The Turtle ship a.k.a. Geobukseon or Kobukson
The Turtle ship, also known as Geobukseon or Kobukson, was a type of large warship belonging to the Panokseon class in Korea that was used intermittently by the Royal Korean Navy during the Joseon Dynasty from the early 15th century up until the 19th century.
The first references to older, first generation turtle ships, known as Gwiseon , come from 1413 and 1415 records in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, which mention a mock battle between a gwiseon and a Japanese warship. However, these early turtle ships soon fell out of use as Korea’s naval preparedness decreased during a long period of relative peace.
Turtle ships participated in numerous victories against Japanese naval forces that supported Toyotomi Hideyoshi's attempts to conquer Korea from 1592-1598, inflicting heavy losses. However, their historical role may have been exaggerated since "the entire Korean fleet probably did not have more than half a dozen turtleboats in action at any one time". Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin is credited with designing the ship while one of his lieutenants, Na Dae Yong, was in charge of building it. His turtle ships were equipped with at least five different types of cannon. Their most distinguishable feature was a fully covered deck that was shielded to deflect cannon fire, and with iron spikes to discourage enemy men from attempting to board the ship.
Construction
According to the Nanjung Ilgi, Yi's wartime diary, Yi decided to resurrect the turtle ship in 1591, from pre-existing designs (see picture, illustrated nearly 200 years earlier), after discussing the matter with his subordinates. Once concluding that a Japanese invasion was possible, if not imminent, Yi and his subordinate officers constructed the first modern turtle ship. Yi's diary, along with the book entitled Hangrok written by his nephew Yi Beon, described numerous important details about the structures, construction progress, and the use of turtle ships in battle, as well as the testing of weaponry used in the ships.
The mounted weapons, Korean cannons with ranges from about 300 to 500 metres, were tested on March 12, 1592. Yi completed his first turtle ship and launched it on March 27, 1592, one day before the Siege of Busan and the Battle of Tadaejin.
Structure
Many different versions of the turtle ships served during the war, but in general they were about 100 to 120 feet long (30 to 37 metres long), and strongly resembled the Panokseon's bottom structure. The turtle ship was technically a hull that was placed on top of a Panokseon, with a large anchor held in the front of the ship, and other minor modifications.
On the bow of the vessel was mounted a dragon head which emitted sulfur smoke to effectively hide its movement from the enemy in short distance combat. The dragon head was large enough for a cannon to fit inside. The dragon head served as a form of psychological warfare, with the aim of striking fear into the hearts of Japanese sailors. Early versions of the turtle ship would burn poisonous materials in the dragons head to release a poisonous smoke.
In the front of the ship was a large anchor. Below the anchor was a wooden crest that was shaped like a face, and these were used to ram into enemy ships.
Similar to the standard Panokseon, the turtle ship had two masts and two sails. Oars were also used for maneuvering and increased speed. Another advantage the turtle ship had over its enemies was that the turtle ship could turn on its own radius.
The turtle ship had 10 oars and 11 cannon portholes on each side. Usually, there was one cannon porthole in the dragon head's mouth. There were two more cannon portholes on the front and back of the turtle ship. The heavy cannons enabled the turtle ships to unleash a mass volley of cannonballs (some would use special wooden bolts several feet in length, with specially engineered iron fins). Its crew complement usually comprised about 50 to 60 fighting marines and 70 oarsmen, as well as the captain.
Sources indicate that sharp iron spikes protruded from hexagonal plates covering the top of the turtle ship. An advantage of the closed deck was that it protected the Korean sailors and marines from small arms and incendiary fire. The spikes discouraged Japanese sailors from engaging in their primary method of naval combat at the time, grappling an enemy ship with hooks and then boarding it to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Korean written descriptions all point to a maneuverable ship, capable of sudden bursts of speed. Like the standard Panokseon, the turtle ship featured a U-shaped hull which gave it the advantage of a more stable cannon-firing platform, and the ability to turn within its own radius. The main disadvantage of a U-shaped bottom versus a V-shaped bottom was a somewhat slower cruising speed.
