HMS Drake (1777) 🦐

"HMS Drake was a 14-gun sloop-of-war of the Royal Navy. Originally the ship Royal Oak*, captain Samuel Chase, 250/275 tons, built in New England in 1775 by John W(h)arton from Philadelphia. She belonged to Browers, trading between London and Stettin as a tobacco-ship. Some trades: departure from Gravesend for Stettin on 12.9.75. Departure from Elseneur for London on 23.10.75. Arriving at Gravesend from Stettin on 11.11.75. She was sold to one Murray in 1776 and renamed Resolution, fitted with 20 guns for London transport, captain Ed.Hawker : some trades: on 12.7.76 from London to Boston, on 8.1.77 from Cork to London. On 3.4.1777 she was purchased at Plymouth by the ROYAL NAVY for 3000 Pounds, completed fitting 24.5.77 and became the ship- rigged Sloop-of-War the DRAKE with 14/18/20 guns, 100/200 men. She served in the American Revolutionary War, her first mission, starting 17.7.77, being the protection of the Packet-boats between Harwich and Gorée Lloyd’s Registers of Shipping 1775 to 1777/ Lloyd’s lists 1775 to 1777/ Three Decks Warships in the Age of Sail/ Granville Hough’s ships listing. *note: The Royal Oak is the tree within which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. -On 24 April 1778, off Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, she fought the North Channel naval duel with the 18-gun sloop Ranger of the Continental Navy, commanded by Captain John Paul Jones. Five of Drake's crew, including her captain, George Burdon, were killed, and after an hour-long engagement, Drake surrendered to the Americans. Jones was able to evade capture and deliver Drake to Brest, France as his prize on 8 May 1778. This was the first, and most complete, American victory over any Royal Navy vessel in British waters."USS Ranger". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. 2003. Retrieved 9 January 2012"He Bought HMS Drake". Seacoast New Hampshire. 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2012. -At Brest, Jones sold her to his friend Jonathan Williams, who handed her over the next year to Jean Pel(le)tier-Dudoyer for Mont(h)ieu in Nantes (both Beaumarchais’ associates). In July 1779, she left Nantes for Brest, under captain Jean- Baptiste Cotton de Chaucy, being chartered by the King of France into a 10-vessel convoy between Brest and the Antillas, escorted by Le Fier-Rodrigue frigate. But the latter was suddenly requisitioned by the French Navy and the expedition was cancelled. Still chartered by the King, between March 1780 and January 1781, the Dra(c)ke (Drak), captain J.B.Cotton de Chaucy, made two trips to America and West-Indies, transporting Rochambeau’s troops in Charles- Henri-Louis d'Arsac de Ternay's squadron and coming back to France with packets for the King.Samuel Eliot Morison/1959 « John Paul Jones »/Archives Départementales de Loire-Atlantique:notaire Briand-le-Jeune’s papers May 1782. -At the beginning of 1781, Jean Peltier Dudoyer prepared in Nantes 5 ships for the V.O.C., Dutch East India Company, in order to go and protect Cape of Good Hope against England. The Drake, captain Marc Antoine Fauvet, was at The Cape in November 1781, joining the de Pernier’s squadron whose mission was to bring victuals and troops to Suffren’s fleet at Isle de France (Maurice Island). The Drake came back to the Cape 20.5.1782. There, on 2.9.1782, she was sold to the King of France by Robert Pitot for 849.000 livres and incorporated into the French Navy. She went once more to Isle de France in November, left on 1.12.82 and arrived at Trinquemalay (Ceyland) on 10.3.1783. In the meantime, the Peace was declared and announced to the East-Indian fleet on 29.6.1783. Suffren sailed back home, but de Pernier stayed in the Indian Ocean with 5 ships-of- the line and some frigates and sloops-of-war. From December 1784 to February 1786, the French “Flûte Royale Dracke”, captain Deshayes, was sent by the governor Marquis de Bussy from Pondicherry, India to Bago, Burma, to bring help to the other royal “flûte” the Baleine, captain Flouest, and to try diplomatically to get her out of the River where she was retained by the local authorities, and to allow her to get back to France. That will happen during the Autumn 1785 for we see her leaving the Isle of France on 24 July 1785 and arriving first at Lorient, and then at Rochefort, being decommissioned there on 28.3.1786. As for the Drake, her departure from Bago (Pég(o)u), which was scheduled for March 1785, could only occur eleven months later, first because of a bill of exchange having not been paid in Pondicherry, and secondly because of