The ghost following Bush
By H. D. S. Greenway | Tuesday, December 18, 2007 | The Boston Globe
“On an autumn night 300 years ago, Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell, hero of the British Navy, was approached on his quarterdeck by a sailor with a warning. According to the sailor’s calculations, the fleet was headed straight for disaster. But Sir Clowdisley was a bold leader unburdened by doubt. He was dead certain he was headed in the right direction.
‘Such subversive navigation by an inferior was forbidden in the Royal Navy,’ according to Dava Sobel in her brilliant book ‘Longitude,’ and so ‘Admiral Shovell had the man hanged for mutiny on the spot.’
The 57-year-old Sir Clowdisley stayed the course, oblivious in his ignorance and upright in his optimism, until, one by one, his ships wrecked in the Scilly Isles with great loss of life, including his own….”…BS
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 5:06 AM and filed under History, Politics. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.
