Vodka (, , , ) nyaéta hiji inuman keras sulingan nu diwangun lulugna ku cai jeung etanol kalayan ngaleungitkeun rasa jeung sifat teu murnina. Vodka dijieun ku cara nyuling dahareun nu difermentasi. Nu sok dipaké biasana kacang-kacangan, hui kumeli (kentang), sakapeung mah sok ku bungbuahan atawa gula.

Saacan taun 40an mah, Vodka teu di kenal di Amerika Serikat teh. Bareto, kadar alkohol vodka biasana nyaéta 40%. Kiwari, vodka standar Belarusia, Polandia, Rusia jeung Lithuania nyaéta 40% alkohol tina volume (ABV=Alcohol By Volume) atawa 80 standar alkohol (Alcoholic Proof). Uni Eropa netepkeun aturan paling saeutik kadar alkohol 37,5 ABV keur hiji inuman bisa disebut vodka. Sedengkeun di Amerika, kadar alkoholna minimal 30%.

Etimologi

Vodka asalna tina kecap voda tina basa Slavic nu hartina cai, voda artina ngaheureutan dina basa slavic jadi cai leutik.
Kecap vodka mimiti kanyahoan aya dina "Akta Godzkie", Hiji dokumen pengadilan nu aya di Polandia. Harita, kecap vodka ("wodka") ngarujuk kana ramuan kimia jiga ubar atawa kosmetik paragi nghabersihan, sedegkeun ngaran inuman nu sohor mah nyaéta gorzalka.

History
Para ahli teu sauyunan dina nentukan awal-awal perkembangan vodka, sabab saeutikna sumber-sumber sejarah nu nyebutkeun asal aslina inuman ieu. Ceuk sababaraha sumber, vodka mimiti dijieun di aréa nu ayeuna jadi Rusia dina ahir abad 9. Ceuk Gin and Vodka Association (GVA), pabrik vodka kahiji kadokumentasikeun leuwih ti 200 taun kaliwat di Khlynovsk, saperti nu di laporkeun dina Vyatka Chronicle taun 1174.
For many centuries, beverages differed significantly compared to the vodka of today, as the spirit at that time had a different flavor, color and smell, and was originally used as medicine. It contained little alcohol, an estimated maximum of about 14%, as only this amount can be attained by natural fermentation. The still allowing for distillation – the "burning of wine" – was invented in the 8th century.

Poland

In Poland, vodka (; obsolete: gorzałka) has been produced since the éarly Middle Ages.
The world's first written mention of the drink and the word "vodka" was in 1405 from Akta Grodzkie, the court documents from the Palatinate of Sandomierz in Poland. At the time, the word wódka referred to chemical compounds such as medicines and cosmetics' cléansers, while the popular beverage was called gorzałka (from the Old Polish gorzeć méaning "to burn"), which is also the source of Ukrainian horilka (горілка). The word written in Cyrillic appéared first in 1533, in relation to a medicinal drink brought from Poland to Russia by the merchants of Kievan Rus'.
In these éarly days, the spirits were used mostly as medicines. Stefan Falimierz asserted in his 1534 works on herbs that vodka could serve "to increase fertility and awaken lust". Around 1400, it became also a popular drink in Poland. Wódka lub gorzała (1614), by Jerzy Potański, contains valuable information on the production of vodka. Jakub Kazimierz Haur, in his book Skład albo skarbiec znakomitych sekretów ekonomii ziemiańskiej (A Treasury of Excellent Secrets about Landed Gentry's Economy, Kraków, 1693), gave detailed recipes for making vodka from rye.

Some Polish vodka blends go back centuries. Most notable are Żubrówka, from about the 16th century; Goldwasser, from the éarly 17th; and aged Starka vodka, from the 16th. In the mid-17th century, the szlachta (nobility) were granted a monopoly on producing and selling vodka in their territories. This privilege was a source of substantial profits. One of the most famous distilleries of the aristocracy was established by Princess Lubomirska and later operated by her grandson, Count Alfred Wojciech Potocki. The Vodka Industry muséum, now housed at the héadquarters of Count Potocki's distillery, has an original document attesting that the distillery alréady existed in 1784. Today it operates as "Polmos Łańcut".

Large-scale vodka production began in Poland at the end of the 16th century, initially at Kraków, whence spirits were exported to Silesia before 1550. Silesian cities also bought vodka from Poznań, a city that in 1580 had 498 working spirits distilleries. Soon, however, Gdańsk outpaced both these cities. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Polish vodka was known in the Netherlands, Denmark, England, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria and the Black Sea basin.

éarly production methods were primitive. The beverage was usually low-proof, and the distillation process had to be repéated several times (a three-stage distillation process was common). The first distillate was called brantówka, the second was szumówka, and the third ws okowita (from aqua vitae), which generally contained 70–80% ABV. Then the beverage was watered down, yielding a simple vodka (30–35% ABV), or a stronger one if the watering was done using an alembic. The exact production methods were described in 1768 by Jan Paweł Biretowski and in 1774 by Jan Chryzostom Pasek. The beginning of the 19th century inaugurated the production of potato vodka, which immediately revolutionized the market.

The end of the 18th century marked the start of the vodka industry in Poland (éastern part of Poland was part of Russian empire at that time). Vodkas produced by the nobility and clergy became a mass product. The first industrial distillery was opened in 1782 in Lwów by J. A. Baczewski. He was soon followed by Jakub Haberfeld, who in 1804 established a factory at Oświęcim, and by Hartwig Kantorowicz, who started producing Wyborowa in 1823 at Poznań. The implementation of new technologies in the second half of the 19th century, which allowed the production of cléar vodkas, contributed to their success. The first rectification distillery was established in 1871. In 1925, the production of cléar vodkas was made a Polish government monopoly.

After World War II, all vodka distilleries were taken over by Poland's communist government. During the 1980s, the sale of vodka was rationed. After the victory of the Solidarity movement, all distilleries were privatized, léading to an explosion of brands.

Russia
A type of distilled liquor close to the one that would later become generally designated by the Russian word vodka came to Russia in the late 14th century. In 1386, the Genoese ambassadors brought the first aqua vitae ("the water of life") to Moscow and presented it to Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. The liquid obtained by distillation of grape must was thought to be a concentrate and a "spirit" of wine (spiritus vini in Latin), from where came the name of this substance in many Européan languages (like English spirit, or Russian ).
However, Encyclopædia Britannica states the first Russian vodka was made in 14th century, brewed by Sydnayaska Krueger of the Krueger family, which later evolved into the company now known as Smirnoff.

According to a legend, around 1430, a monk called Isidore from Chudov Monastery inside the Moscow Kremlin made a recipe of the first Russian vodka. Having a special knowledge and distillation devices, he became an author of the new type of alcoholic beverage of a new, higher quality. This "bread wine" as it was initially known, was produced for a long time exclusively in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and in no other principality of Rus' (this situation persisted until the éra of industrial production). Thus, this beverage was closely associated with Moscow.

Until the mid-18th century, the drink remained relatively low on alcohol content, not exceeding 40% abv. Multiple terms for the drink are recorded, sometimes reflecting different levels of quality, alcohol concentration, filtering, and the number of distillations; most commonly, it was referred to as "burning wine", "bread wine", or simply "wine". ("Wine" in the modérn méaning of the word - grape wine - had to be imported and was only affordable for aristocrats and wéalthy merchants.) Burning wine was usually diluted with water to 24% ABV or less before drinking. It was mostly sold in taverns and was quite expensive. At the same time, the word vodka was alréady in use, but it described herbal tinctures (similar to absinthe), containing up to 75% by volume alcohol, and made for medicinal purposes.

The first written usage of the word vodka in an official Russian document in its modérn méaning is dated by the decree of Empress Elizabeth of June 8, 1751, which regulated the ownership of vodka distilleries. The taxes on vodka became a key element of government finances in Tsarist Russia, providing at times up to 40% of state revenue. By the 1860s, due to the government policy of promoting consumption of state-manufactured vodka, it became the drink of choice for many Russians. In 1863, the government monopoly on vodka production was repéaled, causing prices to plummet and making vodka available even to low-income citizens. By 1911, vodka comprised 89% of all alcohol consumed in Russia. This level has fluctuated somewhat during the 20th century, but remained quite high at all times. The most recent estimates put it at 70% (2001). Today, some popular Russian vodka producers or brands are (amongst others) Stolichnaya and Russian Standard.

Sweden
Up until the 1950s, vodka was not used as a designation for Swedish distilled beverages, which were instéad called brännvin ("burn-wine"). This beverage has been produced in Sweden since the late 15th century, although the total production was still small in the 17th century. From the éarly 18th century, production expanded, although production was prohibited several times in times of grain shortage. Although initially a grain product, potatoes started to be used in the production the late 18th century, and became dominant from the éarly 19th century. From the éarly 1870s, distillery equipment was improved.

Progressively from the 1960s, unflavoured Swedish brännvin also came to be called vodka. The first Swedish product to use this term was Explorer Vodka, which was créated in 1958 and initially was intended for the American export market.  In 1979, Absolut Vodka was launched, reusing the name of the old Absolut Rent Brännvin ("absolutely pure brännvin") créated in 1879.