a war suddenly breaking out between Burmese and Siamese. Our ship finally arrived at Pondicherry in May 1786 and from there we no longer find any trace of her! She might have been sold or destroyed there, having been out of France for 4 long years……fr.wikipedia.org Jean Peltier Dudoyer / Jonathan Williams Jr “The Papers of Benjamin Franklin-1.10.1778”/ Henri Cordier: ”Mémoires sur le Pégu” pages 121 to 152/ Secrétariat d’Etat à la Marine- Personnel Colonial ancien-Lettre D : Deshayes, subrécargue des flûtes du Roi La Baleine et Le Drake, chargé d’une expédition de Pondichéry au Pégou (1784-1786) code réf. COL E 125 folios 390 to 397/ Secrétarie d’Etat à la Marine. Correspondance à l’arrivée extrême-orient : ‘’Expédition du Pégu par le sieur Deshayes, commandant la flûte du Roi le Dracke. Années 1784, 1785 et 1786 ‘’, selon les instructions de Bussy du 18 décembre 1784 (30 janvier 1787). Code Communication : 202 MIOM 11 Code de référence : COL C1 21 folios 173 to 186. Small description of the vessel: 3 masts, 5 windows at the stern gallery, a quarter deck, a figurehead representing a warrior in armour with a sword (probably the King of England Charles II- see on top of the page the note over the Royal Oak). According to John Paul Jones the Drake was very similar to his former ship : the USS Alfred American frigate ex-Merchant ship the Black Prince/1774.‘’John Paul Jones’’ by Samuel Eliot Morison 1959 + Various paintings showing the capture of the Drake by the Ranger. '' Model of an XVIIIth century American built16-gun coppered sloop-of-war References Category:Sloops of the Royal Navy Category:Captured ships Category:Maritime incidents in 1778 "

Beati Paoli 🦐

"Beati Paoli is the name of a secretive sect thought to have existed in medieval Sicily. The sect, as described by the author Luigi Natoli in his historic novel I Beati Paoli (written as a series under the pseudonym William Galt in 1909, then re-published as books in 1921 and 1949), resembles an order of knights fighting for the poor and the commoners.The Beati Paoli, by Roberto Savona, Best of Sicily magazine Whereas the novel is fictitious, Sicily's history bears some evidence that the Beati Paoli actually existed. In 1071 feudalism was introduced in Sicily by its conqueror, the Norman lord Roger II de Hauteville.The Middle Ages, Best of Sicily magazine As the nobles started to exploit their feudal rights in the centuries to come, the Inquisition also got a foothold in Sicily. Any action by the commoners that could be interpreted by the state or the church as acts of treason or heresy was punishable by death. Such actions could be unauthorized assemblies or formation of societies with goals other than supporting the current state/church regime. In this environment, several orders and sects rose to existence - albeit a secret one. The Beati Paoli was allegedly formed to oppose both the church and the state, defending the commoners from infringements posed by the regime. They wore black hooded coats and operated at night from their refuge in the remains of the catacombs and underground channels of Palermo. It is not known when the Beati Paoli was established, but the novel by Luigi Natoli sets the scene in the 17th century in the town of Paoli. The origin of the name is also unknown, although some tie it to Saint Francis of Paola, or Beato Paola. The Beati Paoli have the same connotation to many Sicilians as Robin Hood has to Northern Europeans. Today, traces of the Beati Paoli can be found in the Capo district of Palermo, where a square, a street and a restaurant bear their name. Predecessors of the Mafia? In Sicily the Beati Paoli came to be seen – both in the popular imagination and in the ideology of mafia groups – as a proto-manifestation of the Mafia.Paoli, Organised Crime in Italy, p. 264 Sicilian mafiosi love to portray themselves as the successors of the Beati Paoli, and Cosa Nostra likes to trace its origin to the sect. The novel is still alive in today's Mafia culture and its main characters are models of the ideal-typical sets of attitudes and behaviour of a mafioso. In one of their first confrontations in court, the Mafia boss of bosses Totò Riina and the turncoat (pentito) Gaspare Mutolo confronted each other referring to the characters of the novel.Paoli, Mafia Brotherhoods, pp. 184-85/242 Another pentito, Antonio Calderone, said he was told when he was initiated in Cosa Nostra that a mafioso should "follow the example of the Beati Paoli."Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia, p. 13 References Works cited *Gambetta, Diego (1993). The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection, London: Harvard University Press, *Paoli, Letizia (2003). Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style, New York: Oxford University Press *Paoli, Letizia (2004). "Organised Crime in Italy: Mafia and Illegal Markets – Exception and Normality" in Cyrille Fijnaut & Letizia Paoli (eds). Organised Crime in Europe: Concepts, Patterns and Control Policies in the European Union and Beyond. The Netherlands; Norwell, MA: Springer. *Charles William Heckethorn, The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries, 1897, pages 169-171 Category:Secret societies related to organized crime Category:Medieval Sicily Category:History of the Sicilian Mafia Category:History of Palermo "

Sunita Williams 🦐

"Sunita Lyn Williams (née Pandya; born September 19, 1965) is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer who formerly held the records for most spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes). Williams was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and Expedition 15. In 2012, she served as a flight engineer on Expedition 32 and then commander of Expedition 33. Early life and education Sunita Williams was born in Euclid, Ohio, to Indian American neuroanatomist Deepak Pandya and Slovene American Ursuline Bonnie (Zalokar) Pandya, who reside in Falmouth, Massachusetts. She is the youngest of three children. Her brother Jay Thomas is four years older and her sister Dina Annadj is three years older. Williams' paternal family is from Jhulasan in the Mehsana district in Gujarat, India, while her maternal great- grandmother Mary Bohinc (originally Marija Bohinjec), born in Leše, Slovenia, immigrated to America as an eleven-year-old with her mother, 1891 Slovene emigrant Ursula (Strajhar) Bohinac.Sunita Williams in her maternal ancestors' homeland one more time, Delo, March 26, 2013.Sunita Williams to start her India trip from April 1, The Times of India, March 31, 2013. Williams graduated in Needham High School in Needham, Massachusetts, in 1983. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in physical science from the United States Naval Academy in 1987, and a Master of Science degree in Engineering Management from Florida Institute of Technology in 1995. Military career Williams was commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy in May 1987. After a six-month temporary assignment at the Naval Coastal System Command, she was designated a Basic Diving Officer. She next reported to the Naval Air Training Command, where she was designated a Naval Aviator in July 1989. She received initial H-46 Sea Knight training in Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 3 (HC-3), and was then assigned to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 8 (HC-8) in Norfolk, Virginia, with which she made overseas deployments to the Mediterranean, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Provide Comfort. In September 1992, she was the Officer-in-Charge of an H-46 detachment sent to Miami, Florida, for Hurricane Andrew relief operations aboard . In January 1993, Williams began training at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. She graduated in December, and was assigned to the Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Directorate as an H-46 Project Officer and V-22 chase pilot in the T-2. Later, she was assigned as the squadron Safety Officer and flew test flights in the SH-60B/F, UH-1, AH-1W, SH-2, VH-3, H-46, CH-53, and the H-57. In December 1995, she went back to the Naval Test Pilot School as an instructor in the Rotary Wing Department and as the school's Safety Officer. There she flew the UH-60, OH-6, and the OH-58. She was then assigned to as the Aircraft Handler and the Assistant Air Boss. Williams was deployed on Saipan in June 1998 when she was selected by NASA for the astronaut program. She has logged more than 3,000 flight hours in more than 30 aircraft types. Career in NASA Williams wearing an EMU suit, circa 2004 Williams began her Astronaut Candidate training at the Johnson Space Center in August 1998. =STS-116= Astronaut Sunita L. Williams, STS-116 mission specialist, participates in the mission's third planned session of extravehicular activity (EVA) Williams was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) with STS-116, aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, on December 9, 2006, to join the Expedition 14 crew. In April 2007, the Russian members of the crew rotated, changing to Expedition 15 . =Expeditions 14 and 15= Williams became the first person to run