Squeekie ready for the Pink Panther Ball

Squeek and Moss at the Pink Panther Ball

Cruise Director Bruce announces that the Pink Panther diamond has been stolen.

Moss prepares to capture the sunset . . .

. . . while Squeekie watches the sun go down . . .

. . . and this is the sunset Moss captured digitally.

Squeekie took this picture of Saint Helena as we approached it just before sunrise.

Sunrise as we approach Saint Helena.

Sunrise over Jamestown, Saint Helena.

It was a rather wet departure from the tender at the Jamestown Wharf.

Saint James Church facing on to the Grand Parade.

Our first glimpse of Jacob’s Ladder.

Driving through the upper end of Jamestown.

Jamestown looking back from up on Side Path Road.

The Briars, former home of William Balcombe, visited by Napoleon during his exile.

Squeek and Moss before she went down to the site of Napoleon’s original grave.

Napoleon’s original tomb site in Sane Valley on Saint Helena.

Squeekie and her friend Jan coming back up the path from Napoleon’s tomb.

The front porch of Longwood House, where Napoleon lived in exile from December 1815 to May 1821; it is maintained by the French government as a museum.

The Billiard Room in Longwood House.

The Dining Room at Longwood House.

This is the Sitting Room where Napoleon dictated his memoirs.

Napoleon’s Bath Room.

The bed where Napoleon died in May 1821; Squeekie is photographing his death mask.

Napoleon’s death mask.

A lithograph of Napoleon at his death.

Napoleon’s famous grey greatcoat and hat.

The garden at Longwood House originally planted by Napoleon.

A lithograph of Napoleon in exile.

Napoleon’s fondly remembered wife Josephine.

Napoleon’s Certificate of Death.
The Needles rock outcrops on the southeast side of Saint Helena.

This view of Saint Helena’s interior shows (upper right, green square clearing) where Germans were imprisoned during World War Two.
Plantation House, the residence of Saint Helena’s Governor, is also home to several famous tortoises.

Jonathon, the senior tortoise, is the island’s oldest resident, 177 years of age!

Squeekie pets Jonathon . . .
. . . and also his younger girl friend, whose name I cannot remember.

Moss also pets the girlfriend.

This sign pointed the way to Halley’s Mount.
All of Jamestown seen from the top of Jacob’s Ladder.

Squeekie the climber begins her journey on Jacob’s Ladder—yes, it is steep!

While Squeekie waves from Jacob’s Ladder (lower right), Moss captures both her adventure and the mighty Rotterdam just offshore.

Squeekie near the bottom of Jacob’s Ladder.

This is Jacob’s Ladder in its entirety; in years past it had been a funicular railway.

These are the town gates leading out to the wharf from the Grand Parade.


At Donny’s Pub Squeek enjoys one last Windhoek beer before departing from Saint Helena . . .

. . . and Moss also waxes nostalgic.

Squeekie’s view of the sky near to sunset on our one hundredth day on the cruise . . .

. . . and Moss’ view of the same event.

Moss also attempted to get a nice picture of the Moon, but it washed out.

Sunrise over Ascension Island.

Squeekie going down to board the tender to go over to Ascension Island.

Offloading the tender at the Georgetown Wharf on Ascension Island.



Moss and Squeekie on the Georgetown Wharf; that’s Deadman’s Beach in the background.

This is Deadman’s Beach at the foot of Georgetown; turtles like to nest here.

Moss at the head of the wharf, Georgetown, Ascension Island.


Squeekie steps ashore on Ascension Island; the Union Jack flies overhead.


This is the Exile’s Club, the former Royal Marines barracks.


This is one of the famous 5.5-inch guns removed from HMS Hood which fired on a German submarine in 1941.


These are the old muzzle-loading cannons on the lower part of Cross Point which were part of the island’s defense in the nineteenth century.



This is the Anglican church on Ascension Island, built in 1840.


The interior of the church looks modern in certain ways.

This is Ascension’s famous Post Office, the main source of export revenue for the island.


This is the transportation centre for visitors who fly in to the island.


Squeekie stands on the Parade Ground in front of the former barracks, with the Rotterdam at anchor in the distance.


Squeekie heads toward the entrance to Fort Hayes, the brown hill in the distance.

Squeekie took this view of the south side of Georgetown, looking toward Catharine Point from the ramparts of Fort Hayes.

Squeekie took this panorama of Georgetown north from Fort Hayes.

Moss used his whomping telephoto to get this picture of Squeekie taking her panorama pictures on top of the Fort Hayes ramparts.


Squeekie on the edge of Deadman’s Bay.


