#roman troop transportation ship

[ltwilliammowett]

The remains of the Mainz Wreck 5 a Roman troop transportation ship (navis lusoria)

After the establishment of the military castrum (fort) of Mogontiacum (modern Mainz) in 13–12 BC, ships of the Classis Germanica (the Roman fleet in Germania Superior and Germania Inferior) became stationed at its harbor.

Mogontiacum soon became the capital of the Roman province of Germania Superior and an important naval base of the Roman fleet on the river Rhine. In November 1981, as workmen dug the foundation of an extension of the Hilton Hotel in Mainz, the remains of at least 10 military wooden ships dating from the last days of the Roman Empire were discovered still in situ on their gravel beds.

These survived more than 1,500 years only because they were buried under 7 metres of clay and sand, which kept them away from the destructive effects of oxidation. The ships, all made of German oak, were waterlogged but otherwise fairly well preserved. Wreck nr. 5 dates in the 4th century AD and was originally 18 m long, only the front 9 m long section from the bows to just aft the mast-frame was able to be recovered.

[whencyclopedia]

Ptolemaic Navy

Ptolemaic Egypt was a naval power that exerted influence throughout the Eastern Mediterranean from its foundation in 330 BCE until Cleopatra's defeat by Augustus at the Battle of Actium in 30 BCE. The Ptolemaic Kingdom produced some of the largest human-powered ships of all time, and the largest and most advanced warships of the period.

The Ptolemaic navy was also used to patrol trade routes on the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Nile as a way to deter piracy. Ptolemaic exploratory expeditions helped to improve Greek and Roman geographical knowledge of Arabia and the Indian subcontinent. Despite the overall decline of its military might in land conflicts, it remained a relevant naval force until the end of the dynasty.

Origins

Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BCE) conquered Egypt in 332 BCE, and after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, it was ruled by his general Ptolemy I (r. 305-282 BCE). The rest of Alexander's empire was divided between his other generals in the Wars of the Diadochi. The Diadochi and their successors waged constant wars against each other for territory and resources, which spurred on the development of the Ptolemaic navy.

Ptolemy I's navy originally consisted of the forces left behind by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE. 30 triremes were left in Egypt by Alexander under the command of the admiral Polemon. After defeating the Macedonian general Thibron in Cyrene in 324 BCE, Ptolemy probably absorbed what remained of Thibron's fleet. He also made alliances with the rulers of Cyprus, which enabled him to build additional warships.

By 306 BCE, Ptolemy I was able to muster 210 warships and 200 troop transport ships. Ptolemy's brother Menelaus led this fleet against the forces of Demetrius I (c. 336 to c. 282 BCE) at Salamis of Cyprus. Demetrius, whose fleet contained larger ships carrying artillery, annihilated the Ptolemaic fleet. 40 warships and 8,000 Ptolemaic marines were taken captive by Demetrius. This catastrophic defeat meant that Ptolemy I was unable to maintain control of Cyprus and Coele-Syria, which were lost to Antigonus I. Within a decade, Ptolemy I had rebuilt a fleet of 150 ships which he used to recapture Cyprus and take control of Lydia, Tyre, Sidon, and Pamphylia.

He takes slices of Phoenicia and Arabia and Syria and Libya and the dark-skinned Ethiopians; all the Pamphylians and the warriors of Cilicia he commands, and the Lycians and the Carians, who delight in war, and the islands of the Cyclades, for his are the finest ships sailing the ocean. All the sea and the land and the crashing rivers are subject to Ptolemy.

(Theocritus, Idylls, 17.86-95)

Under Ptolemy II (r. 282-286 BCE) and Ptolemy III (r. 246-222 BCE), the Ptolemaic navy rapidly expanded with new and more advanced warships to become the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean. This navy enabled the Ptolemaic dynasty to capture and defend islands and coastal territories that stretched from Egypt to the Aegean, making the Ptolemaic Kingdom into a thalassocracy. Later Ptolemaic rulers would continue to prioritize the maintenance of a large fleet, but by the end of the dynasty, its global power had disintegrated.

Continue reading...

[rwbyuser24]

About Ironwood bringing his army to Vale

You know, It's kind of tiring talk about Ironwood. Sadly for me, there are many topics about him that we need to discuss. I sound like a RWDE person, but that is not entirely truth. Look, the next post is not going to be about Ironwood. Alright? I promise.

But, first, let's get going.

"It's the Vytal Festival. A time to celebrate unity and peace. So I suggest that you not scare people by transporting hundreds of soldiers halfway across the continent."

"And fear will bring the Grimm. A guardian is a symbol of comfort. But an army is a symbol of conflict. There's an energy in the air now, a question in the back of everyone's minds... "If this is the size of our defenses, then what is it we're expecting to fight?""

Ozpin mentions that the people could be scared about the ships. But we never see that. We can say that we don't see the civilians very often, but that's the thing. How are we suppose to assume that what Ozpin is saying is truth if we never see evidence.

No one even question about: What are we expecting to fight?

2. We don't see Grimm.

Or better said, we see Grimm, but we don't see them being brought by the fear of the civilians for the Atlesian forces.

They are attracted by other things. Like for example, the massive White fang attack that lured the Grimm. Or for Yang attacking Mercury. Or the "death" of Penny.

But no Grimm was attracted by the civilians being worried about the ships.

3. Shouldn't they already know what is going on?

Many would say that seeing those ships, it would be common sense for the people to know that something is wrong, that something is going bad.

But, think about it. Even without the ships, wouldn't the civilians know that something bad is going on?

Massive Dust robberies and White fang attacks, and the recent massive Grimm attack against Vale. There is a reason the Vale council allowed Ironwood to become the head of security.

"You've left us no choice! The Vytal Festival tournament cannot be broadcast, let alone held, if we are unable to ensure the safety of the citizens."

It would be normal for the civilians to know that there IS ALREADY a problem going on. So, actually are Atlesian forces really concerning for the civilians?

4. He doesn't have to obey Ozpin and Qrow.

It's simple, they are his allies not his bosses. They told him that he shouldn't brought his troops. But he doesn't have to obey them.

He must do what he considers the right thing. What is necessary to protect the citizens.

5. It's important the long term war but also ensure the citizens' safety.

Some could say that Ozpin was not trying to simply win a battle, he was planning in fighting the long time war. But that can be done maintaining the people safe.

6. Dealing with the Grimm.

But, alright, let's suppose that anyway they get scared and that attracts the Grimm.

What then? When the Grimm came to Vale, Ironwood had his army ready fight the Grimm. And when the Grimm were attracted to Vale, his robots were ready to fight them (The ships couldn't because Roman).

So even if the Grimm were attracted to the city, his forces could deal with them. They would be detected and eliminated.

The reason Ironwood couldn't deal with the Grimm during the fall of Beacon was because his ships got destroyed and captured. And because it was a massive invasion.

Even with the people scared because of the Ironwood's fleet, that wouldn't attract enough Grimm to be a problem. Only a few, but nothing to worry about.

7. What I'm trying to say is that Ironwood bringing his army to Vale doesn't have negative consequences.

It only offers benefits like the protection of the people against Grimm and White fang. The rest of the problems weren't seen, are irrelevant or the military could easily deal with them.

And again, think that ironwood didn't have a way to know that his army were going to be hacked. As a matter of fact, the Atlesian knights and Paladins were only hacked because Watts was involved on it, and ironwood didn't know Watts was even alive.

