Latest news with #BritishNavy
The Sun
5 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Mystery of lost British treasure ship laden with priceless artefacts may finally be solved 350 years after it vanished
A BRITISH ship filled with "rare treasure" that disappeared centuries ago may finally have been discovered off the coast of Ireland. The Recovery was transporting priceless cargo from Italy to Dublin when it mysteriously sank in 1787, killing six crew members. 6 6 6 Following decades of hunting, part of the historic vessel has been identified by divers in Wexford, southeast Ireland, after its rudder was picked up by sonar. Edmond O'Byrne, who's leading the effort, said: "At first I thought it was a torpedo, because the image would be slightly distorted on the side-scan sonar. "When we went down, it turned out to be a 20-foot-long rudder covered in copper sheet. "We've searched and, so far, nobody can tell us that there is a copper-covered rudder in existence from that time anywhere. "It could be the only one of its time. Now that really identified her." Built in Chester in 1773, the Recovery was one of a few hundred ships in the entire British merchant fleet that had their hulls covered in copper sheathing. It was used by the British navy at the time to prevent marine wildlife growing on wooden warships. The long lost rudder was discovered almost 250 metres from other parts of the ship, including an anchor and timber fittings. Artefacts such as a copper teapot and inkwells were also found nearby. Its final location may shed some light on the final moments of the Recovery, which is believed to have been pulled apart in shallow water. Inside the San José shipwreck with £13billion worth of lost treasures trapped underwater The captain and his two sons were among the crew members who tragically perished. Edmond added: "We reckon when she came around Carnsore Point, she came into shallower water, and pulled the rudder and part of the stern off. "And then the ship was at the mercy of the sea." But he believes that the lost antiques, which include bronze and marble artworks, are in a good condition despite sitting roughly 20 metres beneath the surface. The Irishman said: "There could be something in very good condition. "Because if they had to journey some distance on land to get to the port and then be loaded and then unloaded, they would have to be packed very, very well. "So there is a chance that something would survive." Some of the pieces of art on the ship had been collected by the Earl of Charlemont during a nine-year tour of Europe. "Ireland's wealthiest banker" John La Touche also owned some of the expensive materials stored on the boat. The true value of the cargo is unknown. Amorino, another statue commissioned by the banker, sold for more than £500,000 in 1997. The piece was designed by the famous Italian sculptor, Antonio Canova, and is now displayed at the National Gallery of Ireland. 6 6
Buzz Feed
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
History's Most Gruesome Deaths Revealed
They say history is always written from the perspective of the victor, even though those who have been defeated in gruesome deaths find themselves immortalized in some capacity. Their endings aren't pretty by any means, though they're remembered more vividly than those who've left this world on a less disastrous note. Recently, I did a deep dive on r/AskReddit where, in one post, someone asked users to name the "famous historical figures [who] had deaths proportionally brutal to their level of fame." Here's what people had to say: Note: Some responses have been condensed and edited for clarity. "Ulysses S. Grant, but it was still a noble death." "After losing all his money to a Ponzi scheme, he defied a throat cancer diagnosis in order to write his memoirs (published by Mark Twain) so that the proceeds would sustain his wife after his death. He wrote one thousand words a day, every day, until the cancer left him too weak to write. At this point, he hired a stenographer and dictated the final chapters through the pain of advanced throat cancer, for which he was denied morphine to keep his mind sharp. At the end, he was forced to wear a wool scarf for all public appearances to hide the fist-sized tumor in front of his a year's work and 366,000 words written, he gave the manuscript to Mark Twain to publish and was told that 100,000 copies had been pre-ordered. One week later, he succumbed to cancer. Julia Grant and their children received the modern equivalent of 12 million dollars. The work was such a commercial success, it outsold Twain's other work, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."–u/maejaws "Julius Caesar's death is pretty wild. Stabbed to death on the Senate floor by people he thought were his political allies and personal friends." –u/JackC1126 "Blackbeard the Pirate (Edward Teach). Cornered by the British Navy, he went down fighting. When his body was examined, he had been shot five times and had 20 sword cuts. The British sailors fired another 20 shots into his body and cut off his head to be displayed as a warning to other would-be pirates." –u/Johhnymaddog316 "Sigurd the Mighty. A Norwegian Jarl of Shetland who conquered part of Northern Scotland." "Charles of Navarre (Charles the Bad) died a quite terrible death. At 54 years old (1387), he fell seriously ill, and on the doctor's advice, they wrapped him in linen soaked in brandy. Because, you know, medieval medicine. Unfortunately, the maid tripped and dropped a candle, which set the brandy ablaze, burning the man alive." –u/MinuteCow8927 "Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII must have actually loved her at one point, to then turn around and have her not only executed, but then erase her as much as he possibly could afterwards. He felt so betrayed (despite being the betrayer himself), he tried to erase her existence." –u/TrespianRomance "Jamestown governor John Ratcliffe, the villain in Disney's Pocahontas. Had his skin peeled off and thrown in a fire in front of him." –u/Pantastic_Studios "Joan of Arc, a 19-year-old girl being slowly burned to death by the same church she dedicated her life to, while chanting Christ's name over and over. Only to be named a Saint by that same church centuries later." –u/SemperFun62 "Qaddafi getting sodomized with a bayonet has to be up there." –u/flightist "Robespierre. Shot in the jaw, unable to speak, which is what helped start the Terror in the first place — his words. Taken to the guillotine like so many others." –u/drulaps "Roland Freisler died a fittingly brutal death. He was a Nazi judge who oversaw a lot of torture and thousands of death sentences. Differing accounts say that he was killed either when a piece of his courtroom crushed him in an air raid, or when shrapnel hit him and he ran out only to bleed to death on the courthouse steps." –u/petitecrivain "Stalin lay on the ground in his office for about 11 hours after having a stroke, dying slowly in pain. The staff were too scared to enter his private office without explicit permission, so they waited until a senior person showed up." –u/unclear_warfare Martin Luther King Jr., as the most visible leader of the Civil Rights Movement, was assassinated in a brutal act of racial violence intended to silence his powerful message. Instead, his death became a rallying cry for the movement and further elevated his status as a global icon of peace and justice." –u/Spice-Fairy04 "Bonnie and Clyde. Holy shit, that car had a lot of bullet holes in it." –u/PreparedStatement "Joseph Smith." "Today, he is best known for founding the Mormon religion, but he had higher ambitions than that. He started a large cult, very similar to what you see today, where he was a godlike leader who had multiple wives and required complete adherence from his followers. But this was the 1830s in the 'Wild West,' where people were distracted with other things, so before time caught up with him, he had developed as a full-on nation-state, with thousands of members, in Western Illinois. For the second time in a 10-year span, Smith amassed a large, heavily armed militia, overthrew the government, destroyed the newspapers, imposed martial law, and declared that he was running for US president, at which point it was assumed he would attempt to take over the entire country, whether he won or was charged with treason and taken to an Illinois prison. Before he could face trial, hundreds of men stormed the jail, shot Smith repeatedly, at which point Smith tried to escape by jumping from the second-story window, which probably killed him, but the mob went outside and beat and repeatedly shot Smith's corpse just to be was a murder trial for some of the mob members who killed Smith, but all the defendants were acquitted, partially due to jury nullification, but also because there were so many people who shot, beat, and took credit for killing him, it was impossible to prove that one person actually did the deed."–u/Many_Collection_8889 "William the Conqueror died of a massive infection caused by an injury he received from the pommel of his saddle." –u/MartialBob "Samuel Doe (21st President of Liberia). He faced 12 hours of torture (which included his ears getting cut off and some of his fingers and toes amputated) before he was finally murdered."
Malay Mail
09-05-2025
- General
- Malay Mail
She fought the Nazis, flew a Spitfire at 100 — and now teaches yoga every week
HARLOW (UK), May 9 — Centenarian Dorothea Barron recalled the wave of relief she felt when she heard World War II had finally come to an end. 'Thank goodness that's over,' the British Navy veteran remembers thinking. Eighty years on, the sprightly 100-year-old — who now teaches yoga and celebrated her milestone birthday with a flight in a Spitfire fighter plane — is among an ever-shrinking number of veterans with firsthand memories of the war. Exactly how many former WWII servicepeople remain in the UK is unknown. While experts estimate several thousand are still alive, the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, marked on 8 May, may be among the last major British wartime commemorations with a notable veteran presence. As Britain marked the anniversary with four days of celebrations from Monday — including military parades, flypasts and street parties — Barron told AFP how it felt to hear that the war which had overshadowed her teenage years was over. The news came as 'a release, a tremendous weight off your shoulders'. But it also marked an abrupt shift for members of the armed forces. 'It was 'keep the uniform, here are a few clothing coupons, a few food coupons, go home.' And that was all,' Barron said. Aged 20, she did not anticipate how tough life in post-war Britain would be. It was a 'terribly difficult' period, Barron said. I won't say unhappy, but there were uncertain times. You never knew what was going to hit you the next day.' 'Can you feel it?' Speaking from her home near Harlow, north of London, Barron recalled the years of post-war reconstruction with extraordinary energy. She has been teaching yoga for 60 years, and every Monday she holds a class close to her home. Her flexibility — as demonstrated by her downward dog pose, with heels on the floor and back perfectly flat — impresses even her young students. 'Can you feel it in the back of your legs?' she asked at a recent class. 'If you want firm boobs, that's the pose,' she told her dozen or so students aged 20 to 95, unfazed by their groans. 'I feel lovely, relaxed and stretched,' she said as she walked home afterwards. Spitfire flight Barron celebrated her 100th birthday in October 2024 by flying in a Spitfire, a Royal Air Force aircraft that played a crucial role in the Battle of Britain in 1940 against the German Luftwaffe. 