After the Ludicrous Lusitania, I think it is time to look at yet another Peculiar Plot of the early 20th century, the contemporaneous incredible, miraculous and chilling voyage of Ernest Shackleton to the South Pole. And beyond. Or rather not.
This plot is published at Wikipedia in not one, not two, but seven (!) Featured Articles (FA). Mán, they really want this peculiar plot to be carved into the minds of the people. And so it deserves a decent break-down, over multiple posts.
Allegedly, British polar explorer Ernest Shackleton (FA #1), sorry Sir Ernest Shackleton, experienced from earlier (supposed?) exploration, set sail for an extreme expedition; with a group of hardened men his plan was to cross Antarctica and be picked up by another crew on the other side and shipped back to civilization.
For a nice introduction into miraculous chilling stories, I recommend reading VexMan’s excellent break-down of the Miracle of the Andes, the alleged plane crash in 1972 where Uruguay rugby players were cannibalizing their friends yet chilling in their T-shirts on the slopes of a snowy Andean mountain at the border of Argentina and Chile. Indeed, Zal Rule material, the movie Alive (1993), produced by The Kennedy/Marshall Company is famous.
Back to Ernie and his crew.
The Imperial Trans-Atlantic Expedition (FA #2) was the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The plan was to start in Buenos Aires (where Shackleton boarded the ship coming from Plymouth, UK), sail to Grytviken in South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands (which they supposedly did in 10 days) and from there across the Weddell Sea to land in Vahsel Bay on the Antarctic mainland. Then an overland crossing would follow all across continental Antarctica, touching the South Pole and ending up at Beardmore Glacier on the opposite end of the continent bordering the Ross Sea. There, another group of explorers, the Ross Sea party (FA #3), led by Aeneas Lionel Acton Mackintosh (FA #4), with Ernest Joyce (FA #5), sailing the SY Aurora (FA #6) that started from Hobart, Tasmania, would meet them and provide them with supplies as they apparently couldn’t carry enough to make the full expedition.
Red – the voyage of Shackleton and his crew on the Endurance
Orange – the Ross Sea party journey on the Aurora
Cyan – the planned crossing of Antarctica
Note: look at the scale, 800 km is about 500 miles
Already looking at this map you see how ridiculous this whole plan was from the start on. The most visited part of Antarctica is understandably the Antarctic Peninsula (AP), a relative hop from Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, the southernmost town in the world. One day I hope to make this awesome travel.
According to the story, full of drama and misery already in the planning phase (you can read the article; it is too much to list in this blog post, a small piece will follow), poor Shackleton finally obtained a sailing boat (the Endurance, named after his family motto “By endurance we conquer”) for his journey. He paid 14,000 pounds, though another page says 11,600, equivalent to about 1.2 million US dollars today. This is the age of steamers already (we are talking 2.5 years after Titanic and months before Lusitania), but no, in the area with the strongest winds on the planet, it is apparently better to use sailing boats.
The prevailing winds are from the west to the east, another good reason to rather start in Tierra del Fuego and be blown to the AP with ease. Or alternatively in the British Falkland Islands. But no, in this incredible voyage, an experienced polar explorer decides to take the strange route from a place, nothing more than a couple of shacks and tons of blubber from the late whaling age, Grytviken, established just 10 years before.
Anyway, the plan was to cross the Weddell Sea, make land and of the group of 27 men, 14, led by Shackleton, would make the 2900 km (1800 miles!) journey with 69 dogs, 2 motor sledges and everything one needs for such a majestic voyage…
The selection of his crew even before starting the trip was apparently a painful process and it is said:
According to legend, Shackleton posted an advertisement in a London paper, stating:
“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.”
Searches for the original advertisement have proved unsuccessful, and the story is generally regarded as apocryphal.
“Apocryphal”, is that fancy Greek for just a lie?
The story tells us they left Grytviken on December 5, 1914 (one month after arriving), to make the crossing of the Weddell Sea. The Weddell Sea, of which is said:
The Weddell Sea is, according to the testimony of all who have sailed through its berg-filled waters, the most treacherous and dismal region on Earth. The Ross Sea is relatively peaceful, predictable, and safe.
Well done, Ernie, that really seems like the ideal way to start your amazing expedition!
Fate was not about to spare Shackleton and his buddies, because according to the story (or “legend”?):
It was making for Vahsel Bay, the southernmost explored point of the Weddell Sea at 77° 49′ S, where a shore party was to land and prepare for a transcontinental crossing of Antarctica. Before it could reach its destination the ship was trapped in pack ice, and by 14 February 1915 was held fast, despite prolonged efforts to free her.
If you see pack ice ahead of you, what would a smart sailor do? Turn around or stoically continue onward? Stubborn Shackleton:
2 days (!!!) after leaving Grytviken, Shackleton was disconcerted to encounter pack ice as far north as 57°26′S, forcing the ship to manoeuvre. During the following days, there were more tussles with the pack, which on 14 December 1914 was thick enough to halt the ship for 24 hours. Three days later the ship was stopped again. Shackleton commented: “I had been prepared for evil conditions in the Weddell Sea, but had hoped that the pack would be loose. What we were encountering was fairly dense pack of a very obstinate character”
Hope is pretty useless in the most treacherous place on Earth, and you just have started your incredible journey, Ernie.