[thewul]

C'est l'une des rares photos d'époque de l'entrée en service du navire entant que paquebot de croisières Professeur, renommé MV Victoria par la suite, la ressemblance est frappante avec la planche de Hergé et j'ai la certitude qu'elle en est l'origine, tout y est y compris l'angle et l'orientation du navire Bravo! Mais pourquoi vous intéresse t il tant? Car nous allons le construire Professeur, ce navire appartiens aux Éditions Moulinsart, c'est le quartier général flottant de Tintinophiles, il fait le tour du monde, soirées déguisées et réceptions comprises A l'identique?! En apparence oui, y compris la cheminée blanche que Hergé a transposé a celle ci, mais son intérieur est autre, spacieux et composé de suites pour la plupart et sa construction est moderne, du classique neuf Dans le monde du yachting ce navire serait unique, c'est tout une époque, neuf et hors du temps c'est tout a fait cela… Sapristi… Le MS Époméo?! Exact

SS VICTORIA Incres Line's MV VICTORIA had one of the longest and most glorious histories of any passenger ship. Built by Harland and Wolff of Belfast in 1936 for Union-Castle Line as the DUNNOTTAR CASTLE for the company's round Africa service from London, she was a modest combination passenger cargo liner who served her owners well. She and her sister, DUNVEGAN CASTLE, were requisitioned for armed merchant cruiser service in World War Two, but the DUNVEGAN was far less fortunate and was torpedoed off Ireland with a loss of 24 lives in 1940. DUNNOTTAR continued in war service as a troop transport, her most noteable duty carrying British soldiers to Normandy in 1944. She continued in repatriation service after the war until 1949, when after a quarter million miles and troops carried, she was returned to Union-Castle. DUNNOTTAR CASTLE resumed her round Africa service and was joined by a series of newer vessels in the early 1950s. In 1958, she was offered for sale, and, quite remarkably, bought by Incres Lines who were seeking a solidly constructed ship to rebuild into the ultimate luxury cruise liner. DUNNOTTAR CASTLE sailed to Rotterdam, where a complete rebuilding was performed at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard, transforming her into the sleek, deluxe MV VICTORIA. She was given a new bow and stern and a vastly enlarged and modified superstructure. Her B&W diesel engines were replaced with brand new Fiat engines. The only original parts of the ship left were the hull and inner portion of her upper superstructure, where the bridge and officer's areas still retained their Union-Castle features. Gustavo Pulitzer-Finale was responsible for VICTORIA's chic interior stylings, which were replete with fine wood paneling and trend-setting midcentury Italian furniture. Her decks were named after precious and semi-precious jewels and color coordinated accordingly. On Amber Deck, one would find amber colored bannisters and carpeting. Same for Coral, Sapphire, and Emerald, etc. VICTORIA had a dining room with a barrel shaped domed ceiling and musician's balcony as well as a two deck high auditorium. Emanuele Luzzati created most of the artworks, which were based on Roman themes and in media ranging from metallic panels to elaborate ceramics. Like many other cruise ships, VICTORIA was a victim of the fuel crisis and high operating costs. Incres Line folded in 1975 and the VICTORIA was laid up at Brooklyn. Chandris Cruises purchased the then 39 year old ship for spare parts and furniture for their other vessels, but after reexamining her, they realized she would make an excellent asset to their cruise fleet. Instead of stripping her and selling her for scrap, they refitted the ship and gave her the slightly amended name of THE VICTORIA. Her capacity increased from 430 to 548 passengers. THE VICTORIA was a huge hit with budget-minded passengers and became a renewed fixture in Caribbean and European cruise service. She stayed in the Chandris fleet until 1993, when the Cypriots purchased her for the burgeoning cruise market from Limassol to Egypt and Israel. Her new owners, Louis Cruise Lines, renamed the ship PRINCESA VICTORIA and kept her in excellent condition for the next ten or so years. In 2001, she was laid up at Eleusis following the glut in European tourism caused by the terrorist attacks of September 11. By this time, her nearly 60 year old hull and forty year old machinery were in need of expensive maintenance. With the rise in scrap prices, it was inevitable that the PRINCESA VICTORIA would meet her end at Alang. Under the delivery name VICTORIA I, she sailed off from her Greek anchorage in the spring of 2004, arriving at Alang that summer. source: midshipcentury.com/victoria

[silvestromedia]

Saint of the day August 19

ST. MAGNUS, MARTYR IN LATIUM-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_of_Anagni#:~:text=Magnus%20fled%20to%20Rome%20to,near%20Fabrateria%20Vetus%2C%20in%20Latium.

St. Andrew the Tribune, The "Great Martyr," and the leader of converts in the Roman army, his men faced a battle with a Persian host. Calling upon Christ for aid, the Romans were victorious. Andrew and some of his troops became Christians as a result and were discharged from military service. they were arrested by the military governor and executed in the Taurus Mountains of Cilicia. .Aug. 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Stratelates#:~:text=Andrew%20Stratelates%2C%20also%20known%20as,Orthodox%20Church%20on%2019%20August.

Bl. Peter Zuniga, Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr of Japan. A Spaniard from Seville, he grew up in Mexico, where his father was the sixth Viceroy of the Spanish colony. Upon his return to Spain, he joined the Augustinians, and, after ordination, he requested to be sent to Japan and the missions there. Going first to the Philippines in 1610, he was later assigned to Japan, arriving there in 1620. Two years later, he was arrested and, with Blesseds Louis Flores, Joachim, Firayama, and the captain and crew which had transported them, was put to death. The crew was beheaded while the others were burned alive. Feastday Aug. 19 https://www.augustinian.org/saints-1/september-28

Bl. Bartholomew Monfiore, Bl. James Denshi, Bl. Paul Sanchiki, Roman Catholics and martyrs of Japan. Japanese crew members of Blessed Joachim Firayama's ship. Arrested for his Christian faith, he was beheaded at Nagasaki. Feastday Aug. 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/205_Martyrs_of_Japan

Bl. John Foyamon, Roman Catholic Martyr of Japan. A scribe on the ship carrying Blessed Peter Zufliga, he was beheaded at Nagasaki with Blesseds John Yano and John Nangata. Feastday Aug. 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/205_Martyrs_of_Japan Bl. Thomas Koyanangi, Roman Catholic Japanese martyr. Arrested as a passenger on the ship of Blessed Joachim Firayama-Diz, he was beheaded at Nagasaki, Feastday Aug. 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/205_Martyrs_of_Japan

Bl. Michael Diaz, A martyr of Japan. He was a Spanish merchant on board the Japanese ship carrying Blessed Joachim Firayama. Michael and others were arrested by Protestant Europeans who turned them over to the Japanese authorities. Everyone on the ship was martyred at Nagasaki. Aug. 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/205_Martyrs_of_Japan

St. Mochta, 535 A.D. Bishop of Ireland. He was born in Britain but was brought to Ireland as a child. There he became a disciple of St. Patrick. During a visit to Rome, Mochta was made a bishop by Pope St. Leo I. He founded Louth Monastery with twelve companions and was probably consecrated by St. Patrick. He died at the age of ninety, the last known disciple of St. Patrick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochta

St. Sebald, 770 A.D. Patron Saint of Nuremberg. Hermit, missionary, and a patron saint of Nuremberg. Most likely an Anglo-Saxon from England, he arrived on the Continent and became a hermit near Vicenza, Italy, and then participated in the missionary enterprise of the times, assisting in the work. of St. Willibald in the Reichswald. Many miracles were attributed to him, including turning icicles into firewood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebaldus

St. Credan, 780 A.D. A Benedictine abbot of Evesham, England, in the reign of King Offa of Mercia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credan

ST. JOHN EUDES, PRIEST, FOUNDER OF THE EUDISTS, https://www.catholicapostolatecenterfeastdays.org/feast-days-and-solemnities/st-john-eudes#:~:text=Jesus%20and%20Mary-,St.,and%20the%20Blessed%20Virgin%20Mary.

