Curio Cabinet

How many boats does it take to free the Ever Given from the Suez Canal? The newsworthy roadblock in the Egyptian waterway caused quite the kerfuffle in late March. For companies and seafarers who rely on the canal for shipping between Europe and Asia, the event was no laughing matter. While the Ever Given’s story might not be as tragic as that of famous ships like the Titanic, its mistakes are teaching us quite a bit about how ships and maritime travel works. So how did the Ever Given get stuck in the Suez Canal, and how did it get unstuck?
 

Early on March 23, a Taiwanese shipping company's container ship, the Ever Given, arrived at the Suez Port. At around 7:00 a.m., the Ever Given and other queued ships began moving through the Suez Canal. However, the Ever Givenhad no guiding tugboat attached to help it through the Khamaseen winds, which are intense and cause low visibility. Attempting to avoid the winds, the Ever Given started speeding—moving at 13.7 knots (about 15.7 mph) in a 8.6 knots (9.8 mph) zone. While speeding and angling a megaship is a known tactic to get ahead of strong winds, it can also cause major accidents, according to the Suez Canal Authority (SCA). Try as it may, the Ever Given could not beat the winds, and the ship was pushed east. This caused a bank effect, in which a large ship, pushed close to a bank, displaces water and cannot correct course. The suction and current drove the boat's bow into the east bank and its stern into the west bank.  

For over six days, the megaship remained stuck in the canal, preventing 367 other ships from completing their trips across the Suez and forcing countless others to reroute across the southern tip of Africa. The SCA immediately got to work freeing the 328-foot long ship, digging the bow out with an excavator and underwater dredging. One secret weapon may have been key to the clearing efforts: the king tides, a substantial high tide that occurs during the full and new moon (when the sun, moon, and Earth orbits align). The king tide peaked at 11:42 a.m. on March 29, and just a few hours later, the Ever Given was dislodged. Since its completion in 1869 by the Ottoman Empire, the Suez Canal has seen its fair share of colonialist warfare for control of the man-made waterway, and today some 10 percent of global maritime commercial traffic passes through the Suez. Thanks to the Ever Given's unfortunate accident, people won't soon forget the high drama of shipping through the Suez!

 
[Image description: an aerial view of the Ever Given container ship stuck in the Suez Canal.] Credit & copyright: Maxar Technologies

 
Written by: Esther P.

It’s a beautiful place with a complicated history. The Island nation of Guam has been making headlines lately, after controversial U.S. lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene made remarks indicating that she didn’t realize that Guam is a U.S. territory. Green’s office was later visited by Guam’s Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, Michael San Nicolas, and members of the Guam National Guard, who gifted her a box of the island’s famed Chamorro Chip Cookies. Outside of these rare circumstances, Guam typically doesn’t show up in mainstream American discourse. Many Americans don’t know the history of how Guam came to be a U.S. territory, or that its native people, the Chamorro, have a rich culture dating back at least 4,000 years.
 

Guam is the southernmost island of the Mariana Island chain, in the western Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a country comprised of more than 600 islands, spread far apart from one another, across the western Pacific. Humans first settled in Guam around 4,000 years ago, likely sailing from nearby islands off of Southeast Asia, such as Taiwan. By 800 CE, a new culture had developed on Guam. Ancient Chamorro people were expert seafarers whose diets consisted largely of seafood. Evidence suggests that they may have also cultivated rice. Chamorro villages featured buildings supported by latte stones, two-piece stone columns which served as foundations to protect structures from the damp ground. These buildings often had tall, triangular roofs, to divert rain. Early Chamorro society was matrilineal, meaning that women played a leading role in its everyday functioning.
 

In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (under the employ of Spain) became the first European to visit Guam in 1521. Magellan and his crew freely stole food, water, and other supplies from the Chamorros. When the Chamorros retaliated by taking whatever they could from Magellan’s ships, he dubbed Guam Isla de Ladrones, or the “Island of Thieves.” Unfortunately, Magellan’s expedition was far from the last to Guam. In 1668, Father San Vitores, a Jesuit missionary, came to Guam with a group of followers to convert the Chamorros to Catholicism. When Vitores baptized the daughter of Matå‘pang, a Chamorro chief, without permission, the Chamorro’s killed him. Outraged, the Spanish military launched an aggressive campaign to subjugate the Chamorro. The resulting Spanish-Chamorro War lasted for nearly 30 years, and by 1700, only around 5,000 Chamorro people remained.
 

