Coast Guard Helicopter in Alaska

Coast Guard Helicopter in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

While I was on a cruise in Alaska this summer, my dad and I were outside our cabin on our balcony when all of a sudden my dad spotted a helicopter coming from the back of the ship. The helicopter very quickly approached our side of the ship and then hovered right next to our balcony. The noise from the aircraft became too loud to talk over. There were 3-4 men inside the helicopter. We waved at them. One of the men in the back of the helicopter took out a regular digital camera and appeared to take our picture! Very odd! Thats when I started taking lots of pictures of them. And then they hovered a little more and then took off. We never did find out why they appeared in the middle of Prince William Sound, Alaska next to our Holland America cruise ship. Here are some pics of the Coast Guard Helicopter next to our ship on Aug. 2, 2008. You can see just how close to the ship they were!

Glacier Calves in Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

Margerie Glacier "Calves", Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
August 1, 2008

Robert Burns and Poetry

April 24, 2008 by ScottishKyle

Robert Burns, sometimes referred to as the national bard of Scotland, was born January 25, 1759 in the town of Alloway, South Ayrshire, Scotland. He was a prolific writer who composed over 600 poems and songs. Robert Burns was important to Scotland because he renewed a sense of nationalism and pride in the country and immortalized Scottish history and culture through his works.

Robert Burns was born into a poor tenant farming family in the lowlands of south-west Scotland. His father, William Burness (1721-1784) was a tenant farmer from Kincardineshire, Scotland, and his mother, Agnes Broun (1732-1820) was from Ayrshire.
Although the Burns family was poor he received 3 years of formal schooling, tutoring, and by the time of manhood he had achieved knowledge of English, French and Latin.
From an early age, Burns read and was influenced by the many works of notable writers such as Homer and Shakespeare.

In addition to being an intellectual, Burns also was renowned for his charm and wit, especially with women. In 1786, after numerous love affairs including a relationship with Elizabeth Paton with whom he had his first child, he fell in love with Jean Armour who became pregnant with twins. He wanted to marry Jean Armour but could not obtain her father's permission. After publishing a volume of his poems called Kilmarnock in 1786 to raise money to emigrate to the West Indies, he had unexpected success with his poetry and instead decided to move to Edinburgh. As a result of his fame and publishing success, Jean Armour's family granted permission for them to marry in 1788.

Robert Burns wrote about subjects from his everyday life, including poems about love, nature and Scottish history, and culture. He wrote his poems and songs in English, but also in the Scottish dialect which helped keep the Scottish dialect alive in an age when it was going into disuse. He romanticized aspects of Scotland through his writings and created a renewed sense of national pride in Scotland. The Scots had lost some of their national identity and pride as a result of the 1707 Union with England and the failed Jacobite rising of 1746. (Note that he always supported the Jacobite's even though he was born in the age after the Battle of Culloden and was a lowlander through and through)

Burns's poem, Farewell to the Highlands, is about the emotions of the people who left the Highlands of Scotland during the Highland Clearances in the 18th century. The Highland Clearances was a violent period where tenant farmers were forced to leave their land and emigrate to North America and other countries. The poem, written in 1789, is included as one of Burns's texts in Robert Burns: Selected Poems, edited by Carol McGuirk, and reads as follows:

Farewell to the Highlands

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart's in the Highlands a chasing the deer;
A chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,
My hearts in the Highlands wherever I go.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the north,
The birth place of Valour, the country of Worth,
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

Farewell to the mountains high cover'd with snow;
Farewell to the straths and green vallies below;
Farewell to the forests and wild hanging woods;
Farewell to the torrents and loud pouring floods.

My hearts in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, a chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

The poem is quite popular among Robert Burns's works. The poem is set to the slow and sad tune of The Musket Salute which reinforces the strong emotions of the poem. Burns shows his style in the poem by repeating comparable words to increase the emphasis for example, the roe and wild deer; wander and rove; straths and green vallies; forests and wild hanging woods; and torrents and floods. Burns's use of very descriptive words also helps the reader to visualize the landscape, the action, and the person's longing. This poem is very typical of Burns's work because it speaks about nature's beauty and the very strong emotions that people have for home.

Robert Burns had a short life dying at age 37 in 1796. He achieved international literary fame although not financial success during his lifetime. He continued to be revered by Scots as a great poet. In 1844 at a Burns Festival in Scotland around 80,000 were in attendance. His poetry immortalized Scottish history and culture for the Scots. Today, Robert Burns is considered to be one of the world's greatest poets because anyone can relate to most of his poems from any walk of life.

The Industrial Revolution in Scotland

11/20/2007 by ScottishKyle

The Industrial Revolution was a period of great changes during the late 18th century and 19th century that started in Great Britain. This revolution produced major changes in social structures, economies, agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and, most of all, technology. This industrialization quickly spread throughout Europe and eventually reached North America. During this period, not only did Britain start the revolution but it also led the revolution, with its vast deposits of coal and iron ore. The country of Scotland, in particular, played a key role in the Industrial Revolution because of its many innovative contributions.

