Good morning, Whitewater.
Friday in town will be cloudy with a high of twenty-nine. Sunrise is 7:20 and sunset 4:22 for 9h 01m 55s of daytime. The moon is in its first quarter.
On this day in 1620, the Mayflower first docked at (what’s now) Plymouth Harbor:
The passage was a miserable one, with huge waves constantly crashing against the ship’s topside deck until a key structural support timber fractured. The passengers, who had already suffered agonizing delays, shortages of food and of other supplies, now were called upon to provide assistance to the ship’s carpenter in repairing the fractured main support beam. This was repaired with the use of a metal mechanical device called a jackscrew, which had been loaded on board to help in the construction of settler homes and now was used to secure the beam to keep it from cracking further, making the ship seaworthy enough.[22][23]
The crew of the Mayflower had some devices to assist them en route such as a compass for navigation as well as a log and line system to measure speed in nautical miles per hour or “knots”. Time was measured with an ancient method – an hour glass.
There were two deaths, but this was only a precursor of what happened after their arrival in Cape Cod, where almost half the company would die in the first winter.[24]
On November 9, 1620, they sighted land, which was present-day Cape Cod. After several days of trying to sail south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia where they had already obtained permission from the Company of Merchant Adventurers to settle, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, well north of the intended area,[25] where they anchored on November 11. To establish legal order and to quell increasing strife within the ranks, the settlers wrote and signed theMayflower Compact after the ship dropped anchor at Cape Cod, in what is now Provincetown Harbor.[24][26][27][28]
On Monday, November 27, an exploring expedition was launched under the direction of Capt. Christopher Jones to search for a suitable settlement site. As master of theMayflower, Jones was not required to assist in the search, but he apparently thought it in his best interest to assist the search expedition. There were 34 persons in the open shallop – 24 passengers and 10 sailors. They were obviously not prepared for the bitter winter weather they encountered on their reconnoiter, the Mayflower passengers not being accustomed to winter weather much colder than back home. Due to the bad weather encountered on the expedition, they were forced to spend the night ashore ill-clad in below-freezing temperatures with wet shoes and stockings that became frozen. Bradford wrote “(s)ome of our people that are dead took the original of their death here”.[29]
The settlers explored the snow-covered area and discovered an empty native village, now known as Corn Hill in Truro. The curious settlers dug up some artificially made mounds, some of which stored corn, while others were burial sites. Nathaniel Philbrick claims that the settlers stole the corn and looted and desecrated the graves,[30] sparking friction with the locals.[31] Philbrick goes on to say that, as they moved down the coast to what is now Eastham, they explored the area of Cape Cod for several weeks, looting and stealing native stores as they went.[32] He then writes about how they decided to relocate to Plymouth after a difficult encounter with the local native, the Nausets, at First Encounter Beach, in December 1620.
On this day in 1863, the Milwaukee Sentinel urges more support for Union soldiers:
1863 – (Civil War) Milwaukee Sentinel urges better pay for soldiers
The Milwaukee Daily Sentinel advocated for an increase in military compensation: “If any men deserve to be well paid it is the men who are enduring the hardships and running the risks of a war like this.” It also provided details of a senate bill to increase soldiers’ pay to $16 a month and pay African-American soldiers the same as white soldiers.
Here’s the final game in this week’s Puzzablity series, Trimming the Tree:
|
This Week’s Game — December 14-18
|
|||||
|
Trimming the Tree
|
|||||
|
We’re adding the decorations to our Christmas tree this week. Each day, we started with a word or phrase, added the eight letters in ORNAMENT, and rearranged the remaining letters to get a new phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.
|
|||||
|
Example:
|
|||||
|
Feral; aged personification of the coldest season
|
|||||
|
Answer:
|
|||||
|
Wild; Old Man Winter
|
|||||
|
What to Submit:
|
|||||
|
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Wild; Old Man Winter” in the example), for your answer.
|
|||||
 |
|||||
|
Friday, December 18
|
|||||
|