Squeekie found this evidence that a female sea turtle had crawled out of the water to lay eggs in a nest in the sand above the high tide line.


Fish in the clear ocean water next to the Georgetown wharf.


As we leave our anchorage at Georgetown to begin our circumnavigation of the island, we see evidence of NASA and the BBC on Ascension.



Moss caught this flying fish from Deck Six Forward.

This tern is chasing a flying fish.

Caught!

We rounded North point; many of the rocks offshore are the nesting homes of seabirds.

After Rotterdam finished her circumnavigation, Ascension Island began to sink below the horizon—she is a VERY remote place!


The Gessners and the Myers team up to solve the mystery.


Chef Fuller Sheet (Cruise Director Bruce) and his wife Elizabeth (Betty) Crocker-Sheet (Events Manager Trish).


Gossip Columnist Hedda Lettuce, played by Jacky.


Well, we didn’t solve the mystery, but we had a fun time and the food was great!


Ninety-seventh Day (Sunday, April 26, 2009)-- Today was a welcomed “at sea” day, received with smiles as Squeekie and I worked up in the Crow’s Nest to preserve our feelings of our time in Africa. The major event of the day was the Pink Panther Ball held after dinner. The event actually began at dinner with pink decorations in the LaFontaine Dining Room, then transferred forward to the Queen’s Lounge. Squeekie wore her pink formal gown in honour of the event; I wore my tux, which has gotten a great deal of usage on this trip. As we entered the Queen’s Lounge, Squeek was handed a pink feather boa to wear around her neck—it looked very nice on her. I received a black top hat which looked very clown-like. Some guests were already dancing.

Before long Bruce came out and began the evening’s program. The Pink Panther Ball was intended to be based upon the original Pink Panther story, where a valuable diamond jewel is stolen. Sure enough, before long a giant “cut diamond” (actually a glass item shaped like a cut diamond) was placed upon the stage on display, and after a few minutes it was stolen when the lights went out for a moment. Then the various guest staff (Robyn, Matt, Beath, Lori, Brock, and all the others) went around the room searching for the diamond and talking with guests, playing the parts of persons who themselves might have stolen the diamond. It was a fun time. Eventually, Bruce came back up on stage to announce who had stolen the diamond—in this case Lori (or rather, the character she was playing this night) was found guilty. Then, because all of the guests had already filled out slips of paper asserting who they thought to be the guilty party, those who had guessed Lori had their slips put into a champagne bucket and Bruce drew out the name of one person, who got to take the “Pink Panther Diamond” home with them. When the Rotterdam Band finished playing dance music in the Queens Lounge at 11:30 pm, Squeekie and I went up to the Crow’s Nest—now very busy with the late night crowd—and chatted with some of our acquaintances while we sipped Bailey’s on the rocks. Oh, what a grand time!


Ninety-eighth Day (Monday, April 27, 2009)-- We are still heading northwest toward the island of Saint Helena, which sticks up from the Mid-Atlantic ridge way out in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. It was another “at sea” day today, much of which I spent up in the Crow’s Nest writing and sorting pictures. Right at noon today, Captain Olav said in his “Voice From the Bridge,” we had crossed over the Greenwich Mean Meridian, thus passing back into the Western Hemisphere. While there was no change visible from the ship, this does mean that we are nearing the end of our wonderful cruise—there are just two weeks remaining. In the afternoon we had a very pleasant chat and tea with John and Janet Hannah, the friends we have made who live in Salmon Arm, British Columbia. At sunset time Squeek and I went up to Deck Six Forward to take pictures of what was one of the finest sunsets we have seen at sea during this cruise. After dinner, we crashed to bed early.


Ninety-ninth Day (Tuesday, April 28, 2009)-- We awoke this morning before sunrise and watched as the very rugged island of Saint Helena appeared on the horizon. At one point the sun actually arose over the tip of the island (Rotterdam must have approached the island by circling around from the southwest to approach the port town of Jamestown from the northwest). As we came closer we dressed and went forward to our favourite lookout on Deck Six Forward so that we could photograph the island in all its expanse. The island is very rugged, with high cliffs everywhere we could see, and I wondered how we would get ashore, but as we approached I saw a deep canyon which came down to the ocean level, and there was a small village in the depths of the canyon—this was Jamestown, the capital of this tiny island. Clearly there was no port here, so Rotterdam had to anchor just offshore, and we would tender ashore.