Decking
While it is clear from the available sources that the roof of the ship was covered with iron spikes to prevent boarding, there is insufficient evidence to support the claim that it was iron plated. In fact, no contemporary Korean source exists which refers to the turtle ship as ironclad: Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the purported inventor himself, makes no mention of any kind of ironplating in his comprehensive war diary, nor does Yi Pun, his nephew and also witness of the war, in his account of the events. The annals of King Sonjo, a many thousand pages long compilation of all kinds of official documents of the period, are also silent on the subject. By contrast, Korean prime minister Yu Song-nyong described the turtle ship as "covered by wooden planks on top".
Japanese sources mention a clash in August 1592 which involved three Korean turtle ships "covered in iron". However, according to Hawley, this does not necessarily mean the vessels were covered with iron plates; it could refer to the iron spikes protruding from their roofs, a fitting described for the first time three weeks earlier in Yi Sun-sin's diary. Records, though, show that the Japanese government ordered in February 1593 the military to use iron plate in building ships, possibly in response to the Korean attacks.
As it was, Yi Sun-shin, who was largely cut off from government supplies throughout his campaigns, found the relatively small amount of fifty pounds worth mentioning in his war diary. Therefore, Hawley believes that it is unlikely that Admiral Yi would have passed in silence over the estimated six tons (twelve thousand pounds) of iron necessary for even a single outfit. Such a large amount of iron was equivalent to one ship's entire ordnance, and would have probably been regarded more useful for casting additional cannons, particularly since the Koreans were well aware that Japanese warships were practically devoid of naval guns. Confronted with an enemy who relied on small arms fire and boarding tactics, and faced by the logistical and financial difficulties involved in acquiring such a large amount of iron, any iron cladding of the Korean vessels has been deemed by Hawley inherently superfluous:
Until further information comes to light to the contrary, the likeliest conclusion is that Yi Sun-sin's turtle ship was armored only insofar as it was constructed of heavy timbers and covered with a thick plank roof studded with iron spikes - which against the light guns of the Japanese was armor enough.
Evidence for a plated turtle ship is found, according to Turnbull, in a 1795 drawing of the turtle ship where the shell is shown as being covered by a distinct hexagonal pattern, implying that there is something covering the wood shell. Hawley, however, questions the historical accuracy of this drawing since it departs in important ways from the 16th century ships such as its lack of the reported iron spikes (see image) and the different shape and number of the dragon heads displayed at the bow. In this context, it is worth noting that the hexagonal structure, which is a natural feature of turtles' shell, does not necessarily imply metal armour, since the designation "turtle ship" is already attested around 180 years before Yi Sun-sin's ships took to the sea (in 1413), for an early type of the vessel which by all accounts did not feature any kind of armour.
According to one hypothesis by Hawley, the idea that the Korean turtle ships were ironclad has its origins in the writings of late 19th century Westerners returning from Korea. The progression from casual comparison to a statement of fact that the turtle ships anticipated the modern ironclad by centuries can be roughly charted in retrospect, starting no earlier than ca. 1880. Coming in touch with local tales of ancient armoured ships in a period which saw the rise of Western-type ironclad warship to global prominence, these authors may have naturally conjured up the image of metal armour, instead of a more traditional heavy timber shell. For instance, when Korea was threatened by the French Navy, the government ordered an "ironclad" ship be built "like the turtle ship". However, despite all efforts the design failed to float. Turnbull believes that the 19th century experience should not rule out a "limited amount of armor plating in 1592".
It should be mentioned that the Korean claim of priority has been in turn contested by other early modern warships, including the Santa Anna of the Knights Hospitaller (1522), the Japanese Atakebune (1578) it was used primarily as a floating fortress more than a warship per se) and the Dutch Finis Bellis (1585).
Weapons
Dragon's head
The dragon's head was placed on the top of the ship at the bow. Several different versions of the dragon head were used on the turtle ships. The dragon head was first placed as an early form of psychological warfare to scare Japanese soldiers. One version carried a projector that could release a dense toxic smoke that was generated from a mixture of sulfur and saltpeter produced in the bowels of the ship. The smoke was designed to obscure vision and interfere with the Japanese ability to maneuver and coordinate properly.
Yi's own diary explains that a cannon could be fitted in the mouth of the dragon to be fired at enemy ships
Spikes
Metal spikes were used to cover the top of the turtle ship to deter boarding tactics used by the Japanese. According to historical records, the spikes were covered with empty rice sacks or rice mats to lure the Japanese into trying to board, since the boarding would appear safe. However, modern authors have found this to be unlikely since such an arrangement would have invited enemy fire arrows.
