Fatal North: Murder and Survival on the First North Pole Expedition by Bruce Henderson, John Pruden 2014 282pg

 

13/5/56

The book is introduced in August 1968 when forensic doctors take samples of the frozen body of the buried Charles Francis Hall at Thank God harbour ,Greenland. A tablet was erected on Captain Halls grave in 1871 by the British Polar expedition.  In 1881Augustus Greely led another failed expedition.1898 and 1909 Robert Peary led expedition. 1845  John Franklin expedition to find the north passage 2 ships and crews disappeared.

Members of the expedition were supposed to be away for 30 months. Dr. Bessler as the

 ships physician. He was from he Prussian volunteer army and a scientific researcher.

The Polaris was the first icebreaker and Polaris is a conspicuous bright star in the northern hemisphere. The US Navy and Merchant marine relied heavily on recruiting immigrants  to work on their ships . American adventurers were going west rather than the sea. In Europe you had the 1848 revolution ad the Bismarck Wars of German unification, so you had a lot of German sailors leaving Europe.

1871They sailed from  New York of Walt Whitman and the tallest building was the Trinity Church. At St John's Newfoundland the bought furs to be sewn into clothes as woolen clothing was far from adequate in the climate. Disco Greenland would be the last stop before heading for the North Pole. Every man on the ship could read and write and was asked to keep a journal of the trip. The crew by this time was very divided and it was hard to keep discipline. At Upernavik Greenland, the northern most of Greenland's Danish settlements. more dogs were bought so they had 60. These were divided between Newfoundlanders and Huskies. At first the were fed on dried fish bough at the settlements but otherwise fed pemmican or dried meat only once in 3 days.

They could see the aurora borealis or "northern lights" named after Aurora the Roman goddess of dawn. Now at 81degrees 35 minutes was the furthest north any ship had travelled and charts were no longer of any use. Now the were totally blocked by ice.

Captain Hall died  and his body was wrapped in the 37 star US flag (between 1867 -1877) and buried  at Thank God Harbor (now Polaris Bay) in North Greenland on November 11, 1871.  The went Musk Ox hunting this is an animal related to sheep or goats is 5ft tall and covered with thick woolen coats. and live in herds of between 10 and 100.

The ship was leaking and they were wantonly wasting coal and provisions.

Merkut the Eskimo women delivered a healthy baby, tradition was that she delivered it alone and bit through the ambilocal chord with her teeth. The clothes worn in delivery were never worn again and so burned.

The ship was in a bad way and the Captain told them to abandon the ship onto an ice flow then suddenly the ship heaved loose. They were 19 people stranded on the ice flow including the 4 adult Eskimos and 5 children. When they saw the Polaris it was not searching for them, they had been abandoned. The Eskimos helped build 3 igloos for them all.

Seals are the winter food of Eskimos. The would find a seal  breathing hole stab a seal with a harpoon the widen the  hole to bring the seal out. Seal blubber kept the oil lamps going. With longer days bear and fox hunting became possible. Where ever sailors ventured the first thing that the natives learned was card games. In Eskimo society the man's role is defined he builds a shelter and hunted and fished. Women cooked, prepared animal skins and made clothing, dried and repaired them. Men and women always travelled together.

When they were hungry the ate the seal entrails and hair. The blubber was warmed over a lamp and eaten.

Bears  only came where seals are to be caught and foxes followed. A  thin fox arrived and they

 killed it to eat. 

The starving  others in the party would have killed the Eskimos but no white man could 

catch seals like the Eskimos. The seals blood was caught and the liver and heart were

 delicacies. the eyes wee given to the youngest child. Stretched and dried membranous

 tissue used to make hut windows.

They now could see Baffin Island this is the largest Island in Canada. The dogs had been eaten and one of the 2 boats had been burned for firewood. Only 2 dogs were left and to catch a bear you needed a dog to keep the bear at bay for the hunter to get off a shot.

They were worried the the ice flow while moving fast could split in 2. The iceberg only shows a seventh or eight of itself above the water depending on the saltiness of the sea. They were now in the Cumberland gulf which was Tyson old whaling ground. While their flow shattered into a small piece in the storm, they were now in seal area and could shoot seals and use the kayak to retrieve them. They managed to get a big bear that was like eating pork. But the ice was not to be trusted at this time of year.  The boat separated from the ice but luckily an Eskimos managed to go in floating blocks to retrieve it.

They all got into the boat which was low on the water so held onto the ice . The sealer Tigress a 3 massed barkentine from Conception Bay, Newfoundland  took them on. 1873 April 30 at 53d 33m they had been drifting 1,500 miles  for 197 days  For the first time ate cod fish , potatoes bread butter adn hot coffee.

When the first news came of the Polaris the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge just got underway

George Tyson returned to the artic to search for the Polaris and 14 missing crewman. The Tigress had a Flared Hulls are Used in Icebreaking.  The Eskimo Hans and his family disembarked at Disco. They discovered at Littleton Island Eskimos and the brought Joe to act as interpreter.

The discovered that 2 months earlier the whole party had build 2 sailboats from the wood and canvas salvaged from the ship and with ample provisions. They must have been picked up by whaler  in the Davis strait. Tyson picked up Halls log book but the reference to Hall death had been torn out, also a loose page that noted the date that Halls papers were thrown overboard. They had been picked up by the Ravenscraig a Scottish whaler and at the end of 3 months whaling had landed in Dundee, Scotland. They returned to the  US on fares paid by the US government. This was all in 1873 the year of a NY stock exchange panic, plus the African explorer David Livingston died.

1968 the results of the autopsy of Halls body showed that he had died of  arsenic poisoning with more poison added towards the end so Dr. Bessels was busy killing him and not saving him. Also the  fact that he refused to give him an emetic.

1869 to 1877. Ulysses Grant's 2 terms as President  was considered the most corrupt President in US history, he picked friends for high positions and provided an incompetent's public service and died in 1985. He had hoped to see the US flag planted on the North Pole.