On 15 January Endurance came abreast of a great glacier, the edge of which formed a bay which appeared a good landing place. However, Shackleton considered it too far north of Vahsel Bay for a landing, “except under pressure of necessity“—a decision he would later regret. On 17 January the ship reached a latitude of 76°27′S, where land was faintly discernible. Shackleton named it Caird Coast, after his principal backer. Bad weather forced the ship to shelter in the lee of a stranded iceberg.
You have been shackled by tons of ice for a full month, have land in sight, but you don’t make shore? What is a “necessity” in your log books, Shackleton?
Strenuous efforts were made to release her; on 14 February Shackleton ordered men onto the ice with ice-chisels, prickers, saws and picks, to try and force a passage, but the labour proved futile. Shackleton did not at this stage abandon all hope of breaking free, but was now contemplating the “possibility of having to spend a winter in the inhospitable arms of the pack”.
Right.
On 21 February 1915 Endurance, still held fast, drifted to her most southerly latitude, 76°58′S. Thereafter she began moving with the pack in a northerly direction. On 24 February Shackleton realised that they would be held in the ice throughout the winter, and ordered ship’s routine abandoned. The dogs were taken off board and housed in ice-kennels or “dogloos”, and the ship’s interior was converted to suitable winter quarters for the various groups of men—officers, scientists, engineers, and seamen. A wireless apparatus was rigged, but their location was too remote to receive or transmit signals.
No witnesses, apart from the crew in this most remote part of the world, so Ernie can write what he wants in his diaries. The green line on the map is supposed to show this northerly drift of the Endurance after the yellow the initial drift.
Shackleton was aware of the recent example of Wilhelm Filchner’s ship, the Deutschland, which had become icebound in the same vicinity three years earlier. After Filchner’s attempts to establish a land base at Vahsel Bay failed, his ship Deutschland was trapped on 6 March 1912, about 200 miles (320 km) off the coast of Coats Land. Six months later, at latitude 63°37′, the ship broke free, then sailed to South Georgia apparently none the worse for its ordeal. Shackleton thought that a similar experience might allow Endurance to make a second attempt to reach Vahsel Bay in the following Antarctic spring.
Ah, so you know already of a story by another explorer who failed, why the hell do you think you can make it through the Weddell Sea? Great planning!
At the end of March, Shackleton calculated that the ship had travelled a mere 95 miles (153 km) since 19 January. However, as winter set in the speed of the drift increased, and the condition of the surrounding ice changed. On 14 April Shackleton recorded the nearby pack “piling and rafting against the masses of ice”—if the ship was caught in this disturbance “she would be crushed like an eggshell”. In May, as the sun set for the winter months, the ship was at 75°23′S, 42°14′W, still drifting northwards. It would be at least four months before spring brought the chance of an opening of the ice, and there was no certainty that Endurance would break free in time to attempt a return to the Vahsel Bay area.
Attempt a return? So the first time it was a failure (Filchner), the second time it was (you, Ernie), but now you think about trying it yet another time? This is insane.
The ship was finally crushed by the ice, at its most northerly location right in the Antarctic spring (makes sense, not?) on October 27, and she was crushed by the pack’s pressure, finally sinking on November 21, 1915, almost a year after leaving Grytviken.
As his 27-man crew set up camp on the slowly moving ice, Shackleton’s focus shifted to how best to save his party. His first plan was to march across the ice to the nearest land, and try to reach a point that ships were known to visit. The march began, but progress was hampered by the nature of the ice’s surface, later described by Shackleton as “soft, much broken up, open leads intersecting the floes at all angles”. After struggling to make headway over several days, the march was abandoned; the party established “Patience Camp” on a flat ice floe, and waited as the drift carried them further north, towards open water.
What an amazing planner, give this man a medal! Oh, wait.
From the Endurance, they had managed to salvage three lifeboats, which Shackleton had named after the principal backers of the expedition: Stancomb Wills, Dudley Docker and James Caird.
The drama wasn’t over by then, because the ship apparently was crushed by the ice and the whole crew was stuck with the James Caird (FA #7).
The party waited until 8 April 1916, when they finally took to the boats as the ice started to break up. Over a perilous period of 7 days they sailed and rowed through stormy seas and dangerous loose ice, to reach the temporary haven of Elephant Island on 15 April.
So you are “stuck on the ice” without a ship, only some lifeboats, since November 21 and then you don’t make use of the short Antarctic summer, but WAIT until autumn to start using them? Who writes this crap?
Of course, this incredible voyage is covered in many documentaries, for instance National Geographic “Creative“ – Survival! The Shackleton Story
Apparently, the camera film and moving picture film reels were just endless, and unharmed by the extreme temperatures and winds….
Also, Zal Rule material, South (1919), followed by:
The Bottom of the World (1920)
The true story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s dramatic exploratory journey to Antarctica aboard the Endurance, during which the ship and all aboard became icebound.
