#Southampton test

[titanic-honor-and-glory]

112 years ago today: April 2nd, 1912, after 2 years of construction and 10 months of fitting-out, Titanic leaves Belfast for the first and last time for her sea trials and voyage to Southampton. Her trials were scheduled the day before, but high winds prevented it them from happening. The trials consisted largely of basic maneuvers and turns, testing the engines, and adjusting compasses. Once in Southampton, she would spend a week being prepared for her maiden voyage. The preparations include a mad dash to bring aboard things that didn't make it before leaving Belfast, like additional furniture and fittings.

[aviationgeek71]

Short Sunderland GRV RAF 230th Squadron, engine tests at Calshot Southampton

[bethanydelleman]

Northanger Abbey Readthrough, Ch 4

Catherine is fully prepared to meet Mr. Tilney again but he is nowhere to be found! Disaster!

However, good is on the horizon, Mrs. Allen finally finds a friend, Mrs. Thorpe, an old schoolfellow. Austen throws in a great joke:

Their joy on this meeting was very great, as well it might, since they had been contented to know nothing of each other for the last fifteen years.

Austen brings up this again in Mansfield Park, where for all her sisterly love, Mrs. Norris will not put herself in any expense to see her sister:

It had, in fact, occurred to her, that though taken to Portsmouth for nothing, it would be hardly possible for her to avoid paying her own expenses back again. So her poor dear sister Price was left to all the disappointment of her missing such an opportunity, and another twenty years’ absence, perhaps, begun. (Ch 37)

It is such a true thing, a sad thing, that we claim to love people and yet are content to never see them... (Or even write) This is clearly performative friendship, but it happens with real ones too.

I love the "friendship" between Mrs. Allen and Mrs. Thorpe because it is so true to life, they both talk about themselves and really don't listen to the other:

they proceeded to make inquiries and give intelligence as to their families, sisters, and cousins, talking both together, far more ready to give than to receive information, and each hearing very little of what the other said.

Also, Mrs. Allen unable to brag about children contents herself by knowing she has more handsome lace!

So I have heard theories that this whole meeting was planned by the Thorpes, but honestly, the Thorpes are not that good at planning. Also, the childhood acquaintance is real. It seems likely to me that the Thorpes were already going to Bath to husband hunt and John Thorpe planned to bring James, but everything else was a "happy" coincidence.

We meet the three Thorpe sisters:

Her eldest daughter had great personal beauty, and the younger ones, by pretending to be as handsome as their sister, imitating her air, and dressing in the same style, did very well.

This comes much later, but the younger Thorpe sisters are basically clones of Isabella. We hear them talk and it's identical to Isabella. I cannot imagine spending time with this family! I would explode.

Miss Thorpe, however, being four years older than Miss Morland, and at least four years better informed, had a very decided advantage in discussing such points; she could compare the balls of Bath with those of Tunbridge, its fashions with the fashions of London; could rectify the opinions of her new friend in many articles of tasteful attire; could discover a flirtation between any gentleman and lady who only smiled on each other; and point out a quiz through the thickness of a crowd.

Quiz does not mean "a short test" until the 1850s. The word quiz is used a lot in Northanger Abbey and it's current meaning is, "odd person, person or thing deemed ridiculous".

This passage reminds me a lot of a section from Austen's Love and Freindship:

Isabel had seen the World. She had passed 2 Years at one of the first Boarding-schools in London; had spent a fortnight in Bath and had supped one night in Southampton. “Beware my Laura (she would often say) Beware of the insipid Vanities and idle Dissipations of the Metropolis of England; Beware of the unmeaning Luxuries of Bath and of the stinking fish of Southampton.”

In both passages, I believe we are meant to understand that the informant is not actually that informed, they just look worldly to our poor naive heroine.

This passage is a jab at the novel style of the era:

This brief account of the family is intended to supersede the necessity of a long and minute detail from Mrs. Thorpe herself, of her past adventures and sufferings, which might otherwise be expected to occupy the three or four following chapters; in which the worthlessness of lords and attorneys might be set forth, and conversations, which had passed twenty years before, be minutely repeated.

I didn't really understand the reference until I read Belinda by Maria Edgeworth, wherein a character gave a 36 PAGE history of herself. It was very strange to read and not very natural. So good on Austen for realizing that style was terrible.