Now to the history-- The island of Saint Helena is named after Saint Helena of Constantinople (the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great). It is an island of volcanic origin, rising up from the Mid-Atlantic ridge which runs north and south in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and is the place where the tectonic plates are splitting and moving east and west, thus separating the Americas from Europe and Africa. The island is a British overseas territory, and also is the administrative centre for the dependencies of Ascension Island (to the northwest) and Tristan da Cunha (to the south). The islanders proudly claim to be Great Britain’s second oldest colony. It also is one of the most remote places in the entire world; the nearest land of any kind (the western coast of the African continent) is 1200 miles to the east.

The island apparently was uninhabited when it was discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, but they did find an abundance of trees and fresh water. They imported livestock (mainly goats), fruit trees and vegetables, built a chapel and one or two houses, and left their sick suffering from scurvy and other ailments to be taken home, if they recovered, by the next ship, but they formed no permanent settlement. Over time the island became important, some would say crucial, to the European convoys sailing home from the spice ports of India and Southeast Asia. The island was directly in line with the Trade Winds which took ships rounding the Cape of Good Hope into the South Atlantic, and so became an important stop for homeward bound ships in need of water and fresh food. The island was much less frequently visited by Asia-bound ships because the northern trade winds tended to blow ships towards the American continent rather than the island. Saint Helena once had a rich and dense inland forest, but much of this was lost within fifty years of its discovery by the Portuguese due to the impact of humans and their introduction of goats, pigs, dogs, cats, rats as well as the introduction of non-endemic birds and vegetation into the island.

Although the Portuguese tried to keep knowledge of the island a secret, it appears that both the Dutch and the English knew of its location by the 1570s. Sir Francis Drake is believed to have landed on the island during his circumnavigation of the world (1577-80), as did Thomas Cavendish a decade later. The Dutch formally made a claim to Saint Helena in 1633, but by 1651 they had abandoned the island in favour of their colony founded at the Cape of Good Hope.

By 1649, England’s East India Company ordered all homeward-bound vessels to wait for one another at St Helena, and beginning in 1656 the Company petitioned the English government to send a man-of-war to convoy the fleet home from that island. Having been granted a charter to govern the island by Richard Cromwell in 1657, the following year the Company decided to fortify and colonise St Helena with planters. A fleet commanded by Captain John Dutton (the island’s first English governor, 1659-1661) arrived at Saint Helena in 1659, and it is from this date that the island claims to be Britain’s second oldest colony (after Bermuda). A fort, originally named the Castle of St John, was rapidly completed, but it soon became obvious that the island could not be made self-sufficient, so the East India Company ordered all homecoming ships to provide one ton of rice on their arrival at the island. With the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, the fort was renamed James Fort, the town Jamestown and the valley where the town lay James Valley, all in honour of the Duke of York, later James II of England. The East India Company immediately sought a Royal Charter to give their occupation of Saint Helena legitimacy. This was issued in 1661 and gave the Company the sole right to fortify and colonise the island.

Late in 1672 the Dutch tried to recover Saint Helena for their own use, but within six months the island was retaken without loss of life and reinforced with 250 troops. The same year the Company petitioned for a new Charter from Charles II of England and this granted the island free title as though it was a part of England “in the same manner as East Greenwich in the County of Kent.” Acknowledging that St Helena was a place where there was no trade, the Company was permitted to send from England any provisions free of Customs and to convey as many settlers as required. Over the next few years several plantations were established. In 1733, coffee seeds were brought from the port of Mocha in Yemen and were planted at various locations around the island where they flourished (and continue to do so). Under the aegis of governor Mark Wilks (1813-1816) farming methods were improved, a rebuilding programme was initiated and the first public library opened. A census in 1814 showed the number of inhabitants was 3,507 (including some former slaves).

English astronomer Edmund Halley visited Saint Helena three times during his career. First he came in 1676 upon his leaving Oxford; Halley set up an observatory with a 24 foot long telescope to study the stars of the Southern Hemisphere. In two later journeys Halley studied terrestrial magnetism. Following a suggestion first made by Halley, in 1761 Robert Waddington set up an observatory on the island’s “Halley Mount” to observe the transit of Venus.

For several centuries the British have used the island as a place of exile, most notably for Napoleon Bonaparte, but also for a Zulu king, over 5,000 Boer prisoners during the Boer War (1899-1901), and Germans during both World Wars. Of these, the most famous is Napoleon. In 1815 the British government selected Saint Helena as the former French Emperor’s place of detention because it was some 1,200 miles from the nearest continental landmass. He was brought to the island in October 1815 and lived there until his death in May 1821. During this period the island was strongly garrisoned by the regular British regimental troops, local Saint Helena Regiment troops and naval shipping circling the island. Agreement was reached that Saint Helena would remain in the East India Company’s possession, but that the British government meeting additional costs arising from guarding Napoleon. (More about Napoleon’s Exile on the island below.) After Napoleon's death the thousands of temporary visitors were soon withdrawn. The East India Company resumed full control of Saint Helena and life returned to the pre-1815 standards, the fall in population causing a sharp change in the economy.

