The History Files

Encill Tener was a yeoman on the USS New Jersey in May of 1916. One day he sat down at his typewriter to write home, and the result was a mini time-capsule explaining the ups and downs of life in the US Navy during World War 1.

Gordon thought it would be fun to share this letter with our listeners, in particular because Encill was his grandfather. This week’s episode is a bit shorter than usual, but we think you’ll enjoy a unique glimpse into the daily life of a Great War sailor. For photos and whatnot be sure to visit Gordon’s blog.

Show notes and links:

* Abolition of slavery timeline 

* Early American currency 

* Battle of Waterloo  (1815)

* Queen Victoria ascends throne (1837)

* Dazzle Camouflage – Sabotage Operations  (The Great War YouTube channel)

* The Way I Heard it | Mike Rowe podcast (mikerowe.com)

* Frankenstein, the Baroness, and the Climate Refugees of 1816 (publicdomainreview.org)

* USS New Jersey (BB-16) 

It’s our first “live” edition of the show; a spirited discussion with Nathan Barnett, talking about the resurgence in Western Martial Arts, which it turns out has a lot to do with swords and fists. We recorded this episode in Port Townsend, WA at the 2016 Brass Screw Confederacy, an annual Steampunk festival that takes over the entire 19th century-era city.

Show notes and links:

* Excuse me, good sir, whilst I stab you: Seattle Victorian fitness fanatics have ‘silly, good fun’ (seattletimes.com)

* The Brass Screw Confederacy – Port Townsend Steampunk Festival (brass-screw.org)

* Historical European martial arts 

* Society for Creative Anachronism

* Salle Saint-George | A Traditional School for Fencing Arts (sallesaint-george.com)

* Jherek Swanger’s Books and Publications Spotlight (lulu.com)

* Tinkerswords.com (tinkerswords.com)

* Angus Trim Swords (sword-buyers-guide.com)

* George Silver

* Brief Instructions Upon My Paradoxes of Defence, by George Silver (complete text)

* Embassy Arms – Fencing, Swordplay, and Historical Martial Arts Club in Port Townsend Washington (embassyarms.org)

* LONIN – BWAHAHAHA (lonin.org)

* Eglinton Tournament of 1839 – Jousting Revival

* HEMAA (hemaalliance.com)

* ‘knight fights’ (armored cage fighting) (mmafighting.com)

* Alfred Hutton 

* Edward William Barton-Wright 

We’re excited to welcome back special guest Dr. Morgan Blanchard, adventurer archaeologist, to talk about the most iconic of all automobiles, the Ford Model T.

Show notes and links:

* Gustav I of Sweden becomes king of Sweden (1523)

* First drivers’ license (1915)

* Comstock Lode discovered (1859)

* US Marines Invade Cuba – Spanish–American War (1898)

* The Battle of Jutland – THE GREAT WAR Week 97 (youtu.be)

* The Battle of Jutland Animation (narrated by Jellicoe’s grandson)

* The Antique Phonograph Music Program Playlists and Archives (wfmu.org)

* Coffee With Jeff: Vinyl, Tape, Record Clubs and a Scam (csicon.fm)

* The Great Race  (1965) Dir. Blake Edwards, starring Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon, etc.

* Baker Electric Motor Vehicle 

* Stanley Motor Carriage Company  (steam-powered car)

* Christopher Spencer’s steam automobile (manchesterhistory.org)

* Ford Model T (wikipedia.org)

* East of Eden – the driving scene (complete text at google.com)

* Fordlândia

* Kingsford charcoal

* Henry Ford’s social engineering efforts

* B-24 Liberator

* Lewis guns on Model Ts

This week we finish our discussion of the Battle of Jutland on its 100th anniversary, with special guest Duncan Clark. If you haven’t listened to episode #54 yet, you’ll want to do that first to get the background and context for this engagement, one of the largest and costliest of the Great War. Be sure to visit Gordon’s blog for more details.

