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www.social6.com/alexkane Camera: Nikon 1 J4
Aperture: f/1.8
Exposure: ¹⁄₁₆₀ sec at f/1.8
ISO: 3200
Lens: 1 NIKKOR 18.5mm f/1.8
Focal Length: 18.5mm (49mm in 35mm equivalent)
From time to time, I get called Charlie Coats this goes way back to those days, the 60’s. Jack Bell provided me with his dad’s formal Navy coat. It was a Great Coat, three quarter length, thick pure wool, dark dark navy blue, brass double breasted buttons with a lapel pocket, inside pockets and warm outer pockets. I gave Jack either ten or twenty dollars for the coat but there was one stipulation, don’t wear it to the Bell household. Good old Jack didn’t bother to get permission to sell me the coat that had been hanging in Mr. and Mrs. Bells basement closet for decades. Who knows, they might have buried Iggy Bell in it if it was still around at the time of his death. You’ve got to be into wearing coats to understand my love of them. The comfort of a coat and the security it provides is like a mother’s breast.
Pete The Hook and I had a parting of company, the rent was due at the basement apartment off of Weston Road on Summerhill Ave. That’s the place where I had hand painted each brick leading to the basement entrance in either red white or blue like the Union Jack a tribute to the British Music scene. Lots of fun times happened at that place. Mom showed up one day with a pack of wieners and a jar of peanut butter, the Stone’s new album Let It Bleed, the one with the cake on the cover was getting heavy rotation, I recall putting on the tune, “You can’t always get what you want” for mom who listened, somewhat bewildered. One time a local girl who enjoyed sex came over. Ten of us hid in the tiny bathroom and one after another we took turns and hopped into bed with her. As a bonus, a few days later all of us were crawling with crabs, not the edible type! I was preening in the bathroom mirror when I saw a pair racing towards my moustache for cover!
For some reason Hook and I were both broke at the same time and thusly had to find new digs. I recall, as if it was yesterday, Hook pointing out how many days we had shared the apartment and how many times he had left a chunk of hash or joint to smoke on the kitchen table for me. He was right, he had done this daily for over six months. At that time I don’t think my buddy he put much of a value on the free security I provided, and the fact the place was used as a stash. Hook and Cooper aka Mike Cooper aka Coop de Grasser were partners in crime and owned a black 63 Cadillac limousine in mint condition. Their friend, Ron Warren aka Scarecrow was the principal driver and Coop and Hook would Lord it all over the west end of the city in the Caddy. We got plenty of respect from everyone as our demeanor when necessary could be quite obnoxious.
We took in a concert at the Colonial Tavern on Yonge St one night, maybe it was Muddy Waters or perhaps John Lee Hooker playing. We got into a scuffle outside the bar after the early show. I took care of the situation with one punch and later we drove up Yonge towards Dundas in the limo. Hook, a crafty and creative individual who wore coke bottle thick glasses, put the windows down and leaned out the rear door window shouting at the throngs of people, “CRIME PAYS”, at the top of his voice! “CRIME PAYS”!
It was quite a shock to be forced to move back with my mom Gisele and the family. I’d been away for a few years, I didn’t have any other choices. I was broke, out of work, the UIC benefits had run out and I was very grateful to have a place to go. Mom gave me the middle bedroom of the thirteenth floor Ontario Housing Corporation apartment at 121 Humber Blvd. The apartment number was 1413 but it was actually 1313 because in apartments they don’t count the thirteenth floor. Big Al was at the height of his speeding days, hanging out with all sorts of speedy types like J.R. Al Buckley and others. He worked at something, maybe grave digging at Prospect Cemetery or possibly cement pouring for Dufferin Construction. For the most part he gave me my space. Barb, Sue and Mom lived in the big back bedroom. Shane and Kevin shared a bedroom, Kevin being away at boy’s training school or he may have graduated by then to prison. He just seemed to get caught breaking into homes a lot, he was quite likeable, handsome, a good talker, like all of us, he had lots of friends, always had a girlfriend, Joanne mostly, he just couldn’t stop himself from crime. Shane was hanging out with his new friends up the road a ways, Hime, Tim, Gidge, Stewey, Kyle, Larry, a whole new group of people who had their own preferences. Barb was cute and at a young age was going steady with Gordon Gilbert who lived across the street on Humber Blvd.