A light in the Northern Sea by Tim Brady: Denmark's incredible rescue of her Jewish citizens in WW2 2025 272 pg.

3/5/2026

8000 Danish Jews were saved, thus 95% of Denmark's Jewry. Written by the author of Three Ordinary Girls about teenagers who became spies , assassins and saboteurs against the Nazi's in Denmark.

1940 April 9th Germany invaded Denmark helped by German speaking Danish citizens, some wore Nazi armbands and guided the Germans on roads. No defense plans had been made as it was considered that this would be provocative to the Germans. From Jutland, Fyn island  and Zealand and then on ships to Langelinie Pier, Copenhagen. The same day Norway was invaded.

Immediately, mainly students started resistance groups and started  passing on intelligence to the Allies in London and were in contact with the SOE Special Operations Executive. The navy also started sending information of the German positions.

King of Denmark, King Christian X and his ministers are at Amalienborg Castle. The Christianborg Palace held both the Danish Parliament and kings residences.  Rosemborg Castle was another royal home.

1833 the Jewish community build the Great Synagogue of Copenhagen to accommodate 1000 people. In 1940 there were just under 8000 in the community. Unlike other European countries there had never been a histories of ghettoes or pogrom's. Sephardic Jews had been invited by Christian IV in the 17C and in 1814 they had been given Danish citizenship. In the early 20C Jewish men escaping Tsarists conscription in Russia  had come, others had arrived  as political refugees from Germany in 1933 and after Kristallnacht in 1938. In the early 1930  groups making up  1500 had come from various European countries to learn agriculture. To take that knowledge  to Palestine.

There were rumours that Jews were ordered to wear yellow stars but the king had interceded and said he would wear  one and so they yellow star was never demanded. Denmark had not had a war since mid 1800s and had not been in WW1. Denmark was  in a depression and jobs were offered in Germany.

Denmark was cut off from the US but the  Danish ambassador  Henrik  Kauffmann in Washington on his own volition had signed over to the American the right to establish military bases in Greenland to defend that Danish territory.  In London expatriate Danes formed the Danish Council to show solidarity with the UK.

Germany started to squeeze  Denmark to supply more agricultural and industrial goods, and German speaking Danes especially in Jutland could be conscripted into the German  army.  The body of water between Norway and Denmark and around the Jutland Peninsula is call the Kattegat. The Germans needed Denmark as they needed Norwegian Iron ore. The narrowest point between Denmark and Sweden is at Helsinger. This is Elsinore in the Hamlet of Shakespeare. In the Napoleonic wars Denmark was tied to France and Horacio Nelson destroyed the Danish fleet boxed into the Copenhagen harbour. 1801 Battle of Copenhagen.

1942 Sept on the occasion of the kings birthday Hitler sent him a letter of congratulations. The King simply replied "My Best Thanks, Christian Rex."  To Hitler this sounded like a brush off.

1942 November of 1,700 Norwegian Jews  about 530 were rounded up and sent via Denmark to Auschwitz.

1941 In Denmark the Communist Party was banned and forced to go underground, in summer of 1942 there first act of sabotage occurred. Many of these early members had fought in the International Brigade in Spain, where they had had some training.  The Special Operations Executive or  SOE was set up in all German occupied countries and was able to send weapons and agents to help.

Niels Bohr works for the Institute of Physics in Copenhagen and won the Nobel prise in 1922 his mother was Jewish .Professor James Chadwick of Livepool University was his closest colleague. They wanted to bring him to the UK.

By summer of 1943 the tide was turning  and so the resistance became more bold. The started attacking companies that did trade with the Germans mostly in Jutland as well as sabotaging the railways. In Odense they bombed a German minesweeper.

Holger Daneke was a big resistance organization named after a Danish legendary hero.

1943 August The Danish government officially stopped cooperating with Nazi Germany and resigned. They rejected German ultimatums and had no alternative.

 1643 the navy scuttled 32 ships 4 escaped to Sweden 2 to Greenland the only 6 wound up in German hands.

There was a break in to the synagogue and the files and addresses of Jewish members was stolen. There were a group of Jewish agricultural tranees pilfered a fishing boat and got to Sweden on it proving the feesabilty. A German diplomat and shipping operator was aghast when he heard that Germany was going to round up the Jews and knew this would enflame the  Danish public. He approached the Swedish PM to open Swedish ports to Jewish refugees. The roundup was going to be on the 1st day of Rosh Hashana. The day before when people came to the synagogue the were told to hide and Jewish kids at school were told to go home and hide. " German transport ships were on their way to Langelinie pier in Copenhagen.

Niels Bohr  was in Sweden and knowing the plight of Danish Jewry approached the Swedish king Gustav whose sister was married to the Danish King. Bohr was flown to Scotland in a British mosquito bomber. The Swedish government gave leave  of their  coast guard to rescue the refugees.

 Jews  took shelter in hospitals  where they were registered under Danish names and given imaginary diagnoses. People in the underground with wounds were also given different diagnoses.  Others with friend and headed to coastal villages to try get to Sweden. Children who would make a noise were sedated. With the help of the underground it became an organized escape. By October 1943 almost the entire Jewish community were in Sweden. Those Danish Jews caught were sent to Theresstadt.

The Danish resistance had matured from the project of getting the Jews to Sweden. Sabateurs were considered private criminals by the Danish police and not members of a hostile armed force like with the Germans and let most of them slip away. The resistance destroyed Varde steelworks in Jutland which took 6 months to get going again.

In Sweden the number of refugees began to swell and resistance figures also fled there. Danish Nazis who had lost their livelyhood as well as Danish women ostrasised as they had German military boyfriends also fled there. There were cases of Jewish families arriving having left their children behind hidden in Denmark. Many schools in Sweden opened their doors to refugees. A steady stream of downed Allied  pilots took shelter in Sweden. A total of 9,000 refugees came and some were given physical work like roadbuilding, logging and clearing land for agriculture.