ST. SIXTUS III, POPE, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sixtus_III

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.7 (before 1950)

461 – Roman Emperor Majorian is beheaded near the river Iria in north-west Italy following his arrest and deposition by the magister militum Ricimer. 626 – The Avar and Slav armies leave the siege of Constantinople. 768 – Pope Stephen III is elected to office, and quickly seeks Frankish protection against the Lombard threat, since the Byzantine Empire is no longer able to help. 936 – Coronation of King Otto I of Germany. 1461 – The Ming dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor. 1479 – Battle of Guinegate: French troops of King Louis XI were defeated by the Burgundians led by Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg. 1679 – The brigantine Le Griffon becomes the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North America. 1714 – The Battle of Gangut: The first important victory of the Russian Navy. 1743 – The Treaty of Åbo ended the 1741–1743 Russo-Swedish War. 1782 – George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle.[11] It is later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart. 1786 – The first federal Indian Reservation is created by the United States. 1789 – The United States Department of War is established. 1791 – American troops destroy the Miami town of Kenapacomaqua near the site of present-day Logansport, Indiana in the Northwest Indian War. 1794 – U.S. President George Washington invokes the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. 1819 – Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá. 1858 – The first Australian rules football match is played between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College. 1890 – Anna Månsdotter, found guilty of the 1889 Yngsjö murder, became the last woman to be executed in Sweden. 1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip, taking 59 days to travel from New York, New York to San Francisco, California. 1927 – The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York. 1930 – The last confirmed lynching of black people in the Northern United States occurs in Marion, Indiana; two men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, are killed. 1933 – The Kingdom of Iraq slaughters over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Simele. This date is recognized as Martyrs Day or National Day of Mourning by the Assyrian community in memory of the Simele massacre. 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal begins as the United States Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. 1944 – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I). 1946 – The government of the Soviet Union presented a note to its Turkish counterparts which refuted the latter's sovereignty over the Turkish Straits, thus beginning the Turkish Straits crisis. 1947 – Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America. 1947 – The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).

[corona-journal]

Pandemic and interacting famines...

The technical impact of supply, demand, and covid interaction is something I'm vaguely aware of. In my insurance underwriter day job, the covid travel shut-down also slowed spare parts for cars (something I'd seen in my mobile/cell phone days when the tsunami caused the Fukushima crisis which knocked out touchscreen production for Samsung)

Buying washing machines for the microchips?

Similar to the current plundering of houses in Ukraine by Russian troops for the microchips in the washing machines for extraction and repurposing as a missile microchips. Single use only...

Covid has shown that we had medical supply famines, transport famines, and essentials (like toilet paper) famines with hoarding, price gouging.

Now there's a affordable rental famine, still have a famine on trade skills (builders, carpenters, and related) plus the leading edge of a technology famine.

An article on how famine is a perpetually recurring theme of humanity

https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-chief-urges-world-use-its-wealth-prevent-famine-nobel-acceptance-speech

Since the Greek, Roman, Mayan and Aztec, and Babylonian times.

As a species, looking up and around, it's somewhere between 'ship of fools' and 'singing in the life-rafts' .... while billionaires enjoy edge of space flight joyrides, or get killed in vanity project deep sea submarine rides down to the titanic...

13 August 2023

Autoenshittification

Forget F1: the only car race that matters now is the race to turn your car into a digital extraction machine, a high-speed inkjet printer on wheels, stealing your private data as it picks your pocket. Your car’s digital infrastructure is a costly, dangerous nightmare — but for automakers in pursuit of postcapitalist utopia, it’s a dream they can’t give up on.

Your car is stuffed full of microchips, a fact the world came to appreciate after the pandemic struck and auto production ground to a halt due to chip shortages. Of course, that wasn’t the whole story: when the pandemic started, the automakers panicked and canceled their chip orders, only to immediately regret that decision and place new orders.

But it was too late: semiconductor production had taken a serious body-blow, and when Big Car placed its new chip orders, it went to the back of a long, slow-moving order. It was a catastrophic bungle: microchips are so integral to car production that a car is basically a computer network on wheels that you stick your fragile human body into and pray.

The car manufacturers got so desperate for chips that they started buying up washing machines for the microchips in them, extracting the chips and discarding the washing machines like some absurdo-dystopian cyberpunk walnut-shelling machine:

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/desperate-times-companies-buy-washing-machines-just-to-rip-out-the-chips-187033.html

These digital systems are a huge problem for the car companies. They are the underlying cause of a precipitous decline in car quality. From touch-based digital door-locks to networked sensors and cameras, every digital system in your car is a source of endless repair nightmares, costly recalls and cybersecurity vulnerabilities:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/quality-new-vehicles-us-declining-more-tech-use-study-shows-2023-06-22/

Keep reading

[sfc-paulchambers]

3 FEBRUARY 1943 - FOUR CHAPLAINS DAY AND THE SINKING OF THE USAT DORCHESTER #WWII On 3 FEB 1943, the troop transport ship USAT Dorchester was sailing from Canada to a U.S. base in Greenland, carrying 902 passengers. Shortly after midnight, the vessel was struck by a U-Boat torpedo just 150 miles from its destination. The initial explosion killed and wounded scores of men, causing widespread pandemonium. Through the chaos, four Army Chaplains spread out among the Soldiers, calming the frightened, tending the wounded and guiding the disoriented toward safety. Lt. George Fox, a Methodist minister; Lt. Alexander Goode (PhD), a Reform rabbi; Lt. John Washington, a Roman Catholic priest; and Lt. Clark Poling, a Dutch Reformed minister, worked to manage the crisis, distributing life jackets and selflessly giving their own to others. As the ship went down, survivors in nearby rafts could see the chaplains, arms linked and braced against the slanting deck, as they offered prayers and sang hymns. Of the 902 men aboard the Dorchester, only 230 survived. The chaplains were posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Purple Heart, and Four Chaplains Medal (a special decoration for extraordinary heroism designated by Congress to recognize the chaplains, as they did not qualify for the Medal of Honor). #Armyhistory #USArmy #TRADOC #WorldWar2 #WW2 #WW2History #UBoat #Chaplain #MilitaryHistory #ChaplainCorps Posted @withregram • @armyhistory https://www.instagram.com/p/CoM4R24uYeR/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[fatehbaz]

Entomology and empire in the 20th century. Imperial, colonial, fascist relationships with mosquitoes. “The history of the struggle against the female mosquito reads like the history of capitalism in the twentieth century: after imperial, colonial, and nationalistic periods of combatting mosquitoes, we are now in the NGO phase ...”