It was through Spain that the U.S. eventually took possession of Guam. The Spanish-American War, which lasted from April to December of 1898, saw the U.S. supporting Cubans and Filipinos in their resistance to Spanish rule. When the U.S. eventually claimed victory, the Treaty of Paris was signed, granting Guam and several other Spanish colonies to the U.S. The Chamorro people’s population began to increase, although some of their original customs and even parts of their language were lost under Spanish rule.
 

Although Guam suffered greatly, during World War II, the island’s role in the war is rarely talked about outside of historical circles. For example, few Americans realize that Guam was bombed by Japanese forces just four hours after Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Japanese troops even seized control of Guam for almost three years during the war. Guamanians, including native Chamorros, were subjected to forced labor, internment, and other human rights violations. The U.S. recaptured Guam on July 21, 1944, yet Congress didn’t authorize a monument to commemorate those who suffered or lost their lives during the Japanese occupation until 1993. As Chamorro scholar Keith Camacho explained in his book, Cultures of Commemoration: The Politics of War, Memory and History in the Mariana Islands, U.S. military historians traditionally stick to “a body of discourse in which only Japanese and Americans constitute the agents of change and continuity in the region, erasing the agency and voice of indigenous peoples.”
 

Today, Guam occupies the same state of “limbo” as other U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico. People born in Guam are American citizens, but cannot vote or run for President. Their representatives in Congress are non-voting. Around 65,000 people of Chamorro ancestry now live in Guam, and many cultural societies promoting Chamorro traditions, including language, dress, and cuisine, exist to maintain Chamorro customs and educate outsiders. As Americans increasingly seem poised to discuss possible statehood and other increased rights for those living in U.S. territories, it’s likely that Guam will be making more frequent appearances on the average American’s radar, in the near future.

 
[Image description: a group of adults and children from Chamorro organizations, including the Hurao Cultural Camp, perform a burial ritual in traditional dress, holding up long branches to create a “tunnel.”] Credit & copyright: Associated Press
 
Written by: Maria C.

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

In February 1882, devious showman P. T. Barnum purchased Jumbo the Elephant from London Zoo in England. The rest of Jumbo's career would resemble the fall of a self-destructive rockstar. Born around Christmas of 1860, in Sudan, the African bush elephant was captured as a calf. He likely took his name from the local port of Jumbo, which he may have been shipped through to the Paris zoo, Jardin des Plantes. From there, he ended up at the London Zoo and became a star of the British Empire and a darling of Queen Victoria. He traveled the world and grew to a remarkable height of 10' 7". But tragedy struck. One day, Jumbo suffered a seizure and snapped off his tusks on a wall of oak while in convulsions. The incident left Jumbo with a permanently abscessed upper lip. Which caused his tusks to grow in crooked the rest of his life. Tusks are upper incisors, essentially teeth, so Jumbo was consistently in pain and acting erratically. His peculiar behavior, tusks, and size flashed dollar signs in Barnum's eyes.
 

The London Zoo controversially sold Jumbo to Barnum after the elephant developed a dangerous temper. Barnum wasn't concerned about it; he knew that investing in an international star was sure to have returns. So life grew a lot more complicated for Jumbo. His bouts of anger continued, not only due to his abcessed lip but also the loss of his old caretakers. Barnum assuaged the elephant by letting him knock back bottles of champagne or whiskey. Jumbo's fall into alcoholism was swift and his favorite food became biscuits soaked in whiskey. A peaceful drunk, he headlined shows at Madison Square Garden and the Brooklyn Bridge, quickly recuperating Barnum's investment. Then his pain was cut short. On September 15, 1885, at a railway yard in St. Thomas, Ontario, Jumbo noticed his tiny clown elephant co-star, Tom Thumb, was strolling on the train tracks. As Jumbo, possibly drunk, struggled to budge Tom Thumb from the path of danger, both were struck by a locomotive. Some sources say Tom Thumb survived, but Jumbo was killed. An autopsy revealed keys, rivets, various English coins and a police whistle in his stomach. Today, Jumbo's sad story endures and feeds the animal activist movement. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus no longer uses elephants in its shows. It's the right call. If all the mentions of Jumbo as an elephant were left from his tale, I'd have thought I was following the life of a human being.
 