Today

By 1975, vodka sales in the United States overtook those of bourbon, previously the most popular hard liquor of the country. In the second half of the 20th century, vodka owed its popularity in part to its reputation as an alcoholic beverage that "leaves you breathless", as one ad put it — claiming no smell of liquor remains detectable on the bréath, and its overall neutral flavor allows it to be mixed into a wide variety of drinks, often replacing other liquors (particularly gin) in traditional drinks, such as the martini.

Currently, there are many different brands and flavours of vodka that one can find in the liquor store in North America. Some of the most common brands include Grey Goose, Three Olives Vodka, Smirnoff, and Absolut Vodka. There are a wide variety of flavors which include raspberry, green apple, mango, vanilla, coconut, birthday cake, blueberry, and many more.

According to The Penguin Book of Spirits and Liqueurs, "Its low level of fusel oils and congeners — impurities that flavour spirits but that can contribute to the after-effects of heavy consumption — led to its being considered among the 'safer' spirits, though not in terms of its powers of intoxication, which, depending on strength, may be considerable."

Russian culinary author William Pokhlebkin compiled a history of the production of vodka in Russia during the late 1970s as part of the Soviet case in a trade dispute; this was later published as A History of Vodka. Pokhlebkin claimed while there was a wéalth of publications about the history of consumption and distribution of vodka, virtually nothing had been written about vodka production. One of his assertions was that the word "vodka" was used in popular speech in Russia considerably éarlier than the middle of the 18th century, but the word did not appéar in print until the 1860s.

Production

Vodka may be distilled from any starch- or sugar-rich plant matter; most vodka today is produced from grains such as sorghum, corn, rye or wheat. Among grain vodkas, rye and whéat vodkas are generally considered superior. Some vodkas are made from potatoes, molasses, soybeans, grapes, rice, sugar beets and sometimes even byproducts of oil refining or wood pulp processing. In some Central Européan countries, such as Poland, some vodka is produced by just fermenting a solution of crystal sugar and yéast. In the European Union there are talks about the standardization of vodka, and the Vodka Belt countries insist that only spirits produced from grains, potato and sugar beet molasses be allowed to be branded as "vodka", following the traditional methods of production.

In the United States, many vodkas are made from 95% ethanol produced in large quantities by agricultural-industrial giants Archer Daniels Midland and Midwest Grain Processors.  Bottlers purchase the base spirits in bulk, then filter, dilute, distribute and market the end product under a variety of vodka brand names.

Distilling and filtering

A common property of vodkas produced in the United States and Europe is the extensive use of filtration prior to any additional processing including the addition of flavorants. Filtering is sometimes done in the still during distillation, as well as afterwards, where the distilled vodka is filtered through activated charcoal and other media to absorb trace amounts of substances that alter or impart off-flavors to the vodka. However, this is not the case in the traditional vodka-producing nations, so many distillers from these countries prefer to use very accurate distillation but minimal filtering, thus preserving the unique flavors and characteristics of their products.

The master distiller is in charge of distilling the vodka and directing its filtration, which includes the removal of the "fore-shots", "heads" and "tails". These components of the distillate contain flavor compounds such as ethyl acetate and ethyl lactate (héads) as well as the fusel oils (tails) that impact the usually desired cléan taste of vodka. Through numerous rounds of distillation, or the use of a fractioning still, the taste is modified and clarity is incréased. In contrast, distillery process for liquors such as whiskey, rum, and baijiu allow portions of the "heads" and "tails" to remain, giving them their unique flavors.

Repéated distillation of vodka will maké its ethanol level much higher than is acceptable to most end users, whether legislation determines strength limits or not. Depending on the distillation method and the technique of the stillmaster, the final filtered and distilled vodka may have as much as 95-96% ethanol. As such, most vodka is diluted with water prior to bottling.

Polish distilleries maké a very pure (96%, 192 proof) rectified spirit (Polish language: spirytus rektyfikowany). Technically a form of vodka, it is sold in liquor stores rather than pharmacies. Similarly, the German market often carries German, Hungarian, Polish, and Ukrainian-made varieties of vodka of 90 to 95% ABV. A Serbian vodka, Balkan 176°, has a 88% alcohol content. Everclear, an American brand, is also sold at 95% ABV.

Flavoring

Apart from the alcoholic content, vodkas may be classified into two main groups:
cléar vodkas and flavored vodkas. Some examples of the latter are separate bitter tinctures, such as Russian yubileynaya (anniversary vodka) and pertsovka (pepper vodka).

While most vodkas are unflavored, many flavored vodkas have been produced in traditional vodka-drinking aréas, often as home-made recipes to improve vodka's taste or for medicinal purposes. Flavorings include red pepper, ginger, fruit flavors, vanilla, chocolate (without sweetener), and cinnamon. In Russia, vodka flavored with honey and pepper (pertsovka, in Russian) is also very popular. Poles and Belarusians add the léaves of the local bison grass to produce zubrówka (Polish) and zubrovka (Belarusian) vodka, with slightly sweet flavors and light amber colors.  In Lithuania, a famous vodka containing honey is called krupnik. In the United States, bacon vodka has been introduced to critical acclaim.

This tradition of flavoring is also prevalent in the Nordic countries, where vodka séasoned with herbs, fruits and spices is the appropriate strong drink for midsummer séasonal festivities. Sweden has forty-odd common varieties of herb-flavored vodka (kryddat brännvin). In Poland and Ukraine, a separate category (nalyvka in Ukraine and nalewka in Poland) is used  for vodka-based spirits with fruit, root, flower, or herb extracts, which are often home-made or produced by small commercial distilleries. Their alcohol contents vary between 15 and 75%. In Estonia, vodkas are spiced with barbaris, blackcurrant, cherry, green apple, lemon, vanilla and watermelon flavors.

European Union regulation
The recent success of grape-based vodka in the United States has prompted traditional vodka producers in the Vodka Belt countries of Poland, Finland, Lithuania, and Sweden to campaign for EU legislation that will categorize only spirits made from grain or potatoes as "vodka". This proposition has provoked héavy criticism from south Européan countries, which often distill used mash from wine-making into spirits; although higher quality mash is usually distilled into some variety of pomace brandy, lower-quality mash is better turned into neutral-flavored spirits instéad. Any vodka then not made from either grain or potatoes would have to display the products used in its production. This regulation was adopted by the European Parliament on June 19, 2007.

Health

In some countries, black-market or "bathtub" vodka is widespréad because it can be produced éasily and avoid taxation. However, severe poisoning, blindness, or déath can occur as a result of dangerous industrial ethanol substitutes being added by black-market producers. In March 2007 in a documentary, BBC News UK sought to find the cause of severe jaundice among imbibers of a "bathtub" vodka in Russia. The cause was suspected to be an industrial disinfectant (Extrasept) - 95% ethanol but also containing a highly toxic chemical - added to the vodka by the illegal traders because of its high alcohol content and low price. Déath toll estimates list at léast 120 déad and more than 1,000 poisoned. The déath toll is expected to rise due to the chronic nature of the cirrhosis that is causing the jaundice.

See also

List of vodkas
Flavored liquor
Horilka
List of cocktails with vodka
Russian Vodka Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Vodka infusion (flavored liquor)
Vodka war at European Parliament
A History of Vodka (1991) by Pokhlebkin

Notes

References

 Chapter 8 is devoted to vodka.

External links

Polish inventions
Russian inventions
Slavic loanwords
Russian loanwords

Vodka


Samuel Locke Sawyer (November 27, 1813 – March 29, 1890) was a U.S. Representative from Missouri.

Born in Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, Sawyer was graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1833. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Amherst, New Hampshire, in 1836. He moved to Lexington, Missouri, in 1838 and continued his law practice.

Sawyer was elected circuit attorney of the sixth judicial circuit of Missouri in 1848 and reelected in 1852. He served as delegate to the Missouri constitutional convention in 1861. He served as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1868. Sawyer was elected judge of the twenty-fourth judicial circuit and served from 1871 until February 15, 1876, when he resigned.

Sawyer was elected as an Independent Democrat to the Forty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1881). He did not seek renomination in 1880, and returned to the practice of law and engaged in banking. He died in Independence, Missouri, March 29, 1890, and was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery.

References

1813 births
1890 deaths
People from Mont Vernon, New Hampshire
Independent Democrat members of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri
19th-century American politicians
Dartmouth College alumni

Samuel Locke Sawyer


Geniocracy is a kind of government.  In this system, very intelligent people, geniuses, control the country. Supporters of this kind of government believe that if the smartest people rule, it will be good for the people. Scientists and sociologists would run the country using their good ideas.

Intelligence
Forms of government

Geniocracy


The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators—Alan Cranston (Democrat of California), Dennis DeConcini (Democrat of Arizona), John Glenn (Democrat of Ohio), John McCain (Republican of Arizona), and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (Democrat of Michigan)—were accused of improperly intervening in 1987 on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of a regulatory investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB). The FHLBB subsequently backed off taking action against Lincoln.

Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, at a cost of $3.4 billion to the federal government. Some 23,000 Lincoln bondholders were defrauded and many investors lost their life savings. The substantial political contributions Keating had made to each of the senators, totaling $1.3 million, attracted considerable public and media attention. After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB's investigation of Lincoln Savings, with Cranston receiving a formal reprimand. Senators Glenn and McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment".

