Noon Report:

• Location:  N 16° 25.50′, E 059° 14.70′
• Speed: 16 knots
• Course: 257º
• Weather: Partly Cloudy
• Temperature: 27 C; 81 F
• Wind: WNW 2 knots; 3 mph
• Sea: Calm

Another day another time change.
We woke up this morning having slept an extra hour. We are now on Arabian Standard time – 9 hours ahead of Boise.

During the walk this morning, I spotted a small pod of dolphins off the starboard side – sadly a ways away, but it’s the first cetacean sighting I’ve had on my morning walks.

After our normal “getting the day going” activities we found ourselves in the Theatre for the 9:00 lecture: “The History of Saudi Arabia.”

The lecture was early because there was another crew drill – complete with a mock “abandon ship” component. We managed to survive by staying clear of the crew activities.

We’re slowly getting caught up on posting. Mumbai was an amazing place and there is way too much to include more than a representation of what we experienced.

The 11:00 lecture was by our new Resident Astronomer: “Water, Water Everywhere” (even on other planets & comets).

Lunch was Chili Taco Fries, an amazing concoction that’s as good as it sounds.

As I was going thru the serving line one of the cooks held up a bottle of fry sauce and asked if I wanted mayonnaise. I corrected him and confirmed upon him the title of “Honorary Idahodian” – I’m not sure he really appreciated the gravity of that honor.

After lunch we retreated to the room for a bit of blogging and a bit of reading

The 4:30 lecture was on “The Dutch East India Company” – at its peak the largest, richest, and most powerful company in history – dwarfing even today’s mega-corps.

We skipped the 6:30 lecture and had a leisurely dinner before a very successful BBB. Our score of 17 of 29 saw us tied for first place!!!

Then it was time to rest on our laurels.

Tomorrow’s another day.
See you then,
R

Cheryl’s Factoids –

HISTORY OF SAUDI ARABIA:

• Mecca has always been a big trading hub on the Spice and Silk Roads and was polytheistic, allowing the worship of all gods. In 570 AD, Mohammad was born in Mecca and began preaching a monotheistic religious and political philosophy which rapidly spread. After Muhammad’s death in 632 CE, his friend Abu Bakr was named caliph/ruler of the Islamic community (Sunni Muslims believe that Abu Bakr was the proper successor, while Shi’a Muslims believe that someone from Mohammad’s bloodline should succeed him as caliph).
• After Muhammad’s death and the rebellion of several tribes, Caliph Abu Bakr initiated several military campaigns to bring Arabia under Islam and into the caliphate. Muslim armies conquered most of Arabia by 633, followed by north Africa, Mesopotamia, Persia, and spreading even up through Spain. The spread of Islam into Europe was only checked by battles at the border of France and also impacted the Byzantine Empire in the East. The Europeans got very alarmed and started the 8 major Crusades – which galvanized the Muslims against the West.
• The Ottoman Empire ruled for 600 years until 1922 when it backed Hitler in WWI. Afterwards, various treaties were made trying to quell the political tensions. The Anglo-Saudi Agreement of 1915 of Britain against the Ottomans sent munitions and Lawrence of Arabia to Caliph Ibn Saud. Lawrence instituted gorilla warfare and in 1932 Britain created Saudi Arabia as a new nation under Caliph Ibn Saud who had taken over Mecca, Medina, and most of the peninsula.
• In 1933 oil was discovered. Saudi Arabia went to the US for a loan to develop an oil industry and Standard Oil got the oil concession in Saudi Arabia.

DUTCH EAST INDIES COMPANY:

• When the Dutch realized how EXTREMELY valuable the spice trade was for the Portuguese East Indies company, they started attacking the Portuguese ships and setting up their own trading ports on various spice islands where they took over with their superior weapons, murdered people in Madera, and treated the island people badly.
• The original Dutch East India Company (the VOC) charter was only for 21 years. They were so profitable they were in essence given the military powers of a country. The VOC was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue and trade shares (originally if you pre-paid a ship’s captain for a share of his profits, if the ship went down you lost all your investment. But with buying a share in an entire trading company, even if several ships were lost you still made a profit from your portion of the company). By 1669 the VOC was the richest private and most valuable company in history.
• 1663 was the start of the Dutch vrs Portuguese War which lasted 60 years. The Dutch set up a trading monopoly from their capital in Batavia (now Jakarta), Java. They established Dutch immigrants as farmers in Cape Town, Africa, to resupply their traders rounding the Horn and in 1658 brought in African slaves to work on the farms.
• Henry Hudson was send by the VOC to discover a Northwest Passage to the East Indies – he discovered Hudson Bay and the Hudson River but no passageway. The Dutch set up a trading post on an eastern island of America and called it “New Amsterdam” but then sold it to the British who renamed it “New York”.
• The VOC declined due to corruption and incompetence and by 1799 the organization was disbanded. Most of the spices that had originally only grown in one special place were spread throughout various locations so it was harder to maintain a monopoly. Now the British moved in.
• Sir Stamford Raffles, a British colonial administrator, was heavily involved in the capture of the Indonesian island of Java from the Dutch in 1811 during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1819 he established a British trading post in Singapore which led to its founding as a British colony.