Mom would go to work at the Simpson’s Arcadian Court downtown on Yonge St. I can still see her dressed in a brownish nylon waitress uniform with a white collar, slowly walking up the back stairs of Humber and over to Weston Rd to catch the bus to the subway then all the way downtown. She put food on the table every night without fail. She had figured it out to only buy what she needed for each day, if she had left anything extra around, Alex in particular, would eat it, disregarding everyone else. Some nights we ate grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner and were glad to. Other times she made her famous salmon loaf with tomato soup poured on top of the crescent roll pastry, we never missed a meal. She would stop at the Dominion store on Rogers Road after her shift at Simpson’s and pick up the days groceries with her tip money. I don’t recall her ever complaining; now and then she would jokingly say, “Should have left you all here in Toronto and went back to Montreal when your father died!” Now, here I show up at her door, with my hand out, a bag of clothes, another bag with art work, writings and photos, the by now beaten up RCA record player and a few records all scratched from heavy rotation. The middle bedroom quickly became my new headquarters.
I settled into life at Humber with all of its intricacies as one may imagine from living in a family as dynamic as the Gregory’s. We were poor, mom got a cheque from welfare, it was probably the first time in my life that I realized we were poor. One time, I got a swollen throat and I couldn’t breathe. Mom’s boyfriend Johnny Basala, who was still chasing Mom, rushed me to the emergency department at Northwestern General Hospital on Keele St. They gave me an injection of antibiotics and sent me home to sleep. The injection eased the pain and when I awoke that night I spit up a hunk of phlegm the size of a golf ball and flushed it down the toilet, I had something called Quincey and apparently was lucky to ‘get it in time’.
The word “flashbacks” never worried me much in those days. Lying on the couch one weekend afternoon, before dinner, I fell asleep. I fell into a deep trance-like state and recall being conscious of my soul entering various bodies. One, a black slave in Africa as he ran through some fields, a cowboy in Western times and numerous other reincarnations including that of a snake charmer in ancient India with curly hair like Jimmi Hendrix who could make coins and jewelry appear and a north American Indian at war standing over the dead bodies of his tribesmen. Mom said I had been sweating quite profusely as I slept. When I awoke I was quite grateful to be in the correct body. The event reminded me of a story Paramahansa Yogananda was telling one time about a dream he had as a young man. He dreamed he was the captain of a ship that had been attacked by another ship. He swam for shore, where he was hit by a shell and as he lay dying he began to slip into various consciousnesses and he said, “Am I dreaming I am a Captain of a ship who has been in a war and dying or, am I dreaming I am lying in my bed here at 4 Garpur Road in Calcutta dreaming? What was it?”
Cooper was a great guy and has been sadly missed since his death in the early seventies of misadventure while on vacation in Jamaica. The usual, died in bed, choked on his vomit after drinking 120 proof rum. Mom would watch from the thirteenth floor window of Humber, always walking onto the balcony to wave to me early in the mornings as I headed up to catch the bus on Keele St. I worked at yet another Continental Can Company plant way up Keele St. past Steeles Ave. Word gets around when plants are hiring and Don Humes (aka Snorks) was working there. He told me about them hiring at CCC, so I went up to the personnel office and filled out an application for work. It was a three shift operation, just some labour kind of function. The plant was the major supplier of cans to soda pop bottlers. I just left the application with the receptionist.