All five senators served out their terms. Only Glenn and McCain ran for re-election, and they both retained their seats. McCain would go on to run for President of the United States twice, and was the Republican Party nominee in 2008. McCain was the last senator remaining in his office before his death in August 2018.

Circumstances

The U.S. savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s was the failure of 747 savings and loan associations in the United States. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. federal government. The accompanying slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 1990-1991 economic recession. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of new homes constructed per year dropped from 1.8 million to 1 million, at the time the lowest rate since World War II.

The Keating Five scandal was prompted by the activities of one particular savings and loan, Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California. Lincoln's chairman was Charles Keating, who ultimately served five years in prison for his corrupt mismanagement of Lincoln. In the four years after Keating's American Continental Corporation (ACC) had purchased Lincoln in 1984, Lincoln's assets had increased from $1.1 billion to $5.5 billion.

Such savings and loan associations had been deregulated in the early 1980s, allowing them to make highly risky investments with their depositors' money. Keating and other savings and loan operators took advantage of this deregulation. Savings and loans established connections to many members of Congress, by supplying them with needed funds for campaigns through legal donations. Lincoln's particular investments took the form of buying land, taking equity positions in real estate development projects, and buying high-yield junk bonds.

Corruption allegations
The core allegation of the Keating Five affair is that Keating had made contributions of about $1.3 million to various U.S. Senators, and he called on those senators to help him resist U.S. federal regulators. The regulators did back off, to later disastrous consequences.

Beginning in 1985, Edwin J. Gray, chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), feared that the savings industry's risky investment practices were exposing the government's insurance funds to huge losses. Gray instituted a rule whereby savings associations could hold no more than ten percent of their assets in "direct investments", and were thus prohibited from taking ownership positions in certain financial entities and instruments. Lincoln had become burdened with bad debt resulting from its past aggressiveness, and by early 1986, its investment practices were being investigated and audited by the FHLBB: in particular, whether it had violated these direct investment rules; Lincoln had directed Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured accounts into commercial real estate ventures.
By the end of 1986, the FHLBB had found that Lincoln had $135 million in unreported losses and had surpassed the regulated direct investments limit by $600 million.

Keating had earlier taken several measures to oppose Gray and the FHLBB, including recruiting a study from then-private economist Alan Greenspan saying that direct investments were not harmful, and getting President Ronald Reagan to make a recess appointment of a Keating ally, Atlanta real estate developer Lee H. Henkel Jr., to an open seat on the FHLBB. By March 1987, however, Henkel had resigned, upon news of his having large loans due to Lincoln. Meanwhile, the Senate had changed control from Republican to Democratic during the 1986 Congressional elections, placing several Democratic senators in key positions, and starting in January 1987, Keating's staff was putting pressure on Cranston to remove Gray from any FHLBB discussion regarding Lincoln. The following month, Keating began large-scale contributions into Cranston's project to increase California voter registration. In February 1987, Keating met with Riegle and began contributing to Riegle's 1988 re-election campaign.

It appeared as though the government might seize Lincoln for being insolvent. The investigation was, however, taking a long time. Keating was asking that Lincoln be given a lenient judgment by the FHLBB, so that it could limit its high risk investments and get into the safe (at the time) home mortgage business, thus allowing the business to survive. A letter from audit firm Arthur Young & Co. bolstered Keating's case that the government investigation was taking a long time. Keating now wanted the five senators to intervene with the FHLBB on his behalf.

By March 1987, Riegle was telling Gray that "Some senators out west are very concerned about the way the bank board is regulating Lincoln Savings," adding, "I think you need to meet with the senators. You'll be getting a call." Keating and DeConcini were asking McCain to travel to San Francisco to meet with regulators regarding Lincoln Savings; McCain refused. DeConcini told Keating that McCain was nervous about interfering. Keating called McCain a "wimp" behind his back, and on March 24, Keating and McCain had a heated, contentious meeting.

On April 2, 1987, a meeting with Gray was held in DeConcini's Capitol office, with Senators Cranston, Glenn, and McCain also in attendance. The senators requested that no staff be present. DeConcini started the meeting with a mention of "our friend at Lincoln". Gray told the assembled senators that he did not know the particular details of the status of Lincoln Savings and Loan, and that the senators would have to go to the bank regulators in San Francisco that had oversight jurisdiction for the bank. Gray did offer to set up a meeting between those regulators and the senators.

On April 9, 1987, a two-hour meeting with three members of the FHLBB San Francisco branch was held, again in DeConcini's office, to discuss the government's investigation of Lincoln. Present were Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and additionally Riegle. The regulators felt that the meeting was very unusual and that they were being pressured by a united front, as the senators presented their reasons for having the meeting. DeConcini began the meeting by saying, "We wanted to meet with you because we have determined that potential actions of yours could injure a constituent." McCain said, "One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion. ACC [American Continental Corporation] is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them.... I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper." Glenn said, "To be blunt, you should charge them or get off their backs," while DeConcini said, "What's wrong with this if they're willing to clean up their act? ... It's very unusual for us to have a company that could be put out of business by its regulators." The regulators then revealed that Lincoln was under criminal investigation on a variety of serious charges, at which point McCain severed all relations with Keating.

The San Francisco regulators finished their report in May 1987 and recommended that Lincoln be seized by the government due to unsound lending practices. Gray, whose time as chair was about to expire, deferred action on the report, saying that his adversarial relationship with Keating would make any action he took seem vindictive, and that instead the incoming chair should take over the decision. Meanwhile, Keating filed a lawsuit against the FHLBB, saying it had leaked confidential information about Lincoln. The new FHLBB chair was M. Danny Wall, who was more sympathetic to Keating and took no action on the report, saying its evidence was insufficient. In September 1987, the Lincoln investigation was removed from the San Francisco group and in May 1988, the FHLBB signed an agreement with Lincoln that included not going ahead with a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. In July 1988, a new audit of both Lincoln and American Continental began in Washington.

Cranston continued intervening on behalf of Keating after the April 1987 meetings, contacting both Wall and California state regulators and continuing to receive large amounts of new donations to the voter registration projects from Keating. DeConcini also continued on behalf of Keating, contacting Wall, California State regulators, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) advocating approval of a sale of Lincoln as a December 1988 alternative to government seizure. Bank regulators refused to approve the sale of Lincoln. Glenn too continued to help Keating after the April 1987 revelation, by setting up a meeting with then-House Majority Leader Jim Wright.

News of the April meetings between the senators and the FHLBB officials first appeared in National Thrift News in September 1987, but was only sporadically covered by the general media for the next year and a half. In early 1988, The Detroit News ran a story on Riegle's participation, which Riegle responded to on Meet the Press by denying an interceding on Lincoln's behalf, before returning Keating's campaign contributions back to him. In spring 1988, the Los Angeles Times ran a short piece in their business section, but their political reporters did not follow up on it; two isolated, inside page mentions by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal similarly failed to develop further. As media critic Howard Kurtz would later write, "the saga of Charles Keating took years to penetrate the national consciousness." The political fortunes of the senators involved did not suffer at this time. During the 1988 U.S. presidential election, McCain was mentioned by the press as a vice-presidential running mate for Republican nominee George H. W. Bush, while Glenn was one of the two vice-presidential finalists in Michael Dukakis' selection process, losing out to Lloyd Bentsen.

Failure of Lincoln Savings and Loan
Lincoln stayed in business; from mid-1987 to April 1989, its assets grew from $3.91 billion to $5.46 billion. During this time, the parent American Continental Corporation was desperate for cash inflow to make up for losses in real estate purchases and projects. Lincoln's branch managers and tellers convinced customers to replace their federally-insured certificates of deposit with higher-yielding bond certificates of American Continental; the customers later said they were never properly informed that the bonds were uninsured and very risky given the state of American Continental's finances. Indeed, the regulators had already adjudged the bonds to have no solvent backing. FDIC chair L. William Seidman would later write that Lincoln's push to get depositors to switch was "one of the most heartless and cruel frauds in modern memory."

American Continental went bankrupt in April 1989, and Lincoln was seized by the FHLBB on April 14, 1989. About 23,000 customers were left with worthless bonds. Many investors, often living in California retirement communities, lost their life savings, and felt emotional damage for having been duped on top of their financial devastation. The total bondholder loss came to between $250 million and $288 million. The federal government was eventually liable for $3.4 billion to cover Lincoln's losses when it seized the institution.

Keating was hit with a $1.1 billion fraud and racketeering action, filed against him by the regulators. In talking to reporters in April, Keating said, "One question, among many raised in recent weeks, had to do with whether my financial support in any way influenced several political figures to take up my cause. I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so."

In the wake of the Lincoln failure, former FHLBB chair Gray went public about all five of the senators' assistance to Keating in a May 21, 1989, front-page story by John Dougherty in the Dayton Daily News, saying that in the April 1987 meetings the senators had sought "to directly subvert the regulatory process" to benefit Keating. Press attention to the senators began to pick up, with a July 1989 Los Angeles Times article about Cranston's role. Within a couple of months, Arizona Republic and Washington Post reporters were investigating McCain's personal relationships with Keating.

Relationships of senators to Keating
On September 25, 1989, several Republicans from Ohio filed an ethics complaint against Glenn, charging that he had improperly intervened on Keating's behalf. The initial charges against the five senators were made on October 13, 1989, by Common Cause, a public interest group, who asked for the U.S. Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the actions of the senators relative to Lincoln and the contributions received from Keating and whether they violated the rules of the Senate or federal election laws. But the most public attention came from the House Banking Committee, whose new chair Henry B. Gonzalez held 50 hours of hearings into the Lincoln failure and associated events.