Before the Industrial Revolution in Scotland, the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century laid the foundation for the rapid changes and inventions that sparked the Industrial Revolution. It was a time of major advances in the areas of philosophy, economics, engineering, architecture, literature, medicine, geology, law, agriculture, and chemistry. The Scottish Enlightenment produced many famous Scottish figures such as the political economist Adam Smith who wrote and published his masterpiece, The Wealth of Nations (1776), and philosopher David Hume, the architect Robert Adam, the physician and chemist William Cullen, writer Sir Walter Scott, and poet Robert Burns. Famous Scots during this era also included the physicist and chemist Joseph Black (a mentor to James Watt) who discovered latent heat, specific heat and carbon dioxide. Interestingly enough, Joseph Black loaned a sum of £1,000 to James Watt to make his improvements on the steam engine which would power the industrial revolution. Joseph Black taught at the University of Glasgow. These figures of modern thought helped influence and educate the next generation of Scots who led the Industrial Revolution.

During the first hundred years of the Industrial Revolution, from 1750 to 1850, there were many changes underway in Scotland. The Lowlands of Scotland, in contrast to the Highlands, were primarily affected. The economy in Scotland during the middle of the eighteenth century was on the rise, with numerous products being imported from the British colonies to Scotland, in particular to the city of Glasgow. Glasgow was the "engine of Scottish industrialization" (Devine 59). Glasgow's main industries were ship building, textiles, engineering, tobacco and iron works. Tobacco was a major import, and in 1771, 47 million pounds of American tobacco were imported to Glaswegian merchants who sold it on the wide European market, exporting it to German, French, and Dutch markets. Glasgow had become the most prominent city in western Europe for tobacco. Overall, the Scottish import market grew from 10 percent of the total British importations in 1738 to 40 percent in 1765, and the British importations had themselves grown during the same period. (Devine 105) The growth of the import and export markets proved extremely profitable for the Scottish economy. Another major contributor to economic growth was Scotland's most important industry, linen manufacturing. Linen manufacturing increased production dramatically in the mid to late 1700's, with exports to the American and Caribbean colonies (Devine 58). Both the linen manufacturing and the import and export markets led the economic expansion with increased employment levels, business investments, and the growth of the banking industry.

Technological change was key to the Industrial Revolution and occurred in different forms, including transportation and manufacturing. Many people view the father of the Industrial Revolution as James Watt (1736-1819), a Scottish engineer and inventor who was born in Greenock, Scotland. James Watt received little education although Scotland had made one of the first laws making education of children a requirement in 1696. While working as an instrument maker for the University of Glasgow, James Watt improved the steam engine enough so that it was practical for use in 1776. (Outman 181) The improved steam engine used only one-fourth as much coal to achieve the same power as Thomas Newcomen's original steam engine and made the manufacturing plants, including textile mills, significantly more productive. This innovation of the steam engine made it possible to place a mill inland rather then next to water, which was traditionally used to power the mills. Watt's steam engine powered the Industrial Revolution and revolutionized manufacturing and transportation.

Efficient transportation was critical for the movement of goods and raw materials during this age. A new form of water transportation, the steamboat, was invented by the Scottish engineer, William Symington (1764-1831). In 1788, Symington along with his friend, Patrick Millar, successfully operated a boat with a steam engine on the Dalswinton Loch in Scotland. Robert Burns is said to have been a witness to this event on the Loch. In 1802, Symington navigated his boat, Charlotte Dundas, on the Forth and Clyde Canal while pushing two barges in front of the boat 19 ½ miles in six hours against a strong headwind. Despite the success of Symington's steamboat, most people were perfectly fine with using their old sailboat and his steamboat never sold. In 1807, the Scottish-American Robert Fulton (1765-1815) made the first commercially successful steamboat business based in New York. In Europe, a Scottish engineer named Henry Bell (1767-1830) is credited with creating one of the first successful passenger steamboat services on the River Clyde in Scotland.

In 1765, iron rails were introduced in England by Richard Reynolds. At this time carts loaded with goods were being hauled by horses. In 1801, experiments with steam engine driven locomotives were started. In 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway introduced a locomotive to haul coal for 20 miles. It was the first time a steam locomotive had hauled cars on a public railway anywhere in the world. (Outman 55)
From then on trains moved raw supplies and passengers throughout Great Britain. In 1831, the Glasgow to Garnkirk railway was opened in Scotland. Around the middle of the eighteenth century it took twelve days to reach London from Glasgow by horse, a century later it, a passenger riding on the railroad powered by the steam engine could make the trip in twelve hours. (Outman 51) In addition to rail innovations, important advances in road construction were made by the Scottish engineer, John MacAdam (1756-1836) in the early 1800's, who created the macadam type of road surface. This road surface was created by crushed rock packed into thin layers. This new method of road building created a smoother and faster way for goods and people to travel. Goods could now be sold on a broader scale and were able to reach places more quickly. Later the Scot, Kirkpatrick Macmillan (1813-1878), would invent the bicycle.