1944 Sept. The Germans decided that the Danish Police were not cooperating with them and blew the air raid sirens. The police gathered to do their air raid duties to be met by the Gestapo who arrested the officers and began shipping them off  to camps in Germany. Of 10,000 police 2,000 were deported including many coast guard officers. The disbanding of the police resulted in lawlessness and the black market brazenly set up shop. Police officers who escaped this joined the underground. Danish saboteurs were able to receive  increased ammunition's and the sabotage of trains going through Jutland increased so that trains to Norway began bypassing Northern Jutland.

1944 Oct. The British had planes available and started bombing German bases on instructions from the resistance.

Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotter became involved and broadened the issue of releasing Scandinavian prisoners being held in German camps. Himmler  agreed to move them to a camp chosen to hold Scandinavians under the control of the Swedish Red Cross. First they discussed the deterioration  relation between the Danes and Germany and Himmler asked that the Danes stop the sabotage against Germany. However the war was coming to an end and Himmler wanted to be able to negotiate a separate peace with the West and to escape prosecution. This resulted in the White Busses that were sent to take  people  from the different camps starting in February 1945. In total 21,000 people of taken home.  1,615  of them were Jews. They drove through bombed out Potsdam and decimated Dresden. While others were taken home Jews were taken to Sweden till the end of the war on May 5th 1945 VE day. Denmark was now free. Germany here capitulated to the British General Montgomery.

 German soldiers now had to make their own way home on their own 2 feet.  While others especially in Copenhagen were processed by the British army and were conscripted into mine clearing and were repatriated in orderly transport in August 1945.

Lost Empires by JB Priestly 1965 344pg

 

JB Priestly was one of the leading  writers in his day and I intend to read more of his books. 27/4/26 This book has aspects of  British social history in this period.

Aspiring artist Richard Herncastle, joins his uncle Nick Ollanton’s astonishing Indian Magician illusionist act.  The book starts with the author meeting the old artist who has written notes  about life during the Music Hall days which ended with WW1 and wants to leave a book about it.  Most towns had their Empire theater. 

Richard had been working as a clerk for an insurance company when his mother died her brother Uncle Nick offered him a job to join him on the stage at double what he was earning. Richard  wanted to be a watercolor artist but did not have the means to study  he was 20 at this stage. They would usually spend a week per town and Monday night First House  had a lot of people with free passes for exhibiting the bills. The actors usually lived in digs as it was cheaper than hotels. The music hall attracted more men than women, and a very low social class. They appreciate a magician show as they want to be deceived.

The tricks were Nicks enthusiastic hobby. At  this time most people did not have electric lights.

Barney the dwarf had been brought up in a fairground and could barely read or write, but he liked Nick who treated him as a man and not a freak, but never feel sorry for him or he'll take advantage of you. Winston Churchill and Admiral Tirpitz were competing to enlarge their navies.

Girls in 1913 were covered from head to toe so  it was more exciting to think what they would be without clothes. One great London actress was drunk on  and fell flat on the stage during a performance so ended up as a variety actor.

People came to forget what was happening outside  at a time of suffragettes being force fed, strikes , lock outs, civil war in Ulster and Germany looking more and more dangerous.

Rombolds Moor in West Yorkshire he goes to find a scene to paint. Most towns then had trams for public transport which were done away with by the 1960 except Blackpool.

Nick was approached by the husband of a suffragette who asked him if he thought women should have the vote. " No I don't and I thing that a lot of half wit men shouldn't either."  Mrs. Forster Jones a famous women's leader but hunted down by the police  would appear in public only giving a 3 minute talk. When the police approached to apprehend her, she walked behind a screen and in seconds swopped her red coat with the actress who the police attempted to arrest while she go away.  Richard has a sexual relationship with an actress but realizes that he wasn't the man for her, just a young substitute they were both craving sex. Tommy her partner discovers them and beats her up badly.  Uncle Nick decides the punish Tommy now on a stage with another company, it is arranged that he is "given the bird" 2 nights running and loses his job. 

He went with Nick to find a dwarf  for a double dwarf act and was uncomfortable seeing  them all, and  chose Mr. Newby.  Cities that were ports had a different atmosphere from inland ones and as there were always sailors about. It was because of Uncle Nick that he became a painter of landscapes and was not keen on portraits like Augustus John..(1878 to 1961).  In Liverpool Nick considered it a filthy city and the only good thing was the art gallery but beyond are slums.

Nick tried out a  Napier company started making cars in 1908 but later moved over to aeroplane engines.

With the assassination's of Archduke Ferdinand , Uncle Nick realizes it means war.  A female actress Nonie  is found dead and Nick realized  that the dwarf Barney was the murderer. She had deliberately exited him and them laughed in her face and he strangled her.  Nick said we will have a full house tonight talent won't bring them in like a murder.

Nick  hires the dwarf Tewby and arranges for him to arrive as an Indian wearing stilts through the stage door with Richard and Richard then takes Barny out after the 2nd house in this outfit. Barney is then sent to Europe where he works in a circus.  Nick felt he had to save the silly little man. In those day except for Russia and Turkey no passports were required and with a handful of sovereigns you could go anywhere. Nick was now going off to New York where he had a contract and wanted Richard to accompany him. He does not like the fact that the population are so keen on war.  But Richard has had enough of being on the move and wants to move on from this stale and sterile life. 

Kitchener knows how to beat the fuzzy wuzzies and Boer farmers but not a real war against an organized military power. Nick  had played in Berlin and Hamburg and knows it will take a lot to beat them.

The last performance is in August 1914 to a full house in Blackpool. Uncle Nick pays out his staff and tells them  that will be plenty  work for all with this long war that won't  end at Christmas.

Richard signed up to fight and in one of the entertainments brought to the troops Nancy is there and he recontracts with her. He is one of the few of his unit that survives the war and when the author meets old Richard he is introduced to Nancy his wife.