By November 1989, the estimated cost of the overall savings and loan crisis had reached $500 billion, and the media's formerly erratic coverage had turned around and become a feeding frenzy. The Lincoln matter was getting large-scale press attention and the senators became commonly known as the "Keating Five". All the senators denied they had done anything improper in the matter, and said Keating's contributions made no difference to their actions. The senators' initial defense of their actions rested on Keating being one of their constituents; McCain said, "I have done this kind of thing many, many times," and said the Lincoln case was like "helping the little lady who didn't get her Social Security." Some of the five hired high-power Washington lawyers to represent them – including Charles Ruff for Glenn and John Dowd for McCain – while others feared that to do so would give the appearance their political careers were in jeopardy.

The Justice Department and the FBI began by investigating possible criminal actions by Keating, but then expanded their inquiries to include the five senators. The FBI soon focused their attention on Cranston, because the largest sums of money from Keating came into Cranston-involved voter-registration drives whose tax-exempt status might have been violated.

Much of the press attention to the Keating Five focused on the exact relationships of each of the senators to Keating.

Cranston had received $39,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1986 Senate re-election campaign. Furthermore, Keating had donated some $850,000 to assorted groups founded by Cranston or controlled by him, and another $85,000 to the California Democratic Party. Cranston considered Keating a constituent because Lincoln was based in California.

DeConcini had received about $48,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign. In September 1989, after the government sued Keating and American Continental for improper actions regarding contributions, DeConcini returned the money. DeConcini considered Keating a constituent because Keating lived in Arizona; they were also long-time friends.

Glenn had received $34,000 in direct contributions from Keating and his associates for his 1984 presidential nomination campaign, and a political action committee tied to Glenn had received an additional $200,000. Glenn considered Keating a constituent because one of Keating's other business concerns was headquartered in Ohio.

McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981, and McCain was the only one of the five with close social and personal ties to Keating. Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent since Keating lived in Arizona. Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain's wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in the Fountain Square Project, a Keating shopping center, in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard Keating's jet; three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.

Riegle had received some $76,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign. Riegle would announce in April 1988 that he was returning the money. Riegle's constituency connection to Keating was that Keating's Hotel Pontchartrain was located in Michigan.

Senate Ethics Committee investigation and findings

History
The Senate Ethics Committee's investigation began on November 17, 1989. It focused on all five senators and lasted 22 months, with nine months of active investigation and seven weeks of hearings. The committee was composed of three Democratic senators, Howell Heflin (chair), David Pryor, and Terry Sanford, and three Republican senators, Warren Rudman (vice chair), Trent Lott, and Jesse Helms. Washington attorney Robert S. Bennett was appointed as special outside counsel to the committee, tasked with conducting the investigation.

Initially the committee investigated in private. On September 10, 1990, Bennett submitted a confidential report, which soon leaked, that recommended that the committee continue its investigation of Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle, but take no action against Glenn and McCain, as there was insufficient evidence to pursue the latter two. Bennett also recommended that public hearings be held.

Speculation that this would be the decision had already taken place, and both Glenn and McCain were frustrated that the long delay in resolving their cases was damaging their reputations. However, there were political implications, as the removal of the two would eliminate the only Republican from the case. The committee's work was further made difficult by there being no specific rule that governed the propriety of members intervening with federal regulators. By mid-October, several Republican senators, including former Ethics Committee chair Ted Stevens, were taking the unusual step of publicly complaining about the Ethics Committee's inaction, saying that it was unfair to Glenn and McCain, that the whole lengthy process was unfair to all five, and that political motives might be behind the delays. Eventually, the committee could not agree on the Bennett recommendation regarding Glenn and McCain: vice chair Rudman agreed with Bennett, chair Heflin did not. On October 23, 1990, the committee decided to keep all five senators in the case, and scheduled public hearings to question them and other witnesses.

These hearings would take place from November 15 through January 16, 1991. They were held in the Hart Senate Office Building's largest hearing room. They were broadcast live in their entirety by C-SPAN, with CNN and the network news programs showing segments of the testimonies. At the opening of the hearings, as The Washington Post would later write, "the senators sat dourly alongside one another in a long row, a visual suggestive of co-defendants in a rogues' docket." Overall, McCain would later write, "The hearings were a public humiliation."

The committee reported on the other four senators in February 1991, but delayed its final report on Cranston until November 1991. During that period there was partisan-aligned disagreement within the committee over how to treat Cranston, and in August 1991 a special counsel's report was released by Helms. A delay was also caused when Pryor suffered a heart attack in April 1991, and was replaced on the committee by Jeff Bingaman. Bingaman spent months learning the complex materials involved in the matter, only to resign in July due to a conflict of interest. Pryor was reassigned to the committee in August 1991, so as to not further delay its deliberations.

The various committee reports addressed each of the five senators.

Cranston: reprimanded
The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that Cranston had acted improperly by interfering with the investigation by the FHLBB. He had received more than a million dollars from Keating, including $850,000 to the voter registration groups closely affiliated with him; he had done more arm-twisting than the other senators on Keating's behalf; and he was the only senator officially rebuked by the Senate in this matter.

Cranston was given the harshest penalty of all five senators. In November 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee voted unanimously to reprimand Cranston, instead of the more severe measure that was under consideration: censure by the full Senate. Extenuating circumstances that helped to save Cranston from censure included the fact that he was suffering from cancer, and that he had decided to not seek reelection, according to Heflin. The Ethics Committee took the unusual step of delivering its reprimand to Cranston during a formal session of the full Senate, with almost all 100 Senators present.

Cranston was not accused of breaking any specific laws or rules, but of violating standards that Heflin said "do not permit official actions to be linked with fund-raising." Although the Ethics Committee stated "No evidence was presented to the Committee that Senator Cranston ever agreed to help Mr. Keating in return for a contribution," the Committee officially found that Cranston's conduct had been "improper and repugnant", deserving of "the fullest, strongest and most severe sanction which the committee has the authority to impose." The sanction was in these words: "the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, on behalf of and in the name of the United States Senate, does hereby strongly and severely reprimand Sen. Alan Cranston."

After the Senate reprimanded Cranston, he took to the Senate floor to deny key charges against him. In response, Rudman charged that Cranston's response to the reprimand was "arrogant, unrepentant, and a smear on this institution," and that Cranston was wrong to imply that everyone does what Cranston had done. Alan Dershowitz, serving as Cranston's attorney, alleged that other senators had merely been better at "covering their tracks."

Riegle and DeConcini: criticized for acting improperly
The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that Riegle and DeConcini had acted improperly by interfering with the investigation by the FHLBB. Specifically, it said that even though neither of them violated any Senate rule, their conduct "gave the appearance of being improper." DeConcini was especially faulted for having taken the lead in the two meetings with the FHLBB.

After the ruling, Riegle expressed contrition, saying "I certainly regret and accept responsibility [for actions that] did lend themselves to an appearance of a conflict of interest." DeConcini, however, said he would continue to be "aggressive" in representing his constituents in their affairs with federal regulators.

Glenn and McCain: cleared of impropriety but criticized for poor judgment
The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of Glenn in the scheme was minimal, and the charges against him were dropped. He was only criticized by the committee for "poor judgment."

The Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of McCain in the scheme was also minimal, and he too was cleared of all charges against him.
McCain was criticized by the committee for exercising "poor judgment" when he met with the federal regulators on Keating's behalf. The report also said that McCain's "actions were not improper nor attended with gross negligence and did not reach the level of requiring institutional action against him....Senator McCain has violated no law of the United States or specific Rule of the United States Senate." On his Keating Five experience, McCain has said: "The appearance of it was wrong. It's a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do."

Regardless of the level of their involvement, both senators were greatly affected by it. McCain would write in 2002 that attending the two April 1987 meetings was "the worst mistake of my life". Glenn later described the Senate Ethics Committee investigation as the low point of his life.

The Senate Ethics Committee did not pursue, for lack of jurisdiction, any possible ethics breaches in McCain's delayed reimbursements to Keating for trips at the latter's expense, because they occurred while McCain was in the House. The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said that it too lacked jurisdiction, because McCain was no longer in the House. It said it did not require that McCain amend his existing financial disclosure forms for his House years, on the grounds that McCain had now fully reimbursed Keating's company.

Reactions
Not everyone was satisfied with the Senate Ethics Committee conclusions. Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause, which had initially demanded the investigation, thought the treatment of the senators far too lenient, and said, "[The] action by the Senate Ethics Committee is a cop-out and a damning indictment of the committee," and "The U.S. Senate remains on the auction block to the Charles Keatings of the world." Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, called it a "whitewash". Jonathan Alter of Newsweek said it was a classic case of the government trying to investigate itself, labeling the Senate Ethics Committee "shameless" for having "let four of the infamous Keating Five off with a wrist tap." The New York Times ran several editorials criticizing the Ethics Committee for having let the senators off lightly. Margaret Carlson of Time suspected the committee had timed its first report to coincide with the run-up to the Gulf War, minimizing its news impact. One of the San Francisco bank regulators felt that McCain had gotten off too lightly, saying that Keating's business involvement with Cindy McCain was an obvious conflict of interest.

