian Armed Forces for India, the Canadian Armed Forces for Canada, Middle East Forces for British Territory in the Middle East, and the South African Forces for South Africa. Its Military is divided into 3 Military branches which were the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force but the main branches are the British Army, the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force

3.) SOVIET UNION (SOVETSKIY SOYUZ), A Single-Party Communist and Socialist Country that was formed in 1919 after the victory of the Bolsheviks against the Republicans in the Russian Civil War. It's one of the Alliance's major combatants in the war. Soviet Union is governed by a Secretary of the Communist Party and a Premier. Its military is consisted of three main branches: the Red Army (Armiya), the Red Navy (Flot), and the Red Air Force (Vozdushnyye Sily)

4.) FREE FRENCH REPUBLIC (REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE LIBRE), A Democratic Liberal Country that was formed in 1940 after the Germans invaded France in 1940 and occupied France. It has its Fascist Counterpart which is the Vichy France. the Free French is governed by a President along with the vice president and prime minister. Its military is consisted of three main branches: FFI Army (La Armée), FFI Navy (La Marine), and FFI Air Force (La Aviation)

5.) KINGDOM OF ITALY (REGNO D'ITALIA), A Constitutional Monarchy that was formed after the Italian War of Independence against the Austrians in 1848 and unification in 1870. It has its Fascist Counterpart which is the Socialist Republic of Italy. the Italian Kingdom is governed by a King/Queen with Prime Minister and the Dukes of Aosta. Its military is consisted of three main branches: the Royal Italian Army (Regina Esecirto), the Royal Italian Navy (Regina Marina), and the Royal Italian Air Force (Regina Avizione)

6.) UNITED CHINA (Zhōngguó liánhé), a Multi-Party Democratic Country that was formed in 1945 after the Japanese invaded North China in 1945 as all political forms in China (Nationalist, Communist, Warlords) banded together as one, forming the United China. China is governed by a Generalissimo and a Premier. Its military is consisted of three main branches: the United Army (Jūnduì), the United Navy (Hǎijūn), and the United Air Force (Kōngjūn)

THE AXIS ORDER

BRIEF HISTORY

The Axis Order is a Military Alliance Order formed by Fascist and Totaliterist Country to oppose the United Alliance. It was formed after the victory of their Predecessor, The Axis Tripartite against the Allied Forces. The Axis Order is mostly dominated by Fascist Ideology which means that their Alliances are stronger than their Democratic Counterpart, The United Alliance. After the German's last military campaign against the remaining Allied Forces in Scotland, they found zero Allied Troops. They're gone nowhere. Then they found the Transportation device. the Germans concluded that the Allied Forces has escaped through the portal to an unknown world. The Axis high command decided to pursue the Allies and wipe out their remnants. They're afraid that the Allies might return with stronger numbers and highly advanced weaponry to free Earth from their regime

THE COUNTRIES

1.) NAZI GERMANY THE THIRD REICH (DAS DRITTE REICH DER DEUTSCHLAND), a Fascist Socialist Country that was formed in 1933 after the NSDAP won the General Election and took over the Government when Adolf Hitler was elected as Chancellor. It's one of the major combatants of the Axis. Germany is governed by a Fuhrer and a Chancellor. Its military is consisted of three main branch: Wechramt (Army), Kriegsmarine (Navy), and Luftwaffe (Air Force)

2.) IMPERIAL JAPANESE EMPIRE (Teikoku Nihon), a Traditional Imperial Power and a Fascist Monarchy that was formed in 1868 after the Meiji Restoration. It's one of the major combatants of the Axis. Japan is governed by an Emperor and a Prime Minister. Its military is consisted of three main branch: the Imperial Army (Gun), the Imperial Navy (Kaigun), and the Imperial Air Force (Kūgun)

3.) SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ITALY (REPUBBLICA SOCIALISTA D'ITALIA), a Fascist Socialist Country that was formed after the rescue of Duce Benito Mussolini in 1944 from the Royalist and the Allies. Fascist Italy is governed by a Duce and a Prime Minister. Its military is consisted of three main branch: Black Shirts (Army), Red Shirts (Navy), and White Shirts (Air Force)