Also, this much loved quote is so sarcastic:

Catherine was delighted with this extension of her Bath acquaintance, and almost forgot Mr. Tilney while she talked to Miss Thorpe. Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.

Ah yes, her disappointed love of not seeing the guy she danced with for one evening! And her friendship of about 10 minutes.

[clove-pinks]

'H.M. Steam frigate FIREBRAND and the Experimental Squadron': c. 1844-1845 print (NMM).

Detail, with the sails unsurprisingly furled under full steam. Henry Thomas Dundas Le Vesconte referred to Firebrand as "this monster of a steam ship" in an undated 1844 letter to his sister Rose, when he briefly found himself aboard her before joining HMS Superb, also in the Experimental Squadron. Superb makes his official naval biography in O'Byrne (his last ship before joining HMS Erebus), and I believe this letter in the archives of Newfoundland and Labrador is the only proof he spent some time aboard Firebrand.

"ROSE" is written at top right, and Henry begins

My dear Sister, Mamma scolds me for not writing to all of you.  I hope my dear sisters will not attribute it to want of regard for them but first if I write to Papa I know that the letter will be read by all tho so often am I far removed not only from you but from all our friends that I have little to say which can interest nor in common. I have to thank you for some very kind letters while I was away from England, to which you will find I have returned not much improved in fortune but a good deal older yet I fear not much wiser. I am going again but I do not know exactly where. I have been of course anxious to be employed since my return for they sent me on shore on 4S a day.

He offers to sail "with a squadron of new vessels who were to have their respective qualities tested," and is sent to join Superb, but somehow ends up on Firebrand:

I found myself sent to Plyms. to join the Superb. On arriving there I was sent back to get men for her at Portsmouth and as soon as I got back again I was ordered to Plymouth to join the Firebrand steam ship of the first class. The vessel I had previously wished to go out in - this was done in a mistake Sir Wm. G who is good natured but blundering - having fancied that he had promised this appointment to me. I spent three days at Southampton and at [illegible] I might having remained as long as I dared do I left a childrens party at Mrs. Blanchards, I have heard Mamma speak of her, and came alone cold dispirited and miserable to this monster of a steam ship - where I now am.

(Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador)

[veryveryverytemporarily]

He’d stayed with the Southampton Dingles. He hadn’t seen them since he was a kid, but Zac had said they’d look after him, and they did; they fed and watered him and gave him a bed for a couple of nights. They didn’t ask awkward questions and he was grateful for that.

He wore his hood up on the ferry crossing, held a paper cup of weak tea that splashed over his gloved fingers as he watched the black sea slide past the windows.

The hotel room in Newport had a TV and a kettle.

He tested the firm mattress while a life in some parallel universe threw up images; how he’d have come here a thousand times; playing pool in the games room, and the matted dog would have greeted him, laid its chin over his ankle as he drank a pint by the bar.

In the morning on the cold sheets, he stared at the white space of the room, shifted a hand to feel the rise and fall of his chest. Measured the distance now between them, listening to his breathing.

And then he was driving and parking, and through the electronic security gate, frisked and questioned. He signed a form and then metal doors were unlocked ahead of him. He was shown to a table nailed to the floor.

He wet his dry lips at the first motion; a line of grey men in orange harnesses filing into the room, a rush of voices raised in greeting.

In the broken column he caught his first sight of him, taller, blonde hair longer than he’d ever seen, lank locks a dark blonde over pale skin, so that Aaron swallowed at a memory of twisting a fistful of hair wet from lovemaking, specks of blood from bruised lips as their teeth had collided.

And then he was rising to his feet, trying to find a greeting with vocal cords tight like a rope.

Robert’s blue eyes blinking at him, then a voice he’d missed like his own soul spilling through him like honey erasing the missing years, saying;

‘You took your time. Did you miss me?’

[scotianostra]

David (Davy) Blair was born on 11th November 1874 at Broughty Ferry.

Blair was an employee of the White Star Line and had been originally earmarked to sail on The Titanic on it’s maiden voyage to New York, indeed he was second officer on the ship during its trial voyages to test the ship’s seaworthiness and the final journey from its place of construction in Belfast to Southampton, but a change in crewing lists at the last minute saw the second officer from Broughty Ferry taken off the passenger liner.