Cannon
The turtle ship was equipped with Cheonja (Heaven), Gija (Earth), Hyeonja (Black), and Hwangja (yellow) type cannons. There was also an arquebus known as Seungja (victory). The Seungja cannon ranged 200 metres, while the Hwangja was the lightest but with a range of 1200 metres. One Japanese record of the Battle at Angolpo records the experience of two Japanese commanders on July 9th, 1592 in their battle against turtle ships, "their (turtle ships') attack continued until about 6 o'clock in the afternoon, by firing large fire-arrows through repeated alternate approaches, even as close as 18-30 feet. As a result almost every part of our ships - the turret, the passages and the side shielding - were totally destroyed..."
Four series of guns, Cheonja, Jija, Hyeonja and Hwangja were used during Imjin war period. Ancient Koreans gave different names for this four series of guns to separate their capability according to maximum range, number of balls and length. These guns mounted on Geobukseon ship and Panokseon ship. According to Nanjungilgi, war diary of Admiral Yi, he inspected naval bases when they test fire the guns in February 1592. He also drove his fleet and tested these guns of Geobukseon in the middle of south sea.
Guns comparison
Cheonjachongtong Jijachongtong Hyeonjachongtong Hwangjachongtong
Range 1,125m 1,000m 1,000m or 1,875m 1,378m
Calibre 118~130mm 105mm 60~75mm 40mm
Length 130~136cm 89~89.5cm 79~83.8cm 50.4cm
Tactical use
Yi resurrected the turtle ship as a close-assault vessel, intended to ram enemy ships and sink them, similar to their use in past centuries. It was rowed directly into enemy ship formations to disrupt their lines. After ramming, the turtle ship would unleash a broadside volley of cannonballs. Because of this tactic, the Japanese called the turtle ships the mekurabune (目蔵船), or "blind ships", because they would blast and ram into enemy ships. This kind of attack was used during the Dangpo Battle and Battle of Sacheon (1592).
The turtle ship's main use of the plating was as an anti-boarding device, due to the top plating of the turtle ship and its protruded spikes. Grappling hooks could not gain direct hold on the plating, and jumping on top of the turtle ship often meant being impaled. The heavy timber plating deflected arrows and arquebus rounds.
Later, the turtle ship was used for other purposes such as spearheading attacks or ambushing Japanese ships in tight areas such as in the Battle of Noryang.
Despite popular depiction, the turtle ship was not an extremely slow ship. The turtle ship had oar propulsion as well as sails, and could turn on its axis like the panokseon. Admiral Yi constructed the turtle ship to be fast and agile for the purpose of ramming.
Turtle ships today
A turtle ship has been reconstructed by Keobukseon Research Center, which is a private commercial company. They have done extensive research on the original design of the turtle ship, and made several real-size reconstructions of them for commercial use. These were deployed in a Korean drama, The Immortal Admiral Yi Sun-shin .Several museums host turtle ships on display, and people can visit and go inside a 1:1 scale turtle ship that is anchored at Yeosu. North Korean delegations to the south seem to be more reserved about the significance of his historical role.
Turtle ships are present in the Korean campaign in the Real-time strategy game Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, where the player must use them to defeat the Japanese invasion.
Other interesting website about The Turtle ship : oodacycle
Source : Wikipedia
Anna Mitchell-Hedges and a Crystal Skull.
The Turtle ship, also known as
Geobukseon or Kobukson
- 20
| ||||||
Click pics to enlarge
The Turtle ship, also known as Geobukseon or Kobukson
Highlight text then click icon
Admiral Yi Sun-sin
Click pics to enlarge
The Icelandic Phallological Museum
The Icelandic Phallological Museum (Icelandic: Hið Íslenzka Reðasafn) in Húsavík, Iceland (formerly in Reykjavík) is a museum devoted to phallology. As of September 2009, the museum houses 272 specimens from 92 species of animals displayed, like hunting trophies, embalmed in formaldehyde, or dried in display cases. The museum attempts to collect penis specimens from every mammal in Iceland, including several species that are endangered or currently extinct in Icelandic waters.