I was all excited, as I’d been out of work for some time and it gets on your nerves. Other people were in school and I had no dough with too much time on my hands. The personnel office called an asked me in for an interview on the following Monday morning. Great! Great Fucking News! But stop right there, guess who didn’t make it to the interview? I had gotten high and fucked up this opportunity. But not to worry, I did some quick thinking and visited Cooper at his home on Brownville Avenue. He was recuperating from some illness, maybe hepatitis or pneumonia. He was bedridden and did his share of the dealing from his house. His mom made the best roast pork dinner I ever ate. I recall her telling me the secret was to cook the pork at a high temperature for thirty minutes at the beginning and then lower it to the normal temperature as this seals in the juices. Any way, Coop says yeah to my request to go back to the plant and reapply for work using his name and social insurance number. He says it will be great for him to have a job on his resumes in the future, I don’t think he had ever worked. He had figured out the dealing business at a young age. He was way ahead of himself in life; he had this young chick, maybe sixteen if that, she was gorgeous. They had a Kama Sutra chart on the bedroom wall and he pointed out how they were trying to do all seventy two of the various positions shown on the chart, they were half way through the chart. Coop was also very generous with his stash always laying a toke or ten on me.
Continental Can was still hiring and they called me in for an interview. That is to say they called Mike Cooper in for an interview. I started right away, doing general plant stuff, filling boxes, putting stuff on the line, nothing to strenuous as the cans were made of aluminum and were somewhat machine controlled. They just needed bodies around to keep the equipment going, to shut things down and restart when the problem had been resolved. Another area of the plant was for testing the finished product. At this station, I had to take the cans off the belt after they had been put through a heating process. They were too hot to touch so they gave me a type of rake to grab a few at a time. This was slow so I created a better tool that would pick up many more cans at once, actually it was quite simple, just a drawing of a gadget that could pick uo twenty four cans at a time and place them neatly in a box, a time saver. I got called up to the office, had to enter my invention officially and apply for a prize or bonus. Mike Cooper, the inventor! It was kind of neat having people call you Mike while at lunch in the cafeteria. I kept the job for most of that summer and Mom always waved each morning as I made the walk up to Keele St.. I would cut through the old trestle that led to Keelesdale Park and George Harvey High School and the big Church where the teacher Bill Rowland’s father was the minister. When I left the job Coop even let me collect UIC under his name and also claim the Federal taxes for a refund.
That summer of 1970 an entrepreneur put on a rock concert at Porter Field which was located at the former dump site on Humber Blvd where as a young boy I saw rats crawling around the open garbage. The same field where five years earlier the policeman had challenged me to a fight. Porter Field was below Rogers Rd, and ran south from Weston Rd. The concerts were called Beggars Banquets, and that year there were about five different shows with this title, one might think a comment on the working class status of the area. Nothing like this had ever happened before in working class Mt. Dinky. A bunch of us were partying at Giseles, either on the balcony or in the apartment getting a head-start on the upcoming events. Alex had some Crystal Methamphetamine, speed for short, and he was in a sharing mood. He loved the fact the guys from high school, his former friends as well, were at the house. We were among the first to get to the stadium. We set up mom’s aluminum lawn chairs in the very front row and sped all over the place, greeting people, guzzling wine, more speed, tokes, beers. The under cover coppers Smith and Criscoe (Mutt and Jeff) gave us space, these concerts were a bonanza for the cops, like Vancouver’s downtown east side, keep the bad people all within this zone where it is easier to watch them. Three Dog Night played at the concert they had a big # 1 tune at the time. Another band played their hit song of the day Orange Blossom Special, and then, at some point in the middle of the day, our group came on the portable stageThe Band. Here we are all ripped and sweating, about six of us, in lawn chairs. Thousands of people, maybe five or ten thousand and we’ve got the front row locked up. Robbie Robertson cranked his guitar real good and stared at us making motions with his guitar, it was ecstatic. Nobody got busted; a few guys barfed up some cheap wine. We headed back to Giseles. I recall my blue Mexican four pocket Hippie shirt with the Mazaltan Bird embroidery on it being soaked right through several times.
The fun was just beginning, we continued speeding up at the apartment, now I’d been up for two days straight and getting to sleep was impossible. I thought I was falling asleep and I got real paranoid, this had never happened before. I was having bad hallucinations, shaking, shivering, nervous, my teeth felt like they would fall out, they were chattering! In my mind I was seeing these tiny little coppers, in uniform, cops climbing up the walls of the big building and crawling along the balcony railings, hundreds of them thousands of them like little pac mens in uniform, sneaking up on me, miniature police nightmares. I wasn’t asleep; I was in some kind of pre-sleep hellish hallucination. Al came though with the cure, he laid a toke of hash on me and it calmed me down and I fell asleep.
