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The Islander - Thursday 06^th January 2000

	HAPPY
	Ascension Island 2000! (Miss Millennium leading the parade of floats)

FROM THE ADMINISTRATOR

SHIPPING NEWS

Date Tuesday, December 21, 1999 Re: RMS St HELENA and the ships replacing her service. The RMS St. HELENA (RMS) is safely berthed in Falmouth. She will go into dry dock in Falmouth on 5th January. ETD Cardiff, when normal service resumes, is 3rd February. The IASON is back in Ascension Is. loading passengers and sailing at 13:00 today for St Helena (23rd) and then departing for Cape Town (24th). ETA Cape Town (30th). The IASON's forward schedule remains as previously advised. After the Cape Town Call it is (all departure dates in January 00) St Helena 5th; Ascension 7th; St Helena 10th; Ascension 12th; St Helena 15th; Ascension 17th; Las Palmas 24th and Gibraltar 27th. Martin Smith (Master, RMS ST HELENA, sailing as supercargo) reports that the ship is settling into the routine well. She has stabilisers, so the Southern Ocean swell a day or two out of Cape Town should be no problem. The ELIZABETH BOYE, is now at sea between St. Helena and Cape Town. She should get to Cape Town on 27th December. Belinda Bennett (2/Off from RMS St HELENA, who traveled as supercargo and chicken-feeder) is now on leave in St Helena, having enjoyed her trip on the ship and delivered the chickens and the dog safely to St Helena. The THORSRIVER arrived at Port Alfred during last night. The three men will leave today and fly to UK over tonight. The sea is frozen there. We expect they will be glad to get to Falmouth. This ship will no longer feature in these Updates. We wish her and all at CCAL a very happy Christmas and New Year. They have been very helpful to us. Date Friday, December 24th, 1999 Re: RMS St HELENA and the ships replacing her service. The RMS St. HELENA (RMS) is safely berthed in Falmouth. She will go into dry dock in Falmouth on 5th January. ETD Cardiff, when normal service resumes, is 3rd February. The IASON has just left St Helena with passengers for Cape Town. She sails from Cape Town back to St Helena on 30th. All the passengers who were due in St Helena by Christmas are now there. All the cargo that was due in St Helena by Christmas is now there too.

Transport, especially by sea, sometimes requires more flexibility than is normally expected. We would like to thank everyone for the help and assistance we have received over the past weeks; not least the passengers who traveled on the IASON. We are told that the IASON had a happy voyage to St Helena; and that the 'invasion' of the Island on 18th was impressive. The ELIZABETH BOYE, is now at sea between St. Helena and Cape Town. She has 61 empty containers from St Helena and some empty gas bottles. She will load for St Helena on 28th. The Falmouth office will be manned until the afternoon of 24th December and will be open and functioning on 29th and 30th December. The office will be closed on Christmas Day, 26th, and New Years Day. On the other days, either Bank Holidays or weekends, the office will be visited and mail and communications will be cleared. We wish everybody a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful, uneventful and prosperous New Year. Date Wednesday, December 29, 1999 Re: RMS St HELENA and the ships replacing her service. The RMS St. HELENA (RMS) is safely berthed in Falmouth. She will go into dry dock in Falmouth on 5th January. ETD Cardiff, when normal service resumes, is 3rd February. The IASON arrived in Cape Town today. She is berthed at 501, a container-cargo berth; the only one available. It was a rough passage for the ship in the Southern Ocean. She will sail for St Helena tomorrow and her ETA St. Helena is 09:00 4th January. The ELIZABETH BOYE, is now in Cape Town. She was delayed by bad weather and arrived yesterday. She may get delayed by the extended holiday period and sail on January 4th. We are making every effort to get her loaded and out by tomorrow; this depends upon the availability and effectiveness of a night shift. Cape Town is congested. Her ETA in St Helena is 'to be advised Geoffrey Fairhurst Administrator Georgetown Ascension Island ASCN 1ZZ Tel: + 247 6311; Fax + 247 6152 E mail administrator@atlantis.co.ac Web site: http://www.ascension-island.gov.ac

Father Keith Writes:

PARISH CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN.  ASCENSION ISLAND (Diocese of St. Helena) Parish Priest: Fr. Keith James - 6431 Church Warden: Mervyn Isaacs Church Warden: Cheryl Anthony

Dear Friends,

First a word of congratulations to the organisers of the Millennium Celebrations; it was good to be asked to lead with a short act of worship, and nice to have so many of you there. I am sure the programme offered something for everyone, we all had a very good time, and the fireworks were superb.
Watching the 'round the world' scenes on TV brought home to us all just how big an event this was, surely the biggest party ever on this planet!
Jesus liked the idea of parties, and I'm sure he would have approved of the fun. In fact he told a parable about a party, a wedding feast, where one after another the guests made their excuses until in desperation the man giving the party made his servants go into the highways and byways to gather in whoever he could find to come to the celebration ( The details vary whether you read St Luke's version or listen to St Matthews)
Jesus was talking about the Kingdom of God, a party to which everyone is invited.
Well it may not be quite on such a grand scale as that, but the church here is celebrating the first visit of our new Bishop, The Rt Revd. John Salt this coming Sunday.
We shall have a Family Service in the Morning - PLEASE note 10.30 -and as it is the time of year, Epiphany, when we remember the Kings bringing their gifts to the Christchild this will also be our Annual Toy Service at which gifts will be received for the poorer children on St Helena. What can you bring?
Then it's off to the Exiles Club for a Plate Party - please bring a plate of food to share.
In the evening another chance to meet together round a table as we Celebrate the Holy Eucharist at 6.30
AND EVERYONE IS INVITED

God Bless you and keep you, Fr Keith & Ginny.