a marathon from the space station on April 16, 2007 After launching aboard the Shuttle Discovery, Williams arranged to donate her pony tail to Locks of Love. Fellow astronaut Joan Higginbotham cut her hair aboard the International Space Station and the ponytail was brought back to Earth by the STS-116 crew. Williams performed her first extra-vehicular activity on the eighth day of the STS-116 mission. On January 31, February 4, and February 9, 2007, she completed three spacewalks from the ISS with Michael López-Alegría. During one of these walks, a camera became untethered, probably because the attaching device failed, and floated off to space before Williams could react. Joan Higginbotham and Williams work the controls of the Canadarm2 in the ISS's Destiny Laboratory On the third spacewalk, Williams was outside the station for 6 hours and 40 minutes to complete three spacewalks in nine days. She has logged 29 hours and 17 minutes in four spacewalks, eclipsing the record held by Kathryn C. Thornton for most spacewalk time by a woman. On December 18, 2007, during the fourth spacewalk of Expedition 16, Peggy Whitson surpassed Williams, with a cumulative EVA time of 32 hours, 36 minutes. In early March 2007, she received a tube of wasabi in a Progress spacecraft resupply mission in response to her request for more spicy food. When she opened the tube, which was packaged at one atmospheric pressure, the gel-like paste was forced out in the lower pressure of the ISS. In the free-fall environment, the spicy geyser was difficult to contain. On April 26, 2007, NASA decided to bring Williams back to Earth on the STS-117 mission aboard Atlantis. Although she did not break the U.S. single spaceflight record that was recently broken by former crew member Commander Michael López-Alegría, she did break the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman. Williams served as a mission specialist and returned to Earth on June 22, 2007, at the end of the STS-117 mission. Poor weather at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral forced mission managers to skip three landing attempts there over a 24-hour period. They then diverted Atlantis to Edwards Air Force Base in California, where the shuttle touched down at 3:49 p.m. EDT, returning Williams home after a record 192-day stay in space. =Marathon in space= On April 16, 2007, she ran the first marathon by any person in space. Williams was listed as an entrant for the 2007 Boston Marathon, and completed the distance in four hours and 24 minutes. The other crew members cheered her on and gave her oranges during the race. Williams' sister, Dina Pandya, and fellow astronaut Karen L. Nyberg ran the marathon on Earth, and Williams received updates on their progress from Mission Control. In 2008, Williams participated in the Boston Marathon again. =Expeditions 32 and 33= COLBERT during ISS Expedition 32 Williams appears to touch the bright sun during a spacewalk conducted on September 5, 2012. Williams was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 15, 2012, as part of Expedition 32/33. Her Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA-05M docked with the ISS for a four-month stay at the orbiting outpost on July 17, 2012. The docking of the Soyuz spacecraft occurred at 4:51 GMT as the ISS flew over Kazakhstan at an altitude of 252 miles. The hatchway between the Soyuz spacecraft and the ISS was opened at 7:23 GMT and Williams floated into the ISS to begin her duties as a member of the Expedition 32 crew. On the Soyuz spacecraft, she was accompanied by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. Williams served as the commander of the ISS during her stay onboard ISS Expedition 33, succeeding Gennady Padalka. She became the commander of the International Space Station on September 17, 2012, being only the second woman to achieve the feat. Also in September 2012, she became the first person to do a triathlon in space, which coincided with the Nautica Malibu Triathlon held in Southern California. She used the International Space Station's own treadmill and stationary bike, and for the swimming portion of the race, she used the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) to do weightlifting and resistance exercises that approximate swimming in microgravity. After swimming half a mile (0.8 km), biking 18 miles (29 km), and running 4 miles (6.4 km), Williams finished with a time of one hour, 48 minutes and 33 seconds, as she reported. She returned to Earth with fellow astronauts Yuri Malenchenko and Akihiko Hoshide on November 19, 2012, touching down