Al was fried in those days, he was using a lot of speed. There was a whole cult of guys who were speeders in the neighborhood. Once, he chipped some plaster from the ceiling in the living room and sold it to some speeders who came to the apartment to score. What a nice guy that Al was. Other times found him in his bed, the light was never on. He used to pump iron, and eat about four litres of ice cream a day, nothing else just ice cream. He ate the ice cream with a large tablespoon; meanwhile Mom could hardly put food on the table. He didn’t give a fuck about anyone, we were powerless. In his room, he would rock himself to sleep, listening to Van playing Astral Weeks over and over or better still, just rock, a habit he had incorporated into his insanity. We all avoided him as best we could, as his moods were very unpredictable. There were times when he would be in that bedroom for days on end and never leave it, maybe just for a piss or a tub of ice cream. We went in there one time and he was all fucked up. He had taken the plaster off the walls near the electric plug boxes and was down to the meshing wire that held the plaster in and he was claiming these wires were networks leading to aliens, very weird. I think he was trying to connect wires from the plug box to the plaster mesh to fry the aliens, as he thought “they” were trying to wire his underwear. He even had dismantled the intercom system to ferret out the invaders; this made my miniature police adventure seem quite tame.
Another concert that proved entertaining was held in Rockwood Ontario, somewhere near Orangeville, on a summer Saturday. A bunch of us piled into the Cadillac, Hook, Pete, Frankie, Jack B myself and a few others that I can’t recall. Nobody in particular was playing the gig except an acquaintance of ours, Tony Flaim, from Keele and Eglinton. Tony had practiced blues singing and playing the harp for years and was just about ready to make some records. He later cut tunes with the Downchild Blues Band. As we get closer to the concert, the radio was giving people the heads up that the pigs are busting people who show up with their stash. Now we were not stupid, several miles from the gig we pull over and go into the woods. I now think Coop was with us as well, and we hid all our goodies under some branches, marking the spot so we could pick them up later because we didn’t want to get busted. I remember snorting some “H”, one of the few times I tried this, it was real good. I didn't do a lot that’s for sure as I was ‘with’ things the entire time, just real mellow, confident, on top of things. Everyone else was stoned as well on their choice of medication. Besides hash and pot, one could easily obtain, mushrooms or psillocybinn, LSD in various forms and strengths, Purple Microdot, Orange Sunshine from Owsley in California, the best LSD was the little clear plastic like squares called Windowpanes it was so clean such an opening to hidden places, unexplored capabilities within ones mind/brain, there was MDA as well which was more of a body stone with hints of oak and late nights in Brazil.
We got to the gate and the local plainclothes and uniformed cops tell us to get out of the Cadillac. They are going to search the vehicle, so we get out. A little creep goes in after the local fuzz came out with nothing, and a minute or two later he comes out with a five dollar baggie of pot which he says he got it in between the seat cushions. Fucking pricks, they planted the bag of weed on us. We were all pretty high but we still knew this was bullshit. They marched us off to a rental shack like the ones used at construction sites and in this big tin portable building there are about ten other scared kids already waiting for interrogation or something. I seize the moment, put on my stern look, find the stern voice and as I entered the building these kid’s first thoughts are that I was an undercover agent. I raised my voice and said, “You people standing over there, stop chatting and stand at attention.” They did and I had command of the room for a moment or two, then a pig caught the play and quickly separated me from my friends and chastised my prank.
I was now quite high on the “H”, in control but buzzing real good. My eyes would have been all glassy, when you are like that you are pretty carefree, besides, I'd been busted lots of times and been in jail, so this was nothing new to me. The other guys made bail using their own signatures but because I had the previous bust for that tab of acid and conviction, they decided not to give me bail. I was taken later by paddy wagon to the Orangeville cells that were located in this neat century old building. I was up grooving half the night, chatting up other unfortunate kids, sharing smokes, jailhouse stories, wondering if I would start itching the way junkies do, if I would have withdrawals. This was all new to me, the effects of this drug. Mr. Herbert came and bailed me out the following Monday after the guys told him how we had been set up and framed. They had all been charged as well and had hired a couple of lawyers to act on their behalf.
