How Greece lost her Marbles

photo: a decent view of the Parthenon without too much scaffolding (copyright the author)

On a recent trip to Athens, the cultural hot potato that is the Elgin Marbles was very much in play. Piles of leaflets at the entrance to the Acropolis make the case for the return of these treasures of the Parthenon (or stolen booty depending on your stance) from the British Museum to Athens.

A brief summary of the story:

From 1799 the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople was Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin. At this time the Ottomans were in charge of Athens, and in 1801 Elgin obtained permission (or so he claimed) to remove around half the existing sculptures from the Parthenon and other structures on the Acropolis. This his agents duly did and in by 1812 they had been shipped back to Blighty.

Although Elgin's motives were based on a love of antiquity (he had heard that some sculptures had previously been burnt to extract lime), a row broke out almost immediately, and has been running off and on for the 200 years since.

Arguments for keeping the marbles in the BM:

1. They are closer to my house (and for Londoners generally). OK, this might have held water when it took a week by sea to get to Athens, but that was before Easyjet & co.

2. The Greeks won't look after them. Pollution in Athens is less of an issue since the Olympics clean-up, and the fab new Acropolis Museum makes the BM look very last year. They even have a space ready.

3. It will set a precedent for returning stuff which will empty our museums. Well, you shouldn't have nicked it in the first place. See this site for more hot potatoes.

4. We built a nice gallery for them. Just move with the times and use it for a permanent exhibition of our best graffiti artists. The Athens galleries are full of light and a much better setting for the marbles.

That's my balanced opinion anyway.

Empire of the Seas with Dan Snow

"Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World" is the title of Dan Snow's four-part documentary series currently setting sail on Friday evenings on BBC2, and jolly bracing it is too.

Dan is the son of Peter Snow, through-the-night BBC anchorman for many parliamentary elections, and I half expected Dan to roll out his dad's famous Swingometer to illustrate the shifts in the balance of sea power between Spain, France and Blighty.

As a former Boat Race man himself, Dan loses no opportunity to climb rigging, stand Winslet-like at the prow and man the wheel of various expensive-looking craft that the BBC has managed to borrow.

He also helps the modern Royal Navy to show off several of its more modern vessels, including a simulated raid by a large state-of-the-art fisheries protection vessel on a tiny defenceless fishing boat which the RN boat could easily squash by accident. Maybe there were no Somali pirates around to teach a lesson to...

The series charts the progress of the Royal Navy from the defeat of the Armada to the First World War, and therein lies one of the criticisms that have been aimed at the BBC. Why ignore the contribution of Henry VIII (and earlier regimes) in establishing the early Navy? Daly History Blog argues a similar point.

Cardinal Wolsey suspects that with such high production values (lots of helicopter flypasts as Dan sways on the topmast) the budget would only stretch to four episodes, so the early days had to be cut. See this previous post on Henry VIII's dockyards if you are interested in this period.

Another criticism is the sometimes slapdash treatment of the background politics (as opposed to the naval stuff proper). James Russell points out that the Armada was not simply a revenge mission for Drake's attack on Cadiz (as claimed in episode 1), but in fact it's key objective was to reverse the Protestant reformation and restore the Catholic church.

But Empire of the Seas is very good on how the expansion of the Navy was masterminded by men such as Sam Pepys . I agree with Molly Joyful's blog that the series isn't too gung-ho and highlights some of the less savoury episodes on the seas. These include the sad story of Admiral John Byng, also the subject of a previous post in this blog.

There is also a lavishly illustrated book to go with the series, written by expert naval historian Brian Lavery. Amazon UK are currently offering it at half price which at £10 is incredible value. That leaves a tenner spare for a bottle of rum to go with it.

Trafalgar, 21st October, 1805

Today is the 202nd anniversary of Trafalgar, perhaps the Royal Navy's greatest victory. The picture shows part of Nelson's sketch of his famous battle plan, to sail at an angle through the French and Spanish lines, rather than line up in parallel and blast away with broadsides as was the usual tactic.

This plan however involved 20-30 minutes of sailing under heavy fire toward the enemy lines without being able to engage them until the point of breaking through.

Colin White of the National Maritime Museum describes how Nelson drew up his battle plan here .

There is an interesting animation showing the progress of the battle, on the National Maritime Museum website.