In his hurry to disembark the ship at Southampton docks, Davy accidently took a locker key with him. It was an innocent oversight, but one that likely contributed to the sinking of the Titanic. The seemingly innocuous key was in fact the key to the cupboard in which the crow’s nest binoculars and telescope were kept locked away. Titanic’s lookouts on that fateful night had no access to binoculars, and failed to spot the iceberg until it was too late.

He sent a postcard to his sister-in-law, writing: “Am afraid I shall have to step out to make room for chief officer of the Olympic. “This is a magnificent ship, I feel very disappointed I am not to make her first voyage… I hope eventually to get back to this ship.” But when he left Titanic on April 9, he would never set foot on it again.

The ship sank on April 15th after striking an iceberg, claiming more than 1,500 lives.

Investigations into the sinking of the Titanic raised lots of questions, including the obvious – why had the iceberg not been seen sooner?

It was believed Davy inadvertently hampered the ability of Titanic’s lookouts during the transatlantic crossing. The official inquiry heard from surviving crew members, lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee.

The pair told the inquiry they would have spotted the iceberg sooner had they had the means to do so.

When questioned how much sooner, Fred replied: “Enough to get out of the way.”

Davy kept the key as a memento and it was considered to be one of the most important artefacts from the Titanic.

He died at the age of 80 in 1955 and the key was passed on to his daughter Nancy.

It later sold at auction for £90,000 in 2007 and the proceeds were used to set up scholarships in Davy’s name.

Davy Blair went on to win gallantry medals later in his career. In 1913, when he was First Officer on the SS Majestic, he jumped 40-foot overboard to help save a crew member from the chilly waters of the Atlantic.

The ship was 700 miles from New York when a stoker from the engine room “rendered temporarily insane by the heat of the stokehold had rushed on deck, and in his frenzy thrown himself into the sea”. Davy, who had just come off duty, heard the commotion and “without a moment’s hesitation” dived from “the dizzy elevation” to the man’s aid.

A report about the rescue in the London Gazette at the time said: “On the morning of 6th May, 1913, whilst the Majestic was in the North Atlantic, a Fireman jumped overboard.

“Vessel was backed to the place where he was supposed to have gone overboard and after some time he was sighted close to the port bow.

“Starboard emergency boat was lowered but Mr Blair, fearing that the boat might not reach him in time, jumped overboard from the port side of the vessel, swam to a lifebuoy which had been thrown overboard, and endeavoured to reach the man with it.

“He did not succeed, but, although weakened by the coldness of the sea, he managed to point out the whereabouts of the man to those in the boat, who rescued him and then picked up Mr Blair.

“There was a fog prevailing at the time and the water was very cold.”

The act of bravery saw him awarded the Sea Gallantry Medal from King George V at Buckingham Palace in 1915 and a medal from the Royal Humane Society.

A total of nine medals awarded to Davy including an OBE, First World War service medals and his Legion d’Honneur – the highest French order of merit.

Pics are of Commander David Blair, and in the second left, packing scientific instruments for an expedition to the South Pacific.

[finishinglinepress]

FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: This body was never made by Tara Propper

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/this-body-was-never-made-by-tara-propper/

This body was never made is a meditation on #grief and its attendant fears surrounding the #body – the body’s frailty, lineage, and legacy. Its #poems paint portraits of #maternal #loss, of a fractured #family, of nature’s eloquence, and of transcendental beauty. While This body was never made does not solve the problem of death, it embraces the “night sounds” that accompany an awareness of the body’s temporality, resolving in the chapbook’s final lines, “There is nothing in this room but shapes of us—amorphous/organs ascending and descending underneath the bed sheets.” In this collection, still-life speaks, seascapes listen, and math provides counsel, reminding us that #life exists before and beyond the body.

Tara Propper has earned her MFA in poetry and PhD in English. Her poetry has appeared in the Southampton Review, Janus Unbound, Literature Today, Ekstasis Magazine, Shuili Magazine, Taj Mahal International Literary Journal, Moveable Type, Vagabond City Press, and P – Queue. Her scholarly work has been published in Composition Forum, Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, and Resources for American Literary Study. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Literature and Languages at the University of Texas at Tyler.