Going to trial seemed to take forever. It was at least six months which is pretty fast compared to the situation of backlogs in courts these days. I actually went to the Don Jail and turned myself in for a big mess of tickets, parking, speeding, drinking fines, about three or four hundred dollars worth, everything would be wiped out if I did a weekend in jail, no big deal for me. I went in on a Friday morning and was supposed to be released on Sunday on time for my court appearance in Orangeville on the Monday morning. Someone at the Don Jail goofed up and I didn’t get out on Sunday, they let me out on Monday morning, and I missed my ride to the Orangeville court house. I was on a bus, the Weston Rd bus around ten am and I was going to take a bus as far as I could then hitch hike to Orangeville.
The bus passes the HFC office in Weston, a lending institution that charges the highest rates and this creep, Snidely the manager, spots me sitting on the bus and I pretend I don’t see him. I watch him get into his crappy car and follow the bus. When we get to the Albion Loop where the Weston Rd bus turns around to go south again. I got out of the bus and very nonchalantly entered this dive of a restaurant called the Pelmo. The Pelmo was so bad that a cockroach wouldn’t visit it, nobody ever went in there. I casually entered, not letting on to the HFC goof watching me in the car that I knew he was following me. As quick as I went in, I ran out the back door and hid under a car that was parked along the property line with several others. Snidely came in after me a few minutes later and it was so funny watching him going nuts trying to locate me, it was all I could do to not start tittering. Eventually I crept over to a pay phone, put a dime in and called Cooper who sent Crow up to rescue me in the Caddy. They drove me to court where they remanded the case for another month. HFC are still waiting for their money!
When the case finally came before the courts, I acted on my own behalf. The judge asked me to sit with the other lawyers and I must have looked quite the part in Mr. Bell’s dark blue Navy Great Coat, my moustache curled and waxed and a gleam in my eye. A cheap camera that I had taken out to take a snapshot was quickly put away at the judges request and I regret that I have only my memories of the events. The other guys were very tense and a little poorer for having hired lawyers. The case was called, and as there had been a meeting beforehand of the crown attorney and the hired lawyers the charges were dismissed as no one on our side was about to plead guilty to these bullshit charges. We were intent on telling the truth about the frame up and you can be sure the pigs did not want this. The proceedings took place in a second floor courtroom and afterwards, upon leaving the court, I ran into the little prick who had framed us, His name was Ryan and he was an RCMP. I stopped him in the stairwell and told him if I ever saw him on the street I would kick the shit out of him, and I meant it. The concert had been a big party spoiled by these assholes, our friend Tony never made it to the stage as he ended up nodding out in the woods like so many others.
Type:Minehunter
Displacement:650 t
Length:54.4 m (178 ft)
Beam:9.2 m (30 ft)
Draft:2.6 m (8 ft 6 in)
Propulsion:
2 × MTU 16V 538 TB91 diesel-engines, 2040 kW each
2 × electric motors for slow and silent maneuvering
2 × Renk PLS 25 E gearboxes
2 × controllable pitch propellers
Speed:18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement:41
Sensors and
processing systems:
1 × hull mounted DSQS-11A mine hunting sonar
DRBN 32 navigation radar
Electronic warfare
& decoys:
2 × TKWA/MASS (Multi Ammunition Softkill System) decoy launchers (currently under procurement)
2 × Barricade chaff and flare launcher
Armament:
1 × Bofors 40 mm/L70 dual purpose gun (currently upgrading to 1 × MLG 27 27 mm autocannon)
2 FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS surface-to-air missile
2 × Pinguin B3 mine hunting ROVs
Mine laying capabilities
Notes:
mine diver equipment, decompression chamber
Full length side view portrait of a young man in jacket walking and using mobile phone infront of a wall outdoors
Vessel HIGHLAND PRESTIGE (IMO: 9364021, MMSI: 235050073) is an offshore tug/supply ship built in 2007 and currently sailing under the flag of United Kingdom. HIGHLAND PRESTIGE has 87m length overall and beam of 19m. Her gross tonnage is 3702 tons.