Notice how they (legally) are right: it is the story that is true. That doesn’t make the events narrated in that story true. They do it a lot with movies “based on a true story”. Which legally has no repercussions; it doesn’t say “based on truthful events”.
I will stop here for now, as the story is far from over, but I will cover more in a next part.
Let this peculiar plot sink in, pun intended.
Piece of Mindful 
Just like man never went to the moon, no man ever went to the south pole. I’m not surprised.
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What do you mean by “south pole”? Antarctica as a whole or just the southernmost point of it?
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By south pole I mean THE geographic South Pole, approximately the center of Antarctica. I presume that they visited the coast of Antarctica at least – that does not seem very hard to do and is plausible, but traveling to the actual geographic South Pole seems extremely dangerous for that time period and the technology available at the time (e.g., traveling over hundreds of miles of inhospitable and uninhabited snow and ice terrain with no hope of rescue if something wet wrong).
I suppose there is the possibility that they never went to Antarctica at all. Remember that what the PTB writes about and is publicized becomes fact and what is interpreted as being “real” in our manufactured world – there is no need to actually do the real work and risk one’s life if one can just write about and said it was so. They may have also gone to the coast of Antarctica or just a little ways inland for the photo ops. Remember that we are talking about delicate and dainty, snowflake, peerage types here, who probably never broke a sweat doing anything at all in their lives – they just had their servants do everything or just bought whatever they wanted using inherited wealth.
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Yes, I see that as entirely possible for that period. Now, with proper clothing, motorized vehicles etc. I think people have gone to the geographic south pole, but Amundsen, nah, I don’t think so indeed.
That is an interesting point about the Shackleton expedition. They might have staged the photos in a more accessible part of Antarctica, or even used multiple layers, which was possible in that era already. Take some photos of a snowy place and put the layer of actors in front of it. Film is a bit harder, but should be possible too. After all the film industry was already in place.
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The PTB could have just gone to northern Canada for their photo ops – who knows – perhaps even a Hollywood sound stage with fake styrofoam snow and icebergs, and fake, giant rubber inflatable whales and stuffed penguins. Remember, regarding the PTB, we are talking about cowards here, they’re not likely to risk their lives for anything.
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TPTB may have finally managed to visit the “South Pole” (if there is such a thing), but it definitely wasn’t anything like the ridiculous Shackleton one.
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It must be like 25 years ago that I watched this. A tad off-topic but not really at the same time and good to add some fun.
What are your thoughts on this “Amazing Journey to The Bottom of the World” by Ernie Shackleton and his mates?
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I’m certainly not making light of your research. This is an intriguing subject that I had never contemplated.
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In my youth I actually loved those old stories about how this brave adventurers discovered the farthest corners of the world. They have one thing in common. All the credibility of those stories is based on diaries they supposedly wrote on their journeys no matter the circumstances. Imagine you’re starving, thirsty, half frozen and death tired. Would you then care about writing a diary? Or if you decide to write, wouldn’t you lie a little to make you look good on it. Same thing with the gospels which were written more than 100 years after the Crucifixion and still are used to give credibility to a religion for like 2000 years now. History is a written thing. It exists only on paper (or similar media). Once you accept it can be entirely fake, what is there left? It’s just stories. It still can contain some morale, teach you some lessons. Give you directions. As every story does.
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The National Geographic Society seems to be charged with the job of making this stuff come alive. I’ve encountered them time and again … Waco, for instance. If they could not see through that farce, then they must be in on it.
[Which reminds me of another slice of history that needs a closer look: the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It is the subject, of course, of a NG doco, and also a Ken Burns film series (I find his stuff unwatchable), and a best seller called Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose (2001)].
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the national state came into existence after the French Revolution. So the USA. In every country there are similar stories giving the citizens their heroes. People first learn this in schools. Those stories are not being told from one generation to the next like other stories. It’s part of the state propaganda and mostly invented. The school system also came into existence together with the national state. Before that, there were scholars and teachers of course but not many and not for many and everyone of them spreading his own version of knowledge. School systems as we know them are not to spread knowledge within masses but to create proper citizens. Only a small part of what we have to learn is knowledge. The most part is just information necessary for living within the state system. That’s why we need degrees. If you’re interested in more knowledge you have to learn it yourself.
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Just a quick glance, Lewis and Clark Expedition consisted of L and C and 3o men and one woman for a total of 33 … it is indeed worth a further look. As a German national you may not have heard of them, but in our American schooling we are all told about them and their heroics in exploring the North American continent looking for a water route to the west coast via the Missouri River.
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I notice on wiki that Shackleton was given the go ahead by Winston Churchill despite the outbreak of the First World War.
The Battle of Falkland Islands was fought between the British and Imperial German Navy in 8th December 1914, southwest of the islands, I.E. near South Georgia and Elephant Islands. Shackleton departed from S. Georgia on the 5th December, was that a coincidence?
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“Claims from the Costa Concordia disaster are set to break through the $2bn (£1.2bn) barrier next year because of difficulties experts have faced salvaging the 114,500-ton liner, insurance experts warned today.
The ship capsized off the Italian island of Giglio while carrying 4,229 passengers in January last year, killing 32. Engineers have started removing the wreck, although it is anticipated to take several more months.