'It really was so wonderfully exciting,' she said, beaming. With such energy today, it is easy to imagine Barron's determination at 18. She 'desperately' wanted to join the Women's Royal Naval Service, or Wrens, as they were known. 'We weren't going to have the Nazis taking over our country,' she said. But Barron feared she was too short to make the cut. 'I cheated like mad and cut out cardboard heels to make me look taller, and I built my hair up, puffed it up,' she said. 'I was only 157 centimetres, but I think they saw I was so keen to become a Wren that they thought 'we'll let her through'.' Barron taught troops how to communicate using visual signals and Morse code. Ahead of the D-Day Normandy landings, she helped test the portable Mulberry harbours, which were towed across the English Channel and allowed large numbers of troops and vehicles to reach France. But she did not know what the structures were for at the time, and only later realised how they were deployed. 'I was rather delighted,' she said. 'I thought: 'Oh, I did do something useful then'.' She planned to mark Victory in Europe Day in the Netherlands for Dutch Liberation Day, before taking part in a service at Westminster Abbey on 8 May, which will also be attended by the British royal family. During the war, Barron met her husband Andrew, who was in the Royal Air Force. They had two daughters, and Barron is now a great-grandmother. Andrew died in 2021, and Barron still talks about him lovingly. It takes a lot to stop Barron from being cheerful, but she is concerned about current events — especially Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has left conflict raging in Europe once more. 'Nobody wins a war,' she said. — AFP
The Sun
08-05-2025
- General
- The Sun
‘No one wins in war' says UK WWII veteran and yoga teacher at 100
HARLOW: Centenarian Dorothea Barron recalled the wave of relief she felt when she heard World War II had finally come to an end. 'Thank goodness that's over,' the British Navy veteran remembers thinking. Eighty years on, the spritely 100-year-old -- who now teaches yoga and saw in her big birthday with a celebratory flight in a Spitfire fighter plane -- is among an ever-shrinking number of veterans with firsthand memories of the war. Exactly how many former WWII servicepeople there are in the UK is unknown. While experts estimate there are still several thousand, the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, marked on May 8, will be among the last major British wartime commemorations with a substantial veteran presence. As Britain marked the anniversary with four days of celebrations from Monday -- including military parades, flypasts and street parties -- Barron told AFP how it felt to hear that the war that had overshadowed her teenage years was over. The news came as 'a release, a tremendous weight off your shoulders'. But it also marked an abrupt shift for members of the armed forces. 'It was 'keep the uniform, here are a few clothing coupons, a few food coupons, go home.' And that was all,' Barron said. Aged 20, she did not anticipate how tough life in post-war Britain would be. It was a 'terribly difficult' period, Barron said. 'I won't say unhappy, but there were uncertain times. You never knew what was going to hit you the next day.' 'Can you feel it?' Speaking from her home near Harlow, north of London, Barron went on to recall the years of post-war reconstruction with extraordinary vim. She has been teaching yoga for 60 years, and every Monday she holds a class close to her home. Her flexibility -- as demonstrated by her downward dog pose, with heels on the floor and back perfectly flat -- impresses even her young students. 'Can you feel it in the back of your legs?' she asked at a recent class. 'If you want firm boobs, that's the pose,' she told her dozen or so students aged 20 to 95, unfazed by their groans. 'I feel lovely, relaxed and stretched,' she said as she walked home afterwards. Spitfire flight Barron celebrated her 100th birthday in October 2024 by flying in a Spitfire, a Royal Air Force aircraft that played a crucial role in the Battle of Britain in 1940 against the German Luftwaffe. 'It really was so wonderfully exciting,' she said, beaming. With such energy today, it is easy to imagine Barron's determination at 18. She 'desperately' wanted to join the Women's Royal Naval Service, or Wrens, as they were known. 'We weren't going to have the Nazis taking over our country,' she said. But Barron feared she was too short to make the cut. 'I cheated like mad and cut out cardboard heels to make me look taller, and I built my hair up, puffed it up,' she said. 'I was only five foot two inches (157 centimetres), but I think they saw I was so keen to become a Wren that they thought 'we'll let her through'.' Barron taught troops how to communicate using visual signals and Morse code. And ahead of the D-Day Normandy landings, she helped test the portable Mulberry harbours, which were towed across the English Channel and allowed large numbers of troops and vehicles to reach France. But she did not know what the structures were for at the time, and only later realised how they were deployed. 'I was rather delighted,' she said. 'I thought: 'Oh, I did do something useful then'.' She planned to mark Victory in Europe Day in the Netherlands for Dutch Liberation Day, before taking part in a service at Westminster Abbey on May 8, which will also be attended by the British royal family. During the war, Barron met her husband Andrew, who was in the Royal Air Force. They had two daughters, and Barron is now a great-grandmother. Andrew died in 2021, and Barron still talks about him lovingly. It takes a lot to stop Barron from being cheerful, but she is concerned about current events -- especially Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has left conflict raging in Europe once more. 'Nobody wins a war,' she said.