Budding admirals who would like to test their skills against a computerised enemy can refight the battle in the BBC's Trafalgar Battlefield Academy

Various eyewitness accounts such as that of 16-year old marine Lt Paul Harris Nicholas show how Nelson's plan to bring about a chaotic "pell-mell" in order to defeat the enemy became all too true. Casualties on both sides were heavier than any sea battle in the previous 250 years.

David Cordingley's excellent book Billy Ruffian (Bloomsbury, 2003) contains a gripping description of the battle from the point of view of a particular ship of the line (the Bellerophon).

Cardinal Wolsey's Vodpod selections this week have a naval warfare theme, including a very funny spoof.

Finally here is a useful Royal Navy index of navy slang, so you can find out what Honkydonks and Mouldys are.

Let them eat cake! Henry Jones invents self-raising flour. March 17th, 1845

Henry Jones was fortunate amongst inventors in that he actually made a lot of money from his ingenuity, rather than see others turn his ideas into cash. Good for him.

This is from an article by Eugene Byrne for the 2006 Bristol "Festival of Ideas".
" A baker and confectioner in Broadmead (Bristol), Jones patented his self-raising flour in 1845. Until then, the only raising agent used in bread was yeast, which would not keep. This meant that soldiers and sailors, particularly, had to consume bread and biscuit that would become almost inedible. Jones said it was concern for servicemen, just as much as profit, which prompted him to develop his invention".

Henry Jones strove to convince the Admiralty that although a diet of "maggots, weevils and mouldy biscuits" may have suited Nelson’s crews, only good bread, decently baked, would satisfy a modern seaman.

"It was quickly championed by Florence Nightingale, who could see the advantage in soldiers and sailors enjoying a decent diet and Jones also got a warrant from Queen Victoria to supply the royal household. An article in The Lancet in 1846 praised Jones Patent Flour for its “contribution to public health and to the daily comfort of the masses”. Jones made a small fortune, and then another with his arrowroot biscuits, which were cheap and hugely popular"

Here's a link to an interesting website on the history of Bristol firms , which has a longer article on Henry James & Co , which is still going strong.

Commute with Napoleon

A plug for the continuing entertaining podcast on the life of Napoleon by Cameron Reilly (who asks the questions) and David Markham (who supplies the answers).....ideal for listening on the way to work.
Get Napoleon 101 via ITunes or direct from Podcast Network.

Execution of Marshal Ney, 1815

This blog occasionally makes an excursion into the Napoleonic period (see previous posts on Napoleon's final surrender to the English Navy and Napoleon's death on St.Helena ), and today's post commemorates the death by firing squad (commanded by himself - how's that for guts) of Marshal Ney in December 1815.

Ney was knows as "le Rougeaud" (he had ginger hair), and was a popular general, but attracted enemies firstly by siding with the Bourbons while Napoleon was on Elba, and secondly poor tactics at Quatre-Bras and Waterloo.

Bruno Nackaerts's article on the lack of opposition to Ney's execution includes mention of two good conspiracy theories - one that Wellington felt guilty and arranged for a mock execution with Ney spirited away to America where he became Peter Ney, a schoolteacher; the other conspiracy theory is another mock execution arranged by the masons, complete with stage blood!

Incidentally, the excellent Fondation Napoleon site has an interesting article on Napoleon's famous hat ('whilst most of his officers wore their hats "en colonne", that is, perpendicular to the shoulders, Napoleon wore his "en bataille", that is, with the corns parallel to shoulders').
There is also a link to various primary sources on the Napoleonica site, as well as some fun stuff - how about a classy Napoleonic e-card to your history buddies?.

Capture of Napoleon, 15th July, 1815.

Napoleon in fact surrendered to the British man-of-war Bellerophon (known as the Billy Ruffian to its crew), after realising that the possibility of escape through the British sea blockade was remote.

On being transported back to the UK, en route to St Helena and exile, crowds turned out every day to view the former Emperor's daily walk on deck.

See previous post covering his death on St Helena in 1821.

The history of the Bellerophon is desribed in the gripping ship's biography "Billy Ruffian" by David Cordingly.