When Richard came to the variety stage it was still big but already in decline, the Chaplin and Laurel films had already started.

A far flung life by M L Stedman 448pg 2026

 By the author of Light Between the Oceans which was written 14 years ago.  12/4/26

 About the Mc Bride Family in remote Western Australia in 1948 In 1958 Phil and his oldest son are killed and Matt the younger son barely survives. Back on the sheep station Phil’s wife Lorna and his daughter Rose are now alone to run this vast ranch.  "Greek tragedy set in the Outback of Western Australia

 The MacBrides  came to Western Australia a few decades after the Swan River Colony was declared in 1829. Lorna was the daughter of an Adelaide stockbroker and met Phil at a Ball in 1933. Children you feed the same love the same food but each one is different. There were so many kangaroos that the station used a roo killer who could make a descent living killing them for their skins and sometimes pet meat. Pete Peachey each year had to go to a meeting at the Vermin board and renew his gun license at the police station.

1953 Matt came to Scotch College the year after Warren had finished school, very overwhelming to be with so many boys, that came from such remote homes. His best friend was Humpty who had his life all  planned out, but in playing cricket a dive for a catch crushed Humpty spine so his road to 94years and 3 months ended up in ashes. When Matt visited him he said he must come with a gun for him to shoot himself. By 1955Warren had been helping his father for 3 years after leaving school and the wool prices were still booming . At school a kid that has relationship with a boy who got expelled from the school as a result. Shame is like a disease it blights the whole flock. .Rose was sent to the city  Commercial Collage in Perth to do a business career. Miles arrived from England to learn about farming in Australia as his family had properties there, he was sent here to get a grounding in wool . Rose explained

 Sheep This is a station and not a farm as the were pastoralists, in the US it is called a ranch. You keep your different sheep in paddocks rams, wethers, ewes and weaners. A hogget is the meat of a lamb between weaning and shearing. Nobody owns their station outright it is on leased from the Crown. They have 58 paddocks over 40,000 acres (60square miles ) bigger than Central London. Paddocks are named here after racehorses. Near the house is the killer paddocks those that are going to be slaughtered. Sheep are kept for 5 or 6 years as after that the quality of their wool deteriorated.   They keep 4 rams with every  100 ewes. So the flock is 9000 ewes, 5000 weaners 6000 wethers  (emasculated rams)and 400 rams. Sheep don't have top front teeth but a hard dental pad there and molars behind. Mustering takes 8 weeks and shearing takes about 5 weeks. 5 months after the rams have been joined with ewers the lambs are born. You dock the lambs tails and earmark them. In a drought years you don't put rams with the ewes as they won't be able to feed the lambs. You the sell of the wethers but you always save the ewes. Mustering starts in April to be ready for shearing in May. "Touch has a memory" by Keats, Lines to Fanny.

Their Silverdale merinos produce 7 pounds of wool and are good for dry country. They used to have Belders but the are bad mothers. They all know how to ride horses but nowadays the use motorbikes  to round up the sheep. Mulesing is the surgical removal of strips of skin by the sheep's buttocks to prevent flystrike where maggots cause an infection.

In the outback you see abandoned houses, rusting windmills and splintered fence posts. There are exhausted mines the port usurped by an airport and rail left behind by roads. Whole communities and the ties that bound them are blown away with the dust. We are looking for a place to ride out the storm of life. A week after the accident Matt opens his eyes .He has no spinal damage but traumatic encephalopathy.   He slowly had to learn dexterity like putting a key into a lock etc. The nurse said that Loss of inhibition was typical of  head injuries. The Queen mother visited Perth in 1958.            

 In the 50s when the wool price went through the roof, sheepmen everywhere bought up big new machinery , new plant and build new homesteads with indoor plumbing. 

Rose -her father was talking about a good match for her meant how many acres and how many sheep.

Miles sees the hole of the mine and quotes "Look on  my works ye Mighty and despair" Shelley.

Rose and Matt take shelter in the shearing room. They watch the heavy rain and find lanterns and stuff in the cupboards including whiskey. Matt went out to pee and returned wet so he took off his clothes and was wrapped in a blanket. What happened after that is that Matt dreamed he was sleeping with his girlfriend that he was going to meet when the accident happened. When the rain ended they returned and Matt because of the alcohol was back under treatment and Rose was considered to have been negligent.

Rose goes to Perth to do the secretarial course. Lorna get a receipt from the collage that Rose  is not doing the course but was given the rebate. She had written a letter and signed her dead fathers name.

Rose goes north where she gets a  secretarial job at an abattoir, the job comes with a shack/house. In the evening she read the books in the house Dickens , Stevenson Bronte and Mark Twain. She is paid cash. In the old days it could take 3 months to drive the cattle there. Today the  cattle are  arrive on road trains in less than a week. Poll short horns, (polled cattle are ones bread to be hornless)

Ernestine lost her husband but gained a metalworks and sees Rose as a younger version of herself. Rose faints and Ernestine takes her to the local doctor but gives her a wedding band to put onto her finger. Rose is 5 months pregnant. Ernestine tells her she must live her life and not worry about who the father is.. Rose doesn't want the old doctor to deal with her pregnancy so they ask the flying doctor to and it the young doctor who says Afternoon Mrs. Smith- --Rosie Mc Bride. Matt collected Rose, baby and Dr Finbar Rafferty from the aerodrome.

Nunc Dimittis (now let depart) Miles tells them that he is the black sheep of the family , a remittance man and proud of it. Miles had stayed on longer as requested till Matt recovered. The croquet set is left behind for Matt.

Matt realizes that Rose had been more loving to orphaned lambs than she is to her baby. Matt is aware of the way she watches him. The baby is going to be adopted out to a professional childless couple, this way the scandal  is hushed up.        An ewe who's

 birth has gone wrong, a ram savaged by a dingo or a horse crippled in a dog trap, you immediately put them out of their pain with a bullet.