The Sun
08-05-2025
- General
- The Sun
WWII Vet Dorothea Barron Marks VE Day at 100
HARLOW: Centenarian Dorothea Barron recalled the wave of relief she felt when she heard World War II had finally come to an end. 'Thank goodness that's over,' the British Navy veteran remembers thinking. Eighty years on, the spritely 100-year-old -- who now teaches yoga and saw in her big birthday with a celebratory flight in a Spitfire fighter plane -- is among an ever-shrinking number of veterans with firsthand memories of the war. Exactly how many former WWII servicepeople there are in the UK is unknown. While experts estimate there are still several thousand, the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, marked on May 8, will be among the last major British wartime commemorations with a substantial veteran presence. As Britain marked the anniversary with four days of celebrations from Monday -- including military parades, flypasts and street parties -- Barron told AFP how it felt to hear that the war that had overshadowed her teenage years was over. The news came as 'a release, a tremendous weight off your shoulders'. But it also marked an abrupt shift for members of the armed forces. 'It was 'keep the uniform, here are a few clothing coupons, a few food coupons, go home.' And that was all,' Barron said. Aged 20, she did not anticipate how tough life in post-war Britain would be. It was a 'terribly difficult' period, Barron said. 'I won't say unhappy, but there were uncertain times. You never knew what was going to hit you the next day.' 'Can you feel it?' Speaking from her home near Harlow, north of London, Barron went on to recall the years of post-war reconstruction with extraordinary vim. She has been teaching yoga for 60 years, and every Monday she holds a class close to her home. Her flexibility -- as demonstrated by her downward dog pose, with heels on the floor and back perfectly flat -- impresses even her young students. 'Can you feel it in the back of your legs?' she asked at a recent class. 'If you want firm boobs, that's the pose,' she told her dozen or so students aged 20 to 95, unfazed by their groans. 'I feel lovely, relaxed and stretched,' she said as she walked home afterwards. Spitfire flight Barron celebrated her 100th birthday in October 2024 by flying in a Spitfire, a Royal Air Force aircraft that played a crucial role in the Battle of Britain in 1940 against the German Luftwaffe. 'It really was so wonderfully exciting,' she said, beaming. With such energy today, it is easy to imagine Barron's determination at 18. She 'desperately' wanted to join the Women's Royal Naval Service, or Wrens, as they were known. 'We weren't going to have the Nazis taking over our country,' she said. But Barron feared she was too short to make the cut. 'I cheated like mad and cut out cardboard heels to make me look taller, and I built my hair up, puffed it up,' she said. 'I was only five foot two inches (157 centimetres), but I think they saw I was so keen to become a Wren that they thought 'we'll let her through'.' Barron taught troops how to communicate using visual signals and Morse code. And ahead of the D-Day Normandy landings, she helped test the portable Mulberry harbours, which were towed across the English Channel and allowed large numbers of troops and vehicles to reach France. But she did not know what the structures were for at the time, and only later realised how they were deployed. 'I was rather delighted,' she said. 'I thought: 'Oh, I did do something useful then'.' She planned to mark Victory in Europe Day in the Netherlands for Dutch Liberation Day, before taking part in a service at Westminster Abbey on May 8, which will also be attended by the British royal family. During the war, Barron met her husband Andrew, who was in the Royal Air Force. They had two daughters, and Barron is now a great-grandmother. Andrew died in 2021, and Barron still talks about him lovingly. It takes a lot to stop Barron from being cheerful, but she is concerned about current events -- especially Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has left conflict raging in Europe once more. 'Nobody wins a war,' she said.