4.) FINNISH SOCIALIST REPUBLIC (SUOMEN SOSIALISTINEN TASAVALTA), a Socialist Independent Country that was formed in 1941 after the Winter War against the Soviet Union and the election of Mannerheim as the Supreme Leader. Finland is governed by a Supreme Leader and General Secretary. Its military is consisted of three main branches: the Army (Armeija), the Navy (Laivasto), the Air Force (Ilmavoimat)

5.) FRANCOIST SPAIN (ESPAÑA FRANCESA), a Socialist Dictatorial Country that was formed in 1930 after the victory of Francoists in the Spanish Civil War against the Republicans. Spain is governed by a Caudillo and a Prime Minister. Its Military is consisted of three main branches: the Army (Ejército), the Navy (Armada), and the Air Force (Fuerza Aerea)

Chapter 1: Awkward Situation

(M.Jesse POV)

    I was in Beacontown after the Disaster that the Admin aka Romeo caused. Everyone were rebuilding their homes or the other facilities. After all that, i invited Jack and Nurm to join the new order of the stone and they accepted it gratefully. another new thing to one of my friend who was also my former enemy and former member of the old order, Ivor... He's apparently a ninja now (also he almost killed me). with that ninja suit and diamond katana, he's kinda awesome. Although Alchemist and Ninjas are kind of a weird skill combination but a deadly one too. Lukas was also helping Beacontown's peoples to rebuilt their home, my sister Jess, assisted him on that task too so that he'll have his job easier

    I was standing outside the order's temple on it's outside garden, watching Beacontown. That's when Petra come to the temple and walked to me

"Hey, Jesse!" Petra said calling me and waving at me

"Oh! Hey, Petra. What's up?" I replied, waving at her

"Nah, I was going to buy some Materials for Lukas and Jess for the Renovation Project" Petra said, she placed her hands on her hips "So...Everything's okay?" Petra asked

"Yeah,it's fine. I mean Look at all this!" I exclaimed gesturing the Town, she looked at the direction i gestured "Everything's back to the way it is" i sighed happily

"Yeah, you're doing great job Mr-um...Mayor" Petra joked, grinning

"Ha Ha Very Funy. And please don't call me 'Mayor'!" i said sarcasticly

"Yeah sure, why not huh?" Petra said, chuckling "Romeo got his redemption chance, went to find Xara, and everything's back to normal" i said

"Heh, i actually got bad felling that he will make up with Xara in a 'not easy way' since she was acting so much like a...Lunatic" Petra said, chuckling

"Yeah, me too" i said, chuckling. Petra then looking at the skies

"Oh yeah, i have to go! Job Calling! later, Jesse!" Petra said waving at me as she turned away from me

    Petra was about to walk away from the garden and on that time she didn't realize there are banana skin on the ground. She slipped on it and She start yelling 'Gah!'. At that time, i ran to her side and quickly caught her in my arm. Thats when Petra opened her eyes. I realized that we're both are blushing and gazing at each other in the eyes

    At the same time, Radar comes out from the temple. He was looking at the job list i gave him. He didn't realized that we were in front of him until

"Asking anyone that in need for suplies-check! Checking facility dama-whoa!" Radar said, surprised when he looked up from the job list and looked at US "I gu-guess i i- i should leave you two a-alone. So-sorry boss!". He quickly left the garden and going off to do his Jobs

    After that i released Petra to let her stand on her feet

"So-sorry about that" i said blushing with averted eyees

"No, it's fine. i have to go!" Petra said, blushing too. She then leave the garden quicklu. i cleared my thoughts from the early event as i quickly walking away from the Garden and heading towards Ivor's lava pad. I remembered that he had something to tell

   It was the most embarassing thing in my life. But, i have to admit that i have a crush on her for a very long time. but you know what? if theres another thing, my sister even had a crush on Lukas. I always teased her with Lukas and she always teased me back with Petra. I wonder when Lukas will get her

    When i was on the way to Ivor's Lava Pad, i Saw six odd looking peoples wearing Brown Hoods. They're carrying some sort of weird weapons that i couldn't describe. They looked really suspicious. I don't like it, at all. But, nah... Must be usual weird Beacontowners who had their own weird but awesome styles and creativities. I ignored them as i continued to walk towards Ivor's lava pad

   After a short walk towards Ivor's lava pad, i finally arrived at Ivor's lava Pad. I climbed the ladder and knocked the door 3 times. Then i heard someone from inside the Door

"Coming!" the voice said which is Ivor's voice. Then the door opened to reveal a Man with Ninja style Black Hair and Beard and in his usual Alchemist Clothing/Order of the Stone clothing not his Ninja outfit

"Jesse! Glad you could Made it here!"