Sigurður Hjartarson, a former teacher of history at an institute in Reykjavík, is the founder and current director of the museum, which also exhibits a few specimens from mammals not living in Iceland, as well as folkloric specimens (alleged elves, trolls, sea monsters, etc.) and penis-themed art.
Although the museum does not yet have a Homo sapiens specimen, in the interest of advancing phallological knowledge, a patron (Páll Arason, born in 1915 and currently 94 years old) has donated, presumably posthumously, an affidavit for his penis.
Other interesting website about The Icelandic Phallological Museum : Homepage
Source : Wikipedia
The Icelandic Phallological Museum
The Icelandic Phallological Museum
Click pics to enlarge
The Radium Girls
The Radium Girls were a group of female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with glow-in-the-dark paint at the United States Radium factory in Orange, New Jersey around 1917. The women, who had been told the paint was harmless, ingested deadly amounts of radium by licking their paintbrushes to sharpen them; some also painted their fingernails with the glowing substance.
Five of the women challenged their employer in a court case that established the right of individual workers who contract occupational diseases to sue their employers.
U.S. Radium Corporation
From 1917 to 1926, U.S. Radium Corporation was engaged in the extraction and purification of radium from carnotite ore to produce luminous paints, which were marketed under the brand name 'Undark'. As a defense contractor, U.S. Radium was a major supplier of radioluminescent watches to the military. Their plant in New Jersey employed over a hundred workers, mainly women, to paint radium-lit watch faces and instruments.
Radiation exposure
The Radium Girls saga holds an important place in the history of both the field of health physics and the labour rights movement. The U.S. Radium Corporation hired some 70 women to perform various tasks including the handling of radium, while the owners and the scientists — familiar with the effects of radium — carefully avoided any exposure to it themselves; chemists at the plant used lead screens, masks and tongs.
An estimated 4,000 workers were hired by corporations in the U.S. and Canada to paint watch faces with radium. They mixed glue, water and radium powder, and then used camel hair brushes to apply the glowing paint onto dial numbers. The going rate, for painting 250 dials a day, was about a penny and a half per dial. The brushes would lose shape after a few strokes, so the U.S. Radium supervisors encouraged their workers to point the brushes with their lips, or use their tongues to keep them sharp. For fun, the Radium Girls painted their nails, teeth and faces with the deadly paint produced at the factory, sometimes to surprise their boyfriends when the lights went out.
Radiation sickness
Many of the women later began to suffer from anemia, bone fractures and necrosis of the jaw, a condition now known as radium jaw. It is thought that the x-ray machines used by the medical investigators may have contributed to some of the sickened workers ill-health by subjecting them to additional radiation. It turned out at least one of the examinations was a ruse, part of a campaign of disinformation started by the defense contractor. U.S. Radium and other watch-dial companies rejected claims that the afflicted workers were suffering from exposure to radium. For some time, doctors, dentists, and researchers complied with requests from the companies not to release their data. At the urging of the companies, worker deaths were attributed by medical professionals to other causes; syphilis was often cited in attempts to smear the reputations of the women.
Significance
Litigation
The story of the abuse perpetrated against the workers is distinguished from most such cases by the fact that the ensuing litigation was covered widely by the media. Plant worker Grace Fryer decided to sue, but it took two years for her to find a lawyer willing to take on U.S. Radium. A total of five factory workers, dubbed the Radium Girls, joined the suit. The litigation and media sensation surrounding the case established legal precedents and triggered the enactment of regulations governing labor safety standards, including a baseline of 'provable suffering'.
Historical impact
The right of individual workers to sue for damages from corporations due to labor abuse was established as a result of the Radium Girls case. In the wake of the case, industrial safety standards were demonstrably enhanced for many decades.
The case was settled in the fall of 1928, before the trial was deliberated by the jury, and the settlement for each of the Radium Girls was $10,000 (the equivalent of $124,000 in 2009 dollars) and a $600 per year annuity while they lived, and all medical and legal expenses incurred would also be paid by the company.
Scientific impact
Robley D. Evans made the first measurements of exhaled radon and radium excretion from a former dial painter in 1933. At MIT he gathered dependable body content measurements from 27 dial painters. This information was used in 1941 by the National Bureau of Standards to establish the tolerance level for radium of 0.1 μCi (3.7 kBq).