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Bees, mosquitoes, and termites were not only a part of historical and contemporary notions of space, but also instruments of political practice related to spaces. [...] No other animal accounts for as many human fatalities as this insect. [T]he often fatal fevers known as malaria were recognized as the greatest health hazard for Europeans in tropical areas, and considered a major obstacle to the further colonization [...]. [A]s the anthropologist Diane Nelson explains: The creation of transportation infrastructure such as canals and railroads, the deployment of armies, and the clearing of ground to plant tropical products all had to confront (in addition to uprisings, escape, work slowdowns, and other human-level obstacles) an invisible microbial resistance. The French, British, and US raced to find a cure for malaria in order to keep whites alive in their new milieux. [...]

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the discovery of mosquitoes as malaria and yellow fever carriers reawakened long-cherished plans such as the construction of the Panama Canal (1904–1914), which was to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Finally, a majority of the workers employed no longer constantly got sick or died. In 1916, the director of the US Bureau of Entomology and longtime general secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science rejoiced at this success as “an object lesson for the sanitarians of the world” -- it demonstrated “that it is possible for the white race to live healthfully in the tropics.”

As Timothy Mitchell writes: “In 1915, the year after the canal’s completion, the newly established Rockefeller Foundation took over the mosquito campaign from the U.S. Army and launched a worldwide program to study and control the two mosquito-borne diseases. Thus the global movements of the mosquito gave shape to a transnational corporate philanthropy.” [...] The urgency and severity of measures to combat dangerous diseases always had the collateral benefit of social pacification. In 1918, George Vincent, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, candidly declared: “For purposes of placating primitive and suspicious peoples, medicine has some decided advantages over machine guns.”

The construction of the Panama Canal, as one of the most important “transportation utopias” of the twentieth century, not only allowed commodities to be shipped more efficiently and quickly, but it also advanced the military expansion of the United States in the Caribbean. The US occupation of the Canal Zone had already brought racist Jim Crow laws, which had followed the abolition of slavery in the US, to the spatial structure around the canal. [...] Analogous to the stagnant waters where mosquito larvae develop, and to the mosquitoes themselves, the female body was now declared to be a reservoir of pathogens. Again and again, this body allegedly first infected US troops, only to spread to the white wives back home: “The spatial imaginary established through control of malarial mosquitoes deeply influenced cartographies” of sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhea and syphilis, as well as the attempt to control them. [...]

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At the same time women in Panama were becoming objects of police surveillance by way of combatting malaria, Italian fascism was trying to defeat a nature imagined as female by declaring it a priority to civilize the marshes of the Pontine Plain. The ancient Roman rhetorician Cicero had already described this landscape southeast of Rome as “neither pleasant nor healthy.” This had hardly changed in two thousand years.

The swampland was still the habitat of the anopheles mosquito and the dominion of the “Goddess of Fever.” [...]

“The mosquito was taken by the fascists to exemplify the evil character of pre-fascist nature in the marshes.” The efforts to create “an idyllic rural area consonant with fascist ideals of productivity and activity within the state’s interests” included extensive electrification of the region, constructing thousands of kilometres of roads and canals and “large pumping and drainage plants called impianti idrovori (drainage pumping stations), in Italian literally ‘water-eating’ machinery plants,” founding an anti-malaria institute, having war veterans plant the region with water-absorbing eucalyptus trees (these plants performed their job too well, which is why they were later torn out again at great expense -- as a consequence, there are about four tornadoes annually in this area), stocking fish to eat mosquito larvae, establishing an anti-mosquito militia, and putting up children’s camps whose buildings were wrapped in ten layers of wire to protect them from mosquitoes. “The fascist emphasis on the technical and technological aspects of the land reclamation programme were also characteristic of a positivistic view of science and geographical knowledge, aimed at controlling, rationalizing and ultimately creating an imperium over a previously unknown or ‘untamed��� area.” [...]

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At the same time in the Pacific, in spite of all countermeasures, malaria was inflicting more fatalities on the Allies than the Japanese forces were. But the discovery of a potent molecule brought new momentum to the anti-malaria campaigns: “From the perspective of medical entomology, the most exciting outcome of World War II was the discovery of DDT.” [...] Once again, the Rockefeller Foundation became active, and together with the World Health Organization, the US Agency for International Development, and the UN, it launched the Global Malaria Eradication Program, which coordinated the worldwide deployment of DDT in the 1950s and 1960s, with the goal of eliminating malaria. This deadly substance became part of a postwar order that organized war and agriculture as affiliated fields: “Tractors and tanks developed side by side. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers were manufactured cheaply in ammonia plants built mainly to produce nitrate explosives. Modern organic insecticides emerged from gas weapon research between the wars, while aerial spraying owes much to air combat methods and technology initially developed during World War I.”

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Fahim Amir. “Cloudy Swords.” e-flux. February 2021. [Italicized first line/heading added by me.]

[with-my-murder-flute]

Initial sketch notes of my historical research on Islamic experiences of the Siege of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, posted August 6, 2020.  This is the long version of “Why might Yusuf al-Kaysani, who is from the Maghreb, have been fighting at Jerusalem in 1099?”

Trigger Warning: Graphic violence, slavery, and genocide

Notes taken from reading Paul M. Cobb’s The Race for Paradise: An Isamic History of the Crusades and supplemented by Dr. Google. I’m reading Cobb’s book partly because it’s on audiobook (though it is a fricking Audible Exclusive) and partly because it’s written for Western non-Muslim audiences, which helps get me up to speed.

The Old Guard Through History video says Joe and Nicky met during the Siege of Jerusalem in 1099, so I’ve focused most of my research on that.

Historians generally agree that in the 11th century the Islamic* world did not have a “Muslims vs Christians” worldview like the one Christians were beginning to develop. Their experience led them to expect Christians to be allies as often as enemies. Around the 1060s Christians began a new paradigm of religious war against Muslims, which Muslims didn’t really realize at the time--they responded to times when Christians would choose religious affiliation over clear strategic gain as shocking and bizarre, a departure from the status quo

(*Islamic: Society predominantly defined by Muslim rule and culture, but containing people of many different religions)

The Islamic response to the First Crusade was decentralized and diverse. There were a lot of different groups in the Levant*, many of whom had deep divisions, rivalries, and feuds. They mostly saw the Crusaders as a new factor that might affect their existing rivalries with other Islamic states, and were used to being able to broker deals or treaties with Christian groups to turn local warfare to their advantage.

(*Levant: A term used to describe countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially those with traditional religious significance to the Abrahamic religions - modern-day Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and parts of Egypt and Turkey. Comes from the French word for “rising”, in the sense of “where the sun rises”)

Additional term I’m going to be using a lot: “Frank”. It’s the Islamic term for, basically, “Western European” (of both the pagan and Roman Catholic varieties). It’s easier than saying “the Roman Catholics” or “The Crusaders” (which is putting a later cultural construct on people who didn’t call themselves that)

The biggest division of Islamic society in this area is, roughly, the Seljuq Turks and the Fatimid Caliphate. 

In the year 1000, the Fatimids were riding high: They ruled Egypt and North Africa stretching across to the Atlantic, much of the Levant, the island of Sicily, and bits of the Arabian Peninsula around the Red Sea. 

Then in the mid-11th century the Seljuqs came BLASTING OUTTA NOWHERE like holy shit calm your jets and conquered a lot of Fatimid and Byzantine territory (we’re talking the yellow parts of the map, they’ll destroy the Byzantines entirely later)

In addition to losing land to the Seljuqs, the Fatimids also lost Sicily to the Normans (who don’t even GO THERE but anyway), and North Africa through?? Independence movements?? Sheer carelessness??? I’m not quite certain.

The Seljuqs were Sunni, the Fatimids were Shi’ite, I... am not gonna try to explain that whole thing. Here’s a video.