Insurers, including many in the Lloyd’s of London market, have so far paid out more than $1bn, although these costs are set to rise considerably. As well as insuring the ship’s hull, they are also on the hook for liability claims.
Carsten Scheffel, chief executive of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, said: “Due to the vessel grounding in an environmentally sensitive area the complexity of the wreck removal has added significantly to the costs. At the moment, the overall cost of the incident is in the order of $1.6bn, which may not be the final amount.
“This will be one of the biggest single marine insurance losses in history.
“Vessels are getting even larger, so insurers are having to consider potentially even higher costs should the largest container vessels or bulkers become total losses in areas where wreck removal would be required.””
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This kind of research, all fresh and new to me, is what drives me. Please keep at it and use this blog as you will. Contact me in person if you want to discuss possibilities, formsonly at protonmail dot com.
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Sure. I was talking about the Costa Concordia event and whether that’s a ‘hoax’ as well. I have left a comment below for you to read (which is awaiting moderation).
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Here’s the link to that long paragraph I quoted:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/costa-concordia-insurance-claim-bill-rise-ps1-2bn-9027727.html
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I wonder if you will also cover the Costa Concordia story in a future post about shipwrecks? That story is full of anomalies and numerology as well. It sank on Friday, January 13, 2o12 at 9:45 pm (21:45 pm European time). 32 lives perished. Its captain was Francesco Schettino, who is related to the Cafiero shipping dynasty that gave us fake Sicilian socialist Carlo Cafiero. Schettino is also a prominent name.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/17/francesco-schettino-captain-costa-concordia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Cafiero
https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/en/cognomi/Schettino/idc/24199/idt/en/#
https://www.savannahnow.com/article/20070904/NEWS/309049909
The Costa Concordia was also a massive insurance scam, like the Titanic and the Lusitania disasters.
https://www.artemis.bm/news/costa-concordia-insured-loss-rises-again-close-to-2-billion/
http://www.newsinsurances.co.uk/insured-costa-concordia/0169485259
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/costa-concordia-insurance-claim-bill-rise-ps1-2bn-9027727.html
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Comments with more than two links are automatically put in moderation by WordPress.
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I just did a quick skim of Wikipedia regarding Costa Concordia – spook markers everywhere!
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Since his family came from Genoa, historically a hub of Jewish banking and commerce, it is likely he is a crypto-Jew.
The Jewish history of Genoa:
https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6584-genoa
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Yup. And the captain’s family background is especially telling. Definitely of the bloodline families.
“Ancient and very noble Genoese family, known as Schittini, Schittino, Schettino or Schiattino, passed to Sicily at the dawn of the seventeenth century and, more precisely, to the city Palermo, which then spread over the centuries to various regions of Italy. According to authoritative genealogists, the origin of this cognomination should be sought in a modification of the diminutive of the apheresis of the name “Francesco”. Moreover, this family, in the unfolding of its luster, has always managed to produce a series of men who have made its name famous, in public employment, in liberal and ecclesiastical professions and in military service.”
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*”Assicurazioni Generali, RSA Insurance Group and XL Group, Bloomber – these are three of several companies who insured Carnival Corp.’s wrecked cruise ship off the coast of Italy, according to the news website Bloomberg.
The companies are facing costs of around 405 million Euro’s (£335 million) from the disaster, with Hannover Re saying they alone will suffer losses in excess of 10 million euros, the website said.
“In terms of physical damage, this will be one of biggest claims around,” Bloomberg quoted Eamonn Flanagan, an insurance analyst at Shore Capital Group in Liverpool as saying. “Quite often with these accidents, the real insurance loss comes if people are injured or killed.”
The Costa Condoria, an Italian cruise ship carrying 4,229 passangers and crew, ran aground last Friday. So far five people are confirmed dead and a further 15 are unaccounted for. The ships captain has been arrested and is accused of manslaughter for causing the wreck and abandoning ship.
The ship cost 450 million euros to build, according to a 2004 press release.
The website reported that Aon Corp. was Carnival Corp.’s insurer but the company declined to comment on the issue.
Bloomberg reported XL as being the lead underwriter of the ship at Lloyd’s of London and that RSA’s losses from the incident are expected to be below 10 million euro’s.