Peachey saw Rose driving to the mineshaft he went after her and found she had fallen and the swaddled  baby was there. The flying doctor confirmed that Roses fatal injuries were from falling a suicide would  cause an inquest. Matt asked Pattie if he had abused her (sexually) Her reply was no you just broke my heart. Lorna went to Perth to register the death of Rose and the birth of her grandson. Name of father is left blank.

Matt now found Roses lighter with the note she made to burn that Matt was the father, he burns the note. Later Peachey also figured this out as he had taken shelter in the shearing shed and saw the 2 of them asleep with Matt naked. Matt now will not stay in the same room as baby Andrew. Peachy explains to Matt that as a POW under the Japanese, you think you won't survive and the trick is to keep living. Some things the more you run the harder they hunt you down.

The 1950 Australia was riding on the back of a sheep the wool was needed for clothes of the Korean War, but now nylon and synthetics were not dependent on drought, disease and death.

1890s was a gold rush but it did not last., but today the miners had the power and the earth was at the mercy of what was under it.  This was when Bonnie Edquiet arrived with a team of geologist and they start to collect samples and map the land.

Andy had an childhood different from Matt and Warren , he never had to fight for his toys. At aged 7 he knew he could ask Nanna Lorno but not Matt about the crash.

Kangaroos would drink sheep's water and eat their feed but a wild dog could kill a hundred sheep in a night and not even eat one.

The Radio to the flying doctor was used for School on the Air, that Andy soaked up to get an education.  In the house that Miles lived in Matt found a picture of a Grenadier guard. All my love Sandy so he knew that Miles had been attractive to men. Miles had called himself a "black sheep remittance man" luckily people here never found this out. 

Funerals are one social occasion the a person can attend uninvited.

Andrew had a pen pal Harry who tell him that his father works in a crocidolite or Blue asbestos mine. Later Harry's father is ill with damaged lungs and can't get compensation because he didn't wear the protective gear he was given by the company.

Station people tend to marry station people. They always said that Mac Brides could be bastards. 

Bonnie is leading a geological team surveying the minerals on the station. This is bad news as mining to get out what is underground get greater priority to the folks on living on the surface. This is Crown land leased to the agriculturalists. The minerals they are looking for are galena, copper, manganese, columbite, molybdenum , rhodium, palladium, iridium zinc lead asbestos. With the geologist there is good business for the pub keepers, petrol station. Later Bonnie wants to be close to Matt and should have stopped the survey earlier as the minerals are not very promising.

The area has a new Police Chief  Rundle and he found that 13% of the population did not have driving license's. If they could afford a car and petrol the have enough to get a license. He also found draft dodgers who were escaping the Vietnam war. , but he let the towns brothels tic along. One of the cases he dealt with was "Botulism" Betsy who had a bad marriage and poisoned her husband. The vicar who stole from the collection plate. Sadie who was only 14 and married a man 9 years older. Rundle the chief of police will not use his power to get their son into the hockey team. He says that if he bends the rule for his family, they will be entitled to bend the rules for theirs. Eventually Rundle would investigate Roses death. When Rundle ask Peachy about Rosie that he wants to sort of the truth. Peachy tell him you will need reinforcement if you want to start policing the past as well as the present.

Later when Rundle decided that Peach was the father Peachy said "Then I won't say you are wrong.

Wombats dig under the fence and let other animal in.  Andy has a collection of techtites or Australites. These are meteorites that hit Australia 785000 years ago and have a "flanged button" shape as they go into the ground.

Matt is at Monty's boat and says it has dried out and will have to be recaulked. He was on the 170 nautical mile race from Fremantle to  Bunbury. Bonnie says if ever it get to the water she will volunteer to go on it. Matt read the book on Gypsy Moth the man who had sailed around the world.in a 54ft Ketch was Sir Francis Chichester.

Matt has not spoken to Humpty Dumpton for nearly 15 years since he refused to bring him a gun in hospital. Humpty and Carol come to visit the Mac Brides. He married Carol when she was working at the rehab centre, they have been given the right to adopt children.  Every adopted baby comes from a cradle of sadness.

At school Andy is involved in the Pastoralists Heritage Project tracing the family trees of settler to West Australia back to 1870 Andy has a problem as his father side is Anonymous and his sir name should be that of his father.

The butcher bird ahs lots of sings - its territorial song , mating call , distress call and warning cry. Just because you have heard one song you don't know the whole bird.

There are cricket matches between the Jackaroos and shearers and drovers and station people. 

Matt arrived at the annual singles dance and surprised Bonnie by coming to dance with her. Later on Bonnie was told that she should be the one to encourage Matt into a relationship with her. Matt was very different from Warren who always had a girlfriend. Bonnie kept visiting Andy with a gift to be with Matt.  Andy wanted to be a geologist. Andy asks Bonnie to research who his father was as neither his grandmother or Matt would answer. "I don't think Rose ever told anyone" Bonnie was jilted  by a man who had another girlfriend all along. But today people are living together without getting married. Her uncle Cyril left the barmaid pregnant, when the barmaid was dying years later her cousin Bernice arrived at her uncle Cyril who accepted her. Times had changed. At the time if Cyril had known of the pregnancy he would have made her get rid of it, so the mother never told him.  Later Bonnie tracked down Miles in Sydney and realized he was gay and not the father. When Bonnie took Matt to meet her parents he refused and said I can't marry you. Matt considered himself as damaged good and that he had to live with that.

There a place that they have never run sheep as it is difficult to get  them  in and out and that is where the Jemima trees have survived.

We now discover that Myrtle Eedie the post office mistress, gave birth at 17 and the kid was adopted out. The man she had a relationship with she discovered too late had a wife and children who later joined him from Melbourne.

Pete Peachy had been sending money orders over the years. A parcel arrived for him of a dress but he had no wife and Andy was handed it as it had missed the postal van that week.