The British Parliament passed the India Act in 1833, a provision of which transferred control of St Helena from the East India Company to the Crown with effect from April 2, 1834. The population was to fall gradually fall from 6,150 in 1817 to less than 4,000 by 1890. Charles Darwin spent six days of observation on the island in 1836 during his return journey on HMS Beagle. Dr James Barry (surgeon) the first British female to qualify as a medical doctor, also arrived that year as principal medical officer (1836-1837). In 1840 the British government acceded to a French request for Napoleon’s body to be returned to France. The body, in excellent state of preservation, was exhumed on October 15, 1840 and ceremonially handed over to the Prince de Joinville in the French ship La Belle Poule. In 1858, the lands forming the sites of Napoleon’s burial and of his home at Longwood House were vested in Napoleon III and his heirs and a French representative or consul has lived on the island ever since, the French flag now flying over these areas. The title deeds of Briars Pavilion, where Napoleon lived during his earliest period of exile, were much later given to the French Government in 1959.

With the opening of the Suez Canal and the rise of steam-powered ships, Saint Helena became less important as an emergency stop, and this led to a gradual reduction in the number of ships calling at the island and to a decline in its strategic importance to Britain and economic fortunes. The number of ships calling at the island fell from 1,100 in 1855; to 853 in 1869; to 603 in 1879 and to only 288 in 1889. As of the new twenty first century the population of the island is about 5,100 persons, and they remain one of Britain’s “Overseas Dependencies,” as the former colonies are now called.

Well, that is the history of this island, now back to our day-- Our excursion on the island this morning meant that Squeekie and I got an early tender ashore, but when our tender reached the wharf at Jamestown the high ocean swells made it difficult for the boat to be tied up and for us to climb off. We sat on the tender while the sailors on the boat and on the dock tried to get us tied up—at one point a rope actually broke. Eventually, however, we did get ashore by stepping onto the cement dock in between each high wave, and we really didn’t even get very wet!

A short walk up onto the wharf brought us to the small busses which would be our transport into the heart of the island this day. As I said earlier, Saint Helena Island is entirely surrounded by high cliffs; only at two or three places do canyons cut down to sea level, and the most important one of these is where Jamestown lies. The original town is on the floor of the canyon, just a few feet above sea level, but an additional part of the town can be found high up on the plateau on the south side of the canyon. From the lower canyon two roads go up the canyon walls (one on the north side and one on the south side) into the interior of the island. In addition, there is a steep stairway, built on the site of an early nineteenth century funicular tramway, which allows people to climb up to the upper town. It is known as “Jacobs Ladder” and is very popular with tourists, including Squeekie, who had to add it to her list of things climbed—more about that later.

Our small bus drove through the small town gates, originally built in 1708 and restored as recently as 1989. Right next to the gate, on the sea side, is a war memorial commemorating the islanders who gave their lives in both world wars, a clear reminder that although this place is very remote from Europe, it was not far enough away to avoid either of those conflagrations. Just inside the gate is a plaza area known as the Grand Parade, which is lined with trees and on one side has Saint James Church, an Anglican church built in 1774 on the site of the earlier Portuguese chapel. We drove slowly along Main Street, which is quite short, before turning onto Side Path Road to climb up to the plateau which covers much of the interior of the island. As we drove up this narrow road (all roads on this island are VERY narrow) we got a nice view of (lower) Jamestown spread before us and the roadstead where Rotterdam was anchored. At one point we stopped at a viewpoint to overlook the area known as The Briars, of which more in a few moments. There also was the site of a waterfall in the upper end of the canyon, but the island is so dry right now that there was no fall.

Eventually we topped the canyon and came onto the rolling plateau in the centre of the island. Our bus then stopped at the site of Napoleon’s first tomb in what is called the Sane Valley. There was a grassy path from the road down some one-third of a mile to the tomb site, which is maintained by the French government to this day even though Napoleon is now buried in Paris (again, more on this below). I did not go down to the grave site, but Squeekie did with her friend Jan, and said that it is a beautiful little park surrounded by trees and flowers.

From this place we drove over to Longwood House, where Napoleon lived from December of 1815 until his death in May of 1821. This house is in a beautiful location with a view of the ocean in the distance. Before I talk about the house that we saw, let me briefly tell of Napoleon’s exile on this island.