Chapter 2: Ivor's Intel

{M.Jesse POV}

"Jesse! You're here" Ivor's said happily when he opened the door

"Yeah, Hi Ivor!" I greet him, waving at him

"Hey! Come on in, Jesse!" He said as gestured for me to come in as we head inside the Pad's Living room

Then we sat on the living room Chairs. I don't know what's so important that he call me to his Lava Pad. But i think it's something very important. Maybe? I dunno

"So, Ivor what is it?" I asked him

"Oh, Okay. Straight to the point ey? I just got a juicy report from my informant that theres something suspicios and new on the eastern area of the town. Its looks a lot like a Huge City, but it looks bigger and wider than Beacontown or Champion city combined. That city looks like it had so many advanced and unknown technology different from the redstone system because the City itself was powered by some sort of Incredible powe source that wasn't found in this world and apparently they're a new existence" Ivor explained to me. Hmmm, that's odd, i don't remember that theres a City or Something else on the East. All i remember on the East was Romeo's ice palace. Grrr, that Place gives me the Breeze

"Wait! I thought Theres nothing in the east except Romeo's palace" I said to him. He chuckled as he slumped back on his seat

"Hah! Told you! Odd isnt it?" Ivor suddenly exclaimed. I nod my head. Is there any more info from Ivor about this so called 'city'? Well, i guess i had to find out

"Okay, are there any more information ?" I asked him again. He clasped his hands together and then continued

"Okay! from what i suspect that Civilization in there is not a very friendly civilization that you usually live on" Ivor said a little creepy

"What do you mean with 'not very friendly', Ivor? " I asked him, confused. Wait, did he means that this City are full of Criminals? Theres no way one huge city are filled with Criminals right? That was the craziest thing that i've ever heard in my life

"Well, in there... Lots of the City's Population were armed with some sort of Weapons" Ivor explained again

"What kind of weapons?" I asked him. Now i'm really curious

"I'm not sure. The weapons looked like some sort of combination of iron and Wood. This weapon work like bow but this weapon work is very simple from what" Ivor informed, stroking his beard

"Wait a minute, i saw some odd looking Peoples brought the exact weapon that you mentioned" i told him. Ivor just blinked

"You Saw someone with that kind of weapons?" Ivor asked, blankly

"Yes, right in front of the Beacon Shop"i told him

"Hmm, well my friend, i think we need to do some Investigation. We don't wanted any invited guest to come and obelirate us" Ivor suggested. I chuckled at him

"Maybe you're right. I will tell Radar to hire Four Volunteers for the scout" i said

"Thats a good idea" Ivor commented

{No one's POV}

While M.Jesse and Ivor talking, The mysterious group that was standing outside the Beacon Shop earlier opened their cloak to reveal middle aged mens wearing Red Berrets are watching from long distance with a Binoculatar. The group then went to report the conversations to their leader. The group packed their Gears back and went for their boss place

"They'll figured out who will they opposed"

{Female Jesse's POV}

I was in the garden looking at the view. It was a beautiful and calm around here. The wind blows calmly, the Parrots are chirping, and the various kinds plants fills the garden. When i was there, i couldn't help but think of someone, Lukas. He's helping the peoples of Beacontoen to rebuilt the town since he was the expert of Buildings. After the incident with Romeo, My Brother have been rebuilding the town with the help of Lukas while he was writing his revisions book. At that time i was starring at the sun, i was thinking about him. What is this feelings? I'm sooo confused. And then something i didnt expect happpened, Lukas walking from the back of the garden towards me

"Hey, Jesse!" Lukas said greeting me

"Oh, hi Lukas! Uhhh, what are you doing here?" I said, greeting him

"Nothing, just you know. Checking on you"Lukas said, trying to play it cool

"Oh, i'm fine, Lukas. Thanks for asking though" I said smiling at him

"Nah, it always nice to see you smile" He said smiling back. Okay, that was sweet of him...wait what!?

"Yeah..... By the way, do you know wheres my brother?" I asked him. Changing the Topic and i really do curious what's my brother doing during this time

"He's with Ivor. Discussing about something. It must be important that he only called Jesse"he answered

"I wonder what are they discussing about looking at the sky"i said

"Yeah, me neither" Lukas replied, patting his back

"So Lukas, you wanna sit here?" Invited him to take the empty seat next to me. He smiled

"Oh sure sure" he said as he sits next to me

"Its a wonderful day today, huh?" he said looked at the sky

"Yeah it is" i said, looking at the sky too

"Your brother knows how to make this town fired up and full of joy" Lukas said

"Yeah, he's the best brother that anyone could have" i said

"Its good to have a brother, Huh?" Lukas asked me

"Yeah, it is" i said. then i frowned remembering how annoying is my Brother "but, sometimes he's really annoying" i muttered

"Well, He's your Brother" Lukas said, chuckling. i sighed

"You're right" I said, with a nervous grin

At that time i felt like we gazed at each other's eyes. Its kinda awkward. I felt like we're gazing at each other for about minutes before SOMEONE startled us by yelling at us

"Ahem, So lovebirds!" A voice that we all know and recognized yelled at us, making us startled. we looked away from each Petra who's smirking upon us

"Petra!!!" I exclaimed in shock and embaresment as blushed. When i looked at Lukas, somehow he was blushing too but he glanced away his gaze from me

"Hehehehe sorry, Lovebirds" Petra teased. Okay, this is really embarrasing. Petra... WHY!?

Chapter 3: Embarrassing Interruption

{Petra's POV}

Man! i really made Lukas and F.Jesse embarassed. They both are blushing like mad right now because of my sudden appearance. They both are gazing at each other and i kinda wanna to tease them again. I laughed soo hard from their embarasment until i apologized at them

"Hahahaha, okay okay i'm sorry" i apologized to them even though i'm still laughing

"Apology accepted" Female Jesse sighed, still blushing a little

"Ummm, girls. By the way i need to go back to my shack. I need to rewrite my book. Later you girls!" Lukas said still blushing as he walked away

"Uh, okay. Later!" F.Jesse said as she waved at him. When he's out of our sight, i walked up to her

"So how's you doing Miss.Vice Mayor?" I said, smirking. While nudging her shoulder

"Petra, please don't do that again" F.Jesse said, huffed

"Pffft, fine. Jack and Nurm calling your brother. Did you see him?" I asked her

"Oh, yeah. My brother now is with Ivor. They both are in Ivor's lava pad" F.Jesse answered her

"Ivor? Oh man, what is he doing with your brother by the way?" I asked, placing my hands on my hips. F!Jesse shrugs

"I don't know, but it seems important. Thats why he called my brother" F.Jesse said

"Yes, i think so. But hey! let's eat. I bought twelve pumpkin pie" I said with pulling out twelve pumpkin pie that i prepared for everyone that i brought earlier in the Bakery

"Yeah, i will wait for my brother and Lukas to arrive her. You can go inside first" F.Jesse told me. I nod

"Oh,okay then. I'll go inside first" i said as i walked inside to the temple's dining room. I sit on the nearest chair and i place the pie on the table. I'm gonna wait everyone to be here so we can eat them together like the old times and with new some of our new found friends: Jack, Nurm, Err Stella. I looked at the picture in the dining room, the picture it was all of us the new order of the stone. The Jesse twins is in the middle, i was next to Male Jesse, Lukas was next to Female Jesse, Axel was next to Lukas, Olivia was next to me, and... Ivor is on the top of the Jesse twins. That makes me happy y'know remembering the old days

At that time, The Jesse twins and Ivor got in to the dining room.

"Hey Petra!" Male Jesse said, waving at me

"Oh, hey M.Jesse!" I said, waving at him

He sits right next to me, while Ivor sit next to Male Jesse and F.Jesse sits right next to Ivor

"Where are the others?" Ivor asked

"They'll be here just in a few minute" I said

"Lukas willl be here riding his horse. So i think he will get here earlier than the others" F.Jesse told us. We all nod in understanding

"Jack and Nurm still working for their new maps, but they said they'll will be get here soon" I told them. Earlier in Jack's podium, i saw them working on a couple of maps

"Stella still running champion city, meanwhile Axel and Olivia are walking here from Boomtown and Redstonia" M.Jesse tolds

"Okay then, we'll just wait for them..." Ivor said a little Grumpy

"Ivor, don't get too Grumpy" I responded

"Who's 'grumpy' huh?" Ivor said sarcastictly

"And... You two still holding grudge each other. Could you two please stop doing that?" F.Jesse tried to divide us. Male Jesse is only grinned

"Okay, fine. Geez" I said in a sigh

"Heh, particullary the same Petra and Ivor we know" Male Jesse said laughing

{Lukas POV}

    I was at my Stable in my house. I already Prepared my horse for the ride after seeing F.Jesse and i got embarassed by Petra. We're going for a dinner today where everyone is in the temple. I quickly mount my horse, Mickey and horse raiding towards Beacontown

When i was riding towards the temple, i Saw someone in a blue hood talking with five other guys wearing the same blue hood. These... group of Strangers looks looked very suspicious cuz' they bring lots of weapon like a sword and couple of TNT with some sort of tool that was look like something i know from a book that i read before. I think it was a gun, some sort of Bow i think. But those things are super rare from what i know. How did they even got them?

I continued horse riding towards the temple in like 5 minutes and i arrived at the temple earlier. I got in to the temple and went inside the dining room. When i got in, Everyone were having conversations there. But They didn't even start eating the Foods on the table. I guess they're waiting for me huh?

"Hey, Everyone!" i greet everyone, waving my hand

"Hey Lukas!" everyone replied, waving their hands

Chapter 4: Meet n' Greet

{Lukas POV}

"Hello Everyone!" I said when i got inside the dining room

"Oh, hey Lukas!" Female Jesse said, smiling. Which makes me really nervous remembering about the previous event

"Hey Lukas, finally you Made it here! And real quick, dude" Male Jesse exclaimed

"Yeah, i rode my horse. So that's why i was here so fast" i said, scratching my back

"Blonde Guy, Long time no see!" Ivor Exclaimed, why is he still calling me like that!?

"Oh hey, Ivor" I greeted him

"Hey take a seat, writter!" Petra said gesturing to the empty seat near Female Jesse

"Okay" i said as i walk towards the empty seat to sit next to Female Jesse which makes me a little bit nervous (and of course Awkward)

"Where's everyone by the way? I didn't see em" I asked them

"Oh, They're on the way here. They just need to do some of their job quickly" Male Jesse aswered me

"Oh, okay then" I responded. I looked at the sun clock. It's already afternoon

An hours later, everyone has arrived in the room. The new members and our companion even here too. We were having a nice dinner, lots of friendships things, and conversations. But then after the dinner Male Jesse, Ivor, Jack and I were talking in the treasure room while the Girls were still in the dining room

"Well, that was some nice dinner, Jesse. Glad you invited us all" I said to M!Jesse

"Yeah, it's nice to be regrouping and assembling new member by dinner and gettin' to know each others too" Male Jesse said. I then glanced at Ivor

"Umm, Ivor why are you always wearing your Ninja suit? Even at Dinner?" I asked Ivor, Confused by why's he wearing that Outfit rather than his old Outfit. He sighed

"I already told you! from now on i'm a Ninja!" He said as he showed us some of his cool ninja moves

"Nice Moves you got there, Ivor" Jack said, giving him a thumb

"Yeah, Ivor. And please don't pull your smoke boom and throw it at us. Its stunk" Male Jesse warned him by pointing a finger at him

"Hah! I wouldn't" He said winked "Maybe" he smirked. M!Jesse looked annoyed by him but nevertheless he ignored him

"All things have changed again. Thanks to you M.Jesse, All the members reunited and we got some new members. Who knows what adventures that will comes" I said to M.Jesse

"Yep, I'm doing this for everyone" M.Jesse said, Jack smirked at him

"Ohhh, are there some love here? Because i can sniff it from here" Jack said smirking to M.Jesse. M.Jesse sighed

"Okay Jack, you got me. I have a crush on Petra. Happy?" M.Jesse said casually

"Hah! I knew it! My Ninja skill can even senses it too!" Ivor said, laughing

"Geez, please stop doing that. Don't tease M!Jesse!" I said trying to defend M.Jesse

"Okay, fine" Ivor said scratching his neck, then he turned to look serious "By the way Its time for the 'business' , M.Jesse" Ivor said changing the conversations

"Oh, yeah right! About that..." Male Jesse said, nervously

"May i ask what's this Business is?" Jack asked them both curiously. i'm also curious about this 'Business'

"Yeah, what is it?" I Asked them both, curiously

"So here what i was gonna say, We're planning for... The Order's Night off! Since we have to work hard everyday. So, why not taking a little Night off eh?" Ivor said excidetly

"Wow, thats cool" Jack said, sounding enthusiastic

"Yeah, totally" i agreed

"But, where are we going to spend our Night's off?" Jack asked them

"Oh, we're gonna watch the newest movie on Beacontown's theater" Ivor told us

"Yeah, the newest movie is all about us.'The Hero of Beacontown', that was the title of the movie" Male Jesse explained

"Thats great. All the member will be in the movie" i said, totally in for this Movie Night "Then why you didn't tell the girls?" i asked them curiously

"Yeah, why?" Jack said, curiously

"Because y'know? Girls like surprises. Obviously" Ivor answered me with a 'duh' expression

"Whoa, you got some surprises there Ivor" I complimented him

"Yeah, because i'm a Ninja now" He said. Then he looked at the Sun Clock "Oh it's good bye time! see you later at my Pad's 08.00 PM! SMOKE BOMB!" Ivor said as he dissapeared with his smoke bomb. But when the smokes are cleared, i Saw him at the exit

"Ack! You just Saw nothing..." he whispered as he sprinted like a Ninja to go back to his 'lovely' Lava Pad or so called 'Home

"Heh, the same o' Ivor but with a pinch of Ninja-ish" Male Jesse said, chuckling

"Yeah, whoo" I said, swaying away the smokes

"Welp, glad thats over with. i have to go back first to my Podium. Nurm is currently taking care of the podium while i was gone with Archie. See ya at Ivor's pad" Jack said as he waves at us

"See ya!" Male Jesse and I waved him goodbye at him as he go out the temple

"Heh, it's sure nice to make the order's having some fun huh? " I said, chuckling

"Yeah, I'm doing this for everyone" Male Jesse said

"Yeah thats the right thing to reunited everyone. For your Friends and Families" I said, patting him

"Yeah Lukas. Let's go find Radar" Male Jesse said as he walked away to the door followed by me

"Yeah" I said. As we went to find Radar

Chapter 5: The Incident

{Male Jesse POV}      After all those Conversations and Hanging out, it's finally nightime, we all are going to watch the movie about us at the Beacontown's theater. we already book private seats there         I was wearing my white T-Shirt, my sister was wearing a red T-Shirt, Petra was wearing a Blue T-shirt, Lukas was wearing his Shirt covered by his black skin jacket, Ivor was wearing black shirt with ties, Harper was wearing brown jacket covering her shirt, Jack was wearing a new blue vest, Nurm was wearing white sweater and as always, his green Emerald fedora. I'm currently fixing my messy hair with everyone at the Cinema

"You guys ready?" I asked everyone as i finish fixing my hair

"We're ready!" everyone said in unison

"Okay, then let's go!" I said, they replied with nods as we head inside the Cinema to watch the movie. I hope it's a great movie

    We were having a lots fun when we were watching our own history reenacted by profesional actors and actress. I must admit that the Movie is good, detailed, made in perfection, and clearly specific of telling our life and struggles. We all laughed hysterically when we watch some funny scenes but we went silent and sad when we watch the death of Reuben...especially for me and my sister, we really miss him. But his death is not in vain. He helped us saving the world from Evil

     At 12.00 pm the Movie was finally over and we all are going back home. when we were about to go home, Ivor and Harper are already excused themself and leave for Ivor's Pad. Then, I see the same suspicious hooded figure placing something that has 10 buttons of 10 numbers with a black screen displaying 00:00 near the cinema. He then pushed several number turning the number displayer into 00.20. When that guy leaves, curious, i walked straight to inspect the thing he placed there

"Hmmm, what is this?" I mumbled to myself as i inspected the thing

"Bro! What are you doing?" My sister said approaching me

"Yeah, we have to go back home! It's already late y'know" Petra said approaching me after my sister

"Yeah, didn't you got your duty tommorow?" Lukas said approaching me too behind them

"Yeah, you're right. Let's head home, guys!" I said as iwalked away from the thing. After i stepped away from that thing. I realized that thing make a some sort of *beep* sounds and then exploded. We quickly jumped for cover from the explosion

*Boom noise*

"What the!?" I said shocked while i feel my ears are hurt from the explosion

"That thing exploded!?" Petra said holding her arm. Looks like the explosion got her arm wounded

"Petra! Are you all right?" I asked her with concern

"I'm Fine, Jesse. it's just my arm getting hurt from that" she assured me

"Okay but we'll need to heal your arm okay?" I said, she nooded "okay" she replied

"Look!" Lukas exclaimed pointing at the injured peoples that caught the explosion

"We need to help them!" My sister said pointing at the injured peoples

"Yeah" Lukas said as he went with my sister to help the injured people

"What was that all about, Jesse?" Petra asked, a bit worried

"I think...i think this guy... I don't know who he is...he just placed...that thing and then again...that guy was the one who me and Ivor gotten...  really Suspicious of" i said, between pantings

"What!? So this guy? he had some sort of a revenge on you?" Petra asked me, slightly confused

"I-I dunno. that guy is what we were talking about in Ivor's pad. And he just-" i said when a bottle was thrown out of  nowhere and land nearby. Inside the bottle was a letter

"Huh!?" Petra said as she looked at the letter inside the bottle

    I quickly picked up the letter from inside the bottle, scrolled it out and began to read it "Hero in residence, Jesse. This is the man who set that explosion. If you read this, go to the Royal Inn cafe at the Badluck alley. Thats where you can find me and my groups. We're not bad guys, we set up that bomb for...well Its classified. I apologize for the injury that i caused. So whatever the bloody hell are you doing, just meet me at the Inn. We will explain everything to you. Sincerely, John."

"Hey, Petra. This is the letter from the guy that had set up the bomb" I told Petra while showing the letter to her

"What!? Let me see it!" She said as she took the letter and examined the letter "John? He was that Inn owner!" Petra told me as she finished examining the letter

"Inn owner!?" I asked Petra, shocked

"Yeah, that's where i bought pies daily" Petra replied

"Should we meet him?" I asked Petra. She shrugged, unsure of what to say to me but then she replied

"Yeah, i think so...but you should tell the others!" Petra said as she handed me back the letter

"You're right, let's go!" I said as we went back home. Well, for me to the Order's temple and Petta to her own place. I'll talk about this to everyone because it seems important. Well, let's just wait for tommorow because i'm so tired right now

[thisdayinwwi]

Dec 10 1916 in WWI

During the Battle of Rufiji Delta SMS Königsberg was cornered by the British Royal Navy and sunk. Its guns were salvaged by the German commander Lettow-Vorbeck for his successful East African land campaign.

Dec 10 1916 IWM (SP 967) “Wreck of the German cruiser KONIGSBERG in the Rufigi River Delta, German East Africa, seen from HMS SEVERN’s motor boat” December 10 1916 Production date 1916-12-10

IWM (SP 975 ) “The boat party from the British monitor HMS SEVERN sailing along the Rufigi River en route for the wrecked German vessel KONIGSBERG.”

Bild 105-DOA3013

[kitzatara]

DC Pirate AU

(I got struck with the pirate need and since y’all liked the god goddess one I did. I figured I’d share this as well). LONG POST I’M SORRY! I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO THE KEEP READING CUT ON MOBILE.

In this world it’s pirates vs the monarchy. The pirates have established bases and territory on relatively small islands on a route that is well traveled. Despite numerous efforts by the royal navy, the pirates have managed to continuously defeat royal forces. Many commoners and civillians whisper that the pirates have more than guns, canons, and ships in their favor but who can really be certain?

The isles:

ATLANTIS: Smack in the center of pirate territory is the partially submerged fortress of atlantis. Despite being partiality submerged, it is fairly large and navigating it is treacherous. Stone towers and chunks of wall hover just below the surface ready to smash the underbelly of privateer ships. Despite several raids with canon fire the fortress remains intact. Some privateers claim canon never reaches the stone. Others say the stone won’t crack. More say it’s as if a great invisible dome protects it. Kaldur is the young pirate who rules there, the ruler of atlantis.

LIGHTNIN’ ISLAN’: Slightly to the East of Atlantis is a stretch of island with a passing resemblance to a lightning bolt. It’s also known for constant thunderstorms above it. The legends say no one but a pirate can set foot on the island. And that deep within its evergreen forest lies miles of buried treasure, defended by the red lightning spirits and the green ghosts of pirates murdered on the island. The most commonly spotted ghost is a centuries old soldier by the name of Hal Jordan. Him and the reportedly living flashes of lightning keep the faint of heart away.

ANIMAL KINGDOM: a smaller island to the west of Atlantis with multiple sand bars extending from its core. Some call them Anansi’s legs. An african trickster god. It’s nicknamed that due to the african warrior demigoddess who rules the island. Notorious for destroying slaver ships and raiding ports who trade in people. Mari mccabe is called the pirate vixen. Stronger than a whale, more ruthless than a shark, faster than a marlan, trickier to catch than an octopus. No one dares attack the animal kingdom, those who’ve tried haven’t lived to tell the tale.

SIREN’S ROCKS: To the North East of Atlantis, just past lightnin islan, is a treacherous outcroping of rocks. Littered with the broken remains of foolish ships past. With such a visible reputation you would think sailors would steer clear. But something about those rocks draws men in, maybe it’s the way the wind blows through the rocks and creates a sound like women laughing. Maybe it’s the reported lights that dance through the rocks at night, causing investigating ships to crash before they realize the danger. Maybe it’s the rumor of three beautiful women who bring women to their rocks for safety. Men have tried looking for the alleged women. Now their ships are covered in seaweed and rampant moss.

METAL ISLAND: Further to the North East, is a floating fortress, made of metal. It’s an ominous construction run by the mysterious Victor “Peg-Leg-Stone”. The scariest rumors say the fortress is a ship. With the most canons seen in any naval fleet. Many have tried to contact it. No response has been given. At night the ship glows an eerie red, and canon fire can be heard around it.

MYSTERY ISLE: reports place the island somewhere to the North West of Atlantis and just past Animal Kingdom. But, no one can ever seem to find it. An omnipresent mist surrounds its borders. But even with the previous coordinates it’s nigh impossible to find. Superstitious people say the island tends to move around, and that its lush vibrant jungle is alive. Even more unnerving, it is rumored to be the home of a great and powerful sea witch. Capable of bewitching the sea and tide or bringing you to your fate. Only the most desperate visit the lair of the sea witch Zatanna on her living greed island.

BAT CAVE COVE: Directly North of Atlantis is a peninsula litered with caves. There are said to be thousands of bats that dwell within the caves. But the strangest part is the pirate crw that lives there too. Their ship has sails dark as the night and has a black hull to match. When they sail at sunset no ship can spot them until it’s too late. Even more interesting is the land behind the bat caves. A forest litered with craters. Nicknamed crater forest, many people say it’s the sight where angels fell to the earth. One pirate rumored to be one of these angels s said to jump ships in a single bound, swim faster than fired canon ball. Some who see him turn tail in run instantly except he’s hardly ever seen since he sails with pirates of Bat Cave Cove.

ISLAND OF THE PIRATE QUEEN: Diana, queen of all pirates, most skilled and dangerous dwells on a large Island nestled between two royal territories just South West of Atlantis. They say her only rival in all the seven seas is young Kaldur, many pirates hoping the young ruler of Atlantis will become her successor. Diana commands her own fleet of amazonian pirate women. Much to the royals irritation she is unsinkable, her numbers are unfallable, her fortress impenetrable. She is the only real threat to royal rule and should she unite the pirate ships under her greecian banner than the entire sea couod be lost to pirate rule.

Th Royal Navy:

The highest ranking commanders in the royal navy are Leutinant Alexander Luthor, Major Vandal Savage, Warden Brian Issakson (brainiac) and the Lord Darkseid. Lord of Apokolips Fort, the most highly defended port in all the seas. Doomsday prison is reserved exclusively for pirates and pirate sympathizers where the most brutal torture and murders take place. It lies to the south west, below Atlantis, Animal Kingdom and Mystery Isle. It lies just behind the border of pirate waters and hangs pirates by the dozens as a warning.