The Center for Human Radiobiology was established at Argonne National Laboratory in 1968. The primary purpose of the Center was providing medical examinations for living dial painters. The project also focused on collection of information, and, in some cases, tissue samples from the radium dial painters. When the project ended in 1993, detailed information of 2,403 cases had been collected. No symptoms were observed in those dial painter cases with less than 1,000 times the natural 226Ra levels found in unexposed individuals, suggesting a threshold for radium-induced malignancies.
Literature and film
The story is told in Eleanor Swanson's poem Radium Girls, collected in A Thousand Bonds: Marie Curie and the Discovery of Radium (2003, ISBN 0-967-18107-0)
D.W. Gregory told the story of Grace Fryer in the play Radium Girls, which premiered in 2000 at the Playwrights Theatre in Madison, New Jersey.
There is an elaborate reference to the story in the Kurt Vonnegut novel Jailbird (1979, ISBN 0-385-33390-0)
Poet Lavinia Greenlaw has written on the subject in The Innocence of Radium (Night Photograph, 1994)
Ross Mullner's book Deadly Glow: The Radium Dial Worker Tragedy describes many of the events (1999, ISBN 0-875-53245-4)
The story is told by Jo Lawrence in her short animated film "Glow" (2007)
The story is referenced in the 2007 film Pu-239
The Michael A. Martone short story It's Time is told from the perspective of an unnamed Radium Girl
A fictionalized version of the story was featured in the Spike TV show 1000 Ways to Die
The story of Catherine Donahue's litigation and the girls at the Ottawa, Illinois, Radium Dial plant was the basis of the play These Shining Lives by Melanie Marnich.
The Case of the Living Dead Women is a website displaying scans of 180 pages of newspaper clippings of the Ottawa, Illinois radium dial litigation
Radium Halos: A Novel about the Radium Dial Painters by Shelley Stout is historical fiction narrated by a sixty-five-year-old mental patient who worked at the factory when she was sixteen (ISBN 978-1448696222).
Other interesting website about The Radium Girls : Time
Source : Wikipedia
The Tear Of Grief Memorial
The Tear Of Grief Memorial
Click pics to enlarge
The Tear Of Grief Memorial a.k.a. Tear Drop Memorial
To the Struggle Against World Terrorism (also known as the Tear of Grief and the Tear Drop Memorial) is a 10-story-high sculpture by Zurab Tsereteli that was given to the United States as an official gift of the Russian government as a memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It stands on The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor in New Jersey and was dedicated on September 11, 2006 in a ceremony attended by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
The sculpture is in the form of a 100-foot (30 m) tower made of steel and coated in bronze, split with a jagged opening through the middle.Inside the opening hangs a large stainless-steel teardrop, 40 feet (12 m) high, in memory of those whose lives were lost during terrorist attacks in the United States. The eleven sides of the monument's base bear granite name plates, on which are etched the names of those that died in the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Tsereteli has not disclosed the cost of the sculpture except to say that he was paying for labor and materials. A lawyer for the sculptor released the cost of the figure at about $12 million.The monument was listed as one of the The World’s Ugliest Statues by Foreign Policy magazine. It was initially given to the local government of Jersey City, but was rejected once city officials actually saw it. It was then relocated to its present placement in Bayonne.The monument has been widely criticized by locals, with one 9/11 survivor likening it to "a cross between a scar and a female sexual organ."
Zurab Tsereteli
His Tear of Grief (actually titled "To the Struggle Against World Terrorism") features a 40-foot teardrop suspended in the fissure of a 106-foot bronze rectangular tower. The monument includes the names of all the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, as well as the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. At the ground breaking for the massive project, Vladimir Putin was present and called the sculpture “a gift from the people of Russia.” It was erected at the tip of the decommissioned Military Ocean Terminal, now rechristened The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, in Bayonne, New Jersey (after nearby Jersey City first accepted, then declined, the free monument) and was dedicated on September 11, 2006. The artist, Bill Clinton, Michael Chertoff, New Jersey Senator Jon Corzine, and a 9/11 widow all spoke at the dedication ceremony.
"Commemorative plate : Gift from the people of Russia -President Vladimir Putin.This site will be the home for the monument for the struggle against world terrorism."