Napoleon’s Exile on Saint Helena-- In his first two months on the island (October to December 1815) Napoleon lived in a pavilion on the Briars Estate, which belonged to William Balcombe. Napoleon became friendly with his family, especially his younger daughter Lucia Elizabeth, who later wrote Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon. This friendship ended in 1818 when British authorities became suspicious that Balcombe had acted as an intermediary between Napoleon and Paris, and dismissed him from the island. Napoleon moved to Longwood House in December 1815; it had fallen into disrepair, and the location was windswept and considered unhealthy. The Times (London newspaper) published articles insinuating that the British government was trying to hasten his death and he often complained of the living conditions in letters to the governor and his custodian, Hudson Lowe. With a small cadre of followers, Napoleon dictated his memoirs and criticised his captors—particularly Lowe. Even though he was technically a prisoner, he was allowed to move freely around the island, and did so until his health began to fail rapidly in February 1821. On May 3rd, two British physicians who had recently arrived, attended him and could only recommend analgesics. He died two days later, after confession, extreme unction and viaticum at the hands of Father Ange Vignali. He was buried on the island in the tomb site we visited, but in 1840, Louis-Philippe, King of the French, obtained permission from the British to return Napoleon’s remains to France.

For many years there were accusations that the British deliberately poisoned Napoleon. Napoleon’s personal physician, Francesco Antonmarchi, led the autopsy which found the cause of death to be stomach cancer, though he did not sign the official report. Napoleon’s father had died of stomach cancer although this apparently was not known at the time of the autopsy. Antonmarchi found evidence of a (cancerous) stomach ulcer and that was the most convenient explanation for the British who wanted to avoid criticism over their care of the Emperor. Later studies of his surviving hair and clothing showed that he had a great deal of arsenic in his body, but this apparently came from his youth, long before he was on Saint Helena; in that era arsenic was commonly used in many types of dyes and clothing colours. A 2007 study found no evidence of arsenic poisoning in the relevant organs and stated that stomach cancer was the cause of death.

OK, back to our visit to Longwood House-- On the day we visited Longwood there was no evidence of cold winds. It seemed to be a very nice site, and one, I must add, that since 1840 has been maintained by the French government as a museum. We walked through the house and enjoyed the many rooms Napoleon used during his time here. We saw the Billiard Room, with the table and billiard balls still there; there was his bathroom, with the very large bath he used despite his small size (and the non-flush toilet he also used); we saw the room where he met visitors, the room where he wrote his memoirs (he dictated them while lying on a couch), and the room where he died. In that last room there also was displayed a death mask, something that commonly was made of recently deceased important people in those days. In one room we saw the grey greatcoat and hat in which he was so famously seen while he led his armies in battle. There was a statue of Josephine, and many lithographic prints of Napoleon; all in all, it was a very interesting museum. And just outside was a large garden which, we were told, Napoleon planted and maintained during his time here.

After visiting this place we reboarded our bus to see the back (east) side of the island. We stopped to photograph the “Needles,” two rock spires overlooking the sea, and went on to Plantation House, the home of the island’s governor, built in 1792. Here we got out to see (and play with) the several land tortoises who live on these grounds. The most famous is Johnathon, the island’s oldest resident, who is estimated to be 175 years old. Squeekie got close to him as he was nibbling the grass, and was able to get some very nice pictures of him in various poses. There also was a female tortoise, whose name I don’t remember. Then we drove on past Halley’s Mount, where the famous British astronomer set up a telescope to chart the Southern Constellations back in the 1676-78.

Eventually we arrived back to the residential area on the upper south side of Jamestown. We stopped at the top of Jacob’s Ladder so that those who wished could climb down. I took a panorama of Jamestown, and several of Squeekie as she started down the stairs. Then I reboarded the bus and we drove down to the Grand Parade, where I met Squeekie—she actually arrived at the bottom of the “Ladder” stairway ahead of me. Then we visited the local museum which is placed inside a building once used as a warehouse and later as a gaol (jail to we Americans). This was a fine, well prepared museum which covered the history of the island that did not have to do with Napoleon. We both really liked it!

After purchasing shirts to prove that we had been here, we explored a bit of the town around the Grand Parade. Saint James Church is the oldest Anglican Church south of the equator, we were told. There were some shops and the famous Post Office as well. We didn’t go into the Post Office, but I do know that Saint Helena stamps and first day covers are famed among philatelists world wide and generate a significant amount of revenue for the island. Then we decided to go through the town gate out to the wharf area. We stopped at Donny’s Place for a beer, and enjoyed our last taste of Windhoek for this trip. This pub also had a distillery in the basement and we were persuaded to purchase a bottle of Midnight Mist, a coffee liqueur made from coffee grown on the island.

