Arctic Adventure Part 5 - St Mary's - silly in Scilly,

St Mary's Island lies in a small archipelago off the southwest coast of England - right near Cornwall.  You can't miss them.  Yes you can, they aren't very big, but they have a big history (even modern history).

You may think you've never heard of them, but I'd be willing to bet you've seen pictures from them. The archipelago (there's about 140 islands, depending on the tide) is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall.  "The eldest son of the reigning British monarch inherits possession of the duchy and title of Duke of Cornwall at birth . " That would be, of course, bonny Prince Charles. St Mary's is one of the private royal getaways (they thought). Back in the 90's there was a bit of a scandal when the paparazzi managed to snap these pictures of Diana:

These were taken on a remote part of the island. Apparently there was a bit of blow back on the islands when these were published.  The queen was not amused.  Today, if you try to rent a boat whenever any of the royals are in residence, unless you hold the title of OBE (knighthood) you likely will be denied.

That being said there are lots of cool boats in the area.

Hard to tell if it's sailing left to right or right to left.

I think there's something Freudian going on here

One of the more interesting things on the island is what's on top of "telegraph tower".

The tower has a semaphore stack on top of it.  The tower sits on top of the highest hill on the island.  It was used, back in the day, as a means of ships entering the harbor to be tracked by name, the cargo they carried, etc.  As the ship entered the harbor the signalman in the harbor would send signals back and forth to the tower based on the angle each of the 3 paddles' position. Much like a really really low baud rate WiFi. How it works is pretty straightforward, but why they bothered to do it is quite remarkable and made history. In 1898, on this very hill, this guy

Future Nobel Prize winner  
 By Pach Brothers - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3a40043.

Guglielmo Marconi heard the world's first radio transmission (sent from Porthcurno Island 30 miles away). Why he picked St Mary's for his research I have no idea (actually I do, but it's a boring story). He is often called "the father of radio" (which is cool) but it's almost more cool that his mom was the granddaughter of John Jameson (Irish whiskey - unless you prefer Scotch, of course).

If you go further back in history - all the way to the Neolithic Age (10,000 BC to 2,000 BC - think Stonehenge era) you can still find remains on St Mary's.  On a hillside in Innisidgen: 

you can come across one of these.  This rocky mound looks like a nuclear bunker from back in the 50's (back when people thought it would be a good idea to try to survive a nuclear bomb blast. Me? I want the warhead to hit me on the head.  I don't want to live in a place turned into another Detroit). It's called an entrance grave (archaeologists really went out on a limb with this name).  

Nothin' in it.  Didn't even smell bad.

St Mary's is also known for flowers

Door latch from the iron age (not really)

On to Plymouth, England

Sound familiar?

This stone is in the pavement in front of the stairs to the harbor (below)

This is the spot that the Pilgrims sailed from.

The story of the Mayflower is iconic in American history (which you would think would make it boring for a blog). As usual, there's a bit more than meets the eye when it comes to the ship (s).

Mayflower II (replica built in 1956, currently resides in Plymouth, MA)

The emigration of the Pilgrims from England initially involved 2 ships (the Speedwell was the second).  They left at the same time to sail to New England. The Speedwell soon developed a leak, and both ships returned to Plymouth. Upon the second sailing, the Speedwell made it 200 miles before developing a second "leak" and again turned back. At that point the Pilgrims gave up on the Speedwell and consolidated the cargoes into the Mayflower and sailed for a third time.  As soon as the Mayflower cleared the horizon the Speedwell was sold and re-fitted.  It has been speculated that there was nothing inherently wrong with the Speedwell other than the captain was frightened of starving to death in the wild America (well founded fear - half the Pilgrims died the first year) and sabotaged the ship. Records show it made a great many other voyages after ditching the Pilgrims.

What about the Mayflower herself? This was a ship designed for use in the Mediterranean. It couldn't sail into the wind worth a damn.  The season the Pilgrims chose for the voyage meant they had to buck the westerlies the entire time.  This is why it took them over 2 months to make the voyage (when the ship returned to Plymouth it did so in less than a month). During the voyage over 2 people died, however, one was born.  They named the baby "Oceanus" (Latin for ocean). He didn't do well and died at age 6. 

Portsmouth has a really cool public pool that extends out into the harbor. It's one of the few places in Portsmouth the Luftwaffe didn't manage to blow to bits (Portsmouth was and still is a major naval base). 

On just one night in 1940 the Germans dropped 1,320 bombs and 38,000 incendiary devices on Portsmouth.

This cannon has seen a lot of use, but not as a gun

The marks on the cannon above aren't from warfare.  They're rope "burns".

The introduction of breech-loading cannon spelled doom for the old muzzle-loaders.  That left England with a lot of scrap cannons, however, if you set them in concrete (shootie part nose down) they make excellent bollards for tying off ships.

Sign on outdoor restaurant 

In other words - don't act like an asshole or the coppers will "pinch" you.

Sign on quay wall above harbor. Tomb-stoning means jumping in vertically (I had to look it up)

Best flagpole cap ever.

Guernsey Island

Kinda boring except for a funny story.  My goal on Guernsey was to rent a bike and hunt around for weird stuff. It never happened.  The "map" I got stepping ashore showed all the streets quite well - except that it didn't help me.  None of the goddamn streets have signs identifying them.  Not one. It took me an hour and a half to find the bike rental shop only 1/2 a mile away. I got so mad about it that I stopped a mailman for help. He laughed. "Naw mate.  Yer not losing yer mind. If yer not from here you'll always be lost.  We took all the signs down when tha bloody Krauts invaded us in tha war and never got around ta putting the buggers back up".  I finally found the stupid bike shop but by this time I was so peeved that I didn't rent a bike. In hindsight this may have saved my life. The roads are narrow and the loony Guernsians drive on the wrong side of the road.  On the plus side - a bus ride is only a quid ($1.22 since Brexit vote).

If you think that Guernsey cows come from Guernsey - you're right!

If someone knows why Guernsey cows are so well known let me know (in second grade we had to learn the 4 types of milk cows - Guernsey, Jersey (next island over), Holstein, and Venomous (I admit that I'm scared of cows)).  There are only 10,000 Guernseies in the whole world?