PRAISE FOR This body was never made by Tara Propper

Cerebral, lyrical, witty, loving and grief-worn, Tara Propper’s life-infusing poems in the collection, This body was never made, reveal an immense talent, a rare gift to the world of poetry. In a sky of many, Propper is singular. The poem “Seascape at 4:42 PM” concludes: “One chiseled cloud makes a metonymy/ of itself. Cotton mammals lurk above/ both pure and untrue. /4:43 PM drops/its un-blessings. It’s the ugliest of day–/and most aware.” Propper’s poems are sinuous tracings that unnerve the tick of the clock; a lot happens between 4:42 PM and 4:43 PM, a lot that is “most aware.”

–Star Black, author of three books of sonnets: Waterworn, Balefire, and Ghostwood; a collection of double-sestinas, Double Time; and a book of collaged free verse, October for Idas

Tara Propper’s This body was never made tests the precision and range of mathematical concepts in particular and, more broadly, any intellectual construct we use to understand the stunning input of our senses. Can a fractal describe a pregnant female body? A miscarriage? Rage? Death? This body was never made also tests the language with which we express these concepts, using rhymes, chimes, puns and syntactical play to push words to their limits: “Outnumbered, she let the numb root.” The raw power of these poems comes from the pressure they are under to bridge the rational and the anything but.

–Julie Sheehan, author of Orient Point and Bar Book: Poems and Otherwise and Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Stony Brook University, NY

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems

[unitedbydevils]

Match Review: Manchester United Women 2-0 Brighton and Hove Albion Women

At this point, we might as well just say Nikita Parris rather than United. The girl keeps scoring 😂

For all my criticism of Mark Skinner, the decision to move Parris central and keep Geyse out wide right is paying dividends - with the Liverpudlian doing her best for United and continuing a hot streak of form.

Two goals from the forward in the 9th and 64th minute gave United the win at Leigh Sports Village against a tricky Brighton side who, whilst lacking the same goal threat, still managed to test Mary Earps on a few occasions with difficult stops.

The win keeps United in touching distance of Arsenal in third, and Skinner will need to keep the wins coming in if we're to stay in any sort of Champions League position contest. A title race seems too far from here, especially with Chelsea so resolute. Sam Kerr missing hasn't dulled their potency at all, though perhaps Emma Hayes' departure has them all fired up for a big send off. It's a common motivator...

United travel to Eastleigh next Saturday to face Southampton in the FA Cup, but then it's an away visit to the Emirates on the 17th to face off with Arsenal - a must-win for United.

[trans-advice]

As of April 21, 2023, the following organizations have appointments available for new patients: (quoted from Plume Health)

Planned Parenthood-St. Peters Health Center

Planned Parenthood-West County Health Center

Planned Parenthood-North County Health Center

Planned Parenthood-Springfield Health Center

Planned Parenthood-Joplin Health Center

Planned Parenthood-Independence Health Center

Planned Parenthood-Northland Health Center

Planned Parenthood-Patty Brous Health Center

Southampton Health

Washington University Transgender Center- Center for Advanced Medicine

https://endocrinology.wustl.edu/patient-care/washington-university-transgender-center/

[sh1tpostsupreme]

"Isrealis are indigenous to the land so they are justified."

Since FUCKING WHEN, is being indigenous of a land granting you permission to bomb people who aren't ? I'm not even going to go into the clusterfuck of making it a point whether I know who is or isn't native to Palestine (I clearly don't know as much as historians and specialists who have lived/studied the matter). But do you realise the precedent this is to justify the killing of people by saying that they are, contrary to you, not native? Independently of the situation/context. Are Native Amazonian going to be seen as legitimate if they bomb the street of Rio? Are we going to do a DNA test from the Isle of Skye to Southampton on the population and bomb anybody who isn't of Celtic descent? Are we going to bomb anybody who lives in Sydney, Canberra, Perth, least they are Aboriginal? Are we at that point realizing the ethnic cleansing or are we still pretending? And are we noticing the genocidal precedent that is unfolding and financed by the world's wealthiest governments? As if it benefits them to set such precedent? Fuck this shit.