Carnival shares plunged today, sliding 17 percent to 1855 pence as of 8:54 a.m. in London. RSA dropped 0.7 percent to 109.2 pence in London, while Generali dropped 0.8 percent to 11.95 euros in Milan, the website reported.”*
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“At the end of the ten years (1669) an attempt was made to drive the Jews out again, under all sorts of pretexts. The Senate opposed this, and in 1674 obtained an extension of the right of residence for ten years more, under a new charter and in a different part of the city. But the rules were too severe, and especially the attendance at the sermons was felt tobe so degrading that the Jews rebelled, and in 1679 were all driven from the city. As before, Jews were later allowed to settle there again singly and only for a limited time. Even that privilege was abolished by a decree of banishment in 1752. However, only the poor were affected by the decree; the rich remained and were even favorably regarded on account of their acknowledged importance for the commerce of the republic. Through their influence a new charter was drawn up in 1752 upon fairly liberal terms, and the opposition of Pope Benedict XIV. remained without effect. The Senate at that time was very friendly to the Jews; it recognized the advantages they might bring to the city, the more so as it saw with regret how the neighboring port of Leghorn, where Jews enjoyed the most extensive liberties, was flourishing and injuring the commerce of Genoa. The Jews, however, had recognized the indecisive nature of this favor and kept at a distance from Genoa. Not until toward the end of the eighteenth century did they establish large commercial houses there. Their legal status remained precarious and rested upon the personal tolerance of the mercantile class, not upon the firm basis of the law; and it was not until 1848, when the constitution of the kingdom of Sardinia was promulgated, that the Jews received the full rights of citizenship, and there still exists among the population a feeling of animosity against them, which is due to clerical leaning. Since 1848 the community has steadily increased; in 1901 it numbered about 1,000 souls. The Jews have taken a large share in the flourishing commerce of Genoa, while the commerce of Leghorn has almost ceased, and a large proportion of its Jewish community has emigrated to the former city. ….”
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Here are the “missing/dead” Costa Concordia passenger & crew lists. You’ll probably be familiar with some of the surnames shown:
https://www.cruiseshipdeaths.com/2012/01/13/costa-concordia-deaths-complete-passenger-and-crew-name-death-index/
https://italychronicles.com/costa-concordia-distaster-list-passengers-crew-missing/
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Here is a 3D Google Earth animation of the Costa Concordia disaster:
They actually played My Heart Will Go On on the ship as it was sinking. Not kidding.
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-song-from-titanic-was-playing-as-the-costa-concordia-went-down-2012-1
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This is a very big project. Please assemble the information chronologically, as it has the makings of a nice expose’. Just so you know, this is not my project. I expect you to do the down and gritty, the sweat. You’ll get full credit. The Wikipedia piece told me that we are looking at insurance fraud, once again. Cue the music.
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Sure. See you next time. A la prochaine!
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*”If you thought details of the Costa Concordia disaster couldn’t get much stranger than the captain saying he didn’t lead the evacuation because he tripped, well, get a load of this:
Two of the ship’s passengers told a Swiss paper that the theme song from Titanic was playing in one of the dining rooms just as the ship started to list. So, as people no doubt started to panic, Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On wafted through the restaurant.
The New Zealand Herald also reports a second Titanic connection: One of the women to survive had relatives aboard in the 1912 sinking.”*
It appears this story was recycled from the Titanic hoax, perhaps to celebrate the centennial anniversary of that scam.
Upon further research, I found a couple interesting things about the alleged dead. There were Heils, Bauers, Hoers, and Schalls onboard the ship. All Ashkenazi Jewish names.
One of the passengers, Barbara Heil and her husband, were assumed to have died in the sinking despite the fact that their bodies were never discovered. Very strange, indeed. Both were ages 70 and 69 years.
https://www.cruiseshipdeaths.com/2012/01/13/couple-barbara-and-gerald-heil-passenger-death-costa-concordia-cruise-ship-sinking/
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There was also a Litzel onboard. Litzel could be variant of Litz, which I suspect is an Ashkenazi Jewish name (look at the coat of arms. It also hosts a crescent moon and double arrows). The name Lewis (as in Lewis and Clarke) is a variant of Litz/Litzel.
http://www.4crests.com/litz-coat-of-arms.html
https://www.houseofnames.com/litzler-family-crest
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Litzel coat of arms: https://www.houseofnames.com/dpreview/LITZ/GR/Litzler/family-crest-coat-of-arms.png
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The Hoer on the Concordia might be related to the Hoare dynasty that established C. Hoare & Co. in 1672, a few years after another fake disaster – the London Fires of 1666. 1672 was also the year the British Exchequer defaulted on paying loans to the bankers (AKA the “Stop of the Exchequer”). This paved the way for the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694, which was a precursor to the Federal Reserve banking system many centuries later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Hoare_%26_Co
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_of_the_Exchequer
Miles Mathis published an essay on the 1666 London Fires:
Click to access 1666.pdf
(Jennifer Aniston is a Hoare, so there’s a Hollywood connection as well).
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There was also a “great plague” in London, which lasted from 1665 to 1666, the year of the fires.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plague_of_London
Regarding how many “died” from the plague, Wikipedia says thus:
“There was no official census of the population to provide this figure, and the best contemporary count comes from the work of John Graunt (1620–1674), who was one of the earliest Fellows of the Royal Society and one of the first demographers, bringing a scientific approach to the collection of statistics. In 1662, he estimated that 384,000 people lived in the City of London, the Liberties, Westminster and the out-parishes, based on figures in the Bills of Mortality published each week in the capital. These different districts with different administrations constituted the officially recognized extent of London as a whole. In 1665, he revised his estimate to “not above 460,000”. Other contemporaries put the figure higher (the French Ambassador, for example, suggested 600,000), but with no mathematical basis to support their estimates.”
So the picture is already looking murky. The mainstream histories admit that there was no official census to keep tabs on how many people actually lived in London, and the estimates always change with each source, indicating a lack of consistency or congruity amongst the sources of these numbers.