Eventually we decided that it was time to return to the Rotterdam, so we walked over to the wharf on the opposite side of the tiny harbour at the mouth of the canyon containing Jamestown. The tender ride back was nowhere nearly as rough as it had been in the morning. After a late lunch in the Lido we returned to the Crow’s Nest, where we spent the remainder of the afternoon looking at the (very many) pictures we had taken today, and chatting with some of the friends we have made on this wonderful journey. After dinner I returned to the stateroom and crashed, but Squeekie went to the show. Tomorrow we will be at sea as we head further northwest toward our next stop, Ascension Island.


One Hundredth Day (Wednesday, April 29, 2009)-- Today was our one hundredth day on this cruise. We were on our way northwestward toward Ascension Island, another British dependency, and it was a lovely day. After a day spent in the Crow’s Nest, with breaks for Trivia, lunch, and tea, I joined Squeekie to take pictures of truly beautiful clouds near to sunset. The South Atlantic has really given us a beautiful day!

Tonight was “British Night” in the LaFontaine Dining Room, and I really enjoyed the Beef Wellington, one of my most famous dishes of all. After dinner Squeekie and I went up to Deck Ten where one of the navigation officers pointed out some of the Southern Hemisphere constellations. We both were pleased to finally be certain that we were seeing the correct grouping that was the Southern Cross. I also attempted to photograph the crescent moon with my whomping telephoto lens, but in fact the reflected light on the moon was so bright I should have had some type of neutral filter to dampen down that light. As it was, the brilliance tended to wash out on the camera image the mountains and craters that our naked eyes could see. Nonetheless, it was an interesting event to see parts of the sky that I have never seen before. Tomorrow we will arrive in Ascension Island.


One Hundredth and First Day (Thursday, April 30, 2009)-- Ascension Island is yet another of the isolated islands of volcanic origin which lie in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is almost 1,000 miles from the coast of Africa, and 1,400 miles from the coast of South America. It is a dependency of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, which lies 800 miles to the southeast.

First, the bit of history-- The island is named after Ascension Day, the day of its recorded discovery in 1503 by the Portuguese navigator Alfonso d’Albuquerque. (It may have been seen by the Portuguese as early as 1501, but there was no official report made.) Because, unlike Saint Helena, this island is dry and barren, it held little appeal for passing ships except for collecting fresh meat. Mariners could hunt for the numerous seabirds and the enormous female green turtles who laid their eggs on the sandy beaches; the Portuguese also introduced goats as a source of meat for future sailors.

In February 1701, HMS Roebuck, commanded by William Dampier, went down in the common anchoring spot in Clarence Bay to the northwest of the island (where we also anchored in the Rotterdam during our visit). Some sixty men survived for two months until they were rescued, probably because they discovered the island’s one major water spring in the high interior of the island, in what is now called Breakneck Valley. It is possible that the island was sometimes used as an open prison for criminal sailors, although there is only one documented case of such an exile, a Dutch ship's officer, Leendert Hasenbosch, who was set ashore at Clarence Bay as a punishment for sodomy in May 1725. The Dutchman's tent, belongings and diary were found by British mariners in January 1726; the man had probably died of thirst.

Ascension Island was first inhabited in 1815, when the British garrisoned it as a precaution after imprisoning Napoleon on Saint Helena to the southeast. The Royal Navy officially designated the island as a stone frigate, “HMS Ascension,” with the classification of “Sloop of War of the smaller class.” The location of the island made it a useful stopping point for ships and communications; the Royal Navy used the island as a victualling station for ships, particularly those of the West Africa Squadron working against the slave trade in the nineteenth century. In 1898, the Eastern Telegraph Company (now part of Cable and Wireless) installed the first underwater cable from the island, connecting the UK with its colonies in South Africa. In 1922, Letters Patent made Ascension a dependency of Saint Helena, but the island was managed by the head of the Eastern Telegraph Company on the island until 1964, when the British Government appointed an Administrator to represent the Governor of Saint Helena on Ascension.

During World War II, the United States built an airbase on Ascension Island, known as “Wideawake” after a nearby colony of Sooty Terns, locally called “Wideawake” birds because of their loud, distinctive call, which would wake people early in the morning. The Airfield was used by the U.S. military as a stopping point for American aircraft crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the way to theatres of operation in Europe and Africa. After the end of World War II, and American departure, the airbase fell into disuse.

