Denmark Strait. 24 May, 1941

 To: Admiralty
From: HMS Prince of Whales

HMS Hood has blown up


HMS Hood, considered the pride of the Royal Navy, was lost this day in 1941 during a brief  battle with the German Kriegsmarine's DKM Bismark. 1415 men were lost in an instant. There were three survivors.
       In the battle, HMS Prince of Whales was heavily damaged and was forced to withdraw. The Royal Navy eventually hunted down Bismark and she was sunk 3 days later.
      Hood was sometimes called the most beautiful ship (if any weapon of war could ever be considered thus) in the Royal Navy, but she suffered from a serious design flaw: her decks were not sufficiently armoured, leaving her vulnerable to plunging fire. This flaw led to her demise. On the fifth salvo from Bismark, a 15 inch shell penetrated her deck abaft her stacks and exploded in the after magazine. The resulting blast tore Hood apart and she sank in about 2 minutes.

   The three survivors were Midshipman William Dundas, Able Seaman Bob Tilburn, and Ordinary Signalman Ted Briggs.
 In 2001, the wreck of HMS Hood was found, and a plaque in honour of her crew was placed beside her on the sea floor. Ted Briggs, the last surviving crewman, was given the honour of releasing the plaque. Mr Briggs died in 2008.                       

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HMS HOOD at anchor at Scapa Flow

                              

Ship's crew, 1940

Last known photo of Hood, taken from Prince of Whales, 24 May, 1941.

The end as seen from DKM Prinz Eugen. Smoke from Hood's blast on the right, Prince of Whales making smoke on left.

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What's with that name?

i've been accused of keeping everything...

The other day i was rummaging through a box of miscellaneous papers- the usual accumulation of pictures, old greeting cards, unsent postcards, and then this:

 A simple 3 X 5 index card, a practice piece from my high school days' art class. i was trying to master chisel-tipped steel pens and india ink.

My calligraphy never progressed much beyond this example.

Whence the name? Back in those days there was a local sound system/band by the name of Euphoria Blimp Works (aka Yama & the Karma Dusters.) Somewhere about that time, i decided that "Euphoria Bicycle Works, ltd." sounded like kind of a good name for a business i might run one day.

i think the name stuck in my mind after a concert-gone-bad on a hot July day in 1970; one rumour that seeped out was that Euphoria Blimp Work's equipment was looted and wrecked in the mayhem. Various accounts of the event were covered in local underground papers such as the Chicago Seed.

i wasn't downtown that day, although i was supposed to be there with some friends. Kinda glad i missed it.

Anyway, sometime during my senior year, Euphoria Bicycle Works, ltd., my notional bike shop, was born. That index card once graced the door of my college dorm room and made appearances over my workbench from time to time. How that card has survived all these years i'll never know.

 i never did open that bike shop - probably a good career non-choice- but it did lend its name to this occasional blog.


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Вели́кая Октя́брьская социалисти́ческая револю́ция

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Petrograd, 7 November (25 October, Julian,) 1917...

The proclamation

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Kerensky & provisional government deposed...

The American Embassy, Petrograd.  Kerensky's refuge.

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 The New Bosses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Masterminds:

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, aka Lenin.

Lev Davidovich Bronstein, aka Leon Trotsky.

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Eventually:

"Workers of the World Unite!"

Enshrined in a Holy Trinity

Красная звезда

                                    
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                        To so many of the war-weary Russian people,
                      it seemed like a good idea at the time.