They also admit that in years preceding the 1665-66 plague, the number of casualties from the plague was decreasing, with only a slight increase in 1625, decades before the “Great Plague” broke out in London. Which indicates, IMO, that there were no natural occurring cases of it happening, due to the sudden nature of this massive outbreak in the city.
“The plague was endemic in 17th-century London, as it was in other European cities at the time.[8] The disease periodically erupted into massive epidemics. There were 30,000 deaths due to the plague in 1603, 35,000 in 1625, 10,000 in 1636, and smaller numbers in other years.[9][10]”
Stay tuned for more.
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“The Great Fire devastated London. There were few recorded deaths, but estimates put the destroyed property value at £10,000,000 (£1.5 billion in today’s money). From the ashes rose an unlikely development: the world’s first property insurance policies.
Renting in London is bad enough today, but in 1666 the contracts of tenants made them liable for repairs to their houses, not the landlords who owned the property. Tenants were also supposed to pay rent while their burned houses were being rebuilt. This was clearly untenable and so an emergency ‘Fire Court’ was set up to sort out disputes that arose out of the rebuilding, such as who should pay to rebuild. …. The judges had the power to decide who should rebuild, based on ability to pay, and could cancel contracts. This stopped disputes from dragging on and enabled Londoners to rebuild as soon as possible. The Court sat in Cliffords Inn and held its first session on 27 February 1667 and last in September 1672.
… in 1680 the first insurance company, the ‘Fire Office’, was set up by Nicholas Barbon. This is one of the first property insurance policies (no. 1403) for a house in the Barbican (signed by Barbon himself). Other insurance companies were soon set up as well and by 1690 one in ten houses in London was insured.
Reacting to demand, more and more insurers set up shop in London. This fire mark was issued by the Sun Fire Office, which would later become Royal Sun Alliance, which still exists today as RSA Insurance Group. By 1720 they had underwritten 17,000 policies totalling £10 million – enough to cover the estimated cost of property that the Great Fire had destroyed.”
https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/how-great-fire-london-created-insurance
It has all the markers of insurance fraud: a manufactured fire that costed billions (in today’s money) to the “insured” and the British taxpayer, and which gave birth to the modern insurance industry that rakes in billions, if not trillions, more from other similar scams.
They then attempted damage control (figuratively and literally speaking) by paying-off the tenant underclass in ‘Fire Courts’ so they’ll not go out of line and rebel against the landlord class, or least that’s my first-hand understanding of it.
*”Sir Hugh Wyndham … was one of the twenty-two Fire Court judges, but only three judges sat on a case at any one time. Most cases were resolved on the same day and there were, on average, four cases heard each day. The Courts were not so much adjudicating as mediating in a large number of cases. Very often landlords and tenants would come to an agreement before going to Court and the Court **would just rubber stamp the agreement or sort out any quibbling over sums””. 1600 cases were decided by the Fire Court from 27th February 1667 to 31st December 1668.”*
https://www.ourcitytogether.london/inspire/the-great-fire-of-london-and-the-fire-court
I’m sure Tyrone would agree with me on that.
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‘Schall’ means ‘schilling’ in German (that’s where the words ‘shill’ and ‘shilling’ originated), which makes the name a subtle reference to finance, a trade predominantly run by Jews. There is also a Stumpf on the list, which could be a variant of Drumpf/Trump, as in Donald Trump.
http://www.4crests.com/heil-coat-of-arms.html
http://www.4crests.com/schall-coat-of-arms.html
http://www.4crests.com/stumpf-coat-of-arms.html
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” Without propulsive power and no emergency electric power, Costa Concordia moved through inertia and the settings of its rudders,[25] and continued north from Le Scole until well past Giglio Porto.[26] **Schettino has said various instruments were not functioning.[27] Reports differ whether the ship listed to port soon after the impact and when it began listing to starboard.[28][29] At 22:10, Costa Concordia turned south. The vessel was then listing to starboard, initially by about 20°, coming to rest by 22:44[30] at Punta del Gabbianara in about twenty metres[31] of water at an angle of heel of about 70°. Schettino attributed the final grounding of the ship at Punta del Gabbianara to his own effort to manoeuvre her there.[32] In contrast, on 3 February, the chief of the Italian Coast Guard testified that the final grounding of the ship may not have been related to any attempts to manoeuvre the ship[33] and she may have drifted simply due to the prevailing winds that night.[34] ”
The ship no longer was properly powered to move on its own steam. Yet the “prevailing winds” somehow caused it to drift to its final resting place for several miles. Quite odd, to say the least.
” Schettino said that, before approaching the island, he turned off the alarm system for Costa Concordia’s computer navigation system.[35] “I was navigating by sight, because I knew those seabeds well. I had done the move three, four times.”[36] He told investigators that he saw waves breaking on the reef and turned abruptly, swinging the side of the hull into the reef.[37] Admitting to a “judgment error”,[37] Schettino acknowledged ordering the ship’s turn too late.[38] The captain initially said the ship was about 300 metres (330 yd) from the shore (about the length of the vessel) and hit an uncharted rock.[39] The ship’s first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, told investigators Schettino had left his reading glasses in his cabin and repeatedly asked Ambrosio to check the radar for him.[40][41] ”
Very strange. The captain turned off the ship’s emergency system and swung its hull onto the reef. Who believes this sh*t?