(Small note for Yusuf character reasons: A big motivation behind the move of Ifriqiya [modern Tunisia and parts of Algieria and Libya] out of Fatimid control was that most of their populations were also Sunni)

So the Franks left Constantinople and travelled through what is now Turkey but was at the time the Byzantine Empire, and then moved into Seljuq lands. Most of the fighting in the First Crusade was against Seljuqs--mostly against tribes who fought for themselves, I think? Although in Damascus (which was a huge city the Franks just breezed by in favour of historically significant ghost towns) there was a general jihad preached like “Hey somebody should do something about all these Europeans”, so some of the people fighting were like... random people from Damascus.

While the Seljuqs were distracted, the Fatimids thought they could win some land back from THOSE UPSTARTS, so they snuck in and grabbed Jerusalem.  As Peter Konieczny reports, there are scholars who think the Fatimids thought, partly because they had a lot of experience ruling Egypt’s Coptic Christian population, that they could reach a mutually satisfactory alliance with the Franks, especially since it seemed like most of the Franks didn’t intend to settle in the area, but return to Europe once they ensured pilgrim access to Jerusalem, which had mostly been hindered by banditry in Seljuq-controlled areas. 

When I read stuff just generally about the Fatimid army, it’s described as being composed of two groups:

Berber tribesmen (Kutama and Sanhaja) (I’m struggling to find more info about them)

Mamluks, who are... a cross between slaves and mercenaries? Basically, they were captives from non-Muslim territory (in the Fatimids’ case, mostly Circassia in central Asia) who were brought to Muslim lands and trained as soldiers, but once active as soldiers, were paid and hired by different groups, able to achieve freedom, often gained important government posts, and occasionally toppled the government they served and ruled the roost.

This next bit is based on fairly standard histories of the Siege of Jerusalem that rely a lot on Western sources, like this article by Michael D. Hull and this article by Michael Cartwright. Which... have to be taken with a grain of salt, because medieval military histories don’t tend to line up super well with archaeology or plain logistics. Generally, it isn’t wise to take medieval European sources at their word when they say “the army had 10,000 people” or “they killed every last person”. They’re often written after the fact and with clear biases, and, when it comes to the Crusades, with an imperfect understanding of the culture they’re describing. I’d like to have better sources, but this is where I’m starting from, especially since I have limited access to academic sources during the summer.

So, the standard history says that Jerusalem was taken in 1098 by  Emir  al-Afdal Shahinshah, but by 1099, governor Iftikhar al-Daula was in command of the defenses. and that he had a “garrison of Arab cavalry and Sudanese archers.” Cartwright reports it as “perhaps several thousand infantry and an elite cavalry corps of 400 Egyptians.” I currently have no way of knowing which of these troops were Mamluks and which weren’t.

According to Hull, when the Fatimids in Jerusalem realized they would have to face a siege, they expelled all Christians of any denomination from the city, as well as all Jews “except for those of a sect for whom it was mandatory to reside in the Holy City”. Cartwright reports it as “...all Christians were kicked out if the city. In contrast, the Jewish population were allowed to stay”. Cartwright reports that Jerusalem’s population, 70,000 at the beginning of the year, was lowered to 30,000 by the expulsions (though some people were also coming into the city to take refuge from the oncoming Frankish army). Additional preparations included poisoning wells outside of Jerusalem to deny the Frankish army water, and emptying the land around the city of livestock and people. 

The Fatimids were also expecting the arrival of an army marching north from Egypt to help them out relatively soon, which explains why their strategy was mostly “hunker down and wait” with very limited attacks outside the city.

The Franks came southward down the coast to Jaffa, where they took the nearest port to Jerusalem, and then approached the city.

June 7, 1099: The Frankish army shows up at Jerusalem with about 15,000 people total and less than 1,500 armed knights. They split into two camps, one attacking from the south, one from the north. They were in rough shape and didn’t have any siege weapons, so the Fatimid defenders were able to sit up on the walls, taunt them, and shoot arrows. They enlivened the tedium by sending cavalry units outside the walls to harass Franks who were scavenging for food and water.

June 13, 1099: Some Franks on the north side of the city managed to scrabble together siege ladders and try to climb up and assault the walls; they were repelled pretty easily by the defenders.

June 17, 1099: English and Genoese ships land at Jaffa, carrying siege equipment and fresh supplies. Hull reports that the Fatimids dispatched troops, 400 Arabs and 200 Turks, to attack the supply chain between Jaffa and Jerusalem; Hull reports that the Franks only lost 5 of the force of maybe 150-200 knights, and “all of the archers” (about 50?)

It takes about three weeks to transport the supplies to Jerusalem and for the siege towers to be built; the Genoese played an especially large role in building the siege equipment, and their chief engineer is named as  William Embriaco.

On July 10 the siege engines were finished and wheeled to the walls. That night everyone inside the city and out sat over campfires, showing each other pictures of their families and trying to humanize themselves for the audience to make their impending deaths more impactful

(I kid)

(mostly)

June 13-15: Almost continuous fighting between the Franks, who are trying to move their siege engines close enough to make it onto the walls of Jerusalem, and the Fatimid defenders, who were trying to fight them off and burn their towers down. 

June 15: The Franks breach the walls and begin pouring inside, killing and looting its inhabitants. There is well-documented destruction of Muslim and Jewish holy places, where Muslims and Jews fled for refuge and were killed. This part is. Sickening. Tens of thousands of people dead; the streets running with blood. 

The Fatimid governor and various others (possibly the remainders of the army? Possibly important citizens? Some Jews appear to be in this group?) took refuge in the Tower of David, and were able to negotiate to leave Jerusalem safely. The Fatimid soldiers who left the city that way joined the advancing Fatimid army at Ascalon, southwest of Jerusalem.

It’s unclear who the survivors were--the sources mention people left aside being made into slaves, being allowed to leave the city, or being ransomed by rich relatives outside the city. The fact that we have Jewish and Muslim accounts of what happened during this time means there were survivors

But let’s face it: The survivors were the minority. The majority of people, thousands of them, were slaughtered by the Franks as they took over the city.

Epilogue: The Fatimids tried to take Jerusalem back a month later, and failed. Jerusalem was in Crusader hands.

It’s taken me three days to write this up and I’m ending it feeling really blah and drained by the enormity of this shit. I... 

The Race for Paradise has this bit that talks about two Western ways of talking about the Crusades: 

The Traditional paradigm, where this was a great moment for Christianity, whew we kicked those guys’ BUTTS!

The Lachrymose (Latin for “full of tears”) paradigm, coming to popularity since the Enlightenment, where this was horrific mass slaughter caused by religious zealotry and it was bad and everything was bad 

But the thing is, we can’t actually stop there. Or, that is: It’s not actually useful for our only narratives about the Crusades to be either “Christians kill everyone and it’s awesome” or “Christians kill everyone and it’s terrible”. It’s not true; it feeds into the overall false narrative of “European Christians only interacted with [Muslims/Middle Easterners/People of Colour] very rarely, and only when there was an atrocity happening.” It means we fail to acknowledge all the cross-cultural contacts that happened without an atrocity, and fail to realize that a lot of these atrocities came out of the context of incredibly warlike countries whose economies depended on warfare and conquest.