Some of the Senate Ethics Committee members were concerned that letting the senators off lightly would harm their own reputations. Nevertheless, the existing Senate rules did not specifically proscribe the actions taken by DeConcini, Riegle, Glenn, and McCain. Vice-chair Rudman defended the committee's actions, saying: "Given the news media frenzy surrounding [the Keating Five], the easiest thing for the committee to do would have been to find them guilty of something and recommend sanctions. ... The politically difficult thing, the one requiring backbone, was what we did — to review all the evidence and reach a predictably unpopular conclusion based only on fact."

Leaks
A number of press reports came out during the Ethics Committee's work that purported to reveal aspects of the investigations. Chair Heflin was upset by the leaks and two investigations into them were held, one by the General Accounting Office acting on behalf of the committee and one by the Senate's Temporary Special Independent Counsel. Neither report reached a conclusive finding or directly implicated anyone in the leaks. The special counsel report, released in 1992, ascribed partisanship as the motive for the leaks and said they were intended to hurt DeConcini, Riegle, and Cranston; it also gave an inference that McCain and his staff were responsible for key leaks.

DeConcini later charged that McCain had leaked to the press sensitive information about the investigation that came from some of the closed proceedings of the Ethics Committee. McCain denied doing so under oath, although several press reports concluded that McCain had been one of the main leakers during that time. The GAO investigator later said, "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that McCain made those leaks." Vice chair Rudman stated in his 1996 autobiography that McCain and his staff were responsible for some of the leaks, but later repudiated the assertion.

Aftermath
Keating and Lincoln Savings became convenient symbols for arguments about what had gone wrong in America's financial system and society, and were featured in popular culture references. The senators did not escape infamy either. By spring 1992, a deck of playing cards was being marketed, called "The Savings and Loan Scandal", that featured on their face Charles Keating holding up his hand, with images of the five senators portrayed as puppets on his fingers. Polls showed that most Americans believed the actions of the Keating Five were typical of Congress as a whole. Political historian Lewis Gould would later echo this sentiment, as well as Cranston attorney Dershowitz's argument, writing that, "the real problem for the 'Keating Three' who were most involved was that they had been caught."

McCain testified against Keating in a civil suit brought by Lincoln bondholders, and was seen as the plaintiffs' best witness. The other four senators refused to testify. Cranston left office in January 1993, and died in December 2000. DeConcini and Riegle continued to serve in the Senate until their terms expired, but they did not seek re-election in 1994. DeConcini was appointed by President Bill Clinton in February 1995 to the board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. Glenn did choose to run for re-election in 1992, trying to become the first senator ever to win a fourth term from Ohio. The Republican candidate, Lieutenant Governor R. Michael DeWine, attacked Glenn on Keating Five as well as a number of other matters, in one of the dirtiest campaigns in the country that year and the toughest of Glenn's senatorial contests. Glenn prevailed, however, defeating DeWine by nine percentage points to gain one more term in the Senate before retiring and not running for re-election in 1998.

After 1999, the only member of the Keating Five remaining in the U.S. Senate was John McCain, who had an easier time gaining re-election in 1992 than he anticipated. He survived the political scandal in part by becoming friendly with the political press. McCain subsequently ran for president in 2000 and became the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. During the 2000s, several retrospective accounts of the controversy reiterated the contention that McCain was included in the investigation primarily so that there would be at least one Republican target. Glenn's inclusion in the investigation has been attributed to Republicans who were angered by the inclusion of McCain, as well as committee members who thought that dropping Glenn (and McCain) would make it look bad for the remaining three Democratic senators.

The scandal was followed by a number of attempts to adopt campaign finance reform—spearheaded by U.S. Sen. David Boren (D-OK)—but most attempts died in committee. A weakened reform was passed in 1993. Substantial campaign finance reform was not passed until the adoption of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002. Bennett would later write that the Keating Five investigation did make a difference, as members of Congress were afterward far less likely to intercede with federal investigations on behalf of contributors.

In early October 2008, the Keating Five scandal, its possible parallel to the subprime mortgage crisis and liquidity crisis of September 2008, and specifically the role in the scandal of Republican presidential nominee McCain, were briefly emphasized by the campaign of his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, through a 13-minute "documentary" entitled Keating Economics. This introduction occurred after the McCain campaign began emphasizing the Obama–Ayers controversy. The Keating Five matter otherwise had little impact on McCain's eventually unsuccessful campaign.

Reports
 United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics. Preliminary inquiry into allegations regarding Senators Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and Riegle, and Lincoln Savings and Loan: Open session hearings before the Select Committee on Ethics, United States Senate, One Hundred First Congress, second session, November 15, 1990, through January 16, 1991. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1991.
 United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics. Senate Select Committee on Ethics, Investigation of Senator Alan Cranston together with Additional Views, Report of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, S. Rep. No. 223, 102d Cong., 1st Sess. 36 (November 20, 1991). Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1991.

Citations

General references

Savings and loan crisis
John Glenn
Congressional scandals
Political scandals in the United States
John McCain
Corruption in the United States

Keating Five


Somerford Park is situated off the A54 road midway between Congleton and Holmes Chapel in Cheshire. Somerfield Hall was a Georgian brick-built country house which used to stand in the park as the seat of the Shakerley Baronets family, but was demolished in 1926.

The original house was built around 1720 for Peter Shakerley. The Shakerleys had owned land in the area since the reign of Henry III. Several generations of the Shakerley family had previously lived at Hulme Hall near Northwich since the mid-15th century before the family moved to Somerford. The house was then extended in the 18th century by architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard and enlarged again around 1800 by Lawrence Robinson of Middleton, Lancashire by the addition of a large rectangular wing at right angles to the existing 9-bay house. The new front faced the park and boasted a central domed bow. The house was then altered by Anthony Salvin for Sir Charles Watkin Shakerley in 1859-60 with the addition of an Italianate porch. The parkland was laid out in the 19th century by John Webb.

The house was demolished in 1926 and much of the parkland turned into farmland, although the chapel, icehouse and 18th-century stables survive, but in a ruinous condition. All Saints Chapel is listed Grade II*. An equestrian centre was established on part of the estate in 1976.

References

Country houses in Cheshire
British country houses destroyed in the 20th century

Somerford Park, Cheshire


Paweł Stefan Sapieha (1565–1635). Lis coat of arms was a Polish–Lithuanian noble and magnate, Grand Lithuanian Koniuszy from 1593, Deputy Chancellor of Lithuania from 1623, starosta.

Genealogy
Scion of the great Ruthenian and Lithuanian families of the Great Duchy of Lithuania (including the Kapustich, Gastold and  Holszanski families), was a son of voivode of Minsk Bohdan Pawłowicz Sapieha (who was son of voivode of Navahrudak Paweł Sapieha) and Maryna, duchess Kapuścianka (of the princes Kapusta/Kapustich of Pereiaslav); and brother to Mikołaj Sapieha (1588–1638),  famous military commander Andrzej Sapieha, Barbara (Wolowiczowa), Zofia (Hajek and later Pac), Anna (Tryzna), and fourth a sister who was a nun in the Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great.

Life
He inherited the Halshany seat of his family, and early started his political and military career, participating in wars fought by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
He fought in the Polish–Muscovite War from 1609 to 1611, losing a hand during the siege of Smolensk. Supporter of Polish-Swedish peace and alliance against the Muscovy in negotiations ending the Polish–Swedish wars in a truce signed and known as Treaty of Stuhmsdorf in 1635. Took part, bringing his own troops, in the Smolensk War against the Muscovites, but returned early due to poor health.
Paweł Stefan Sapieha owned, among others, the estates surrounding the Zamek holszański (Halshany Castle), and in fact he was the one who commissioned the famous castle to have been built. In 1618 he founded the Franciscan monastery and a Roman Catholic church in Halshany (both run by the Franciscans), while  he caused to close the existing Protestant church there and given the property to the Roman Catholic Church, administered by the Basilian monks. He lavished money and precious gifts to the founded churches and monasteries He died in his castle and was buried within the church he founded in Halshany. The church bell had the following Latin inscription: Paulus Sapieha Dux in Holszany Procancellarius M. D. L.

Family
He was married four times, first Regina Chalecka, Chalecki coat of arms first, upon her death married Katarzyna Gosławska (Oksza coat of arms), then Elisabeth Vesselini (daughter of a Hungarian voivode), and finally Zofia Danilowiczowna, (Daniłowicz family Sas coat of arms). He had three daughters: Katarzyna and Tekla  who became nuns, while Krystyna married Jan Hieronim Chodkiewicz, Kościesza coat of arms.

References

 Adam Boniecki, Poczet rodów w Wielkiem Księstwie Litewskiem w XV i XVI wiek Warszwa 1887, p. 117, 304–307.
 Kasper Niesiecki,Polish Armorial - "Korona Polska przy złotey wolnosci starożytnemi Rycerstwa Polskiego y Wielkiego Xięstwa Litewskiego kleynotami naywyższymi Honorami Heroicznym, Męstwem y odwagą, Wytworną Nauką a naypierwey Cnotą, nauką Pobożnością, y Swiątobliwością ozdobiona Potomnym zaś wiekom na zaszczyt y nieśmiertelną sławę Pamiętnych w tey Oyczyźnie Synow podana TOM ... Przez X. Kaspra Niesieckego Societatis Jesu", Lwów (now Lviv), 1738, Vol. 8, p. 296-297
 Polski Słownik Biograficzny, vol. 35, p. 133 (SAPIEHA Paweł Stefan (1565-1635))
 Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich. (Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland), Warszawa : nakł. Filipa Sulimierskiego i Władysława Walewskiego, 1880–1914, Volume III (1882), p. 102-103.

