Hilsen fra Jesper

USA is a country build on ethnic cleansing and genocides of original native tribes by the European colonists. As the Europeans came closer in contact with the natives, along the coast of Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, they brought along with them diseases, such as smallpox, plague, measles and other illnesses that depopulated entire villages, killing between 55 to 95 per cent of coastal native people. Diseases was supported by massacres. In May 1637, captains John Underhill and John Mason led a retaliatory mission through Narragansett land along with their allies, the Narragansett and Mohegan, and struck the Pequot settlement in Mystic, in the event which came be known as the Mystic massacre. Uncas and Wequash also joined the fight, bringing seventy of his own men. The settlement, mostly of women and children, was decimated. Mason set fire to eighty homes, killing 600–700 Pequot in an hour. Seven were taken captive and seven escaped. Two Englishmen were killed, while 20-40 were wounded. Captain John Underhill, one of the English commanders, documents the event in his journal, Newes from America: Down fell men, women, and children. Those that 'scaped us, fell into the hands of the Indians that were in the rear of us. Not above five of them 'scaped out of our hands. Our Indians came us and greatly admired the manner of Englishmen's fight, but cried "Mach it, mach it!"—that is, "It is naught, it is naught, because it is too furious, and slays too many men." Great and doleful was the bloody sight to the view of young soldiers that never had been in war, to see so many souls lie gasping on the ground, so thick, in some places, that you could hardly pass along. Mystic is an old seaport that is well preserved and a very popular tourist attraction. Mystic has the biggest Seaport Museum in USA Skoleskibet Georg Stage (i baggrunden). Denne første udgave af Georg Stage blev bygget i 1882 ved Burmeister & Wain på Refshaleøen i København. Det gamle Georg Stage var en fuldrigger med en længde på 36 meter, bredde på 7,7 meter og en dybgang på 3,7 meter. Skibet havde en hjælpedampmaskine på 50 HK. Den oprindelige besætning var på 80 elever og 10 officerer. Georg Stage is today at Mystic Marine Museum. Den 25. juni 1905 sank Georg Stage, da det blev påsejlet af den engelske damper Ancona i Hollænderdybet, og 22 elever druknede. Skibet blev hurtigt bjærget og repareret efter katastrofen og fortsatte derefter sejladsen som dansk skoleskib indtil 1934. Da Georg Stage skulle pensioneres og skrottes blev det solgt til og dermed reddet af australieren Alan Villiers, der omdøbte skibet til Joseph Conrad. Det sejlede nu under britisk flag på en jordomsejling, der varede ca. 2 år. Starten gik fra Ipswich den 22. oktober 1934 og skibet besøgte bl.a. New York City, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Sydney, New Zealand og Tahiti. Skibet afsluttede rejsen i New York den 16. oktober 1936. Efterfølgende udgav Villiers bøgerne The Cruise of the "Conrad" og Stormalong, der omhandlede rejsen. I 1936 blev skibet solgt til den amerikanske millionær George Huntington Hartford, da Villiers var gået fallit som følge af jordomsejlingen. Hartford udstyrede skibet med en moderne motor og anvendte det som personlig yacht i tre år, hvor skibet bl.a. deltog i et race for sejlskibe fra USA til Bermuda og tilbage. I 1939 solgte han skibet for 1 dollar og 1 cent til USA. Herefter blev skibet atter skoleskib og sejlede som sådant indtil 1945. Skibet lå i dok et par år hvorefter det overgik til Marinemuseet i Mystic, Connecticut. Det gamle Georg Stage ligger den dag i dag ved Mystic Marinemuseet.