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia_disaster#Collision
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia_disaster#Situation_on_the_bridge
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“Passengers were in the dining hall when there was a sudden, loud bang, which a crew member (speaking over the intercom) ascribed to an “electrical failure”.[53] (LOL!) “We told the guests everything was [okay] and under control and we tried to stop them panicking“, a cabin steward recalled.[28] Coincidentally, when the ship first made impact with the rock, it was claimed that Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On“, the theme song for the film Titanic (1997), was playing in a restaurant.[54][55] The ship lost cabin electrical power shortly after the initial collision.[56] “The boat started shaking. The noise—there was panic, like in a film, (are you starting to see a pattern here?) dishes crashing to the floor, people running, falling down the stairs and saying ‘cazzo'”, reported a survivor. Those on board said the ship suddenly tilted to the port side.[28] Passengers were later advised to put on their life jackets.[53]
Half an hour before the abandon-ship order, one crew member was recorded on video telling passengers at a muster station, “We have solved the problems we had and invite everyone to return to their cabins.”[57] When the ship later turned around, it began to list approximately 20° to the starboard side, creating problems in launching the lifeboats. The president of Costa Cruises, Gianni Onorato, said normal lifeboat evacuation became “almost impossible” because the ship listed so quickly.[58]”
This somewhat contradicts the animations we are given of the sinking. The more one looks into it, the more the story starts to fall apart. This looks to be a massive hoax, a cover for the intentional scuttling of a cruise liner for insurance money.
This event also lead to major changes within the commercial shipping industry, such as the consolidation of numerous maritime companies into one monopoly and stricter security measures.
https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news-headlines/how-costa-concordia-changed-cruise-industry
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The Cost of Concordia:
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“330, 335, ….” Hmmm…. Also, the language barrier and the captain changing clothes when it was too late are especially ridiculous. I mean, didn’t the Costa Cruise Line company try to properly vet him before putting him on the job and hire someone else more qualified to steer the Concordia‘s wheel? Also, why would the captain need to change his clothes when there was no reason to? The whole story is so moronic, it’s hard to believe any of it happened the way they tell us.
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Even the etymology of Concordia brings up rather interesting facts:
https://www.etymonline.com/word/concord
“… early 14c., “agreement between persons, union in opinions or sentiment, state of mutual friendship, amiability,” from Old French concorde (12c.) “concord, harmony, agreement, treaty,” from Latin concordia “agreement, union,” from concors (genitive concordis) “of the same mind,” literally “hearts together,” from assimilated form of com “with, together” (see con-) + cor (genitive cordis) “heart,” from PIE root *kerd- “heart.”
Meaning “a compact or agreement” is from late 15c. The village in Massachusetts (site of one of the opening battles of the Revolutionary War, April 19, 1775) was named in 1635, perhaps in reference to the peaceful dealings between the settlers and the local native tribes. The capital of New Hampshire was renamed for the Massachusetts town in 1763 (formerly it had been Pennycook, from a mangling of a native Algonquian word meaning “descent”).”
Could it also be a reference to the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France – which sports an Egyptian phallic monument at the center of the square?
The square was the sight of many “executions” during the “French Revolution” (when it was known as the Place de la Révolution). Under the Ancien Régime, it was the Place Louis XV, named after the monarch who reigned from 1715-1774. It was commissioned in 1755 by King Louis XV to commemorate his reign. That same year saw the birth of “Marie-Antoinette” (who would be “guillotined” in this square during the Revolution of 1789) and the Lisbon earthquakes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755
“In 1795, under the Directory, the square was renamed Place de la Concorde as a gesture of reconciliation after the turmoil of the revolution. After the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, the name was changed back to Place Louis XV, and in 1826 the square was renamed Place Louis XVI. After the July Revolution of 1830 the name was returned to Place de la Concorde and has remained that way since.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde#French_Revolution
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Here’s what it used to look like before the Revolution:
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HPM – did you by chance receive a personal email from me (“POM”) a couple of days ago? If not, please contact me at formsonly at protonmail dot com.
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I’ll check my gmail. Thanks for reminding me.
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Another maritime disaster story that is full of anomalies, fallacies, and clues is the sinking of the Empress of Ireland.
We’re told that the Ireland sank in the wee hours of 29 May, 1914 in the St. Lawrence River (Canada) after it was rammed by the Norwegian collier Storstad on her starboard side. The captain of the Empress was Henry George Kendall, who survived the disaster.
Apparently, her watertight doors were open when the collision happened, even though it was protocol to have them closed when a ship like the Empress of Ireland stopped in open water and when there’s bad weather, which is rather odd. It’s even more strange when she was designed to stay afloat with two of her compartments open to the sea.