[airmanisr]

PK683, VS Spitfire F.22, Solent Sky, 01-05-2012 by Gordon Riley Via Flickr: PK683 is a Spitfire F.22 powered by a Griffon engine driving a 5-bladed Rotol propeller. She was assembled at the Vickers-Armstrong plant at South Marston and made her maiden flight on 19 Feb 1946 piloted by Test Pilot, Les Colquhon. She was delivered to the RAF at Lyneham in August 1946 where she was stored until 1950 – finally being sent to the Far East via Sealand and Birkenhead Docks where she was shipped on the SS Pyllhus. Arriving at Seletar in 1951, she was stored by 390 Maintenance Unit before being issued to the Singapore Auxiliary Air Force. An accident in 1952 saw her return to Seletar and in 1954 she was ‘struck off charge’ before being issued to the Malaysian ATC as instructional airframe 7150M. PK683 was subsequently displayed at Kallang and Changi until 1970 when she returned to UK aboard a Belfast of 53 Squadron. After storage at various RAF Depots she was finally issued to No 424 [Southampton] ATC Squadron and displayed at the RJ Mitchell Memorial Museum – moving to the Southampton Hall of Aviation in 1984.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

These sounds are out of this world You may know how other planets look, like the rust orange, dusty surface of Mars or the vibrant teal of Uranus. But what do those planets sound like? Timothy G. Leighton from the University of Southampton in the U.K. designed a software program that produces extraterrestrial environmental sounds and predicts how human voices might change in distant worlds. He will demonstrate his work at the upcoming 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, running May 8-12 at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile Hotel. His presentation will take place Thursday, May 11, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern U.S. in the Chicago room. The presentation is part of a special session that brings together the acoustics and planetary science communities. Acoustical studies became essential during the Huygens lander’s descent into Titan’s atmosphere in 2005 and in the more recent Mars InSight and Mars 2020 missions. These successful missions carried customized active and passive acoustic sensors operating over a wide spectrum, from very low frequencies (infrasound, below the human hearing threshold) to ultrasound (above human hearing). “For decades, we have sent cameras to other planets in our solar system and learned a great deal from them. However, we never really heard what another planet sounded like until the very recent Mars Perseverance mission,” said Leighton. Scientists can harness sound on other worlds to learn about properties that might otherwise require a lot of expensive equipment, like the chemical composition of rocks, how atmospheric temperature changes, or the roughness of the ground. Extraterrestrial sounds could also be used in the search for life. At first glance, Jupiter’s moon Europa may seem a hostile environment, but below its shell of ice lies a potentially life-sustaining ocean. “The idea of sending a probe on a seven-year trip through space, then drilling or melting to the seabed, poses mind-boggling challenges in terms of finance and technology. The ocean on Europa is 100 times deeper than Earth's Arctic Ocean, and the ice cap is roughly 1,000 times thicker,” said Leighton. “However, instead of sending a physical probe, we could let sound waves travel to the seabed and back and do our exploring for us.” Planets’ unique atmospheres impact sound speed and absorption. For example, the thin, carbon dioxide-rich Martian atmosphere absorbs more sound than Earth’s, so distant noises appear fainter. Anticipating how sound travels is important for designing and calibrating equipment like microphones and speakers. Hearing the sound from other planets is beneficial not just for scientific purposes, but also for entertainment. Science-fiction films contain vivid imagery to mimic the look of other worlds but often lack the immersive quality of how those worlds would sound. Leighton’s software will showcase predictions of the sounds of other worlds at planetariums and museums. In the case of Mars, it will include actual sounds thanks to the U.S./European Perseverance team and China’s Zhurong mission. The special session, chaired by Leighton and Andi Petculescu, is the third forum on acoustics in planetary science organized at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. “The success of the first two ASA special sessions on this subject has led to quite a few collaborations between the two communities, a trend that we hope will carry on,” said Petculescu. IMAGE....This illustration depicts Mars helicopter Ingenuity during a test flight on Mars. Ingenuity was taken to the red planet strapped to the belly of the Perseverance rover (seen in the background). CREDIT NASA/JPL-Caltech

[chicago-geniza]

