Scottish Daily Mail

Who’s game for gridiron?

- IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspond­ents, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow, G2

QUESTION Has any American football player become a profession­al rugby player, or vice versa? Despite the rewards on offer in the American game, this is a rare occurrence. scotland and British Lions fullback Gavin Hastings spent a couple of seasons playing in the World League of American Football (WLAF), a mainly european competitio­n, as a kicker with the scottish Claymores in 1996. the Claymores won the World Bowl that year at Murrayfiel­d.

terry price was a fine Welsh fullback who played for Llanelli and Wales, and is fondly remembered for dropping the goal against ireland at Cardiff Arms park in 1965, winning Wales their first triple Crown since 1953.

in 1971, his goal-kicking exploits landed him a move to America and a brief spell as a specialist goal-kicker for the Buffalo Bills, the New York National League team.

French player Richard tardits was the most successful of those who ventured across the Atlantic. As a young man, he represente­d his home-town of Biarritz and France Under-21 in rugby union.

His foray into gridiron football began with the University of Georgia, from where he progressed to the phoenix Cardinals in 1989, then the New england patriots a year later. tardits continued to play rugby union during the off season and played 24 times for the U.s. eagles.

Manfred Moore was an NFL running back for san Francisco 49ers, tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders. After winning super Bowl Xi with the Oakland Raiders in the U.s., he was recruited by New south Wales RFL premiershi­p team the Newtown Jets in 1977.

He lasted only four games after receiving a head injury in a match against penrith, which prompted him to return to the National Football League, signing for Minnesota Vikings.

T. L. Redwood, Sale, Cheshire. QUESTION Are any real-life pirates mentioned in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island? FiVe known pirate captains — William Kidd, Blackbeard (edward teach), edward england, Howell Davies and Bartholome­w Roberts — are named in the book, but don’t appear as characters.

Captain Flint, the pirate who is supposed to have buried the treasure and the name of Long John silver’s parrot, was created by stevenson, but his name is used in at least three books by different authors: porto Bello Gold by A. D. Howden-smith, peter And Wendy by J.M. Barrie and swallows And Amazons by Arthur Ransome.

William Kidd is supposed to have buried a treasure horde on Gardiner’s island and it’s the hunt for treasure such as this that forms the backdrop to the story of treasure island. in reality, the authoritie­s quickly recovered Kidd’s cache.

in the story, the names of two real pirate crew members — israel Hands and John silver — are used for crew members aboard the Hispaniola, the ship hired by squire trelawny to sail to treasure island.

the real israel Hands, also known as Basilica Hands, was a member of Blackbeard’s crew whom the captain maimed by shooting him in the knee to ensure the rest of the crew remained in terror of him.

Hands was taken ashore to have his wound treated and, therefore, was not present for Blackbeard’s last fight at Ocracoke island. this saved him from the gallows, as the surviving crew were captured and put on trial. Blackbeard was killed in the fight.

John silver is believed to have been a ships’ surgeon in Bartholome­w Roberts’s crew. He was hanged at Cape Coast Castle, a British fort on the Gold Coast of Africa.

Bob Cubitt, Northampto­n. QUESTION How did the navy of the Austria-Hungary Empire compare with that of the other participan­ts in World War I? tHe Austro-Hungarian navy faced some unique difficulti­es. Despite being one of europe’s great powers, the AustroHung­arian empire wasn’t a colonial power, and so didn’t need a large, powerful navy.

Both parliament­s had to agree naval budgets. Not having a coastline, Hungary preferred to spend money on the army rather than the navy. However, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a keen supporter of the navy and campaigned energetica­lly on its behalf, overseeing its expansion from 1904.

there were some advantages in coming so late to the party. the empire’s new dread nought s sMss teget th off , Viribus, prinz eugen and szent istvan — l aunched at trieste between 1911 and 1912 amid wild celebratio­ns — were consider-ably ahead of rival navies in some aspects of design.

they were constructe­d with Marconi wireless r ooms and anti- ai rc r af t armaments and they were the f i rst battleship­s to be equipped with torpedo launchers built into their bows.

However, compared with other World War i navies, this fleet was a minnow. By 1914, it had four modern Dreadnough­ts, 18 destroyers, seven cruisers, nine battleship­s of pre-Dreadnough­t design and five submarines. the bulk of the fleet was based at the Adriatic port of pula.

By 1914, the British Royal Navy was the l argest i n the world. it comprised 22 dreadnough­ts (with another 13 under constructi­on), nine battle cruisers (with another under constructi­on), 40 older preDreadno­ughts ( older battleship­s), 121 cruisers of varying types, 221 destroyers and 73 submarines.

the German High seas Fleet consisted of 15 Dreadnough­ts (with five more under constructi­on), five battle cruisers (plus three under constructi­on), 22 preDreadno­ughts, 40 cruisers, 90 destroyers, 115 torpedo boats and 31 submarines.

Pete May, Poole, Dorset.

 ??  ?? Switcher: Scotland rugby union hero Gavin Hastings in his Scottish Claymores American football gear
Switcher: Scotland rugby union hero Gavin Hastings in his Scottish Claymores American football gear
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