" The current American President Barrack Hussein Obama silently Allows the Planning for Building a Mosque near the 9/11 impact in NY to commemorate the victims!"
Source : Wikipedia
Click pics to enlarge
The Tarring and feathering
Tarring and feathering was a physical punishment, used to enforce formal justice in feudal Europe and informal justice in Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance (compare Lynch law).
Description
In a typical tar-and-feathers attack, the subject of a crowd's anger would be stripped to his waist. Hot tar was either poured or painted onto the person while he was immobilized. Then the victim either had feathers thrown on him or was rolled around on a pile of feathers so that they stuck to the tar. Often the victim was then paraded around town on a cart or a rail. The aim was to hurt and humiliate a person enough to leave town and not cause any more mischief.
The practice was never an official punishment in the United States, and rather a form of vigilante justice. It was eventually abandoned as society moved away from public, corporal punishment and toward capital punishment and rehabilitation of criminals.
A more brutal derivation called pitchcapping, was used by British forces against Irish rebels during the period of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
Sometimes only the head was shaven, tarred and feathered.
History
The earliest mention of the punishment occurs in the orders of Richard I of England, issued to his navy on starting for the Holy Land in 1189. "Concerning the lawes and ordinances appointed by King Richard for his navie the forme thereof was this... item, a thiefe or felon that hath stolen, being lawfully convicted, shal have his head shorne, and boyling pitch poured upon his head, and feathers or downe strawed upon the same whereby he may be knowen, and so at the first landing-place they shall come to, there to be cast up" (transcript of original statute in Hakluyt's Voyages, ii. 21).
A later instance of this penalty being inflicted is given in Notes and Queries (series 4, vol. v), which quotes one James Howell writing from Madrid, in 1623, of the "boisterous Bishop of Halberstadt", who, "having taken a place where there were two monasteries of nuns and friars, he caused divers feather beds to be ripped, and all the feathers thrown into a great hall, whither the nuns and friars were thrust naked with their bodies oiled and pitched and to tumble among these feathers, which makes them here (Madrid) presage him an ill-death."
In 1696 a London bailiff, who attempted to serve process on a debtor who had taken refuge within the precincts of the Savoy, was tarred and feathered and taken in a wheelbarrow to the Strand, where he was tied to the maypole which stood by what is now Somerset House, as an improvised pillory.
The first recorded incident in America was in 1766: Captain William Smith was tarred, feathered, and dumped into the harbor of Norfolk, Virginia, by a mob that included the town's Mayor. He was picked up by a vessel just as his strength was giving out. He survived, and was later quoted as saying that "...[they] dawbed my body and face all over with tar and afterwards threw feathers on me." As with most other tar-and-feathers victims in the following decade, Smith was suspected of informing on smugglers to the British Customs service.
The torture appeared in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1767, when mobs attacked low-level employees of the Customs service with tar and feathers. In October 1769, a mob in Boston attacked a Customs service sailor the same way, and a few similar attacks followed through 1774 (the tarring and feathering of customs worker John Malcolm received particular attention in 1774). Such acts associated the punishment with the Patriot side of the American Revolution. The exception was when, in March 1775, a British regiment inflicted the same treatment on a Massachusetts man they suspected of trying to buy their muskets.There is no case of a person dying from being tarred and feathered in this period.
During the Whiskey Rebellion, the punishment was inflicted on Federal tax agents by local farmers.
In 1851 a Know-Nothing mob in Ellsworth, Maine tarred and feathered a Swiss-born Jesuit priest, Father John Bapst, in the midst of a local controversy over religious education in grammar schools. Bapst fled Ellsworth to settle in nearby Bangor, Maine, where there was a large Irish-Catholic community, and a local high school there is named for him.
In the 1920s, vigilantes opposed to IWW organizers at California's harbor of San Pedro, kidnapped at least one organizer, subjected him to tarring and feathering, and left him in a remote location.
This was a relatively rare form of mob punishment for African Americans in the post-bellum U.S. South as its goal is typically pain and humiliation rather than death (as in the more common lynching and burning alive). There were several examples of tar and feathering of African Americans in the lead up to World War I in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Following the Liberation of France in World War II there were instances of alleged German collaborators being tarred and feathered[citation needed] by street mobs. Most of the victims of this practice were women accused of a Collaboration horizontale, i.e., sexual relations with German soldiers.