The only action during World War II occurred on December 9, 1941, around mid-day. The U-boat U-124 approached Georgetown on the surface with the intention of sinking any ships at anchor or shelling the cable station. The submarine was fired on by a two-gun shore battery at Cross Hill, above Georgetown; no hits were scored but the U-boat submerged and retreated. The battery, which remains largely intact to this day, holds 5.5 inch Mark I naval guns removed from HMS Hood.

Americans returned to the island in 1956 as a part of the Space Race. The U.S. Air Force uses the island as part of their Eastern Test Range. NASA established a tracking station on the island in 1967 and Wideawake Field, expanded in the 1960s, serves as an emergency runway for the Space Shuttle. The BBC Atlantic Relay Station was installed in 1966 for short-wave broadcasts to Africa and South America. The island also was used extensively by the British military during the Falklands War. Following the war, the British retained an increased presence on the island, establishing RAF Ascension Island, and providing a refuelling stop for the regular airlink between RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, and RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands. NASA continues to list Ascension Island as a “downrange site” used for range safety instrumentation. In particular, the Post-Detect Telemetry System used to acquire launch vehicle telemetry includes a station on the island. Ascension Island also hosts one of five ground antennas (the others are on Kwajalein, Diego Garcia, Colorado Springs and Hawaii) that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigational system.

Well, I guess that is a great deal of history for such a small and desolate island-- Yesterday, Captain Olav had announced on his “Voice From the Bridge” that there was a chance that the waves would be so strong that we would not be able to dock the tenders at the pier at Georgetown, our stop on Ascension Island. This morning, however, as we anchored on the edge of Clarence Bay just off Georgetown, we heard the tenders being lowered. We were eager to go ashore and see this famous—or perhaps I should say infamous—place, but first we stopped at the Lido for a tiny bit of breakfast. I must say that by this time we both have eaten so much of the fine food aboard the Rotterdam that we are rarely hungry any longer. Indeed, although Squeekie seems to have maintained her slim figure, I have put on a great deal of extra weight on this trip.

We then went down to the Queen’s Lounge where tender tickets were being issued, a necessary preliminary to getting ashore. While we were waiting for our number to be called, Olav came on and announced that the waves were too rough, and sometimes were causing the tender to be as much as a meter higher or lower than the steps at the outer end of the Georgetown dock, which caused enough danger that the tender service would be suspended. We were disappointed, but hoped that the problem would be solved, and sure enough, after less than one hour Captain Olav came back on and said that he had personally tendered over to the dock and he thought that tender service could be restored for those guests who were not “mobility challenged.”

After a short while our tender number was called—I think it was fourteen, but I’m not certain—and we went down to “A” Deck to board the tender. Boarding from the ship was easy, but when the tender got in to the Georgetown dock, its crew found it difficult to secure the tender. Nonetheless, after a while both Squeekie and I were able to step off the tender, on to one of the lower steps on the Georgetown Dock, and quickly climb up to the top of the concrete wharf. I took a few pictures of the tender and crew helping people to come ashore, and then joined Squeekie for a beautiful picture of the small beach next to the wharf (I later learned that the beach is known as Deadman’s Beach, not very lovely, but it still is pretty).

Then we walked up the slanted road towards the former Royal Marines Barracks, now known as the “Exiles Club.” North across a wide parade ground is the Anglican Church, which Squeekie walked over to photograph. The church was built in the 1840s, and although small has some stained glass windows as well as memorials to some who have died while serving here. Behind the Exiles Club is the local shop and store, where islanders can purchase their supplies. Also in this building complex is the Obsidian Hotel, which, although not very grand by our standards, is the finest on this island. The hotel store had some shirts that we could buy as proof we had been here. Just south of the hotel and store is Georgetown’s famous Post Office, which is the source and retail store for the island’s most important export, stamps and first day covers. After our shoping was finished we walked over to the Saints Club for a cold beer. To our surprise thay had Windhoek Beer so we were able to have one last one before leaving this part of the world. We also learned about the island’s famous “One Boat Golf Club,” but that was some distance away from Georgetown, and there did not appear to be any taxis to take us there. The golf course is very famous because on this mostly arid island the greens are brown, made from crushed lava which has been smoothed out and sprinkled with diesel oil. Hmmmm—I wonder if this was made for American Air Force officers in World War Two?

