१७ जानेवारी, २०२४

I looked up the Celtic Sea, because it came up in my readings... and I was entranced....

.... by the reviews people had given it in Google Maps. To quote 4:

1. "It was wetter than I expected. Lots of fish swimming about under the surface, if you like that sort of thing."

2. "Very good sea. Compared to other seas, lakes and natural reservoirs it is undoubtedly superior. However, looking at the oceans, we need to admit that Celtic sea is slightly inferior. Nevertheless, it is a great representative of a sea.

3. "Against all the odds it does appear to be a genuine sea! I can confirm the presence of both waves and sky, with the correct one being above the other. Very tricky to get around if you don't have a boat. Minus 1 star."

4. "Lovely spot of water."

***

I was reading "Colonel Roosevelt" (commission earned). This part:

Woodrow Wilson's first reaction to the sinking of the Lusitania had been to flee the White House. Evading his secret service detail, he walked the drizzly streets of Washington unrecognized, while newsboys shrieked the story he already knew. When he came back he retired to his study and refused to see any advisers through the weekend....

It seemed to Wilson that all warfare was uncivilized. After going to church on Sunday he spent most of the afternoon being chauffeured around the countryside. It was dark before he got home.... He called no special session of his cabinet for the following morning. Late in the afternoon he traveled to Philadelphia to speak at a gathering of recently naturalized immigrants. By the time he stepped onstage in Convention Hall, three and a half days had elapsed since the tragedy in the Celtic Sea, and expectation around the world was intense as to what he would say.... 
To general amazement, Wilson did not mention the Lusitania, or Germany, or the war. He talked about “ideals” and “visions” and “dreams,” and “touching hearts with all the nations of mankind.”

३० टिप्पण्या:

Dave Begley म्हणाले...

Does this book discuss TR sitting in the bar of the Menger Hotel in San Antoine recruiting men for his Rough Riders?

tommyesq म्हणाले...

It seemed to Wilson that all warfare was uncivilized.

Well, other than against blacks in America.

Narr म्हणाले...

Wilson had grown up in the South after the ACWABAWS. He can be faulted for a lot, but he was no war-lover like some other presidents and wannabes.

But there are a lot of people who still, and somehow, manage to overlook the Germans when considering the early 20th C crises. Go figure.



Hassayamper म्हणाले...

Morris is anachronistic here. At the time of the sinking of the Lusitania, the area where it sank would have been referred to as the southern reaches of the Irish Sea, or simply the eastern North Atlantic.

From Wikipedia's entry on the Celtic Sea:

The Celtic Sea receives its name from the Celtic heritage of the bounding lands to the north and east.[2] The name was first proposed by E. W. L. Holt at a 1921 meeting in Dublin of fisheries experts from Great Britain, France, and Ireland.[2] The northern portion of this sea was considered as part of Saint George's Channel and the southern portion as an undifferentiated part of the "Southwest Approaches" to Great Britain. The desire for a common name came to be felt because of the common marine biology, geology and hydrology of the area.[2] It was adopted in France before being common in the English-speaking countries;[2] in 1957 Édouard Le Danois wrote, "the name Celtic Sea is hardly known even to oceanographers."[3] It was adopted by marine biologists and oceanographers, and later by petroleum exploration firms.[4] It is named in a 1963 British atlas,[5] but a 1972 article states "what British maps call the Western Approaches, and what the oil industry calls the Celtic Sea [...] certainly the residents on the western coast [of Great Britain] don't refer to it as such."[6]

Narr म्हणाले...

What we call the North Sea used to appear on British maps as The German Ocean.

Whiskeybum म्हणाले...

Those Google reviews reminded me of my Christmas gift from my daughter this year; a book called Subpar Parks - America's Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors. Some examples:

Death Valley - "Ugliest place I've ever seen"

Crater Lake - "Just something to look at and leave"

Mount Rainier - "I've seen bigger mountains"

The difference here though is that the Celtic Sea reviewers were being tongue-in-cheek, whereas the reviews from this book are serious reviews from the visitors. Unbelievable.

tim maguire म्हणाले...

This sea thing confuses me. The Sargasso Sea is the only sea bounded on all sides by ocean, so how is it a thing, separate from the Atlantic Ocean that surrounds it? The Celtic Sea is a corner of the Atlantic Ocean, so how is it a sea? What makes it different from the ocean around it?

gilbar म्हणाले...

What did you expect, from a racist the segregated the Federal workforce?
The man (like ALL Democrats) was PROUD of being a Pro-Slavery Pro-Confederacy Bigot.

He didn't care about the people on the Lusitania..
He didn't care about ANYONE.. To him, people were just property.. Property of the Government

Jupiter म्हणाले...

So he didn't say anything about "teaching the Germans to elect good men"?