Similar tactics were also used by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the early years of the The Troubles. Many of the victims were women who had been in sexual relationships with policemen or British soldiers.
In August 2007, loyalist groups in Northern Ireland were linked to the tarring and feathering of an individual accused of drug-dealing.
Pop culture
On the Spanish game show el gran juego de la oca the contestant who lands on space 58 received this punishment, the contestant was tarred fully clothed and then they pour feathers on her/him.
In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Dauphin and the Duke are tarred, feathered, and ridden on a rail in Pikesville after performing the Royal Nonesuch to a crowd whom Jim had previously forewarned about the rapscallions.
Edgar Allan Poe's humorous short story "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" features the staff of an insane asylum being tarred and feathered.
"What Happened To Charles," one of James Thurber's Fables For Our Time, has the duck Eva, who eavesdrops on every conversation she hears but never gets anything quite right, tarred and UN-feathered after, having mistaken "shod" (having shoes put on one's feet) for "shot" (having a ranged projectile physically fired into one) and spread the (false!) word that the horse Charles has been killed, he turns up very much alive and wearing new horseshoes.
Jimmy Carter's 2003 novel Hornet's Nest describes the tarring and feathering of a Tory by members of the Sons of Liberty. The man suffered severe burns on both feet as the tar filled his boots and had toes amputated as a result.
Characters are frequently shown tarred and feathered in the comic series Lucky Luke, set in the American Old West.
In the film Little Big Man, the title character (whose real name is Jack Crabbe and was played by Dustin Hoffman) is shown being tarred and feathered for selling a phoney medicinal elixir. When he reveals his name to the leader of the mob, it turns out that she is his long lost sister, at which point she exclaims "I just tarred and feathered my own brother!"
In the 1972 John Waters film Pink Flamingos, Connie and Raymond Marbles (played by Mink Stole and David Lochary), are tarred and feathered as retribution for a series of misdeeds against the film's protagonist, Babs Johnson (Divine).
In the video game Curse of Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood is tarred and feathered by monkey crew members of a pirate ship. He later uses this to pose as El Pollo Diablo, a giant chicken who has terrorised the area.
Broken Lizard's film, Beerfest, includes a scene in which Cloris Leachman's character and her son are tarred and feathered in turn of the century Germany.
In Daniel Knauf's Carnivàle in an episode named Lincoln Highway, Clayton "Jonesy" Jones, the crippled co-manager, is almost lethally tarred and feathered.
In "The Simpsons" episode "Treehouse of Horror XVIII," one of Marge Simpson's sisters appears to have been tarred and feathered from a Halloween prank.
In "The Simpsons" episode "Bart of Darkness," Bart gets Grandpa Simpson tarred and feathered.
The avant-garde electronic music artist Fad Gadget often performed on stage while tarred and feathered. He was photographed in tar and feathers for the cover of his album Gag.
In an episode of Jackass, Ryan Dunn was tarred and feathered by Bam Margera.
The 2008 HBO miniseries John Adams featured a fictional scene of Adams witnessing the captain of the ship 'The Beaver'(which was one of the ships that the tea got thrown off of during the Boston Tea Party) being tarred and feathered by an angry Boston mob.
In the television series It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Mac and Dennis, while dressed as British nobles, are tarred and feathered by colonial Americans.
In the 1988 film "Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark", Elvira is tarred and feathered in a spoof of the movie "Flashdance".
In Seamus Heaney's poem 'Punishment', the tarring and feathering of Catholic women who fraternized with British soldiers during the troubles in the 1970s is made reference to. Heaney juxtaposes this with the punishment of Iron Age bog body the Windeby Girl who was supposedly punished for infidelity, suggesting that the punishment meted to women in Northern Ireland is very much rooted in ancient tribal traditions.
Metaphorical uses
The image of the tarred-and-feathered outlaw is so vivid that the expression remains a metaphor for public humiliation, many years after the practice disappeared. To tar and feather someone can mean to punish or severely criticize that person.This example comes from Dark Summer by Iris Johansen: "But you'd tar and feather me if I made the wrong decision for these guys."
The Tarring and feathering - Historical reenactment
Source : Wikipedia
Click here to add text.