Pete had won the Kings Medal during the war after which he arrived at the station. He had been a Japanese POW for a few years. He had been  in the play the Importance of Being Ernest. as a  lady, the play was a triumph and he was the only one who made it home.

A bad storm is expected and before it starts hurling trees and windmills get ready. Lorna filled the bath and buckets  with water. Got the lamps and candles ready and matches ready. It was a dry electric storm and every surface was covered with dust and the cyclone had sandblasted the paint off the windward sides of cars stripping away paint.5 inches of topsoil  had vanished. First thing was to get the areal up.  The flattened fences had to be repaired and the sheep brought back into their paddocks.

When Bonnie arrived Matt hugged and squeezed her. She was now being recalled to Perth.

Andy was waling around at night by the light of the lamp saw Peachy without a shirt, his body was covered with great slashes. One never saw Peachy without a shirt. Peachy then put on a dress and was dancing. He decided that Peachy was nice on the outside and weird inside. Later Andy let slip about this and Johnno's  gang came and attacked Peachy the the pufta the hurt his dog protecting him. Matt and Andy arrived and drive them off. Peachy immediately had to soot his dog.  The next day Peachy looked like he had become an old man, and said good bye it time for him to take off. 

1975 Andy studied at Muresk Agricultural College, Western Australia, where he met Jane  and married in 1983,they have 3 children. Andy flew to Perth in the Station's Cessna . He had shares in the mining company and Bonnie had become the director. Andy would keep the homestead but the place would be destocked. When Andy spoke to Bonnie about who his father was he said he was happy in "forgetment".  It did not matter.   

Matt could now free  leave and  at the Australian Embassy in Athens, Greece he signed  to Andy the Power of Attorney.  Matt had become an apprentice boat builder in Queensland and traveled the world.

They all met at Lorna Funeral .Bonnie had married Bob and but she did not want to sit home looking after kids and knitting so they separated. She said she loved Matt because he was mysteriousness. She was now retiring.

Lessons from Harry Truman :Decisive leadership courage and integrity ability and the courage to stand alone 2025 120pg

A book by Timeless Lessons Press     “The buck stops here.” 28/3/26

1945 April till 1953 Jan. When he left office as the 33rd President his approval rating were amongst the lowest in the world. Today historians consider that he was amongst the most consequential leaders. 8years less 82 days. He was a man of  moral clarity and with honesty, accountability and decisiveness. He had a sense of personal responsibility and learned how to navigate corruption without succumbing. He always believed that the right action however unpopular is the highest form of leadership.

Born in 1884. He was very bookish, loyal to his family and beside scripture at a young age had read the histories of Rome and Greece and biographies of Andrew Jackson and Napoleon. He wanted to attend West Point but failed the vision test. In 1905 joined the National Guard. 1914 his father died and he took over running the farm. WW1 he enlisted in the Field Artillery, He did not cheat, drink or take bribes. He became president while America was still at war in both Europe and the Pacific, and had only met Roosevelt twice. he believed in work well done promises kept and you owned decisions.  Complaining never harvested a field he learned on the farm. Roosevelt had humor, Churchill poetry but Truman endurance. When scandals later erupted in his administration, he faced them head on. His speeches were plain direct and unpolished.

WW1 he emerged as a leader  capable of commanding men, making decisions under fire, and standing firm in chaos. In 1918 he was a captain in command of Battery D who had, had a reputation before he arrived as being  unruly and impossible to control, In the mud of France he learned that trust was the currency of leadership. His soldiers would remain fierce loyal and even when he was president he received their letters addressed to Captain Harry. He understood that poor decisions and waste and corruption cost lives.

Failure more than success reveals who you are. He and his friend Eddie opened the Truman &Jacobson haberdashery when the soldiers were returning from the war and Kansas was booming. The shop became a veteran meeting place,  but came the crash of 1921 people stopped buying clothes. Truman resolved not to declare bankruptcy but to pay the people back and it took him 15 years. A man who never has been knocked down has no idea how to get up again. "If I am no true to my word on small things, how can I ever be trusted on the great things"

Going into politics was a moral minefield. Kansas City Democrats was run by Tom Prendergast the most corrupt machine in the  country but they saw his potential. Votes were bought , jobs were traded for loyalty. With Prendergast help Truman ran for Eastern District judge at Jackson County, this was a administrative overseeing budgets. Curiously Truman could not be bought.  However when this position was lost to Republican in 1924 he returned to the family farm, but later he got this job back again. Later Prendergast needed a candidate for the Senate, here he never made speeches of promises he couldn't keep. Prendergast  was later put in prison for Tax evasion.

Washington in the 1930s was a city of patronage. But Truman said if something is wrong can't vote for it. Remembering the inefficiencies of WW1 He proposed a committee to investigate waste and mismanagement in defense production and this was later called the Truman Committee. Companies were charging the government 3 time the price for substandard goods. Workers complained about the unsafe conditions, wasted  materials and fraud. Waste costs lives and faulty equipment killed soldiers. . Refusal to look away when the truth is inconvenient. After Pearl Harbour the US mobilization was unmatched in history, Wherever money flowed freely corruption followed.

He was warned that  to investigate waste during the war was political suicide as it would be resented by powerful industrialists and officials. "Then that is exactly what we need to do.  I'm not after headlines, I want results" The Truman Committee had over 400 hearings and 51 reports.  When an executive accused the committee of harming morale Truman replied " What harms moral is when a soldier dies because of a faulty gun."  The press called him the Treasury Watchdog. It is estimated that he saved the taxpayer $15 billion. 

Henry Wallace was meant to be voted for vice president but he was too polarizing for Roosevelt. "Truth always strengthened democracy"  Truman was vice President for only 82 days. "Leadership without humility becomes tyranny in disguise."  A leader has to make decisions and live with them. Ending the war quickly would limit Soviet influence, Wars end when the ideas that refuel war are resolved, and he believed that cooperation with the defeated Germans was important.   

