Posted by Bob Taylor on June 19, 2014, 3:35 am Edited by board administrator June 23, 2014, 7:56 am
Empire building was not the purpose of Britain's acquisition of territory throughout the world. The purpose of ultimately forming this worldwide empire was trade. This empire that eventually covered the entire globe was built on business. That empire the likes of which had never been seen before and is unlikely ever to be repeated has now vanished with the sands of time, apart from the 53 nations worldwide that form the Commonwealth with the queen as head. And that ends the lecture for today.
Oh come on Taylor! What about the USS Fort Donelson?
OK let me take you back to the days of the American civil war. The South was not a manufacturing entity but badly needed hardware to conduct the struggle against the more mechanized North. And this is where Britain with an eye to trade stepped in. It wasn't a case of the rights or wrongs of the situation, it was a case of trade, of business. Very soon it was in for a penny and in for a pound with hundreds of steam ships breaking the USN blockade of southern ports. There was a frenzy of ship building in the UK not unlike the Liberty ship program. Not that Great Britain was sympathetic to slavery which had been banned throughout the Empire decades before. In fact these blockade runners gave passage to whole families of slaves on the return voyage to the staging post of British Bermuda. (You may care to read the story of one of those freed slaves who eventually became a US Senator.)
Yes yes Taylor! And the Fort Donelson?
All right, the USS Fort Donelson started life as a UK merchant ship the 'Giraffe' before getting involved in the lucrative trade with the South. It was then purchased by the CSN and renamed the CSS Robert E Lee. No prizes for guessing what happened next, you're right it was captured by the USN and became our friend the USS Fort Donelson. It successfully saw the war out and returned to being a merchantman with the name Isabella.
But after a time it was bought by the Chilean Navy and took the name Conception. And that’s definitely the end of the ship, possibly.
Bob Taylor
Re: USS Donelson
Posted by bob Taylor on June 21, 2014, 2:37 am, in reply to "USS Donelson"
Dear ancient mariners the title of this massage should have read USS Fort Donelson and not USS Donelson. Unfortunately the night before I wrote this literary effort I’d been out on the town rum drinking and smoking my favorite Cuban cigars. And you know how it is the next day, you’re a bit fuzzy. But mistakes do happen when an idea suddenly pops into your head and you rush to get onto print quicker than you can say Jack Robinson. Which was obviously the case also with Donald Beagle in the message prior to mine, a man after my own heart. I don’t know if rum was his tipple but he’s probably like me and knows how to enjoy himself. And I bet you a dime to a donut he’s from New Jersey! Might I say, Donald old chap, Beagle is a name that helped change our conception of all life on this planet. I don’t need to tell you that it was in HMS Beagle that Charles Darwin sailed on his epic voyage to South America. Bob Taylor