Another element is... during the 11th century, when all of this happened, the Normans also invaded England. Their conquest was absolutely brutal. England was ethnically and linguistically divided for centuries between a French-speaking colonial upper class, and the English-speaking peasantry. But over the centuries, these two groups came to live together peacefully and build a distinctly new society. Most peoples’ narratives of medieval England are not “a land of massacre, genocide, and ethnic strife”, even though those things definitely happened. We just have much stronger associations with medieval English art, literature, culture, fashion, and architecture than its slaughters.

So basically: The challenge for us in the 21st century is to develop a richer understanding of the past. We know a hell of a lot about battles and armies; we know way less about merchants and farmers, and about the long decades between battles and armies. Military history tells us about waging war, but if we can look past that, we can find out about waging peace.

Now I’m going to go collapse into my bed, and in a day or five I’ll write up a TL;DR version about what I think the likeliest backstories for Joe are (Briefly: probably a Fatimid cavalry soldier or an ordinary person who thought it was safe to be in Jerusalem at the time, and had to defend himself and his servants etc when the city fell)

[germanicseidr]

Germanic Sea Raiders

Yes this post is about sea raiders, no this post isn't about vikings. The Germanic coastal tribes are in fact the earliest recorded sea raiders around the North Sea. Several accounts written by Romans, describe how Germanic warriors were a plague along the coasts of North Western europe, especially the coasts of Britannia and Gaul. The main target of these sea raiders? coastal Roman settlements.

Here is a small account described by Tacitus, the following event took place in 83AD in modern day Scotland:

"The same summer a Usipian cohort, which had been levied in Germania and transported into Britain, ventured on a great and memorable exploit. Having killed a centurion and some soldiers, who, to impart military discipline, had been incorporated with their ranks and were employed at once to instruct and command them, they embarked on board three swift galleys with pilots pressed into their service.

Under the direction of one of them ,for two of the three they suspected and consequently put to death, they sailed past the coast in the strangest way before any rumour about them was in circulation. After a while, dispersing in search of water and provisions, they encountered many of the Britons, who sought to defend their property. Often victorious though now and then beaten, they were at last reduced to such an extremity of want as to be compelled to eat, at first, the feeblest of their number, and then victims selected by lot.

Having sailed round Britain and lost their vessels from not knowing how to manage them, they were looked upon as pirates and were intercepted, first by the Suebi and then by the Frisii. Some who were sold as slaves in the way of trade, and were brought through the process of barter as far as our side of the Rhine, gained notoriety by the disclosure of this extraordinary adventure." - Tacitus, Agricola

Here it seems that a group of disgruntled Germanic auxiliary troops hijacked three galleys and went on a small tour of plunder before stranding on the coasts of the Frisii, modern day the Netherlands. But this is not the only account of piracy conducted by the Germanic people. One Germanic tribe in particular was quite infamous for raiding coastal settlements.

The Chauci tribe, who just like the Frisii lived on small terps right along the coast, mastered the concept of piracy. They were the neighbours of the Frisii, located to the east of them in modern day North-Western Germany. Just like the Frisii, it was for the Chauci absolutely essential that they knew how to sail/row, their landscape was one of water with virtually no trees or suitable ground for crops. Also unlike the Frisii, Batavi and Cananefates, their location was quite isolated, beyond the reach of the Romans.

The Chauci truly terrorised the coasts of Western Europe. Archeological research leads to the theory that raiding was pretty much essential for the development of the Chauci tribe and that they actually organized these raids quite carefully. The first wave of Chauci sea raids occured during the first century AD. Especially between 41-47AD, the Chauci plagued the coasts of Gallia Belgica, leading to much Roman frustration.

The second Chauci wave of raids is even more interesting. This time the Chauci raiders were led by a Cananefates man called Ganascus, the Cananefates were a Germanic tribe located in modern day Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands. Ganascus served as an auxiliary soldier in the Roman army but he deserted. This is the reason why the second wave was so succesful for the Chauci. Ganascus, as ex-Roman soldier, held a lot of knowledge about the structure of the Roman army, their defences, interesting targets and their strength.

The Chauci, under Ganascus, even managed to set a Roman fort on fire, Praetorium Agrippinae, which was located in modern day Valkenburg, the Netherlands. Their luck didn't last and eventually Ganascus was captured and executed.

Besides the Chauci, Usipeti and Cananefates, there was another tribe who took their ships to the sea and rivers to terrorize Roman forts/settlements along the borders of Germania, the Batavi. In 69AD the Batavi people revolted against the Romans, together with the support of neighbouring tribes like the Cananefates and the Frisii, the Batavi raided forts along the river Rhine and managed to capture an entire Roman fleet. The Batavi were even daring enough to engage in an open sea battle with the Romans near the mouth of the river Rhine.

After the Batavi revolt, a short time of relative peace returned to the rivers and coasts of Western Europe but the Chauci raids started to intensify again in 170AD. This time the Chauci raids were larger and more violent than ever. The Roman governor of Gallia Belgica was even forced to recruit more auxiliary troops in order to deal with these raiding Chauci pirates. The Chauci continued to raid the coasts for a few decades, their trail of destruction is still visible for archeologists until this very day.

Two villas in Armorica, modern day Bretagne, were destroyed. Several hidden coin treasures were found as well in Bretagne which shows that the Romans feared these Chauci raiders and tried to hide their valuables underneath the ground. Also modern day England wasn't spared. Several Roman settlements in modern day Essex were destroyed by the Chauci. The Romans desperately tried to defend themselves against these agressive sea raiders by building even more forts and by intensifying their patrols on the sea.

A small geographical change in the coastline of the North sea, from modern day Denmark to Flanders around 230AD, caused the sealevel to rise between 0,9-2,4 meters. This was of course a disaster for the coastal people who by then were part of the Saxon and/or Frankish confederation. Also the Romans were concerned about the rising waters and they began to pull back from the Rhine until around the location of the modern day city of Nijmegen. Together with the political struggles inside the Roman empire, this left the borders severely weakened and the Frankish saw their chance.

Yes even the Franks were known to have conducted sea raids and some of these Frankish sea raids didn't even occur in Western Europe. Around the year 260AD and the year 278AD, the Franks undertook two major sea raids along the coasts of modern day Spain and Morocco. They raided and terrorized settlements for about a decade before they were defeated by the Romans.

Ironically enough, a few captured Frankish pirates were send to the black sea to defeat raiding Goths. You can of course expect this to happen but the Franks stole a Roman galley and turned to piracy again. This was an incredibly dumb idea by the Roman emperor who gave this order, emperor Probus. Now the Franks were raiding settlements along the coasts of Greece, Libia, Sicilia and even Tunesia, until the Romans finally managed to beat them.

The Franks also raided the coasts of modern day England like the Saxons did. Archeological research shows that the Romans suddenly intensified the construction of forts between 250-280AD in Britannia. Eutropius, a Roman historian, described how the Saxons raided along the waters of Gallia Belgica, Armorica and Britannia. These raids eventually resulted in the invasion of Britannia by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians.

The last Germanic folk, who sometimes made themselves guilty of piracy, were the Frisians. The Frisians flourished after the fall of the Roman empire. They were incredible traders and they were responsible for the creation of a huge trade netwerk and the growth of several trade settlements, which grew into modern day cities like: Dorestad, Medemblik, Ipswich, Norwich, Schleswig, Quentovic, Southampton and London.