In Europe Stalin refused to honor agreement he had made and would keep Soviet troops in all land occupied, he would not hold free elections. There is no difference between a totalitarian state and gangster , you can't appease either one. Britain informed America  that without help Turkey and Greece would fall to communism and global responsibility was being handed over to the US. This led to the Truman Doctrine 1947 March, that the US would stand against expansion of tyranny, and Congress would support his request for aid to Greece and Turkey. However he stated that American strength must rest on arms but also democratic ideals.

1947 June Secretary of State George Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University. Truman understood that victory without reconstruction  would lead to what followed WW1 and they must not allow conditions that would breed dictators. The Marshall Plan or the European Recovery Program was to rebuild infrastructures, stabilize currencies and restore production. This was the end of US return to isolationism. The cost of peace if far less than the cost of war. Europeans countries began to coordinate their economies and this led to the European Union resulting in not only recovery but unity. Truman's insistence of including Germany and Italy was controversial but visionary. Truman never claimed credit but praised Marshal as the greatest man of the age.

1948 June till May 1949 The US Britain and France unified the territories  that they occupied and made into an economically stable West Germany and the Deutsche Mark was introduced to revive trade. When the Soviets closed the roads to West Berlin. The airlift was introduced. Truman would not back down. He showed that the arsenal of democracy mightiest weapon was endurance, but it also showed unity and NATO resulted.

After winning the elections in 1948 Truman raised the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents a hour. Extended social security to 10 million more Americans, initiated a housing program but was not able to advance in national  health. He called for anti lynching laws. end to poll taxes and desegregated the armed forces by executive order in  1948 July. " The test of government is how much it can do for the poor man to help himself."" Democracy is not self sustaining it must be nourished by fairness , defended by courage and guided be conscience"

Truman was the president who took a moral stand, he supported a cause not because it was popular but because it was right." He was apposed by the "Dixiecrats" Democrats who stood for states rights .If you wish to inspire freedom abroad you must practice it at home. With segregation he said " We cannot any longer afford the luxury of separate but equal." The military would become the laboratory of integration.  Appointed more black judges than any previous president. Met Civil Rights leaders including NAACP.  In 1947 July he spoke at their gathering at the Lincoln Memorial.  I swore on oath to uphold the Constitution and " it does not say for whites only."  He showed that moral courage is not measured by applause but by doing what is right.

The Korean War showed the limits of power. Truman believed in containment to preserve peace. This war broke out in 1950 and General Douglas MacArthur  with UN forces launched an amphibious landing at Inchon behind enemy lines and caught the North Koreans off guard and liberated Seoul and drove them north. MacArthur wanted to move them beyond the 28 parallels but Mao warned that they would not tolerate foreign troops so close to its territories. Thousands of Chinese troops crossed the Yula River. Truman fired MacArthur because he did not respect the authority of the President. The people can elect a new president  but can't elect a new General. In a democracy power must remain accountable especially  during a war. The hardest thing in being a leader is knowing when not to fight. Generals advise but presidents decide.

After he left office corporate boards offered him positions, he answered "You don't want to pay for my knowledge you want to pay for my name and that is not for sale."  Dignity does not depend on riches. When asked what he missed most about being president answer " The music of the marine band"  " When you are in charge you  can't blame anyone else"  If you want a friend in Washington get yourself a dog. Friendship and power rarely exist. Leadership does not require grandeur but gravity.

He entered the presidency without popularity and left it with less. His approval rating sank as low as 22%. He said "I cant make people like me I can only do my job."  He told the public what it didn't believe that communism could not be defeated overnight. I'll leave my defense to history it has a longer memory that newspapers. The Presidency is a trust not a trophy. He declined a official visit to Queen Elizabeth II. as he said a man shouldn't go sightseeing at the expense of the taxpayers.

He died aged 88 in 1972 and buried with only the naval band playing and no pageantry. His legacy was that he had a modest background and no wealth and no university degree.. He understood power as a loan and not a possession. He called himself "the Common Man President"  The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know. Courage need not come with grandeur, and greatness does not require perfection. He never hid from his mistakes, he faced them and learned from them. About the Atomic bomb he said " Sometime you do terrible things to prevent worse ones. 36,000 Americans died in the Korean War. and it was labeled the Truman War. You have to keep sowing the seed even if you wont be there to harvest. To work hard even when no-one notices. He represented America of small towns and big hearts. A man's honor is his best protection.  Truman's legacy is not the wars he fought but the peace he achieved, not the speeches he gave but the example he set. Do your duty without expectation of reward.

Haven: the dramatic story of how 1000 WW2 refugees and how they came to America by Ruth Gruber 2010 320pg

  20/3/26  To be edited.

1000 refugees were brought to the States as guests of the President Roosevelt in 1944 transported on army ship from Anzio and Cassino, to a camp in Oswego ,NY. This camp was under the War Relocation Authority(WRA) part of the Dept. of Interior. Organized by Harold L. Ickes , secretary for the Interior. Brought on the USNS Henry Gibbins an army tranport.  This ship is also documented by the book The English GI: World War II Graphic Memoir, the story of Bernard Sandler.

1924 a quota system was implemented in bringing immigrants to the US, it was designed in such a way that mostly Western European could enter the States so as to make it more difficult for Easter European to enter i.e. Jews and Orientals. About 675,000 a year could enter the USA. This 1000 was outside the quota. Britain had closed the doors of Palestine.  The 100,000 Japanese Americans interned and relocated to camps were also under the WRA. just after Pearl Harbour. theoretically this thousand were being given refuge while the war was on but could not get visas and so were supposed to be sent back to Europe at the end.