As we walked back toward the wharf, Squeek peeled off to visit the ruins of Fort Hayes, which once was the major defense on the island. She was able to take some wonderful panorama views from the fort’s ramparts, as you can see. After she was finished at Fort Hayes, Squeekie went down to Deadman’s Beach to take a few more pictures. I followed her by walking out onto the Georgetown Wharf, where I took pictures of her, and also of the fish which could be seen through the very clear water next to the pier. Squeekie even saw the tracks of a sea turtle who (probably at night) had crawled ashore to lay her eggs; but no turtle could be seen.

Reboarding the tender was not difficult, and we made it back out to the Rotterdam with no difficulty. Captain Olav then did two things which we think show a great deal of class. First off, he extended the departure time, originally scheduled for 1:30 in the afternoon until 2:30 so that those who did get ashore late would have more time on this remote island which very few people (other than military) ever get to visit. Second, after we all were back on board, he steered the Rotterdam to circumnavigate the entire island so that those who could not get ashore because of their handicaps would also have a clear view of this historic island. So, for the next hour or so, Rotterdam sailed all around the island, leaving Georgetown and going south, then east, and then steering back north and west. It gave us a fascinating view of this stark, arid, but historic island. Squeek and I went to our favourite place on Deck Six Forward and snapped over one hundred pictures with our two cameras. Among what we saw were porpoises, flying fish, terns and other sea birds, and the cliffs of the island as we passed around. It was wonderful! Thanks, Captain Olav, you are a class guy!

After we had finished this circumnavigation and had left Georgetown sinking into the sea in the distance, we prepared for what was to be another of the special dinners we have come to enjoy on this trip. We had known since last November that this was to be a murder mystery dinner, and we were really looking forward to how our creative Guest Staff would bring off this event. We began by meeting in the Hudson Room for champagne (I wonder how many gallons of that stuff they go though on a world cruise!) and an introduction to the cast of characters. The story was interesting. Tonight we would be dining at the opening of a new restaurant owned by Chef Fuller Sheet (oh, how I love these names), who was played by Cruise Director Bruce. The chef was accompanied to this gala event by his wife Elizabeth “Betty” Crocker-Sheet (Trish, the Events Manager), and his business manager Emily Ann “Em” Bezzel (played by Beath). Other guests at the restaurant this evening were an international playboy Baron Frederick de Fleisseflappen (Brock), oilman and competitive restaurateur Reggie “Rigger” Mortiss (Matt), actress Grace Gotsum (Lori), society gossip columnist Hedda Lettus (Jacky), food critic Tomas P. Tomaine (Ferdi, one of the male singers/dancers from the cast), and Detective Linc Sausage (DJ Steve). After all of the invited guests met all of these characters, and drank several glasses of champagne, we went down (staggered in the case of some) down one deck to the Pinnacle Grill, which was to be the site of the Chef’s new restaurant. Squeekie and I were seated at “our” table, the usual one near the back where you can get a wonderful view of all that happens in the restaurant. Joining us this evening were our new friends Dan and Maryann Gessner, who hail from Florida, and also Hedda Lettuce (as played by Jacky). Not long after everyone had been seated, and Chef Fuller Sheet had made a spectacular entry and a nice (if somewhat braggart) speech, there was a big commotion in the kitchen as trays and silverware crashed to the floor—I imagine that they could hear this noise all the way back to Ascension Island! Then the dining room (Pinnacle Grill) went dark.

When the lights came back on, the guests were informed that Chef Fuller Sheet had been murdered, but who would commit such a nasty crime? Detective Linc Sausage interrogated all of the “special” guests (the players) one at a time while a very nice dinner was served to each table. In between courses we questioned Hedda (Jacky) about all of the other special guests, and of course, as the resident gossip columnist she had interesting stories about each and every one. We learned about the habits of Betty Crocker-Sheet, of Reggie “Rigger” Mortis, and all of the others. It was a fascinating event. Squeekie and I and the Gessners assumed that we had to correctly guess “whodunnit” based upon the clues given us by Hedda and the other players we spoke to over the course of the evening. After a great deal of thought and discussion, the four of us came to the conclusion that Detective Linc Sausage had been hired by Em, the chef’s business manager to murder the chef. But we were wrong, it had been Betty, the chef’s wife, who had done the deed. Oh, well!

As I said above, food was served throughout this play, but it had a secondary role. I do not remember much about it, or about the wines that we enjoyed, except that it all was good! The dessert, however, was DEEELICIOUS!!! We did enjoy our time with the Gessners and with Hedda-Jacky, and had a lot of fun despite taking the clues too seriously. It was another grand event on this grand voyage. Now we are sailing northwesterly towards the northern part of the South American continent, but it will be several days before we see land again.