During this period in Scotland, populations in towns and cities in Lowland Scotland were increasing considerably because of the employment opportunities. In contrast, the Highlands were losing their people to emigration due to the infamous Highland Clearances and numerous famines. By the time of the American Revolution, over 15,000 Highland Scots had already emigrated to Georgia and the Carolinas. At the same time, over 60,000 Lowland Scots had settled in Virginia, the Carolinas, and New England. Later, during the early to mid nineteenth century, thousands of Highland Scots would emigrate to Nova Scotia (New Scotland) and other parts of Canada. Some Scots settled in Scottish communities in other parts of the world like Nova Scotia and continued to speak and sing in fluent Gaelic. Traditional social structures which had been familiar for centuries were changing rapidly and progressive economic and social change were transforming Scotland at an astonishing rate compared to other European countries. In 1750, one Scot in eight lived in a town of 4,000 people or more, but by the 1820s, more than half of the Scottish population lived in the bustling Lowlands.

In conclusion, Scottish inventors and innovators played a key role in the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain during its first phase. Scotland went from a simple rural economy to a complex industrial economy within a hundred years time. Although only a few of some of the most notable Scottish inventors were mentioned above, there were many more who contributed to the success of the Industrial Revolution, including James Beaumont Neilson, Robert Napier, Andrew Carnegie and others. The Industrial Revolution continued to spread worldwide and the Scots who had emigrated to other countries continued to make major contributions to society.




WORKS CITED


Bruce, Duncan A. The Scottish 100: Portraits of History's Most Influential Scots. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2000.

Devine, T.M. The Scottish Nation. New York: Viking Penguin, 1999.

Outman, James L. and Outman, Elisabeth M. Industrial Revolution Almanac. Ed. Mathew May. Farmington, Michigan: The Gale Group, 2003.

Outman, James L. and Outman, Elisabeth M. Industrial Revolution Biographies. Ed. Mathew May. Farmington, Michigan: The Gale Group, 2003

Herman, Arthur. How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001.

The Authentic Viking Discovery of North America

June 13th 2005 by ScottishKyle

Christopher Columbus is the internationally celebrated discoverer of North America. However many may not know or may not accept that Leif Eriksson

and the Vikings really discovered North America years before Columbus's journeys. Many people do not recognize that Leif Eriksson and the Vikings were the first settlers and discovers of North America. We have no national holiday to celebrate the Vikings but we do have one to celebrate Columbus. Christopher Columbus is in no way connected to the discovery of North America, forget about him period. The absolute, authentic discovery of North America must be credited to Leif Eriksson and the Vikings because of tangible evidence, excavated settlements, and research by worldwide professionals.

According to carbon dating and archaeologists, Leif Eriksson and the Vikings discovered North America around 1000AD. This is about 500 years before Columbus made his journey to seek a new world. Therefore, it does not matter whether Columbus discovered America or not because the Vikings were there first. As Leif sailed toward the coast of North America, the first area Leif Eriksson saw of North America was what is now called Labrador which he named Markland meaning Woodland because of all the woods there. The second area Leif fell upon was what now consists of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island which he called Vinland which means Wineland because of all the grapes growing wild there. Tangible evidence for this journey is found in many places in North America. One example of such evidence is the Norwegian silver penny found at the Goddard site, a large Native American archaeological site at Naskeag Point, Penobscot Bay, Maine in the summer of 1957 by Guy Mellgren. At first, Guy Mellgren did not say anything about it, for years and did not even record it in his log but he did put a small C on the Goddard map to record it. He thought people would think he was crazy if he said he found a Viking penny in North America. He finally told people about it in the early 1970s after it had been sitting in a Maine Museum collection of Indian artifacts for 15 years. You would think a visitor would have said something. Some heard his voice but the Archaeological community did not listen as well. Fortunately, he was a well standing archaeologist and respected by many. After much debate about the coin between professionals in the 1970s a professional coin dealer and collector in London identified it as a rare Norse penny minted from 600AD to 1100AD. Shock was sent around the world but by this time the Viking settlement known as LAnse aux meadows had been discovered in Newfoundland and excavated but thats in Canada and this coin was found in America. The fact that the coin was found among traded Native American goods makes it very possible that it was from Vinland or LAnse aux meadows (Viking settlement) in Newfoundland. Therefore, it must have been traded with the Native Americans for food or something. Archaeologists know that the Vikings traded

and battled with the Native Americans of Canada. An example of this is when a Native American killed Leif Erikssons brother. The point I am trying to make is that this Viking coin is evidence of the Vikings in North America long before Columbus sought to find the new world.