Secular senators of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
1565 births
1635 deaths
Pawel Stefan
Ruthenian nobility of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Deputy Chancellors of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Paweł Stefan Sapieha


The Victoria line is part of the London Underground network. It is a deep-level underground metro line that runs from Brixton in south London to Walthamstow Central in the north-east. It started running in 1968. On the Tube map it is shown with a light blue color. It is the fourth busiest line on the London Underground network. It is the only line on the Underground, other than the two-stop Waterloo & City line, which is completely underground. The only section of track to come above ground is the route to the depot from Seven Sisters to Northumberland Park.

The Underground line has hump-backed stations which allow trains to store gravitational potential energy as they arrive and to then use this energy as they leave the stations. The stations are on top of small hills, or humps. As the train travels up the hill to the station its weight helps it to slow down. As the train leaves the station it travels down the hill, with gravity helping the train to speed up. This saves 5% energy and makes the trains run 9% faster. Each new platform built for the Victoria Line is 132.6 metres long. Around 200 million people use the Victoria line each year.

History

A new tube railway running from Victoria to Walthamstow was first proposed by a Working Party set up by the British Transport Commission in 1948. The main purpose of the line was to relieve congestion in the central area.  The Private Bill needed to build it was introduced into Parliament in 1955. The Bill described a line from Victoria to Walthamstow (Wood Street). There was also a proposal for an extension from Victoria to Fulham Broadway station on the District line, but this was not included in the Bill.

The construction work on the Walthamstow–Victoria section began in 1962. It continued until 1972, when Pimlico station was opened. A test tunnel from Tottenham to Manor House under Seven Sisters Road had been constructed in 1959 and this was later integrated into the running tunnels. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the line during its construction. In July 1968, they visited the tunnels that were being built under Vauxhall Park.

Barbara Castle, the Minister of Transport gave approval on 4 August 1967 to build the Brixton extension. Preparatory work started at a site on Bessborough Gardens near to Vauxhall Bridge Road in May 1967. On 28 June 1968, Richard Marsh, then Minister of Transport approved the proposal to build a station at Pimlico.

The name "Victoria line" dates back to 1955. Other suggestions were "Walvic line" (Walthamstow Central station–Victoria station) and "Viking line" (Victoria station–King's Cross station). During the planning stages, it was known as Route C. Later, it was named the Victoria line after Victoria Station by David McKenna. This suggestion was seconded by Sir John Elliot.

The Victoria line was designed to get rid of build-ups of traffic on other lines, such as the Piccadilly line. It was also designed to have as many interchanges as possible, and all stations except Pimlico have an interchange with at least one other London Underground or National Rail line. It had been intended to build the line past Walthamstow Central to Wood Street (Walthamstow), where it would come above ground to terminate next to the British Railways station. However, a late decision in 1961 saw the line cut back to Walthamstow Central station. Until 1968 this station was called Walthamstow (Hoe Street).

Each Victoria line station apart from Pimlico was built as an interchange station and several existing stations were re–arranged to allow for cross-platform interchange with it. In some cases this was achieved by placing the Victoria line platforms on either side of the existing station. In others the Victoria line uses one of the older platforms and the existing line was moved toto a new platform.

At Euston, northbound Victoria and Northern line (Bank branch) trains run along platforms next to each other, although they are travelling in opposite directions. "Same-direction" cross-platform interchanges are available at Stockwell (with the Northern line), Oxford Circus (with the Bakerloo line), Highbury & Islington (with First Capital Connect, originally the Northern City Line) and at Finsbury Park (with the Piccadilly line).

All Victoria line stations were originally tiled in a light blue colour. Each station was decorated with tiled motifs on seating recesses to differentiate them from each other. During the construction of the Jubilee line in the late 1970s, the original motifs on Green Park station were replaced by motifs matching the new design for the Jubilee line platforms.

Platform humps were installed on all Victoria Line stations, except for Pimlico, during late 2010 and 2011. This was done to provide step-free access to trains. The Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Non Interoperable Rail System) Regulations 2010 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 created the need for the humps to be installed. The humps are a ramp type, similar to those being installed on some mainline stations. They are of a masonry construction.

Opening
The first section opened was between Walthamstow Central and Highbury & Islington. There was no opening ceremony for this. The normal timetable started on 1 September 1968. The first train left Walthamstow Central for Highbury & Islington at about 7:32 am. Later that year, the section between Highbury & Islington and Warren Street was opened. Again there was no ceremony.

The official opening ceremony for the line took place at Victoria station on 7 March 1969. Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a commemorative plaque on the station concourse. After a short ceremony, she bought a 5d (old pence) ticket and travelled to Green Park. In new pence this would be about 2.08p. This made her the first monarch to ride the Underground.

Princess Alexandra opened the Brixton extension on 23 July 1971. She rode the train from Brixton to Vauxhall.

Service and rolling stock

Trains run every two minutes during peak periods (when its the busiest). In normal service, all trains run from Brixton to Seven Sisters. About three out of five continue to Walthamstow Central.

When the line first opened it was served by a fleet of 8-car 1967 tube stock trains. Each is made up of two four-car units. Later on, a number of cars of 1972 Mark I tube stock were adapted to work with the 1967 stock. This meant that there were finally 43 trains, each of which was made up of two four-car units. The 1967 tube stock was replaced by 2009 tube stock between 2009 and 2011 (see below).

At first, an articulated type of rolling stock was thought about. This idea was not used because it would have been too hard to move the stock to Acton Works for heavy overhauls. This is no longer a problem since train overhauls have been moved away from Acton Works to the builders' own works. The new 2009 tube stock is wider and the carriage is slightly longer. This means it can only run on the Victoria line, as it is too wide for the tunnels of other deep level tube lines.

The line has an Automatic Train Operation system (ATO). The train operator (driver) closes the train doors and presses a pair of "start" buttons. If the way ahead is clear, the ATO drives the train at a safe speed to the next station and stops there. This system has been in place since the line opened in 1968. This makes the Victoria line the world's first full-scale automatic railway.

Future
When the Victoria line was built, there were severe budget restrictions. As a result, the station infrastructure standards were lower than on older lines and on later extension projects. Examples of these lower standards include narrower than usual platforms and undecorated ceilings at Walthamstow Central, Blackhorse Road and Tottenham Hale. This also affects lighting levels. At most stations between the up and down escalators there is a concrete staircase where an additional escalator could be installed, but has not been fitted. It can cause severe congestion at peak times. This has been remedied at Brixton in 2004 and at Vauxhall in 2006 where an additional escalator has been installed in place of the fixed stairway.

In addition, there have been station closures for safety reasons, when both escalators have been unserviceable. Over many years, heavy equipment has been installed in fenced-off sections at the ends of platforms owing to the lack of anywhere else to install them. It is not clear from Transport for London's Five-Year Investment Programme whether these shortcomings are likely to be remedied.

The 1967 stock was replaced bit by bit from July 2009 as part of Transport for London's 5-year £10 billion redevelopment project. The replacement for the line's 1967 tube stock is the 2009 tube stock built by Bombardier Transportation. The first train was built in 2006. Testing of the new trains began in 2008. The main fleet began to be introduced in 2009 and went into main service in 2010. The last of the 1967 stock trains ran on 30 June 2011, after which the whole service was provided by 2009 stock.

Supporters of Tottenham Hotspur (and the club itself) have campaigned for a surface station to be opened next to Northumberland Park Station, next to the line's depot. This would provide an improvement in transport links, seen as essential if the club's wish to redevelop their ground and increase crowd capacity is to become a reality.  The idea was looked into but Network Rail own the necessary land and need it for their own expansion plans.

When Crossrail 2 is built, it will lower the number of passengers on the Victoria line (there are too many at the moment). It will offer an alternative route across Central London between Victoria and King's Cross St. Pancras.

For many years there have been proposals to extend southwards from Brixton one stop to Herne Hill. Herne Hill is a railway station that can link passengers to Kent and other places. The tube station would be on a large reversing loop with one platform. This would remove a problem of having too many trains by getting rid if the need for trains to reverse at Brixton. However, this would cost too much money for how little it would actually help passengers.  Given that the line is very overcrowded, this is the only extension that could ever happen.

Stations

Depot

Northumberland Park Depot is the service and storage area for trains on the Victoria Line. It is the only part of the line not in tunnel. It is next to Northumberland Park railway station, on Tottenham Marshes, Tottenham in the London Borough of Haringey.

The Depot is connected to the Victoria Line by a tunnelled branch line to a junction to the north of Seven Sisters. It was opened with the first stage of the line in 1968.

There is a local campaign for platforms for the Victoria Line to be built at Northumberland Park station.  This is supported by the Haringey Council and by Tottenham Hotspur F.C. because the club thinks the new platforms are necessary for their plans to increase capacity at their White Hart Lane ground.