Show notes and links:

* Élisabeth Thible – first female balloonist (1784)

* Ford Quadricycle (1896)

* Dunkirk evacuation  (June, 1940)

* ‘The Prisoner’ debuts (1968)

* 1916 Battle of Jutland – 100th Anniversary – Remember the Dead (youtube.com)

* Hannibal goes to the Alps (Lindybeige)

* Great War Diaries (TV Mini-Series 2014) (imdb.com)

* The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783, by A. T. Mahan  (Complete text)

* Skagerrak

* Queen Elizabeth-class battleship

* Admiral Horace Hood

* “Crossing the ‘T'”

* “Pyrrhic victory”

* Picric acid

* “Fabian victory”

* The History Files store

This week we welcome special guest Duncan Clark to tackle the sprawling drama of the naval Battle of Jutland on its 100 year anniversary. With great loss of life and materiel, it is one of the most significant engagements of World War 1 despite the lack of a clear victory on either side. To give it proper attention, we’ve split this episode into two parts, so be sure to tune in next week for the exciting conclusion.

Show notes and links:

* The Purchase of Manhattan Island, 1626 (1626)

* William Kidd hanged (1701)

* Royal Canadian Mounted Police formed (1873)

* Fort Whoop-Up  (fortwhoopup.com)

* Levi Strauss patents his “jeans” (1873)

* Salt – more valuable than gold? (Lindybeige)

* Forever England (1935) John Mills (youtu.be)

* Battle of Jutland

* Battle of Jutland Part I (britishbattles.com)

* Wilhelm II, German Emperor

* Commerce raiding or “guerre de course”

* Alfred Thayer Mahan

* Dreadnought

* Mississippi-class battleship

* Battlecruiser

* Scapa Flow

* John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe

* David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty

* Hugh Evan-Thomas

* Reinhard Scheer

*

Ah, springtime, when a young man’s thoughts turn to dealing with wandering livestock…at least that’s the way it was on San Juan Island in June of 1859. Things didn’t go well for the marauding pig, and it almost led to an international incident between the US and Britain. Join us as we take a look at the Pig War. For a fairly accurate transcript of the main topic of this episode, and for possible bonus content, be sure to visit Gordon’s blog.

Show notes and links:

* The nickel first issued (United States coin) (1866)

* 1st Academy Awards (1929)

* Whispering Smith (TV series) (1961)

* 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (May 18, 1980)

* Battlefield 1 Historical Trailer Analysis at THE GREAT WAR (youtube.com)

* The Civil War (Ken Burns TV series)

* The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) dir. John Ford, starring John Wayne, James Stewart, etc.

* Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour has been found in the United States (dailymail.co.uk)

* Pig War (1859)

* “Standoff at Griffin Bay” by Mike Vouri  (discovernw.org)

* Nootka Crisis (1789)

* Alexander Mackenzie

* Fort Chipewyan

* George Vancouver

* Oregon (toponym)

* The History Files #46: Sutter’s Fort and Joseph Sutter

* San Juan Island Natl.

The heavily-armored, heavily-gunned, tank is a ubiquitous part of modern warfare, but it’s a relative newcomer in the large scale of history. In this episode we look at the development of this tracked vehicle and its debut on the battlefields of World War 1.

Show notes and links:

* Hernando de Soto discovers Mississippi River (1541)

* Victory in Europe Day (May 8, 1945)

* Golden spike joins transcontinental railroad (1869)

* Lewis and Clark Expedition begins (1804)

* Battlefield 1 game trailer

* The Boop Show – ep 111 (Discussion of upcoming Battlefield 1 release)

* Kelly’s Heroes (1970) (imdb.com)

* War Horse (2011) (imdb.com)

* Holt Manufacturing Company

* Benjamin Holt: the story of the caterpillar tractor (amazon.com)

* Ernest Dunlop Swinton

* Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne

* Little Willie

* Mk IV Tank (British Tank Museum picks up “War Horse” replica Mk IV tank from Speilberg)

* The A7V (…and another replica from the same film.)