More tangible evidence includes the first excavated Viking settlement in Newfoundland, Canada called LAnse aux meadows by the French meaning Jellyfish Cove which was discovered in 1961 by the Norwegian explorer Dr. Helge Ingstad and his archaeologist wife, Dr. Anne Stine Ingstad (1918-1997). LAnse aux meadows in northern Newfoundland is pronounced locally Lancy meadows. Dr. Helge Ingstad (1899-2001) was an amazing person being a Norwegian writer, adventurer, trapper, lawyer, politician and discoverer. He transformed a myth and legend into scientific fact in 1961 when he & his wife found ruins in LAnse aux meadows on the north coast of Newfoundland which proved beyond a doubt that the Vikings, not Columbus, were the first discoverers and settlers of North America. This discovery was so big that when Dr. Helge Ingstad died on March 29, 2001 at the age of 101 his funeral was attended by Norways Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, who gave the eulogy and King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway and other important politicians. The Prime Minister of Norway in the eulogy praised Dr. Helge Ingstad saying that he "changed the understanding of world history". (Phillips) Another example of how big this discovery was is when in the millennium (2000AD) the Smithsonian Museum went on tour around Canada and the USA showing original artifacts from LAnse aux meadows and other artifacts like the Viking coin found in Maine and replica Viking ships. The exhibit lasted from 2000 to autumn 2002. A Viking IMAX movie is presently underway. The Smithsonian Museum of Washington, DC picked the year 2000 to do the tour because it was the 1000^th anniversary of the Viking discovery of North America. In 2000 an Iceland native named Gunner Marel Eggertsson set sail on a replica Viking ship named the Icelander. He set sail from Iceland to celebrate the 1000^th anniversary of the discovery of North America and he traced the Vikings footsteps to Newfoundland and sailed down the coast of Nova Scotia and all the way to New York City stopping off and on. This trip got lots of publicity and lots of people welcomed Gunner Eggertsson to their ports. That journey is just another example of how big this discovery was. LAnse aux meadows was excavated by Dr. Helge Ingstad and his wife from 1961 to 1968. During this excavation they found a total of 2,400 artifacts. About 1,500 of the 2,400 artifacts were wood and found in a peat bog. Artifacts that were found included loom weights, a whetstone, a cloak pin of bronze, a glass bead, bone needle, ship parts, ship repair tools, spindle whorl, iron rivets, iron reminisce and other artifacts. They also found eight foundations of buildings and huts. The buildings and huts were made from timber and sod, traditional Icelandic style buildings. Many of the buildings were workshops. The workshops included a blacksmith, a boat repair shed and a furnace. A lot of artifacts were found in and around the foundations. Dr. Helge Ingstad and his wife wrote a book on their excavation at the L Anse aux meadows site it is called The Viking Discovery of America. From 1973-1976 the Canadian Park Service started another excavation of the site, finding even more artifacts. These excavations of artifacts can tell us a lot about what happened during the Viking occupation like loom weights, bone needles and a spindle whorl show that there were women making clothes at the site. All the Iron remains including rivets show that there was blacksmithing occurring there. The wood scraps and wood items show that the Vikings used carpentry a lot there too. There also were ship repairing tools and parts found at the site which show they may have made or repaired their boats there. All the Viking artifacts show that the Vikings did settle here in about 1000AD. There is no question that the Vikings did settle in North America in c1000AD.

Research by world wide professionals including Archaeologists, Historians, and Scientists conclude that the Vikings discovered North America. It has taken a while to prove that the Vikings discovered North America but it is finally out and about, making its way into classrooms around the globe. Research and studies done by professionals have included archeology digs, studying Icelandic Sagas including Leif Erikssons saga, radio carbon dating, surveying land, compiling evidence, organizing evidence, and numerous other studies and research. These professionals know what they are talking about and many archaeologist and scientist not only study Viking history they also teach it at major universities and colleges around the world.

In conclusion there is tons of more evidence and artifacts that I have not mentioned. We have been living in North America under the assumption that Columbus discovered North America and now that we have Columbus Day still it is outrageous and a lie, there should be a Viking holiday and a memorial to celebrate the Viking discovery and settlement of North America and credit towards the discovery should be given all to the Vikings and their descendants like me!

Works Cited

Cohat, Yves. The Vikings: Lords of the Seas. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1992.

Haywood, John. The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings. London: Penguin Group,

1995.

Henriksson, Karin. Vikings on the tour in the West. Svenska Dagbladet. Feb. 1998. 13

June 2005 .

Phillips, Ellen and Tara Prime. WebQuest. Halifax Regional School Board. 13 June 2005.