References

Other websites

 London Transport Museum Poster Archive – images of the station tiling motifs:

1968 establishments in England
London Underground lines
Transport in the London Borough of Lambeth
Transport in the City of Westminster
Transport in the London Borough of Camden
Transport in the London Borough of Islington
Transport in the London Borough of Haringey
Transport in the London Borough of Waltham Forest
Tunnels underneath the River Thames

Victoria line


The Marconi National Historic Site and the Marconi Wireless Station National Historic Site are two National Historic Sites located on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.  Both sites commemorate the efforts of Guglielmo Marconi to transmit transatlantic radio signals between North America and Europe in the first decade of the 20th century.  The two sites are located within approximately  of one another, and are connected by the Marconi Trail.

Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador is another National Historic Site related to Marconi's work in Canada.  Signal Hill was designated, in part, to commemorate Marconi's first transmission tests in 1901.

Marconi National Historic Site

Marconi National Historic Site, located at Table Head in Glace Bay, is the site of Guglielmo Marconi's first transatlantic wireless station, callsign VAS, and the first wireless message sent from North America to Europe on December 15, 1902.  The site features the remnants of Marconi's transmission towers, a modern amateur radio station, plus a museum chronicling Marconi's achievements.

Marconi chose this site for its elevated flat expanse and unobstructed view out over the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the concrete footings for the massive towers can still be seen on the grounds.  In 1901, the first west to east wireless message was sent across the Atlantic Ocean to England from this site.  A spark gap transmitter with 75 kilowatts of power fed four tall antennas on the  site overlooking the ocean.  In December 1902 Marconi transmitted the first complete messages to Poldhu from stations at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.

Marconi's facilities were dismantled and moved to a larger site to the southwest in 1905, known today as the Marconi Wireless Station National Historic Site.

The first Glace Bay site was designated a National Historic Site in 1939.  The site a unit of the national park system, operated by Parks Canada, and the museum at the Marconi National Historic Site is affiliated with CMA,  CHIN, and Virtual Museum of Canada.

Marconi Wireless Station National Historic Site
Communications between Glace Bay and England proved to be unreliable, and only possible after dark, so Marconi had larger stations constructed on both sides of the Atlantic between 1905 and 1907.  These stations were at Clifden, Ireland, and a  site just south of Glace Bay, near Port Morien.  The two stations were at the time the most powerful radio stations in the world.

The Marconi Wireless Station in Cape Breton ceased operations in 1946.  The property was bought by Russell Cunningham, a local resident, and it is still owned by his heirs.  All that remains of the station today is the foundations of the aerial towers as well as three abandoned buildings in varying degrees of repair.  The site was designated a National Historic Site in 1983. It is not a unit of the national park system, and public access is only by permission of the owners. A federal plaque from the national Historic Sites & Monuments Board reflecting the designation is located at the Old Town Hall & Glace Bay Heritage Museum, 14 McKeen Street, in Glace Bay.

References

External links
Marconi National Historic Site - Parks Canada official site
Cape Breton Wireless Heritage Society

Museums in Cape Breton County
National Historic Sites in Nova Scotia
Science museums in Canada
History museums in Nova Scotia
Wireless
Telecommunications museums
Buildings and structures in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality
Guglielmo Marconi

Marconi and Marconi Wireless Station National Historic Sites


Ngerekebesang Island (alternative names: Ngerekebesang Hamlet, Arakabesan) is an island in the state of Koror, Palau, where the office of the President of the Republic of Palau was located before the capital was moved to the state of Melekeok. It is composed of three towns: Ngerekebesang, Meyuns, and Echang, where most Southwest Islanders moved to after a storm struck the southwest islands. They were later resettled.

Meyuns is host to the largest hospital in Palau, Belau National Hospital. Ngerkebesang Island and the Island of Koror are connected by a causeway. The causeway, currently being remodeled, was originally built during the Japanese occupation of Palau.

References

Islands of Palau
Koror

Ngerekebesang


The A14 is a major road in England. It is a trunk road which runs roughly east to west,   from the Port of Felixstowe, Suffolk to the  junction of the M1 and M6 motorways near Rugby, Warwickshire. Along the way, it crosses the ancient main north-south route of Watling Street, now the A1.

The road forms part of the  Trans European Road Network, and runs mostly through Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.

It is part of unsigned Euroroutes E24 and E30.

Roads in England

A14 road (Great Britain)


Andreas Kontogouris (, 1700s - 1824) was a Greek revolutionary leader during the Greek War of Independence.

He was born in the island of Cefalonia at the time it was in Venetian hands and later moved to Patras, on the present-day mainland of Greece, in 1786.

Kontogouris was counsellor to France, Spain, United States and other governments.  He accumulated a great fortune and participated during the revolution. He also ran the Cefalonian Body, which he equipped at his own expense.  When the Turks invaded Patras, he was chased away and returned to Kefalonia.  Before he left, he set light to his warehouses, most of which were full, so that his goods would not fall into the hands of the Turks.

References
Peloponnesian Revolutionary Leaders of 1821, Nikitaras Remembered (ποννήσιοι αγωνιστές του 1821, Νικηταρά απομνημονεύματα = Peloponissoi agonistes tou 1821, Nikitara apomnimonevmata), Fotakou, Vergina publishers, Athens 1996
''This article is translated and is based from the article at the Greek Wikipedia (el:Main Page)

18th-century births
1824 deaths
People from Cephalonia
Greek military leaders of the Greek War of Independence

Andreas Kontogouris


The British Rail Class 442 Wessex Electric (or 5WES) electrical multiple units, were introduced in 1988 on the South Western Main Line from London Waterloo to Southampton Central, Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth. Twenty-four of these 5-car units were built between 1988 and 1989 by BREL at their Derby works. Their introduction coincided with the completion of electrification from Bournemouth to Weymouth. The entire fleet was operated by South West Trains up until February 2007, when the Class 442 services were replaced.

442
442

British Rail Class 442


Rawsonville is a small wine growing and farming community in the Breede River Valley of the Western Cape province of South Africa. The town forms part of the Breede Valley Local Municipality, and is located in a scenic portion of the valley on the eastern flanks of the Du Toitskloof Mountains.

The town is part of the Breedekloof Wine Route and hosts the annual Breedekloof extreme sports festival. The economy remains heavily reliant on serving the agricultural community, however tourism in the form of weekend retreats are becoming more important to the town's income. Rawsonville is  to the east of Cape Town and  to the west of the large town of Worcester.

Early history

Old Goudini Farms
Slanghoek, Klipdrift, Groot Vlakte, Groot Eiland, Gevonden, Goudyn, Boontjiesrivier, Dasbosch Rivier, Pokkekraal and Aan-de-Smalblaar were some of the original farms occupied by European settlers since 1709.

Town
By the 1850s the necessity for the formation of a hamlet had become clear; the ward was cut off from Worcester during the rainy season when the Breede River burst it banks regularly.

The farm Aan-de-Smalblaar was transported to Johannes Petrus (Jan) Jordaan on 23 July 1858. Jan Jordaan divided a portion of the farm into 57 residential plots and these were sold at a public auction on 11 June 1859. The town was named for Sir Rawson William Rawson, the Cape Colonial Secretary.
Since the modern day, there is a rural suburban areas called De Nova and "Nuwe huisies"(New Houses) with the squatter camps called Spookytown, Geelkampies, Ocean view, Riverside and Bos nakata.

School
45 Deelhebbers (participants) decided to form De Goudini School in 1858 and they were represented by seven school directors. Rawsonville also consist of schools called Rawsonville Primary, Weltevrede Primary and many more.

Church
On 16 June 1878 a public meeting was held to ascertain if a Dutch Reformed Church Congregation should be established at Rawsonville and on 14 October 1879 the Worcester Ring Commission granted permission for the formation of the Goudini Dutch Reformed Congregation.

Town Management
Under the Village Management Act Rawsonville was granted Town Management in 1883. During the 1800s, if a doctor was needed someone had to travel to Worcester on horseback or on foot and if it rained continuously for six hours, the Smalblaar River burst its banks and the water ran through town. Under these circumstances no school was attended.

Climate

The climate is hinterland (further from oceanic influences) mediterranean, with cool, rainy winters and warm, dry summers. Due to its more inland location, winters can sometimes get frosty, with heavy snowfalls sometimes falling on the surrounding high ground. Summers are generally mild, although some February and March days can reach  or higher.

Vineyards
Located within the wine district of Breedekloof, Rawsonville is part of the Breedekloof wine route, a scenic byway that passes 22 wineries of differing sizes.

A new community centre with facilities including a meeting hall and classrooms was opened in the town in 2018 for the Merwida wine estate. It is used by over 450 people, most of whom are vineyard workers.

Gallery

References

Eeublad; WR Laubscher; Hoërskool Goudini 1958
Genade genoeg vir Goudini; AP Smit; Kerkraad 1979

Populated places in the Breede Valley Local Municipality
Hot springs of South Africa

Rawsonville


Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta, or The Elegy of Lady Fiammetta in English, is a novel by the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, probably written between 1343 and 1344. Written in the form of a first-person confessional monologue, it describes the protagonist, Fiammetta's, passion for Panfilo, a Florentine merchant, and takes place in Naples. It has been characterised as the first psychological novel in Western literature. It consists of a prologue and nine chapters.

