Girl Pat was a small fishing trawler based at the Lincolnshire port of
Grimsby that caused a media sensation in 1936 with an adventurous
transatlantic voyage using a sixpenny school atlas as its main
navigational aid. The escapade ended in Georgetown, British Guiana, with
the arrest of the trawler's captain, George "Dod" Orsborne. On 1 April
1936, Orsborne, with a crew of four, took the vessel out on what its
owners authorised as a routine North Sea fishing trip. Nothing was heard
of them until mid-May, when the owners received invoices relating to
repairs and reprovisioning in the Spanish port of Corcubión. Subsequent
sightings placed the trawler in the Savage Islands, at Dakar in Senegal,
and at Îles du Salut off the coast of French Guiana in South America.
After the vessel's capture and detention on 19 June, the crew were
hailed as heroes by much of the world's press. Orsborne returned to
England and was tried and imprisoned for the theft of the vessel. Years
later he made an uncorroborated claim that the Girl Pat voyage had been
an undercover mission carried out on behalf of British Naval
Intelligence.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Pat_(1935_trawler)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
750 BC:
Romulus, the legendary co-founder of Rome, held the first
Roman triumph to celebrate a military victory following the Rape of the
Sabine Women.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_triumph>
1692:
Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba were brought before local
magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning the Salem witch
trials.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials>
1896:
Ethiopia defeated Italy at the Battle of Adwa, ending the First
Italo-Ethiopian War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Adwa>
1936:
Hoover Dam, on the Colorado River along the Arizona–Nevada
border, was completed and turned over to the Federal government of the
United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam>
1956:
The NATO phonetic alphabet, today the most widely used spelling
alphabet, was first implemented by the International Civil Aviation
Organization.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
nocturne:
1. A work of art relating or dedicated to the night.
2. (music) A dreamlike or pensive composition, usually for the piano.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nocturne>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Neither the sword of popes, nor the cross, nor the image of death
— nothing will halt the march of truth. I wrote what I felt and that
is what I preached with trusting spirit. I am convinced that after my
destruction the teachings of false prophets will collapse.
--Ferenc Dávid
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ferenc_D%C3%A1vid>