Tag: Pirates

  • Fort Louis

    Marigot, Saint-Martin (March 2011) We saw a large hill along the shoreline as we drove down St. Martin’s western coastal road from Grand Case heading into Marigot. An old fortification graced the summit, the ruins of old Fort-Louis (map). We cut into Marigot proper and headed towards the marketplace on this Wednesday morning, arriving early…

  • Gibraltaresque

    I didn’t intend to feature Gibraltar, the British Overseas Territory on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. I talked about that one before. For example, a major road crossed its airport runway. Fun stuff! One other little tidbit interested me too, its etymology. Gibraltar came from the name of an Arab or Berber military…

  • St. John’s at Long Last

    I made an offer to the kind readers of Twelve Mile Circle back in September 2010. I said I’d be glad to explore and present geo-oddities for any location based on user suggestions. So I took this as a personal challenge and an opportunity to investigate areas that may have escaped my attention previously. “Katy”…

  • Border Pirates

    I’d always thought of piracy as a 17th Century anachronism. Then things got weird off the coast of Somalia a few years ago. Even so I considered it a distant condition borne of a failed state two oceans away. Recent reports of North American pirates have simply bewildered me. I never imagined it existed outside…

  • Wall Found at Canada’s Oldest English Settlement

    The National Post reported recently on a “Wall unearthed from Canada’s oldest British settlement.” This was the Cupids Colony in Newfoundland, settled on the Avalon Peninsula along the shores of Conception Bay (map). Thirty nine settlers landed here in 1610 under the direction of John Guy, a Bristol merchant. An overview of the colony appears…