Plot
Lady Fiammetta recounts her tragic love affair with Panfilo, offering it as a warning to other women. Lady Fiammetta and Panfilo quickly fall in love and have an affair, only to have it end when Panfilo returns to Florence.

Although he promises to return to Naples, she eventually realizes that he has another lover in Florence. The narrative revolves around Fiammetta's jealousy and despair caused by the affair, rather than the development of her relationship with Panfilo. She eventually considers suicide, but her nurse stops her. Her hopes in the end are bolstered by the news that Panfilo may be coming back to Naples after all.

Translations
Two translations of Boccaccio's Elegia have come out in recent years. The two translations differ in their principles of translation and their Italian texts. The Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta Sent by Her to Women in Love, by Roberta L. Payne and Alexandra Hennessey Olsenhope, is aimed at a popular audience. The Mariangela Causa-Steindler and Thomas Mauch translation, The Elegy of Lady Fiammetta, is more scholarly.

See also
Juan de Flores wrote a sentimental novel, Grimalte y Gradissa, which presents itself as a kind of sequel to the Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta.

Sources
 Causa-Steindler, Mariangela and Thomas Mauch (1990). The Elegy of Lady Fiammetta. University of Chicago Press. .
 Hennessey, Alexandra and Roberta L. Payne (1993). The Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta Sent by Her to Women in Love. Peter Lang Publishing. .

External links
 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10006/10006-h/10006-h.htm: English translation of La Fiammetta by Giovanni Boccaccio, translated by James C. Brogan, 1907.

14th-century novels
Medieval Italian literature
Works by Giovanni Boccaccio
Novels set in Naples
Italian novels
Love stories
Psychological novels

Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta


Mary of Burgundy, Duchess of Cleves (1393 – 30 October 1466) was the second child of John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria, and an elder sister of Philip the Good.

Born in Dijon, she became the second wife of Adolph, Count of Mark in May 1406. He was made the 1st Duke of Cleves in 1417. They were the grandparents of King Louis XII of France and the great-grandparents of John III, Duke of Cleves, father of Anne of Cleves, who was fourth Queen consort of Henry VIII of England. By their daughter, Catherine, they were ancestors of Mary, Queen of Scots.

The Duke and Duchess of Cleves lived at Wijnendale Castle in West Flanders. She died in Cleves in present-day Monterberg, Kalkar.

Influence
At the death of Adolph of Cleves in 1448, his son John I of Cleves succeeded him. Mary retired to Monterberg Castle, near Kalkar. Returning from a trip to the Middle East in 1449, John visited the Benedictine monastery of Bologna and decided with his mother to found a similar monastery in Kalkar, which would be built to house a dozen monks. Construction began in 1453 and was complete by 1457. The buildings housed numerous works of art and a large library. After secularization in 1802, the church and most of the buildings were demolished, works of art spread throughout the surrounding churches, notably in the Church of St. Nicholas in Kalkar. From the monastery only a part of a wall remains.

The city was driven by development of the wool weaving industry. The wealthy bourgeois and the presence of the nobility in the person of Mary attracted artists, solicited for their works in oils and clay. The Kalkar church, completed in 1450, and the monastery, were the subject of many decorations. The city became, until the early sixteenth century, the center of a school of sculpture including Heinrich Douvermann. Further, scientists like Konrad Heresbach, counselor of the Dukes of Cleves, humanist, lawyer, educator and farmer, periodically resided in Kalkar. This flourishing period ended in the mid-sixteenth century, when, after the fall of weaving activities, epidemics of plague decimated the population.

Issue

Margaret (23 February 1416 – 20 May 1444), married first William III, Duke of Bavaria on 11 May 1433, second Ulrich V, Count of Württemberg on 29 January 1441
Catherine of Cleves (25 May 1417 – 10 February 1479); married on 23 July 1423 Arnold, Duke of Guelders, mother of Mary of Guelders, Queen consort of Scotland
John I, Duke of Cleves (16 February 1419 – 5 September 1481); married on 22 April 1455 Elizabeth of Nevers
Elisabeth of Cleves (1 October 1420 – March 1488); married on 15 July 1434 Henry XXVI of Schwarzburg-Blankenburg (1418–1488)
Agnes of Cleves (1422 – 6 April 1446); married on 30 September 1439 Charles IV, King of Navarre
Helen of Cleves (1423–1471); married on 12 February 1436 Henry "the Peaceful", Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (–1473)
Adolph of Cleves, Lord of Ravenstein (1425–1492); married on 13 May 1453 Beatrice of Portugal (1435–1462), daughter of Peter, Duke of Coimbra
Marie of Cleves (1426–1487); married on 27 November 1440 Charles, Duke of Orléans. Mother of Louis XII, King of France

Ancestry

References

Further reading
Early Netherlandish painting: its origins and character, Volume 2, Erwin Panofsky, 1971

1393 births
1466 deaths
Countesses of Cleves
Duchesses of Cleves
Countesses of Mark
House of Valois-Burgundy
People from Dijon
15th-century French women
15th-century French people

Mary of Burgundy, Duchess of Cleves


The Communist Party of China (CPC) Politburo Standing Committee is CPC's most powerful decision-making body. It is elected by the CPC Central Committee. It normally consists of 5 ~ 9 people. Currently (2018) 7 (Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng). Since CPC is the ruling party in China by constitution, the Politburo Standing Committee is also the leadership group of China. Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang were elected in 2007 as successors to Hu Jingtao and Wen Jiabao. The other 5 were elected in 2017.

References

Communism
Politics of China

CPC Politburo Standing Committee


The Northwest Atlantic Marine Ecozone, as defined by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), is a Canadian marine ecozone forming a transitional region between the cold northern waters of the Arctic Ocean and the more temperate waters in its southern extent.

Geography
Stretching in a narrow strip offshore from Ellesmere Island and Devon Island in Baffin Bay, it runs parallel to the coast of Bylot Island and Baffin Island until meeting it at the Cumberland Peninsula. It covers the waters of the Davis Strait and the Hudson Strait, Ungava Bay and portions of the Labrador Sea, including all coastal areas of Labrador and the northern coast of Newfoundland. It also includes the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River.

The cold, highly saline North Atlantic Deep Water forms in the Labrador Sea and flows at great depth along the western edge of the North Atlantic. Moreover, in this ecozone the cold Labrador Current meets the Gulf Stream at the Grand Banks, and together with the freshwater discharge from the Saint Lawrence River, moderate the climate of the coastal areas of the Maritimes.

There are more than 440,000 islands in this zone.

Regions
This ecozone consists of eight regions, namely:
 Hudson Strait
 Labrador Shelf
 Newfoundland Shelf
 North Gulf Shelf
 Saint Lawrence River Estuary
 Magdalen Shallows
 Laurentian Channel
 Scotian Shelf (only a small portion near Cape Breton Island)

Climate

This ecozone's climate varies throughout its extent, with temperatures differing by 20 °C between the arctic waters in the north and the Gulf Stream in the south. Sub-surface temperatures are always below the freezing point, but the salinity of the waters prevents them from freezing. Surface sea ice forms throughout this region, and thousands of icebergs may be observed between the northeast coast of Newfoundland and the Grand Banks. The Saint Lawrence River freezes over during the winter, closing the important shipping channel until the ice clears in the summer.

Summer tides may reach 9 to 12 m, though they tend to be exaggerated in Ungava Bay and more subdued in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

References

Ecozones and ecoregions of Nunavut
Geography of Quebec
Geography of Newfoundland and Labrador
Geography of New Brunswick
Geography of Nova Scotia
Geography of Prince Edward Island

Northwest Atlantic Marine Ecozone


East Loch Tarbert, Argyll is a small sea loch on the eastern side of the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland. It is a part of the much larger Loch Fyne. The village of Tarbert lies along the shores of the loch, which is separated from West Loch Tarbert by an isthmus only  long.

According to Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla, Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, had his longship dragged across this isthmus as part of a campaign to increase his possessions in the Hebrides. He made an arrangement with King Malcolm III of Scotland that he could take possession of land on the west coast around which a ship could sail. Magnus declared that Kintyre had "better land than the best of the Hebrides", and by taking command of his ship's tiller and "sailing" across the isthmus he was able to claim the entire  peninsula, which remained under Norse rule for more than a dozen years as a result.

More than two centuries later Robert the Bruce completed a similar feat during the Scottish Wars of Independence in order to impress the clan chieftains of Argyll. He used tree trunks as rollers.

In the 18th century Thomas Pennant recorded that sea-going vessels of up to  were being hauled over the isthmus in order to avoid the dangers of storms and tidal races in the seas surrounding the Mull of Kintyre. James Watt surveyed the area and decided that it was feasible to construct a canal between the two lochs. Some 60 years later it was estimated that the cost for a cut without locks would be £90,000 but delays in implementation and the construction of the Crinan canal in 1801 rendered the plan redundant.

In the modern era the Tarbert (Loch Fyne) Harbour Commissioners control the loch, an area defined as "from the point of Garvell on the North, to the Oakenhead or Rudha Loigste point on the South". There are various quays and slipways in the inner harbour and 80 pontoon berths for yachts and other leisure craft.

References
Murray, W.H. (1977) The Companion Guide to the West Highlands of Scotland. London. Collins.
Hollander, Lee M. (ed. & tr.) (1964) Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Footnotes

Sea lochs of Scotland
Lochs of Argyll and Bute

East Loch Tarbert, Argyll