The First Cook's Tour (5th July, 1841)

Thomas Cook was a lay preacher, a Baptist teatotaller who thought that the working classes would benefit from less drinking and more education. In 1841, he was walking from his home in Market Harborough to Leicester for a temperance meeting, when... "The thought suddenly flashed across my mind as to the practicability of employing the great powers of railways and locomotion for the furtherance of this social reform..".

On July 5th 1841, the first "Cook's Tour" took place when he organised a Sunday outing for around 500 teatotallers fom Leicester to Loughborough and back in open railway carriages for a shilling a head.....no buffet car, or probably decent brakes.

Cook's single-minded vision led to rapid expansion of his enterprise. Here are some of the milestones....

1851 Trips to the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London.
1855 First package trip abroad: to the Paris Exhibition via Harwich and Antwerp (more fun than Eurostar)
1864 First tour to Italy
1865 First exploratory trip to North America
1872 8-month round-the world tour from Leicester at age of 62. This became an annual event, at bargain price of £300.
1874 First Travellers' Cheques issued
1919 Flights in Handley-Page aircraft from Cricklewood.

Linguistic bit: the term "Cook's Tour " has two different meanings, relating to different famous Cooks.

Referring to Thomas Cook, a "Cook's tour" is a guided tour of a place, or subject, that only covers the key highlights.

The other meaning refers to Capt. James Cook, meaning a roundabout route, reflecting his voyages of discovery in his ships Endeavour and Resolution.

The Battle of Solferino (23rd June, 1859)

French under Napoleon III & Italians (more correctly Piedmont-Sardinia) under Victor-Emmanuel II (later first king of Italy) v. Austrians under the young Emperor Franz Joseph (with Germans in reserve). Italians were trying to regain Lombardy and Venetia from five generations of Austrian rule. France had agreed to help and in exchange would receive Savoy and Nice.

Solferino was the greatest land battle since Austerlitz, with 270,000 men clashing for 15 hours from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. There were 40,000 casualties. In the end the Austrian forces were driven from their positions but the carnage was so great that Napoleon III decided he could not continue with the war; by 11th July he had signed a peace treaty gaining Lombardy for Victor Emmanuel but leaving the Austrians with Venetia. On hearing the news, V-E's prime minister Cavour resigned, declaring that Italy had been betrayed. Italy had to fight another war in 1865 to regain Venetia.

The battle was witnessed by Swiss businessman Henri Dunant (pictured right), who happened to be in the area whilst on a business trip to Italy. He was so deeply moved by the plight of the many wounded, many of whom went on to die of wounds or be finished off by enemy forces, that he wrote his famous book "A Memory of Solferino", and is credited with founding the Red Cross. By 1864, 14 nations had signed the Geneva Convention which covered the treatment of wounded and prisoners.

An grisly extract from his book :
"For several days running I handed out tobacco, pipes and cigars, in the churches and hospitals, where the smell of the tobacco, smoked by hundreds of men, was of great value against the pungent stench which arose as the result of crowding so many patients together in stifling hot buildings. The stocks of tobacco in Brescia were very soon exhausted, and more had to be brought from Milan. Only tobacco could lessen the fears which the wounded men felt before an amputation. Many underwent their operation with a pipe in their mouths, and a number died still smoking"

[thanks to JL for contributing most of this post]

12th June, 1839. Game of Baseball invented in USA (allegedly)

The Americans think that they invented baseball....but not so fast you colonial types. It might in fact be based on an old English folk-game called Base-Ball, as illustrated here.....

More details including a related ancient game called Stool-Ball (don't ask) can be found at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_baseball

PM Spencer Perceval shot in the Commons Lobby, 11th May, 1812

British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is shot by a bankrupt banker John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons .
After the excitement caused by the shooting had quietened down, someone called out "Who was the rascal who did it?". At this moment a stranger to the House (a person who is not a Member of Parliament) walked up and calmly said "I am the unfortunate man". Bellingham made no attempt to escape, although he had by this time discarded his pistol.

Perceval is the only British PM to date to have been assassinated. For 10 points, can you name the four US Presidents who have suffered this fate? (answers tomorrow).

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist...", 9th May, 1864

Union General John Sedgwick is shot and killed by a Confederate sharpshooter during fighting at Spotsylvania. His last words are: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist--"

Napoleon dies in exile, 5th May 1821

Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena

Some telling quotes from the great man:

"It is always your next move"
"Don't wait. The time will never be just right"
"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed"