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Re: Historical digression : 1776 and all that
Ian N Ford (ian@FORD.DIRCON.CO.UK)
Sat, 21 Aug 1999 17:55:43 +0100
In 1990 a group of US Scouts from Long Island and their British hosts
gathered in St Luke's Church, Charlton, the parish church of General
James Wolfe of Quebec. The Union Jack and Star Spangled Banner were side
by side at the altar whilst we all sang " God Save the Queen " and
" America the Beautiful ". It was the American minister who suggested
that hymn rather than
the " Star Spangled Banner " in the circumstances, which I thought was
rather a nice touch.
Some of the American Scouts went to the nearby Royal Artillery Museum
and learnt about General Congreeve, who installed a rocket battery on
the warship HMS Erebus. The first time that rockets
were used in naval warfare was in 1812 and hence the verse - " and the
rockets' red glare ... " There is also a memorial to Congreeve in St
Luke's. It was possibly due to the fact that the missiles were still in
the experimental stage that " the flag was still there " the following
morning. The Army gunners discovered it was impossible to compensate for
the unpredictable rise and fall of the ship, and most of the rockets did
indeed " burst in air " rather that hit the
" towering keep ".
Ian F
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