Harald Ickes  sent Ruth to represent his dept. as she had got her degree in Germany and spoke Yiddish as well. She had to get vaccines for smallpox, typhus tetanus and plague. In flying an army plane they were taught that if a plane (C54) was shot down and had to ditch. They had to know how to inflate the Mae West vests and open the collapsible life boat. The landed in Newfoundland and then the Azores but must not meet the natives as their was plague and use mosquito repellent, and never eat uncooked vegetables. Venereal disease was also rampant in the tropics. The Casablanca which had a smell of goats. In Algeria the army was building a refugee camp to take in 40,000 refugees.

Information about the holocaust had come to American but the government decided to suppress this.

Yugoslavian refugees and others found their way into Italy. Refugees here would be treated as prisoners of war for whom no quotas were required.

1944 April the first shipment of Hungarian Jews were shipped to Auschwitz. The US war effort was hampered in Italy by refugees clogging the roads, needing shelter food and medical car. While the British were there trying to stop refugees from getting to Palestine.

The Germans under Albert Kesselring  were fighting the allied invasion. This was the same time as the  van Stoffenburg plot against Hitler. In Naples she was aware of British , French Italian Senegalese and Gurkhas soldiers .

The Henry Gibbins had the1000 refugees on the forward adn wounded solders in the stern. They were part of a convey a flotilla of 29 vessels 13 warships escorting 16 troop and cargo ships including POW ships that were a protective cover. 100,000 German POWs were keeping farms and factories going. The refugees were 982 people. 874 Jewish, 73 Catholic, 28 Greek Orthodox and 7 Protestant. 525 male and 457were female,.from 18 different countries. They were a cross section of population to make they a self sustaining group. A microcosm of a small town. Teenagers hadn't been to school for 5 years and younger children who had not been to school at all. German was the lingua franca but many spoke no German. Ruth organized English lessons on the deck. They also started classes in American history and English literature. Many had fled the Drancy concentration camp Near Paris others at Gurs like Lion Feuchwanger the novelist.. Some Gaulist groups had helped people escape to Spain. Brigade Blanch was a Belgium partisan brigade that some Jews survived in. Some had climbed La Madonna della Finetra Pass to escape the Germans. Others had refuge in a convent and only god chestnuts to eat. Many had trekked through the fighting lines to escape. Ruth got many of the stories of survival of refugees. The story of the Pentcho of 500 refugees on a boat that broke down and they landed on an island and were transferred  to Rhodes by the Italians.

The Mediterranean was dangerous as it had Nazi bombers and U-boats. At one time feeling in danger a smokescreen was put up and all suffered the smell..

A women over the age of 40 gave birth to a baby. The professional singers offered to entertain the troops and the put on concerts for them, this improved the atmosphere as wounded soldiers had blamed Jews for the war.

Arriving in New York you can see the Statue of Liberty and on its plinth is a poem by Emma Lazarus a Sephardi Jewess, The New Colossus 1883 welcoming immigrants. 

The most widely listened to radio commentator  was that of Father Coughlin a Detroit priest and vituperative anti-Semite.

They were taken to the Oswego camp and allocated rooms or houses according to family size. Not by intellectual class as they had wanted, or by ethnicity. They were told if there is a knock on the door it is a friendly one. It was the first time many had had bedsheets for years. The town Oswego had a population of 22,000. Most were ther from the 19 Century  early 20 C , Quebec from Germany , Ireland , Poland Italy , majority Roman Catholics. The town was surrounded by the Oswego river. This had been an army camp but was recently closed. The town had lost income when the camp closed and begged the movement to fill the camp again. It was now a refugee camp. Next to this was Fort Ontario 1955 to protect the British from the French. Rabbi Stephen Wise came to visit the camp adn Ruth showed him around.

Life Magazine showed photos of the camp in 1944 taken by Alfred Eisenstadt. Many remembered photos of this period are his work.

 Hungary under Admiral Horty,  while Germany was a co- belligerent he would not allow the Nazi's to touch Hungarian Jews. However now Adolf Eichmann was sent to round up the Jews in  March 1944. 

Food and shelter were provided by the government. A 10 man committee was organized to keep up the moral and maintain the spirit so to education. The towns reaction to the refugees had been favorable. Previously negro soldiers had been in the camp and the public worried they  would rape their daughter but the turned out to be respectable youngster. Later illiterate soldiers had been sent for  remedial training and they also turned out to be better than expected. They requested that the local schools be opened to their children  and this was very successful. German was the common lingua franca however the Yugoslavc and Italian and other wanted to move away from this now hated language.

Open house day where the whole town of Oswega was invited. The refugee children who had lost years of education became grinds and this set an example that the local followed.

Eleanor an her friend Elinor  the wife of Henry Morgenthau arrived to visit. She wrote in her syndicated column "My Day" on the camp.

Many refugees had been running climbing mountains etc to escape and never had, had proper foot ware and needed arch supports or orthopedic shoes as well as false teeth.

1+945 8th May VE day the War in Europe ended with German unconditional surrender.. General Eisenhower instructed that poles liberated from German camps must not be forced to return to Poland. 

President Truman sent Earl . G. Harrison to investigate the DP camps in Europe. Hitler had murdered a million children and there were few old people alive. Antisemitism had not died with Hitler's suicide. Truman now asked the New British PM Clement Attlee to allow 100,000Jewish refugees into Palestine. The refugee problem had become a world problem.

All over Europe UNRRA set up camps for millions of displaced people. Here in Oswego you had displaced people with refugees who had absorbed the spirit of democracy. Eventually a government subcommittee agreed for them to stay, despite the quota. Roosevelt had done something sly by inviting  the 1000.  These people all had the qualifications to be accepted into the US  and so were taken to the Canadian border where they were processed by the border guard. The Oswego resident spread all over the country so to family they had others had wanted to be in small towns.

After 1946 the Oswego camp became the temporary housing project for war veterans and their families. In 1951 The New York state turned it into a historical museum and park about the French and Indian Wars and WW2. There is a plaque, From 1944 to 46 fort Ontario served as a haven for survivors of the European holocaust.

The book now covers reunions of the refugees and most of them succeeded in life, became Americans and had families.