Snow began falling in Kitimat, BC, for the first time this winter, at about 9 in the morning Pacific Time. and by the time the residents gathered 90 minutes later for the Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph, it was still snowing. In Kitimat, children lay the wreathes for those who cannot attend, which is why I call this image, Passing the Torch. (Old photogallyery deleted with the death of Flash)
As I continue to work on my book on the British anti-slavery West Africa Squadron, and the role of my fourth great grandfather William Pennell, who spied on the Portuguese and Brazilian slave trade. Inspired by the indigenous people of Canada, I wrote a draft chapter about the Doctrine of Discovery, which authorized European colonialism […]
One mistake, a blunder, can sink an otherwise excellent documentary.The documentary was Athens Birth of Democracy, which I watched the premier when it was broadcast on PBS Nova, on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. ( Video geoblocked on the website) The blunder was this sentence which refers to the Athenian navy and how citizen rowers helped […]
Hunting the Archangel convoy in 1813 (Long read) Just before midnight on July 19, 1813, at about 71 degrees north latitude, in the Barents Sea, north of Norway’s Cape North, above the Arctic Circle, the midnight sun was low and near the horizon as the United States Navy frigate, USS President, 44 guns, Commodore John Rodgers, set […]
