Accident or CIA action?
QUESTION
On BBC2’s Newsnight, Ken Livingstone claimed the CIA once sank a ship carrying a consignment of old London buses bound for Cuba in the Thames. Is this true? These were not London buses but Leyland-MCW Olympic single-deck buses, of which 3,564 were built at four factories (three in the UK, one in south Africa) between 1949 to 1971, and 1,192 of them were sold to the Castro government of Cuba, where they became the standard type.
Because the U.s. government was trying to impose a trade embargo on Cuba, the deal was brokered through east Germany — which angered the Americans.
On October 27, 1964, the 10,700-tonne east German cargo ship MV Magdeburg with 42 new Olympics on board slipped out of her Dagenham dock, heading slowly down The Thames. Coming the other way was the Yamashiro Maru, a Japanese freighter, sailing empty. The ships collided at 1.52am.
The Magdeburg was making the tight turn around Broadness Point when the Yamashiro Maru ploughed into her starboard side at more than ten knots, holing her below the waterline and pushing her across the river. Rumours of a CIA involvement spread quickly, but did not gain much traction until 11 years later.
In 1975 Washington Post reporters Jack Anderson and Les Whitten claimed to have information from the CIA that British intelligence was tapping the phones of the Cuban embassy in London and passing the ship’s movements to the CIA. This suggested MI5 connived with the CIA to sink the ship. This will, no doubt, have been the basis of Livingstone’s claim.
Tracking the Magdeburg’s movements and passing the information to the U.s. was quite possibly true, as it was widely assumed the ships of soviet client states doubled as intelligence gatherers.
Maritime investigators point out, however, that organising such a ramming would have been practically impossible. First, the Yamashiro Maru’s captain would have had to be willing to risk his ship, crew and his own life in a hazardous adventure with an uncertain outcome.
The vessel was navigating ‘ under pilot’s advice, to master’s orders’ at the time and would, therefore, have required a compliant Thames River pilot, willing to damage his reputation and to put his job and life at risk.
Given its fairly unimpressive performance during the Cold War, it’s possible the CIA attempted to claim credit for the accident, especially after so many of its schemes to assassinate Castro failed.
Jonathan Turner, Cobham, Surrey.
QUESTION
What grammatical form (and linguistic heritage) gives us the words alight, afoot, aloft and alike? DesPITe the superficial resemblance in their phonological form, the group of aadjectives encompasses adjectives from several sources. Referred to as pre-nominal modifier. They were used to extend the range of vocabulary as human interaction became more complex.
In many cases the unstressed initial a- originates in the Old english preposition on, meaning on, in, into, to, from and toward. examples include adrift, afloat, afoot, ashore, alive, aloof and asleep.
In this form it also appears as a moribund prefix with a verb (acknowledge) and in archaic and dialectal use before a present participle in -ing (set the bells aringing).
In akin, afresh and anew, it goes back to a different Old english preposition, of. In other lexemes in the group, it stems from one of several Old english prefixes, namely on- in awake, a(r)- in aghast and ashamed.
Other members of the group are loanwords from Latin or French that have entered english complete with their initial a-, for example, averse is derived from the Old French avers and directly from Latin aversus. Other examples include agog, afraid and alert.
Jane Townsend, Leicester.
QUESTION
Why is the Bay of Biscay so notoriously rough? The Bay of Biscay has been called the ‘Cape horn of europe’ as mariners can experience unpredictable fogs, giant waves and tempests, and it is where a host of boats have been shipwrecked over the years.
Its unpredictable nature is a function of its geography. From Brest in France to La Coruna in spain, this large roughly triangular stretch of water, 86,000 miles² in area, is limited by two capes that carry the same name, Finisterre, or ‘land’s end’.
The point in Brittany, Pointe de Penmarc’h, and the spanish point, Cabo Ortegal, are both feared by sailors. The continental shelf extends 100 miles off the coast of Brittany, narrowing to less than 40 miles off the spanish shore.
This makes the inner part shallow and very rough and causes particularly dangerous breaking seas around the edge of the shelf at the continental slope — dissected by numerous submarine sheer cliffs and canyons at the edge. Irregularities in the shelf structure cause strong and unpredictable localised currents.
The bay is home to some of the Atlantic Ocean’s fiercest weather — gales can exceed 70mph. This is, in part, caused by low-pressure weather systems moving in from Iceland and Ireland, though local conditions are the most important factor.
The bay re- circulates a portion of the North Atlantic drift (our part of the Gulf stream) around in a clockwise circulation. This brings cold moist air into collision with hot spanish mainland air currents that develops a series of cumulonimbus clouds. The result is turbulent weather systems and line squalls in the bay area and a high degree of instability along the north coast of spain.
Brian Appleton, Cowes, IoW.
QUESTION
In 1974, at Hunstanton Golf Club, Bob Taylor holed in one at the par three 16th hole on three consecutive days. Has another golfer achieved anything similar? FURTheR to earlier answers, on June 16, 1982, in a club competition at Devon’s elfordleigh hotel Golf & Country Club, I had two holes in one at the same hole.
This being a nine-hole course, I holed my first ace at the par three second hole (125 yards), then, in the same round, I holed my second ace at hole No. 11 (145 yards). It made the papers, and the club put a commemorative plaque on a tree near the hole. Johnnie Walker also sent me two bottles of whisky in recognition of the feat.
R.S. Ingerson, Plymouth.
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