Just like the earlier Chauci and Frisii, the Frisians lived, and still live, on terps. They were and still are surrounded by water so their ships were absolutely essential for their survival. They weren't agressive raiders like the Chauci but decided to focus more on trade instead. This rich trade network turned Frisia into a powerful kingdom and trade continued to grow even after their forceful conversion to Christianity. Unfortunately this all changed when the most famous Germanic people started to raid, the so called vikings.

Here are a few pictures of: A ship type (Roman galley) that could have been used by the Chauci, Romans intercepting Saxon raiders by an unknown artist, Early Frisian trade ship (dry kogge), art made by Arne Zuidhoek, Reconstructed Roman galley on a river,

[ltwilliammowett]

The remains of a Roman ship at the edge of a quarry in eastern Serbia (c) Institute of Archaeology

It was only in the spring of last year that the Roman ship found in Serbia was recovered. The large ship of the 3rd century AD, originally measured 19 metres in length and a maximum of 2.70 metres in width. Today, only 9.50 metres remain in one piece. However, since almost all of the dredged timbers could be collected, archaeologists will be able to reconstruct the ship as a whole in the future. It had a flat bottom, six pairs of oars and fittings for a triangular sail. Right next to it were two dugout canoes, which is due to the long settlement period.

In front of the site, near the town of Kostolac, about 70 km east of Belgrade, the Roman town of Viminacium extends over an area of about 450 hectares. It was built on top of an older city. Vimunacium dates back to the 1st century AD and was the capital of the Roman province of Moesia Superior. The ship belonged to a river fleet stationed there which, in addition to the large military camp, served to defend this region against barbarian invasions.

The city has been known since 1882 and excavations have been going on there ever since. This has led to numerous finds. Among them are golden tiles, jade sculptures, mosaics and frescoes, 14,000 graves and the remains of three mammoths. The ship will soon be exhibited together with these finds in the local archaeological park.

[nasreenroja]

1453 – Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople. (Turkey is celebrating 567th Victory Day Today.)

Mehmed II or Mohammed II (30 March 1432 – 3 May 1481), best known as Mehmed the Conqueror,  was an Ottoman sultan who ruled first for a short time from August 1444 to September 1446, and later from February 1451 to May 1481. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) and brought an end to the Eastern Roman Empire. Mehmed continued his conquests in Anatolia with its reunification and in Southeast Europe as far west as Bosnia. Mehmed is considered a hero in modern-day Turkey and parts of the wider Muslim world. Among other things, Istanbul’s Fatih district, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and Fatih Mosque are named after him.

When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451 he devoted himself to strengthening the Ottoman Navy, and made preparations for the taking of Constantinople. In the narrow Bosporus Straits, the fortress Anadoluhisarı had been built by his great-grandfather Bayezid I on the Asian side; Mehmed erected an even stronger fortress called Rumelihisarı on the European side, and thus gained complete control of the strait. Having completed his fortresses, Mehmed proceeded to levy a toll on ships passing within reach of their cannon. A Venetian vessel ignoring signals to stop was sunk with a single shot and all the surviving sailors beheaded, except for the captain, who was impaled and mounted as a human scarecrow as a warning to further sailors on the strait.

Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the companion and standard bearer of Muhammad, had died during the first Siege of Constantinople (674–78). As Mehmed II’s army approached Constantinople, Mehmed’s sheikh Akşemseddin discovered the tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. After the conquest, Mehmed built Eyüp Sultan Mosque at the site, to emphasize the importance of the conquest to the Islamic world and highlight his role as ghazi.

In 1453 Mehmed commenced the siege of Constantinople with an army between 80,000 to 200,000 troops and a navy of 320 vessels, the bulk of them transports and storeships. The city was surrounded by sea and land; the fleet at the entrance of the Bosphorus stretched from shore to shore in the form of a crescent, to intercept or repel any assistance for Constantinople from the sea. In early April, the Siege of Constantinople began. At first, the city’s walls held off the Turks, even though Mehmed’s army used the new Orban’s bombard, a giant cannon similar to the Dardanelles Gun. The harbor of the Golden Horn was blocked by a boom chain and defended by twenty-eight warships.

On 22 April, Mehmed transported his lighter warships overland, around the Genoese colony of Galata, and into the Golden Horn’s northern shore; eighty galleys were transported from the Bosphorus after paving a route, little over one mile, with wood. Thus the Byzantines stretched their troops over a longer portion of the walls. About a month later, Constantinople fell, on 29 May, following a fifty-seven day siege. After this conquest, Mehmed moved the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to Constantinople. Turkey is celebrating 567th Victory Day Today. On May 29, 1453 Sultan Muhammad Fateh the conqueror conquered Istunbul. It was dream of Muslims as Holy Prophet given many good news about Istunbul Today Al-Fatiha will be recited in Hagia Sophia. #islam #muslim #turkey #istanbul #alfatihah #dream #sultanmuhammadalfatih #happiness #pakistan @cengizcoskunnn @cavitcetinguner

[silvestromedia]

Saint of the day August 19

ST. MAGNUS, MARTYR IN LATIUM-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_of_Anagni#:~:text=Magnus%20fled%20to%20Rome%20to,near%20Fabrateria%20Vetus%2C%20in%20Latium.

St. Andrew the Tribune, The "Great Martyr," and the leader of converts in the Roman army, his men faced a battle with a Persian host. Calling upon Christ for aid, the Romans were victorious. Andrew and some of his troops became Christians as a result and were discharged from military service. they were arrested by the military governor and executed in the Taurus Mountains of Cilicia. .Aug. 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Stratelates#:~:text=Andrew%20Stratelates%2C%20also%20known%20as,Orthodox%20Church%20on%2019%20August.

Bl. Peter Zuniga, Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr of Japan. A Spaniard from Seville, he grew up in Mexico, where his father was the sixth Viceroy of the Spanish colony. Upon his return to Spain, he joined the Augustinians, and, after ordination, he requested to be sent to Japan and the missions there. Going first to the Philippines in 1610, he was later assigned to Japan, arriving there in 1620. Two years later, he was arrested and, with Blesseds Louis Flores, Joachim, Firayama, and the captain and crew which had transported them, was put to death. The crew was beheaded while the others were burned alive. Feastday Aug. 19 https://www.augustinian.org/saints-1/september-28

Bl. Bartholomew Monfiore, Bl. James Denshi, Bl. Paul Sanchiki, Roman Catholics and martyrs of Japan. Japanese crew members of Blessed Joachim Firayama's ship. Arrested for his Christian faith, he was beheaded at Nagasaki. Feastday Aug. 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/205_Martyrs_of_Japan

Bl. John Foyamon, Roman Catholic Martyr of Japan. A scribe on the ship carrying Blessed Peter Zufliga, he was beheaded at Nagasaki with Blesseds John Yano and John Nangata. Feastday Aug. 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/205_Martyrs_of_Japan Bl. Thomas Koyanangi, Roman Catholic Japanese martyr. Arrested as a passenger on the ship of Blessed Joachim Firayama-Diz, he was beheaded at Nagasaki, Feastday Aug. 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/205_Martyrs_of_Japan

Bl. Michael Diaz, A martyr of Japan. He was a Spanish merchant on board the Japanese ship carrying Blessed Joachim Firayama. Michael and others were arrested by Protestant Europeans who turned them over to the Japanese authorities. Everyone on the ship was martyred at Nagasaki. Aug. 19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/205_Martyrs_of_Japan

St. Mochta, 535 A.D. Bishop of Ireland. He was born in Britain but was brought to Ireland as a child. There he became a disciple of St. Patrick. During a visit to Rome, Mochta was made a bishop by Pope St. Leo I. He founded Louth Monastery with twelve companions and was probably consecrated by St. Patrick. He died at the age of ninety, the last known disciple of St. Patrick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochta

St. Sebald, 770 A.D. Patron Saint of Nuremberg. Hermit, missionary, and a patron saint of Nuremberg. Most likely an Anglo-Saxon from England, he arrived on the Continent and became a hermit near Vicenza, Italy, and then participated in the missionary enterprise of the times, assisting in the work. of St. Willibald in the Reichswald. Many miracles were attributed to him, including turning icicles into firewood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebaldus

St. Credan, 780 A.D. A Benedictine abbot of Evesham, England, in the reign of King Offa of Mercia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credan

ST. JOHN EUDES, PRIEST, FOUNDER OF THE EUDISTS, https://www.catholicapostolatecenterfeastdays.org/feast-days-and-solemnities/st-john-eudes#:~:text=Jesus%20and%20Mary-,St.,and%20the%20Blessed%20Virgin%20Mary.

