The Implausible Admiral

 

A regular theme here at "Just Sayin'" is the rogues gallery:  rascals and larger-than-life characters whose stories are always better than fiction.

Take one Anthony Sherley (1565 - 1635), adventurer, Oxford graduate and son of a wealthy English family.  It seems the Sherleys lost their land and fortune (this was during the Tudor era, when such a rude twist of fate was pretty common) and the sons had to take to foreign lands and the seas between to find their way in the world.  There is, of course, constant danger; after Anthony was awarded a knighthood by French king Henry IV, Queen Elizabeth back home was so irritated she out jailed him so he could rethink that, which he did.

It was time to absent oneself from such vigilance, so Sherley took to privateering on the west coast of Africa and all through the Spanish Main.  And then, oddly enough, he went to Persia and so charmed Shah Abbas the Great that monarch made him a prince and his worldwide ambassador.  Rebuffed by Muscovy, he was warmly welcomed by the Holy Roman Emperor and the king of Spain.   News of his service even led to a mention in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night!

How Sherley fooled the savvy Shah, and next the Spanish king, will never be known.  But why would the latter appoint him admiral of a fleet being assembled to attack the Turks?  After all, there was the memory of the Armada disaster and Sherley's own extensive career raiding his majesty's New World empire.  Not mention just having been an employee of an infidel potentate.

Now our intrepid Prince and Admiral made a misstep: failing to link up with the naval forces headed to war with the Barbary pirates at Tunis as he was commissioned to do, he instead raided merchant ships and, unsuccessfully, the Greek island Mytilene.   Sherley's large expenses were to be covered by new taxes on lawyers in Sicily (then a Spanish possession).  The lawyers, churchmen and the nobility-dominated Parliament were incensed.  The rich revolted at the very idea of being taxed, and proposed arming the poor as a mob to make sure that did not stand.  It worked, then as now (Tea Party...), of course.

The Spanish lost confidence in the High Admiral, and he spent the last 30 years of his life barely tolerated at that Court as a supplicant, in poverty.

Stories, maybe true or maybe not, attach themselves to such outlandish actors over time.  It is said Sherley claimed to the Sicilian Viceroy that he knew a secret alchemical process for making silver and how to seize the fabled gold mines of Timbuctoo!  

   

  

The Real Thing

 

One of the pleasanter tasks of summer is choosing which treats will go in the choose-your-own six-pack at the grocery store to be enjoyed on the deck in the dappled shade later on.  We actually found some Coors Banquet Beer bottles in the cooler last week!  Have not seen that in a while.  If something is well made and has been for a long time, it has an attractive air of authenticity.

Coca-Cola boasts that it's "The Real Thing," but since it went to all HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) as sweetener by 1984, I don't think it's been real since.  Or maybe after 1929, when the last traces of cocaine -- or a very similar substance -- were removed.  It was, after all, sold as a stimulant, and coca leaf with caffeine is inarguably that.  And I remember being very disappointed when real German Lowenbrau was no longer imported, but made by Miller-Coors just using the name under license.  Brands sometimes persist like ghosts, seen as having a built-up value, long after the original is gone.    

 If you have met a cat or baby, you can see that they are drawn to authentic things.  Our one-year-old granddaughter just flies to buttons, zippers, paper, container lids and boxes.  And the bought cat toys pretty much lie ignored by Blackberry the cat (a natural thing like a bug has a lot more appeal).   

 We know places become loved to death by mass tourism, and what was originally the draw gradually, then mostly, disappears.  It seems that the tropical island of Bonaire is still an authentic place on the globe, with only about 140,000 visitors a year (HersheyPark, in contrast, hosts three million).  It is primarily a divers' paradise, not a mega resort spot or a cruise ship destination, without international chain restaurants and the locals operating their own small businesses.  Now forget you ever heard of it.

Growing your food, or buying locally produced, and preserving it at home takes planning and deliberate effort, but the feeling of satisfaction (and the taste) is, well, the real Real Thing.   We don't have access to a big garden anymore, but do make a lot of jam, applesauce and sometimes pickles to keep that tradition going.