* Small Arms of WWI Primer 022: German T-Gewehr Anti-Tank Rifle (youtube.com)

* Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux

* Tanks in the Great War 1914-1918 by J.F.G.Fuller (allworldwars.com)

* J. F. C. Fuller

*

This week we take a look at the wild world of jousting, historical and modern. Originally a diversion for bored cavalry soldiers, it evolved into a pro sport and way of life for a whole class of people, then died out in the 17th century, then revived briefly in the 1830s, and today can be found at Renaissance festivals and historic sites around the world.

For photos and supplemental tidbits, be sure to visit Gordon’s blog.

Show notes and links:

* James Monroe’s birthday (April 28, 1758)

* World’s Columbian Exposition (1893)

* RMS Lusitania sunk by German U-boat (1915)

* Archery ballistics – Lindybeige (youtube.com)

* American Jouster (2005)

* Knightriders (1981) (imdb.com)

* The Lion in Winter (1968) (imdb.com)

* Ivanhoe Official Trailer #1 – George Sanders (1952) (youtube.com)

* Men of Iron, by Howard Pyle (1891)

* Jousting (wikipedia.org)

* William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke

* Henry II of France killed in jousting accident

* Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard

* Quintain (jousting) –

* Eglinton Tournament of 1839 (the revival of jousting)

Pirates; romanticized or despised, they are a cultural icon scattered through history and a probability wherever there is merchant shipping. Let’s grab a pitcher of grog and set sail through a rogue’s gallery of swashbucklers, political opportunists, and entrepreneurs, and dig into the reality of the world’s third-oldest profession.

For supplemental info and photos, be sure to visit Gordon’s blog.

Show notes and links:

* Mutiny on the Bounty (1789)

* Louisiana Purchase (1803)

* Spanish–American War (1898)

* Landing at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli (1915)

* Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) (imdb.com)

* On Stranger Tides, by Tim Powers (amazon.com)

* The Pyrates: A Swashbuckling Comic Novel, George MacDonald Fraser (amazon.com)

* Old Ironsides (1926) DVD Movie (mthexpress.com)

* Old Ironsides (film) (wikipedia.org)

* Alfred the Great

* Ching Shih

* Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak (Another one of Gordon’s historical doppelgangers.)

* Sea Dogs

* Privateers

* Henry Morgan

* Buccaneers

* Golden Age of Piracy

*

This week, we are joined by special guest David S. Baker as we don our pith helmets and visit the phenomenon that is and was British Colonialism in India. We tried to keep this episode under an hour but failed. From ancient technologies to race relations to the origins of Steampunk, there’s just too much to talk about.

Because it turned out to be very difficult to find much about Pedro Alonso O’Crouley y O’Donnelly anywhere online, we uploaded some scans from a facsimile of his book on Gordon’s blog.

Notes: During the interview we talked about the discovery of Ainu-like ancient remains in a cave in Nevada. The actual location is the Spirit Cave, not Lovelock Cave, although both are near Fallon, NV. Also, David informs me that he accidentally moved a decimal point when talking about the numbers of Indians who served in the British army. It should be 2.5 million, not “20 million”.

Show notes and links:

* A short history of the world by H.G. Wells (archive.org)

* With The Night Mail by Rudyard Kipling (forgottenfutures.com)

* A Passage to India (1934, novel)

* A Passage to India (1984) (imdb.com)

* The Man Who Would Be King (1975) (imdb.com) dir. John Huston

* The Man Who Would be King | Rudyard Kipling (audible.com)

* Strange Suns : Dotting the Eye. (short story by D.S. Baker)

* Vedic literature (wikipedia.org)

* Trinitite

* Spirit Cave mummy (wikipedia.org)

* Bones, Boats, and Bison – E. James Dixon Possible Ainu origins of Spirit Cave mummy.

* Charles James Napier (wikipedia.org)

* John Masters  (wikipedia.org)

* Pedro Alonso O’Crouley y O’Donnell: “anchor baby” and explorer...