in the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. Helicopters joined the search-and-recovery crew to assist them, as their capsule parachuted down some from the planned touchdown site due to a procedural delay. =Commercial Crew program= In July 2015, NASA announced Williams as one of the first astronauts for U.S. Commercial spaceflights. Subsequently, she has started working with Boeing and SpaceX to train in their commercial crew vehicles, along with other chosen astronauts. In August 2018 she was assigned to the first mission flight, CTS-1, to the International Space Station of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner. =Spacewalks= , Williams has made seven spacewalks totaling 50 hours and 40 minutes, putting Williams ninth on the list of most experienced spacewalkers. On August 30, 2012, Williams and JAXA astronaut Hoshide ventured outside the ISS to conduct US EVA-18. They removed and replaced the failing Main Bus Switching Unit-1 (MBSU-1), and installed a thermal cover onto Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 (PMA-2). Personal life Williams with Slovenian Defense Minister Ljubica Jelušič (2009) Williams at Science City Kolkata in April 2013 Williams is married to Michael J. Williams, a federal police officer in Oregon. The two have been married for more than 20 years, and both flew helicopters in the early days of their careers. They reside together in suburban Houston, Texas. She had a pet Jack Russell Terrier named Gorby who was featured with her on the Dog Whisperer television show on the National Geographic Channel on November 12, 2010.Dog Whisperer: Astronaut Dogs & Mongo , National Geographic Channel, November 12, 2010. In 2012, Williams expressed a desire to adopt a girl from Ahmedabad. In September 2007, Williams visited the Sabarmati Ashram and her ancestral village Jhulasan in Gujarat, India. She was awarded the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vishwa Pratibha Award by the World Gujarati Society, the first person of Indian descent who was not an Indian citizen to be presented the award. On October 4, 2007, Williams spoke at the American Embassy School, and then met Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India. In October 2014, Williams visited Slovenia. During her stay, amongst other things, she paid a visit to the Astronomical Society Vega in Ljubljana. She visited Slovenia again in 2016. On June 7, 2017, the Needham School Committee voted unanimously to name the town's new elementary school the Sunita L. Williams Elementary School. Williams was a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. In May 2020, Williams addressed over 500,000 Indian and other international students in the United States in a virtual interview organized by the Student Hub at the Embassy of India, Washington, DC during the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020. Honors and awards * Navy Commendation Medal * Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal * Humanitarian Service Medal * NASA Spaceflight Medal * Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration", Government of Russia (2011) * Padma Bhushan, Government of India (June 25, 2008) * Honorary Doctorate, Gujarat Technological University (2013) * Golden Order for Merits, Government of Slovenia (May 20, 2013) See also * List of Asian American astronauts * List of female spacefarers References External links * NASA biography of Sunita Williams August 2018 * Take a tour in ISS with Sunita Williams November 2012 * Pics: Sunita Williams' journey home and beyond Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:American people of Slovenian descent Category:Aquanauts Category:Women astronauts Category:United States Navy astronauts Category:Crew members of the International Space Station Category:Commanders of the International Space Station Category:American people of Gujarati descent Category:American women scientists of Indian descent Category:American Hindus Category:People from Euclid, Ohio Category:People from Needham, Massachusetts Category:United States Naval Academy alumni Category:Florida Institute of Technology alumni Category:United States Naval Test Pilot School alumni Category:United States Navy captains Category:American test pilots Category:Aviators from Ohio Category:American women engineers Category:Recipients of the Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in other fields Category:American people of Indian descent Category:Asian-American female aviators Category:Female United States Naval Aviators Category:Space Shuttle program astronauts "