LETTERS

BOXING DAY RAFT RACE

On your marks….. get set…. GO "Not yet!" shouted Colin - as the pack squashed him into the sand! After a few hours of paddling, the spectators had gone home for tea	All competitors at the starting line
and had come back again to find that the rafts had gone around the marker (Tenerife) and were heading back into the beach! Some rafts went clockwise….. others also went clockwise….
	So what's your point? The MT raft was the first to come high and dry, (top right photo) followed by the Firemen, (right), and then by the Scouts! (below). They were followed by a 'submarine' - some had shouted 'DIVE!' and they forgot they were in the RAF! Food and drinks went down very well after! Thanks Guys!

GUNPORTS - SAKERS AND SUCH.

As there were no given standards to gun making each country and in some cases each foundry went their own way in size and calibre wise. Some of the cannon were enormous, others mere "pop" guns in comparison. For example: a "Basilik" weighed 9000 pounds, had a calibre of 8.75 inches and fired a shot of 60 pounds. at the lower end of the scale, we have the "Robinet" which weighed 200 pounds and had a calibre of 1.25 inches and fired a 1 pound shot. In between these extremes were various calibre guns with exotic names such as Sakers, Minions, Falcons, Slingers, Fowlers, Curtalls and Periers to name but a few.

There was also the problem of mounting the guns which was fairly simple at first, no more than a grooved wooden bed with a block at the rear end. The barrel was laid in this, strapped down with wrought iron bands and rope which was also used to secure the entire affair from recoiling.

Trunions, a different form of carriage, which had wheels, changed the face of both land and sea warfare. Ships adopted the four wheel standard truck carriage, whilst on land, two wheel gun carriages became the norm. All of these were enormous to begin with, as wheels of six and nine feet in diameter were quite normal for most siege guns. Ammunition supply must have been quite laborious on both land and sea, so it was obviously advantageous to have guns of similar size and performance firing in a battery. This in turn meant much simpler training for the gunners, with less types of weapon to be mastered and a standardised ammunition supply chain.

Two major steps were taken in the early to mid 1500's. Firstly, gun ports were cut into the sides of ships so that the guns could now be run out on wheeled trucks. The other was by King Henry VIII of England (he of the many wives), who had a fondness for ordinance. As he brought about a standardisation of weapons and warfare, as he made his standing Army the best trained in Europe. By so doing he swelled his coffers too.

My usual thanks as always to those of you who have handed items into my amnesty box. Keep safe.

Bryn
The SerCo Armourer

MILLENNIUM CARNIVAL PARADE

Santa and his merry women	License to thrill..... 003.5	AIS's present for Tony Blair
	Miss Millenium Winners leading the parade
	The Scouts & Guides have a good time

By the Headteacher - Mrs Betty Joshua

SCHOOL PAGE

www.ais.co.ac/school/

Greetings from TBS to everyone for the Year 2000

Holidays draw to an end

We are not, as yet back at school in the physical sense, but are very much aware that the holidays are fast running out and preparations and planning are in hand for a new year start on Monday, 10 January. This will be a staff in-service day followed by the return of all pupils (with about five temporary and one full-time pupil joining us) on Tuesday, 11 January. We also take in two new little ones for the nursery class. More details about our new pupils at a later date.

Welcome

We extend a special welcome to our new Maths teacher Carolyne Armstrong and her son Jackson who arrived on the Island on Monday night. Carolyne replaces Sandra Bendall who, fortunately, does not leave the Island yet so we're not saying final farewells at this stage. However Sandara officially leaves us as a staff member on the 7th January and we take this opportunity to thank her for her excellent services to TBS and wish her well for the future.
Carolyne and Jackson are from Alderney in Guernsey, so they are used to the island life. However we will wait to hear just how the islands may differ! In the meantime, we wish Carolyne and Jackson a happy time with us at TBS.
We welcome back, too those who have been on leave over the past weeks.

Well Done

Congratulations to our pupils/scouts and teacher Colin Duncan for their participation in the Boxing Day Raft Race at English Bay. You did well to achieve third place.

Term Dates

The following dates apply to the remaining two terms of this current academic year:

Term Two - January 10 - Wednesday 12 April
Half-term holidays - Monday 21 - Wednesday 23 February

Term Three - Tuesday 25 April - Friday 28 July
Half-term holidays - Friday 16 - Monday 19 June.

We look forward to bringing to you our news over the weeks and wish all our readers all the very best for the Year 2000.

Betty Joshua
Headteacher.

Visit Two Boats School at: www.ais.co.ac/school/

Ascension Island Interactive

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E-Mail: editors@the-islander.org.ac
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