ST. SIXTUS III, POPE, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sixtus_III

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.22

392 – Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor. 851 – Battle of Jengland: Erispoe defeats Charles the Bald near the Breton town of Jengland. 1138 – Battle of the Standard between Scotland and England. 1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet. 1559 – Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish archbishop, is arrested for heresy. 1614 – Fettmilch Uprising: Jews are expelled from Frankfurt, Holy Roman Empire, following the plundering of the Judengasse. 1639 – Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company on a sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers. 1642 – Charles I raises his standard in Nottingham, which marks the beginning of the English Civil War. 1654 – Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam. He is the first known Jewish immigrant to America. 1711 – Britain's Quebec Expedition loses eight ships and almost nine hundred soldiers, sailors and women to rocks at Pointe-aux-Anglais. 1717 – Spanish troops land on Sardinia. 1770 – James Cook names and lands on Possession Island, and claims the east coast of Australia for Britain as New South Wales. 1777 – British forces abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix after hearing rumors of Continental Army reinforcements. 1780 – James Cook's ship HMS Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage). 1791 – Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue, Haiti. 1798 – French troops land at Kilcummin, County Mayo, Ireland to aid the rebellion. 1827 – José de la Mar becomes President of Peru. 1846 – The Second Federal Republic of Mexico is established. 1849 – The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice. 1851 – The first America's Cup is won by the yacht America. 1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention, establishing the rules of protection of the victims of armed conflicts. 1875 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia is ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands. 1894 – Mahatma Gandhi forms the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in order to fight discrimination against Indian traders in Natal. 1902 – Cadillac Motor Company is founded. 1902 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to make a public appearance in an automobile. 1902 – At least 4,000 people are killed by the 1902 Turkestan earthquake in the Tien Shan mountains. 1922 – Michael Collins, Commander-in-chief of the Irish Free State Army, is shot dead in an ambush during the Irish Civil War. 1934 – Bill Woodfull of Australia becomes the only test cricket captain to twice regain The Ashes. 1941 – World War II: German troops begin the Siege of Leningrad. 1942 – Brazil declares war on Germany, Japan and Italy. 1944 – World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete by German forces. 1949 – The Queen Charlotte earthquake is Canada's strongest since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake. 1953 – The penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed. 1962 – The OAS attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle. 1963 – X-15 Flight 91 reaches the highest altitude of the X-15 program (107.96 km (67.08 mi) (354,200 feet)). 1966 – Labor movements NFWA and AWOC merge to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers. 1968 – Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America. 1971 – J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28. 1972 – Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its racist policies. 1973 – The Congress of Chile votes in favour of a resolution condemning President Salvador Allende's government and demands that he resign or else be unseated through force and new elections. 1978 – Nicaraguan Revolution: The FLSN seizes the National Congress of Nicaragua, along with over a thousand hostages. 1978 – The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment is passed by the U.S. Congress, although it is never ratified by a sufficient number of states. 1981 – Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 103 disintegrates in mid-air and crashes in Sanyi Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan. All 110 people on board are killed. 1985 – British Airtours Flight 28M suffers an engine fire during takeoff at Manchester Airport. The pilots abort but due to inefficient evacuation procedures 55 people are killed, mostly from smoke inhalation. 1989 – Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts. 1991 – Iceland is the first nation in the world to recognize the independence of the Baltic states. 1992 – FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi shoots and kills Vicki Weaver during an 11-day siege at her home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. 2003 – Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building. 2004 – Versions of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway. 2006 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 crashes near the Russian border over eastern Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board. 2006 – Grigori Perelman is awarded the Fields Medal for his proof of the Poincaré conjecture in mathematics but refuses to accept the medal. 2007 – The Texas Rangers defeat the Baltimore Orioles 30–3, the most runs scored by a team in modern Major League Baseball history. 2012 – Ethnic clashes over grazing rights for cattle in Kenya's Tana River District result in more than 52 deaths.

[always-hope-laurel-blog]

Is Patriotism Lost?

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” ‭‭John‬ ‭15:13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This Memorial Day remember ALL who gave their lives for Our FREEDOM!

Men and Women died Believing Freedom should be fought for no matter the cost. Has patriotism been LOST?

There is #AlwaysHope #NeverGiveUp #ActivistGranny #StandFastAndPrayForTheUSA #AmericanFreedomsLost

Four Men laid Down Their Life for their Friends!!

“Shortly before 1 A.M. on February 2, 1943, the American transport ship Dorchester was steaming through the icy North Atlantic from Newfoundland toward an American base in Greenland, carrying 902 servicemen, merchant seamen, and civilian workers, when a German torpedo struck the starboard side, amid ship, far below the waterline.

The blast killed scores of men, and many more were seriously wounded. Others, stunned by the explosion, groped in the darkness.

Through the pandemonium, according to eyewitnesses, four Army chaplains brought hope in despair and light in the darkness to the men who struggled to find their way out.

Those army chaplains were Lt. George L. Fox, Methodist; Lt. Alexander D. Goode, Jewish; Lt. John P. Washington, Roman Catholic; and Lt. Clark V. Poling, Dutch Reformed. Above the din, the four chaplains could be heard urging the frightened to be brave, praying for the dying, and guiding the disoriented toward the lifeboats.

Men jumped from the ship into lifeboats, overcrowding them to the point of capsizing. Other rafts, tossed into the Atlantic, drifted away before soldiers could get in them. As most of the men reached topside, the chaplains opened a storage locker and began distributing life jackets. When there were no more lifejackets available, the chaplains astonished onlookers, taking off theirs and giving them to four frightened young men.

“It was the finest thing I have seen or hope to see this side of heaven,” said John Ladd, one of the survivors.

Then in the darkness, the four chaplains linked arms, grasped the railing of the ship together as it began to slip into the ocean, and began singing and shouting biblical encouragement in English, Hebrew, and Latin to the men in the sea. William Bednar, floating among his dead comrades, later said, “Their voices were the only thing that kept me going.”

Of the men aboard the Dorchester, 672 died, including the chaplains. Their sacrificial action constitutes one of the purest spiritual and ethical acts a person can make.

In their devotion to their troops, these men of God captured the best of what a military chaplain strives to be. Their heroic conduct set a vision of greatness that stunned America as did the magnitude of the tragedy.”

Taken from The American Patriot’s Bible

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” ‭‭John‬ ‭15:13‬ ‭NIV‬‬