Lem Vibe Bandit म्हणाले...

We had a president turned inward.

Darkisland म्हणाले...

The Lusitania was a passenger liner but had been loaded with munitions in New York.

This was not secret. The German embassy published ads warning the public that it was carrying war materials and was a legitimate target. Not only that it was a legitimate target but that German submarines were under orders to sink it if possible.

Anyone traveling on the ship should have known. Wilson, or at least his advisors, certainly knew.

Gee, kind of like Hamas hiding rockets and shells in a hospital daring the Israelis to blow them up.

A British owned and flagged ship. British crew. Sailing into the British war zone carrying war materials and surprise, surprise, the Germans tried, successfully to blow it up. A tragic but WHOLLY LEGITIMATE act of war.

And our government used it for propaganda to drag us into a war we had no business being in.

T Roosevelt was even more bloodthirsty than most about dragging us into WWI.

Ann, does it get much into the propaganda efforts of the time? Perhaps outside the scope of the book. How about TR's efforts both with govt and with the public to get us into the "glorious battle" as he called it?

One of the interesting things about TR I find is how militaristic he was. We identify with him as much as Colonel Roosevelt as President Roosevelt though he had about 6 months total military experience. Even the book is "Colonel Roosevelt"

John Henry

rcocean म्हणाले...

Wilson was one of the few POTUS' in the 20th Century who didn't play soldier or "Commander in Chief". Unlike FDR/LBJ who stuck their noses into everything, Wilson left the war to his Secreatry of the Navy, Secretary of army, and Army/Navy Brass.

Its too bad Wilson didnt stick to his original position of keeping the country out of WW 1. I like Teddy Roosevelt but the guy was a complete Warmonger and wanted us to attack Germany after the Lusistania. He sneered at Wilson and mocked his "too proud to fight" speech.

Sadly, our entry into WW1 led directly to Stalin and Hitler. We not only did NOT "make the world safe for Democracy" we made it much worse.

rcocean म्हणाले...

The Celtic Sea sounds made up. Besides I thought a "sea" had to be an obviously separate body of water. Y'know black sea, the med, the carribean, all "seas" and easily identified from the Atantic Ocean.

The Celtic sea just seems to be part of the atlantic. where does it start where does it end? It all seems arbitrary, like someone calling a patch of the Pacific: the polynessian sea.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

@Hassayamper

Thanks! Excellent point!

gspencer म्हणाले...

The other thing that the Celtic Sea shares with most bodies of water - it's really cold.

Narr म्हणाले...

The Lusitania was sunk in early 1915 and we didn't declare war until early 1917. I wonder what might have happened in the interim . . .

But let's pretend that powerful, grownup countries don't face threats from powerful, grownup enemies. Just snap your fingers and wave your hands and hey presto, peace breaks out all over.

For those seriously interested, Michael Neiberg's lecture on the topic at the WWI Museum and Memorial is a good place to start. You know where to look.




Darkisland म्हणाले...

RC Ocean,

Wilson never had any intention of anything other than getting us into WWI, though we had absolutely no dog in that fight. And as you mention it led to WWII as well as FDR running in 40 on keeping us out of that war. And, in the Democrat tradition, LBJ running on keeping us out of VN while doing all he could to get us deeper and deeper.

John Henry

tommyesq म्हणाले...

The Sargasso Sea is the only sea bounded on all sides by ocean, so how is it a thing, separate from the Atlantic Ocean that surrounds it?

The Sargasso Sea is surrounded by four strong currents - the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Current, the Canary Current, and the North Atlantic Equatorial Current, that effectively close the body of water from interacting with the adjoining bodies of water. Kind of like how you can get a bunch of horse riders to ride circles around a part of a herd of cows and cull some off from the rest. The Sargasso Sea has different temperatures and salinities from its surrounding water, and tends to hold things within the sea from leaving (such as Sargasso seaweed, hence the name).

Hassayamper म्हणाले...

This sea thing confuses me. The Sargasso Sea is the only sea bounded on all sides by ocean, so how is it a thing, separate from the Atlantic Ocean that surrounds it?

It is the patch of ocean at the center of the North Atlantic Gyre, and thus devoid of currents and trade winds, with accumulation of large mats of Sargassum seaweed. It has a reputation as a place for sailing ships to avoid, lest they be caught in the "doldrums", and is sufficiently different from adjoining oceanic regions such as the Gulf Stream that it merits its own distinctive name.

rehajm म्हणाले...

Publix sells Celtic Sea Salt- I have no idea where it is from…

…my brith home was a shingle style ‘summer cottage’ owned by a family that died on the Lusitania. It sounds like I’m manor born but by the late 60s the house had been cut up into multiple apartments. We were the rich family what could afford the turret, though. sniff!

rcocean म्हणाले...

THe lusitania was important because it set off the whole "we Americans have a right to travel to England without being attacked by sub" position that Wilson took.

Eventually, Germany backed down. However, in Jan 1917, they decided their only chance to win the war war unrestricted sub warfare around the British Isles. Wilson tried to get an exception for USA shipping but Germany wouldn't budge so we declared war.

Of course, for the warhawks this was just an excuse. They had wanted to get into the war ever since the Lusitania. that includes not only TR but FDR - who was then assistant sec of war.

But Wilson has always been a puzzle. Was his peace posture and "He kept us out of War" campaign slogan an accurate one, or was he always scheming to get us into the war? Certainly, once he got us into the war, he went along with the war hysteria. We had to have a draft, send millions to fight in France, and as Wilson said "use Force to the utermost". This was followed by a messianic "League of nations" which would have embroiled us in Europe's wars forever.

TR was even worse. He was demanding "Unconditional Surrender" from Germany (shades of FDR), why we had to march into Berlin and hang the Kaiser.

No wonder the average American turned to Harding and "Normalcy" in 1920.

rcocean म्हणाले...

THe lusitania was important because it set off the whole "we Americans have a right to travel to England without being attacked by sub" position that Wilson took.

Eventually, Germany backed down. However, in Jan 1917, they decided their only chance to win the war war unrestricted sub warfare around the British Isles. Wilson tried to get an exception for USA shipping but Germany wouldn't budge so we declared war.

Of course, for the warhawks this was just an excuse. They had wanted to get into the war ever since the Lusitania. that includes not only TR but FDR - who was then assistant sec of war.

But Wilson has always been a puzzle. Was his peace posture and "He kept us out of War" campaign slogan an accurate one, or was he always scheming to get us into the war? Certainly, once he got us into the war, he went along with the war hysteria. We had to have a draft, send millions to fight in France, and as Wilson said "use Force to the utermost". This was followed by a messianic "League of nations" which would have embroiled us in Europe's wars forever.

TR was even worse. He was demanding "Unconditional Surrender" from Germany (shades of FDR), why we had to march into Berlin and hang the Kaiser.

No wonder the average American turned to Harding and "Normalcy" in 1920.

rcocean म्हणाले...

BTW, do the French accept the name "English Channel"? I know the koreans do not accept the label "Sea of Japan".

rhhardin म्हणाले...

6. Elohims said: a ceiling will be in the middle of the waters: it is to separate between the waters and between the waters. Elohims makes the ceiling.
7. It separates the water under the ceiling from the water on the ceiling. and it is so.
8. Elohims shouts at the ceiling; skies. and it is evening and it is morning: day two.

Quaestor म्हणाले...

"What makes [the Sargasso Sea] different from the ocean around it?"

I would point out that the Sargasso Sea was discovered and named by Christopher Columbus. In 15th-century Europe, the term ocean as a geographic category did not exist. Ocean was the name of the body of water west of the Gates of Hercules that contained numerous inhabited islands, Great Britain being the largest and most important to Europe. In early modern English what we call the Atlantic Ocean was the Ocean Sea. As part of his reward for having pioneered a short route to China and the spice islands Columbus demanded the heredity title Admiral of the Ocean Sea. By the then-accepted definition of admiral, Columbus was demanding the perpetual right to a share of all commerce reversing the Ocean Sea. Ferdinand and Isabella conditionally granted his demand, but later rescinded the title and its emollients due to Columbus's failure to obtain any of the expected goods -- no cloves, no cinnamon, no porcelain, no silk. Then they threw him in jail.

The name Ocean Sea (named for Oceanus, the Titan who controlled the world-enveloping river) continued to have some currency until the mid-16th century when "Atlantic Sea" (i.e. the waters belonging to another Titan, Atlas) began to appear on nautical charts, the voyage of Magellan having revealed the geographic inadequancy of "Ocean Sea".

Narr म्हणाले...

"Wilson never had any intention . . . ."

And you know this how?

Narr म्हणाले...

"Wilson never had any intention . . . ."

And you know this how?

Narr म्हणाले...

Wilson went to war the only way presidents should--with everything, and to win as quickly as possible.

There's no mystery, rcocean.

Rusty म्हणाले...

Narr
But we didn't have to jump in. It was a fight between inbred cousins. Because of treatys between inbred cousins. It was stupid. Germany declares war on Russia and then immediately attacks France. WTF!

Narr म्हणाले...

Rusty, go watch the Neiberg vid I mentioned.

We were already in--financially, agriculturally, and in many areas of industry.

Millions of Americans had European cousins, and thousands of young Americans volunteered to serve in the Entente forces. They obviously saw things differently than many of us do.

As for your WTF, that just shows how nutso the Krauts could be. Imagine what they could get up to if they won.