This post will self-destruct but--again, no Bioessentialism, just letting go of feeling like a total Changeling Child--most rewarding part of discovering my adopted dad's biological family is not the curiosity of discovering that my face and coloring and proportions, so at odds with my parents and everyone else, didn't emerge sui generis from the ether, but were just "taking after the Pibworth/Abramowitz side" in addition to my materbal grandma's family--not just that, but. How to phrase this. My dad always couched his feelings of alienation and internal justification for his abuse in terms of being smarter, more intellectually inclined, more cerebral than his adoptive parents. They didn't understand him because they were *stupid*, so his birth parents must have been brilliant. My mom, too, defined her family by their unusual intelligence, their ingenuity, their exceptional facility for languages, math, my grandmother's renowned eidetic memory that made dementia all the more excruciating for her, my grandfather's ability to take apart and reassemble a radio or a computer or a camera on intuition alone. My cousins and sisters all tested into G&T programs or magnet schools, and I flunked every test; I ended up in remedial math and part-time special ed with occupational therapy. But! MY DAD'S FAMILY, AT LEAST ON HIS MOM'S SIDE, ARE JUST LIKE THIS. his probable bio dad seems clever, very sly expression, went to pharmacy college. but his mom's family are so fucking stupid. one guy died after touching an electrocuted railway spike at his job labeled DO NOT TOUCH & then his son died. the exact same way. like. down to the detail. my bio grandma's brother moved to australia & his descendants wrote an indignant letter to the guardian about not being let into a football match in southampton because they bought tickets for the wrong day, claiming time zone discrimination because they bought the tickets in australia. i'm not the sole aberration like a record scratch disrupting a multigenerational glissando of intellectuals, i am ALSO descended from honest, hard-working idiots!

[scotianostra]

David (Davy) Blair was born on 11thNovember 1874 at Broughty Ferry.

Another post with very little detail, well nothing really on Mr Blair’s life before the events that would forever  give him his place in history.

Blair was an employee of the White Star Line and had been originally earmarked to sail on The Titanic on it’s maiden voyage to New York, indeed he was second officer on the ship during its trial voyages to test the ship’s seaworthiness and the final journey from its place of construction in Belfast to Southampton, but was told at the 11th hour he wasn’t going.

Bosses at White Star Line decided Henry Wilde, the experienced chief officer of the Titanic’s sister ship the Olympic, should be transferred instead.

As a result everybody was moved down a rank but Mr Blair was deemed too senior to take up the position of third officer and was tasked to another ship. He wrote on a postcard home at the time  

‘Am afraid I shall have to step out to make room for chief officer of the Olympic. This is a magnificent ship, I feel very disappointed I am not to make her first voyage.’

Blair having a lucky escape is not the end of the story though,  which is only one of many lucky escapes of people who sailed on the doomed liner, it is a much  more tragic tale.

In his haste, the story goes, he forgot to hand over the key to his replacement so the lookouts were left without the use of binoculars.

One lookout, Fred Fleet, who survived the sinking, told the official inquiry that if they had had binoculars they would have seen the iceberg sooner. When asked how much sooner, Fleet replied: “Enough to get out of the way.”

According to legal expert Gary Slapper, though, Blair’s “forgetfulness wasn’t a material reason for the disaster” as there were other causes and in Blair’s defence it was said 'Blair would have been rushing about tidying up his loose ends before then.  In his rush it slipped his mind to hand over the key so the fate of the Titanic was in his hands in a round-about way.

'But in terms of blame then you have to look at the captain, EJ Smith. The ship was going too fast in an ice field which he had warnings about. 'There was a pair of binoculars on the bridge and a pair for the crows nest because Blair had them just days before.

'But the failure to provide the lookouts with them could have been down to not knowing where they were. He would have found them had he been able to open the locker. So in the end all the lookouts had were their own eyes.’

To me I find it incredulous that there would only be one pair of binoculars on the ship. ,ost films I have seen there is someone looking out from the bridge of a ship holding a pair, but anyway....

Blair kept the Titanic key to the box as a memento and eventually passed it on to his daughter Nancy. The key and postcard were sold at auction in 2007, fetching £90,000 and £17,000 respectively.

Davy Blair later served on  RMS Oceanic when it ran aground in 1914. As the navigator, Blair received the blame for the grounding at the resulting enquiry, he died on 10th January 1955 in Hendon, Middlesex.

[ocelotrevs]

I wouldn't be so pissed off if Arsenal weren't at the top of the league for the majority of this season.

All this talk about "our goal was top 4" is pissing me off. My goal at the start of every season is to win the title.

This is the closest we've been to winning the title for so long, and we passed so many tests. But flopping against West Ham and Liverpool and then barely escaping with a point against the bottom of the table Southampton is hard to take.

If we won those games, we would still be in control of our own destiny as we'd have had the momentum.