Reportedly, there were wealthy passengers on board the ship when it foundered, including Lt. Charles Lindsay Bowes-Lyon, who was the Queen Mother’s uncle (he survived), and many people “died” in the disaster. I suspect, like in the Titanic saga, the first-class deaths were faked. Second and third-class could be all made-up. Keep in mind that this happened two months before the outbreak of WWI (28 July), so it can be assumed that, like in the Titanic story, the rich people involved wanted to disappear from the spotlight and cash in on their life insurance policies and this would serve as a perfect cover for those things. Also, it served as a convenient distraction for the public from the upcoming “global” conflict and a primer for bigger psyops to come such as the Lusitania hoax a year later.
Soon after the sinking, an inquiry was held in Canada, which was presided over by Lord Mersey, who previously oversaw the Titanic inquiry and would later preside over the Lusitania inquiry, both of which were held in London. Anyone who is familiar with Miles Mathis’ research would know that is a huge red-flag. During the inquiry, the crewmembers of the two ships gave contradictory testimonies as to what happened that night. As expected, the crew of the Empress of Ireland was exonerated of any wrongdoing and the blame was placed on the Storstad‘s crew for causing the disaster.
In retaliation, Norway launched their own investigation into the event and found that the Empress of Ireland was at fault for the disaster and cleared the Storstad of any wrongdoing. Wikipedia goes on to say that the owner of the wrecked ship, the Canadian Pacific Steamships corporation, would later win a litigation settlement against the Storstad‘s owners and acquired the ship, which was then sold to an insurance company for $175,000, which is $4,000,000 in today’s currency (inflation adjusted), according to my calculations. Quite a massive swindle, if you ask me, with a very odd backstory. I have never seen a scenario like this in other maritime disaster narratives.
There were allegedly 133 bodies recovered from the scene. The Empress of Ireland‘s top service speed was 18 knots (33 km/h), according to Wikipedia.
For more information, see:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Ireland
http://ssmaritime.com/Empress-of-Ireland-The-Final-Voyage.htm
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Among her list of famous passengers and crew were Lawrence Irving, British dramatist and actor who was travelling with his wife Mabel Hackney (both “perished” in the disaster), Sir Henry Seton-Karr, Tory politician who served in the British House of Commons and son of George Berkeley Seton-Karr (he also lived in India, where he raised Henry), Henry Lyman, who led the pharmaceutical giant Lyman, Sons & Co. in Canada, George Smart (possible relation to fake abduction victim Elizabeth Smart), U.K. immigrant official, Ella Tuck (possibly related to Tom Tucker, multibillionaire media mogul), wife of William Hart-Bennett (possibly related to Eva Hart, Titanic survivor), a British colonial minister, and Wallace Palmer, the Financial Times‘ associate editor.
As for Captain Kendall, Wikipedia claims that he was born in Chelsea, London, U.K., an affluent suburb, so it can be assumed that he came from a well-to-do background, otherwise his family couldn’t have afforded to live there if they were poor.
He began his seafaring career at age 14 in 1888 (aces and eights = chai = dead-man’s hand), and life went on fairly smoothly for him job-wise, successfully steering ships like the Laurentic and the SS Lusitania (not the same Lusitania that “sank” in 1915, this one was smaller and sank in 1911) until after the Empress of Ireland “disaster”, when things started going downhill from there, or so it appears.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_George_Kendall
He also played a role in the capture of runaway criminal and homeopath Hawley Harvey Crippen, who was allegedly tried, convicted, and hanged in London for the reported homicide of his second wife, “Cora” Turner, in late 1910. Crippen’s father was a merchant, which is another huge clue.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawley_Harvey_Crippen
His genealogy may also hold some answers. On his maternal side, he was a Frances. His paternal side starts with Kendal, and includes a Jackson, a Tyson, a Croudson, an Addison, a Rigg, and an Atkinson. The Kendall family name comes from England and is of “ancient and respectable” origin, according to the House of Names website. Also, according to 4crests, it was the name of Edward Calvin Kendall, a famous American chemist who was awarded the Nobel prize for medicine in 1950. He was born in Connecticut. Sandy Hook elementary was located there and it was the spot for the Sandy Hoax school shootings in December 2012. Also, one of Pepsi’s CEOs was a Kendall.
https://www.geni.com/people/Captain-Henry-Kendall/6000000052482148893
https://www.houseofnames.com/kendall-family-crest
http://www.4crests.com/kendall-coat-of-arms.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendall_(surname)
So already we’re seeing a motley group of peerage spooks appearing in this story, but there’s more. In Second Class, many passengers were members of the Salvation Army. Mathis mentions the organization in his Titanic essay, where he uncovers links to that hoax through spooks like William Stead and Captain Smith, if my memory is correct, so the fact that the Salvation Army was involved in this story indicates, IMO, that this was a military psychological operation.
“Second class saw a considerably larger booking at just over half capacity with 253 passengers, owed greatly to a large party of Salvation Army members and their families, numbering 170 in all, who were travelling to attend the 3rd International Salvation Army Congress in London.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Ireland#Final_crossing
(Speaking of military involvement, there was a Lt. Col. Charles Tylee travelling in First Class when the Empress of Ireland “sank”. He was a member of the Canadian Army, further proving military involvement in this operation.)
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