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Expert
Posts: 2118
 
Location: The Heart of Space | I have always loved this story; and it is probably as true as any other history we study. Happy Turkey Day Everyone, Un vieux Fanfan la Tulipe, Marty + Luckylee, Poppyhead
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 Thanksgiving.txt (3KB - 1 downloads)
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PhD Alumni
Posts: 4414
Location: United Kingdom | Hi Marty
Thanks to the French? Now I know you are winding up your English cousins ...
Bring back St Jean d'Arc ....
and time for tea too
Namaste
PJ |
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Forum Administrator
Posts: 462
| Namaste tea?
Cafe au lait por favore?
Gotta get this rhyming thing out of my brain ...
As Marty might be one who will remember Dwayne Eddy,
'The twangs the thang' ...
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PhD Alumni
Posts: 4414
Location: United Kingdom | Don't know about that Oph; in the words of John Martin, 'I don't want to know about evil I only want to know 'bout love'.
But some of us old souls do remember Agincourt [Marty? - over to you] .. not forgettting St Joan, though of course, neither the English nor the French treated her too well either, did they. |
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Expert
Posts: 2118
Location: The Heart of Space | OMG......what hath the Thanksgiving post wrought???? I will add some reflection in order of reading the posts................. OMG Ophi......we used to listen to Rebel Rouser as a sort of anthem of "redneck" Maryland. Dwayne sang live a few times on a radio show deejayed by a guy named Lee Hazelwood (this was in Arizona, though I am not absolutely certain) Lee was also a singer/gitfiddle picker. Lee did a duo with Nancy Sinatra called "Some Velvet Morning". I plugged a lot of nickels in the juke to hear that song at a local bar (Family's Tavern) in northeast Washingtoon, DC.....much to the dismay of the other clientele. They wanted Soul and R&B; not heavy dramatic music. If I can find some Dwayne and some Lee I might stick it in Stochastic Music thread. It is funny.....this is the day and age where computers create the sounds desired. In days gone by we relied on tremelo bars and effect pedals. But Dwayne had even more primitive technology. The story goes that to enhance the twangy sound, he and Lee recorded a bunch of songs in an empty water tower. Don't know if that is true.......... Peace, Marty, Luckylee, Poppyhead OMG....it looks like Joan is next....that requires much thought as she was a most enigmatic figure..........
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Expert
Posts: 2118
Location: The Heart of Space | Aha Paul:
This only goes to show the shortsightedness of the English; and the forgotten heroes of the American Revolution.....yes, my dear friend......our flower growing, wooden shoe wearing cousins in Tulipland...............
Beginning in 1775, it was the Dutch and not the French that kept the American Revolutionary army supplied with arms and gunpowder, mainly through the Dutch port in the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius (also called Statia), near present day St. Kitts and Nevis. In fact, it is impossible to envision an American victory without the assistance of the Dutch -- for whom the profit motives were simply too great. The irony was that the Dutch were a long-standing ally of the British, and it was not until 1781, near what turned out to be the end of the war, that the British resolved to act to end the Dutch assistance. That action was undertaken by Admiral George Brydges Rodney, who attacked St. Eustatius in 1781 and put a decisive end to the activity as part of a newly declared war by the British on the Dutch. Rodney took into custody Dutch merchants and officials, a colony of Jewish merchants that had been invaluable to the American cause, and even English merchants who were acting against the interests of their king. However, Admiral Rodney did not act to damage the French fleet, and he easily could have as part of this same action, and thus prevented the French fleet's indispensable role in the epoch-making American victory at Yorktown later that same year. Why didn't he? The British simply did not envision that French assistance would or could make a difference:
"[Admiral] Rodney descended upon Statia with devastation and confiscations. ... The seizing offshore of 130 merchantmen of all kinds, with their cargoes valued at £500,000, was normal enough as a prize of war. There followed the plundering of private property, in shops and houses, of naval stores and goods in the warehouses, arms and ammunition in the arsenals, crates of sugar, tobacco and rice on the beaches. The total proceeds have been valued at £3 million, excluding the captured ships. Asking for a list of merchants and their inventories, Rodney singled out the Jews, who had a small well-established community on the island, and ordered them stripped for cash or precious stones or whatever might be supposed to be secreted in their clothing. Acting out a common antipathy with unnecessary zeal, he ordered the Jews expelled on one day's notice, without notice to their families or access to their homes. With more reason, French nationals as enemy citizens were all deported to neighboring French islands. With equal zeal Rodney pursued [Statia] Governor de Graaff with penalties deserved by the 'first man who insulted the British flag by taking up the salute of a pirate and a rebel, and who, during his whole administration has been remarkably inimical to Great Britain and a favourer of the American rebellion .... ' Two American ships named de Graaff of 26 guns and Lady de Graaff of 18 'prove how much the Americans thought themselves obliged to him. ... He has made an amazing fortune and, by all accounts, much by oppression. His plantation is seized for his Majesty' and de Graaff himself taken as an enemy prisoner to be sent with all his other household property to Great Britain. ...