Fucking hell.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.10

428 – Nestorius becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople. 837 – Halley's Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles). 1407 – Deshin Shekpa, 5th Karmapa Lama visits the Ming dynasty capital at Nanjing and is awarded the title "Great Treasure Prince of Dharma". 1500 – Ludovico Sforza is captured by Swiss troops at Novara and is handed over to the French. 1545 – The settlement of Villa Imperial de Carlos V (now the city of Potosí) in Bolivia is founded after the discovery of huge silver deposits in the area. 1606 – The Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America. 1710 – The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force in Great Britain. 1717 – Robert Walpole resigns from the British government, commencing the Whig Split which lasts until 1720. 1741 – War of the Austrian Succession: Prussia gains control of Silesia at the Battle of Mollwitz. 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: The War of the Fifth Coalition begins when forces of the Austrian Empire invade Bavaria. 1815 – The Mount Tambora volcano begins a three-month-long eruption, lasting until July 15. The eruption ultimately kills 71,000 people and affects Earth's climate for the next two years. 1816 – The Federal government of the United States approves the creation of the Second Bank of the United States. 1821 – Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople is hanged by the Ottoman government from the main gate of the Patriarchate and his body is thrown into the Bosphorus. 1821 – Greek War of Independence: the island of Psara joins the Greek struggle for independence. 1826 – The 10,500 inhabitants of the Greek town of Missolonghi begin leaving the town after a year's siege by Turkish forces. Very few of them survive. 1858 – After the original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonnes (32,000 lb) bell for the Palace of Westminster, had cracked during testing, it is recast into the current 13.76 tonnes (30,300 lb) bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry. 1864 – Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg is proclaimed emperor of Mexico during the French intervention in Mexico. 1865 – American Civil War: A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time. 1866 – The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh. 1868 – At Arogee in Abyssinia, British and Indian forces defeat an army of Emperor Tewodros II. While 700 Ethiopians are killed and many more injured, only two British/Indian troops die. 1872 – The first Arbor Day is celebrated in Nebraska. 1875 – India: Arya Samaj is founded in Mumbai by Swami Dayananda Saraswati to propagate his goal of social reform. 1887 – On Easter Sunday, Pope Leo XIII authorizes the establishment of the Catholic University of America. 1896 – 1896 Summer Olympics: The Olympic marathon is run ending with the victory of Greek athlete Spyridon Louis. 1900 – British suffer a sharp defeat by the Boers south of Brandfort. 600 British troops are killed and wounded and 800 taken prisoner. 1912 – RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage. 1916 – The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) is created in New York City. 1919 – Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos. 1919 – The Third Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Huliaipole. 1925 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner's Sons. 1938 – The 1938 German parliamentary election and referendum seeks approval for a single list of Nazi candidates and the recent annexation of Austria. 1939 – Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A.'s "Big Book", is first published. 1941 – World War II: The Axis powers establish the Independent State of Croatia. 1944 – Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escape from Birkenau death camp. 1963 – One hundred twenty-nine American sailors die when the submarine USS Thresher sinks at sea. 1968 – The TEV Wahine, a New Zealand ferry sinks in Wellington harbour due to a fierce storm – the strongest winds ever in Wellington. Out of the 734 people on board, fifty-three died. 1970 – Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons. 1971 – Ping-pong diplomacy: In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a week-long visit. 1972 – Tombs containing bamboo slips, among them Sun Tzu's Art of War and Sun Bin's lost military treatise, are accidentally discovered by construction workers in Shandong. 1972 – Vietnam War: For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam. 1973 – Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 crashes in a snowstorm on approach to Basel, Switzerland, killing 108 people. 1979 – Red River Valley tornado outbreak: A tornado lands in Wichita Falls, Texas killing 42 people. 1988 – The Ojhri Camp explosion kills or injures more than 1,000 people in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. 1991 – Italian ferry MS Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy, killing 140. 1991 – A rare tropical storm develops in the South Atlantic Ocean near Angola; the first to be documented by satellites. 1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is signed in Northern Ireland. 2009 – President of Fiji Ratu Josefa Iloilo announces the abrogation of the constitution and assumes all governance in the country, creating a constitutional crisis. 2010 – Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife, and dozens of other senior officials and dignitaries. 2016 – The Paravur temple accident in which a devastating fire caused by the explosion of firecrackers stored for Vishu, kills more than one hundred people out of the thousands gathered for seventh day of Bhadrakali worship. 2016 – An earthquake of 6.6 magnitude strikes 39 km west-southwest of Ashkasham, shakes up India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Srinagar and Pakistan. 2019 – Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project announce the first ever image of a black hole, which was located in the centre of the M87 galaxy.