Image credit & copyright: Tufts University
 

One could easily argue that children’s authors are as powerful as superheroes, but have even more responsibility. After all, they influence how generations of children grow up! Never was this truer than in the case of beloved American children’s author Beverly Cleary, who passed away last month at age 104. Cleary used two simple tools to create her timeless characters: her own childhood memories and the advice of children.
 

Although Cleary loved to read and write, she had a difficult time finding stories about average American children. “I wanted to read about the sort of boys and girls that I knew in my neighborhood and in my school,” Cleary told NPR in a 1999 interview. “And in my childhood, many years ago, children's books seemed to be about English children, or pioneer children. And that wasn't what I wanted to read.” Cleary published her first book, Henry Huggins, in 1950. Henry was an ordinary boy from Oregon who got into funny situations with neighboring children and his dog, Ribsy. The book also introduced a character who would go on to be Cleary’s most famous: Henry’s neighbor, Ramona Quimby. Ramona’s scrappy, mischievous nature, as well as many of her adventures, were based on memories from Cleary’s own childhood. Neither a model of perfect femininity nor a one-to-one stand-in for a male character, Ramona had a lovable quality all her own, which resonated with young female readers.
 

Cleary’s habit of listening to her young fans and changing with the times paid off, throughout her career. During the Women’s Movement of the 1960s and 70s, Cleary began integrating working mothers into her stories. In 1982, Cleary received letters from children asking if she could write a story about divorced parents. In response, she published Dear Mr. Henshaw, about a young boy struggling with his parents’ divorce. In 1984, it was awarded the John Newbery Medal. When asked how her books managed to stay relevant from the 1950s into the internet age, Cleary told the Atlantic, “I think it is because I have stayed true to my own memories of childhood, which are not different in many ways from those of children today. Although their circumstances have changed, I don't think children's inner feelings have changed.” If the current popularity of Cleary’s work is any indication, her legacy will continue to inspire children well into the future.

 
[Image description: Author Beverly Cleary sits, smiling, in a room beside a table lamp, with flowers in the foreground. ] Credit & copyright: Peter DaSilva

 
Written by: Maria C.

Friday the 13th? That's child's play when it comes to actual bad luck days. On her album release of Time (The Revelator) (2001), alt-country singer Gillian Welch crowned April 14th "Ruination Day" in America, and with good historical support for her claim. The earliest date mentioned in Welch's song Ruination Day (Part II) is April 14, 1865: that evening, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater while watching Our American Cousin. The second April 14th tragedy occurred in 1912 when the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, and some 1,500 people died in the freezing North Atlantic waters. The third and final date was April 14, 1935, when the "black blizzards" of dust reached the droughted southern plains states, causing the Associated Press to coin the term "Dust Bowl."
 

Welch took musical inspiration for Ruination Day from the works of folk singer Woody Guthrie and bluesman "Blind" Willie Johnson—though one doesn't have to dig into the lore of 20th century folk music to get a handle on how bad the middle of April is in U.S. history. A 2014 Vice article highlighted some of the worst American tragedies that happened not only on April 14th, but the third week of April, and they're a doozy: the devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco on April 18, 1906, the Oklahoma City bombing occurred April 19, 1995, and the Columbine massacre in Colorado happened on April 20, 1999.
 

So what's with all the bad luck and trouble in April? In the northern hemisphere, there is evidence that warming temperatures have some correlation with rises in crime rates, but causation hasn't been scientifically determined in such studies. Or maybe there's something to the T.S. Eliot quote from "The Wasteland" that "April is the cruelest month." Barring natural disasters or an anachronistic rise in unsinkable boat-theories, April 2021 is looking to be a transitory time at the end of covid rather than a tragic one. Let's remember to stay safe, follow CDC guidelines, and thank the artists who's creative works have kept us entertained and intrigued during these trying times.

 

Below: Ruination Day (Part II) by Gillian Welch.
 

[Image description: The bow of the sunken Titanic. Located 370 south-southeast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean.] Credit & copyright: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2004.

 
Written by: Esther P.