"In the first month of the Dutch war as a whole, 200 of the Dutch merchant fleet, an objective as important as St. Eustatius, were taken by the English, paralyzing Dutch shipping in the process that accelerated the decline of the [Dutch] Republic. Occupied on land in collecting and disposing of the island's riches and arranging for their safe convoy to England, and in pursuing the iniquitous English merchants who had been trading with the enemy, Rodney was not at the head of his fleet patrolling the waters to intercept possible French intervention in America. While he has borne responsibility for this fateful omission, the fault did not in fact lie with him so much as in the casual management by his government and its war ministers, who did not foresee or consider French intervention as a serious concern. At no time did they issue any orders to Rodney that a primary mission of his fleet must be at all costs to prevent French reinforcements from reaching America to aid the rebels. If he or his government had been gifted with a talent for seeing into the future, and could have anticipated the fatal effect for Britain of future French presence at Yorktown, orders to the Admiral might have been more definitive in the Spartan tone of 'Come back with your shield or on it.' Rodney was given no such urgent advice because the English never seriously considered that the Americans could win the war or that French help could or would be decisive. Ministers did not act to prevent a siege of General Cornwallis' army at Yorktown because it was a contingency they never conceived of as happening.
"The objects of Rodney's sternest wrath were British merchants of both Statia and, particularly, St. Kitts who had been selling arms to the enemy for use against their own countrymen. He pounced upon their records in accountants' offices, which had not been destroyed owing to the speed and surprise of the English attack, and sent them back to England to the war ministry of Lord George Germain. Two American agents of the Continental Congress, by name Isaac Gouverneur and Samuel Curzon or Courson, who had handled the purchases were sent with the papers as prisoners, in the hope of seeing them tried as traitors."
Author: Barbara W. Tuchman
All I can say is "Ja Sure" as I have hot cocoa from Amsterdam.
Your pal,
Marty and Luckylee, Poppyhead van der Katz |
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PhD Alumni
Posts: 1882
 
Location: NE Ohio | I know I am late, have been in bed, more than anything else. Had to celebrate Thanksgiving early, then try to get kids schedules under wrap while feeling like crap. I have been in and out of the hospital at least 15 times in the last 2 years. I hate the cold anymore and well.... I am leaving the COLD in ONE week today. Yeppers... for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I decided that I am spending a good ten days with my daughter in Hawaii. As she attends Hawaii University and gained a scholarship for college to be on their competition cheerleading squad. (serious work). Soooo, WARM WEATHER, here i come. Bring out the bathing suites and take a break from ice, snow, and cold here in NE Ohio. I will get to spend Christmas with my kid #3 and be home in time for my kid #2's birthday on the 28th! YAY!
In the meantime, I am very Thankful that you all are here and gave blessings on Thanksgiving!
Love ya! |
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PhD Alumni
Posts: 4414
Location: United Kingdom | Hi Jillifer, nice to see you back here again, been missing you. Enjoy your sojourn, and all and every Season's Greetings to you.
Yeah Marty, I think I know what you mean. There are a lot of things the British, or perhaps rather the English, have done in the past and not so dim and distant either, that we might wish had not been done or perpetrated, where can one begin or end?!
Yuletide Musings
Paul |
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PhD Alumni
Posts: 1882
Location: NE Ohio | Great to see you too Paul, and everyone. I will be gone again for about a ten day break, till just before new years... but plan on being much more involved now that I feel more spiritual... needed that badly. Lots of love to all! |
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Thanks to the French....Happy Thanksgiving to Us All!
