Island with a big secret
QUESTION Why is Deception Island so-called?
Part of the South Shetland Islands archipelago lying north of antarctica, Deception Island was first located by British sealers William Smith and Edward Bransfield from the brig Williams in January 1820 and first visited by U.S. sealer Nathaniel Palmer, on the sloop Hero, on November 15, 1820.
after two days exploring, Palmer chose the name Deception Island because, as you approach by boat, it appears to be a normal, cone-shaped island, then, as you cruise past the shore, a narrow passage appears, leading into a large natural bay.
In the centre of the horseshoe-shaped island is a caldera, a type of volcanic crater, formed more than 10,000 years ago by a huge eruption. Part of the crater remains above sea-level, enclosing a bay called Port Foster.
Deception Island is not the only volcano in antarctica — another wellknown one is Mount Erebus.
During the Forties and Fifties, argentina, Chile and Britain vied for sovereignty of the island, valued for its whaling and sealing.
Fearing a German incursion of antarctica, and wary of argentina’s sympathies toward Germany, the British commandeered the island’s whaling station in 1944, removing the argentine flag and hoisting the Union Flag.
the Germans never came, but the British takeover of the whaling site provoked argentina and Chile to establish bases nearby.
Volcanic eruptions forced the abandonment of the British base in 1969.
today, the island is a tourist destination and the location for summertime scientific research by Spain and argentina.
It is also home to tens of thousands of chinstrap penguins, as well as rusting relics of the whaling era.
and tourists can experience one of the world’s more unusual attractions — a thermal bath on an antarctic beach.
the island does not belong to any country, but is maintained by the antarctic treaty system.
L. S. Pohl, Kendal, Cumbria.
QUESTION What is the story of the Japanese medical Unit 731?
DUrING the late thirties, when the Japanese were expanding their empire in asia, they embarked on a series of terrible experiments into the nature of death and the extremities of the body.
Unit 731 was set up near the Manchurian city of Harbin at Pingfang, under the leadership of Shiro Ishii. He sanctioned dissections and evisceration of living prisoners and the crucifixion of prisoners of war in a bid to find the most effective way to mass-exterminate enemies.
By 1945, Unit 731 had carried out thousands of experiments on prisoners, called ‘logs’, including vivisections without anaesthetic. Prisoners were starved to see how long it took them to die. the Japanese also experimented by dropping plague-bearing fleas from planes onto unsubjugated Chinese cities.
British, american and australian prisoners of war were subjected to Unit 731’s biological experiments.
towards the end of the war, Ishii closed it down and tried to eliminate evidence of its existence. Disgracefully, he was granted immunity by the americans from trial as a war criminal on the understanding he would pass on the medical knowledge gained from his experiments. Cecil Lowry, author of Last Post Over The River Kwai, Stockport, Cheshire.
QUESTION What was the Black Friday scandal of 1869?
UlySSES S. GraNt (1822-1885) is best known as the General who led the Union to victory over the Confederate states during the american Civil War.
He became the 18th U.S. President in 1869 and served two terms. However, his administration was shrouded by wrongdoing — including the Black Friday scandal.
On assuming the presidency, Grant’s great challenge was to restore the country’s post-war finances. He was determined to return to a gold standard and pay down debt. the days of easy money — paper ‘greenbacks’ that abraham lincoln had used to finance the Civil War — were over.
‘ to protect the national honour,’ declared Grant in 1869, ‘every dollar of government indebtedness should be paid in gold.’
He believed a strong dollar would help push down interest rates and lower longterm government borrowing costs.
Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, two corrupt financiers infamous for their involvement in a bribery and fraud scandal surrounding the Erie railroad, were attempting to corner the market by buying gold, driving up its price and selling it on for profit.
an increased supply of gold into the markets would depress the price and ruin their plan, so Gould and Fisk made an audacious attempt to fix the market.
they enlisted the help of Grant’s brother- in- law, abel Corbin, who persuaded assistant U. S. treasurer General Daniel Butterfield to give them advance notice of government gold sales in exchange for a cut of the profits.
Grant got wind of the plan and quietly ordered the sale of $4 million of gold. When it hit the market on Friday, September 24, 1869, the price fell and panic ensued. Not only did gold investors face financial ruin, but foreign trade and other commodity prices were destabilised.
Fisk was shot dead by financier Edward Stokes in 1872 and Butterfield resigned following a Congressional investigation.
Jay Gould, on the other hand, sold his gold before the market fell and became fabulously wealthy as a notorious robber baron. He went on to control the Western Union telegraph company and the Manhattan elevated railroad.