#REGISTRATION
Owner GulfMark UK Ltd
Built Soviknes, Norway, March 2007
Classification DNV +1A1, SF, E0, DynPos AutR, Dk,
+ HL (2.8), L.F.L., Clean Comfort V3
Flag UK
DIMENSIONS
LOA 86.6 m
Breadth (Moulded) 19 m
Depth (Mould to sh.dk) 8 m
Draft (Max) c 6.6 m
GT 3,702 T
NT 1,561 T
Dead-weight 4,993 T
SPEED / CONSUMPTION
11 knots @ 11 m3 / day
12.5 knots @ 13 m3 / day
15 knots @ 23 m3 / day
MACHINERY
Diesel Electric
Generating Power 10,700 BHP
Propulsive BHP 5,867 BHP
Main Generators 4 x 1900 KW
Aux Generator 1 x 425 KW
Emergency Gen 1 x 99 KW
Thrusters Bow 2 x 1200 BHP (Tunnel)
Thrusters Stern N/A – D.E. (Azi pulls)
Rudders N/A – D.E. (Azi pulls)
Propellers 2 x CPP Azi pull
Capstans 2 x 10 T
Deck Crane 1 x 10T @ 10m
Deck Crane 1 x 1T @ 10m
Tugger Winch 2 x 12.5T
MANOEUVRING EQUIPMENT
2 x Rotating variable speed Azi pull propulsion units (Diesel electric) at stern.
1 x Konsberg C Joystick
Rolls Royce Helicon x 3
DYNAMIC POSITIONING SYSTEM
Kongsberg K-Pos DP21
References: Fan beam laser
Kongsberg Seatex DPS 116
Kongsberg Seatex DPS 232
Radascan
ACCOMMODATION
26 persons
10 x 1 Man
8 x 2 Man
NAVIGATION AND COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
1 x Furuno 10cm ARPA RADAR
1 x Furuno 3cm RADAR
1 x Furuno DGPS/GP-90 inbuilt Navigator
2 x Jotron 9GHz Radar transponder
1 x Anschutz gyro compass
1 x Anschutz digital autopilot - Pilotstar D
1 x Furuno echo sounder FE-700
1 x Furuno Doppler speed log DS80
1 x Furuno FA150 AIS system
1 x Telchart T 2026 Electronic Chart system & AIS interface
1 x Kockum Sonics Signal Unit
1 x Jotron EPIRB
3 x TRON TR20 GMDSS VHFs
4 x Motorola GP 340 portable UHF
1 x Furuno MF/HF SSB Radio station with DSC
1 x Furuno DSC 60
2 x Furuno VHF with built in DSC
1 x Furuno FM 2721 simplex VHF
1 x Furuno Navtex receiver NX-700B
1 x Furuno Weather Fax
1 x Furuno Ships Security Alert System
1 x GSM/GPRS Cellular phone
2 x Inmarsat C Felcom 15
1 x Fleet Broadband
CARGO CAPACITY
Deck area c. 1,000 sq. m (62.5 m x 16 m)
Deck Load c. 2,700 T
Fuel oil c. 1,552.1 m3 @ 100%
Potable Water c. 1,397.6 m3 @ 100%
Drill Water c. 2,720 m3 @ 100%
Oil Based Mud c. 6,561.5 bbls @ 100%
Base Oil c. 2,006 bbls @ 100%
Brine c. 13,194 bbls @ 100%
Methanol c. 165 cm @ 100%
Dry Bulk c. 12,880 cuFt
DISCHARGE RATES
Fuel Oil 250 m3/hr @ 90 m hd
Pot Water 250 m3/hr @ 90 m hd
Oil Based Mud 2 x 75 m3/hr @ 90 m hd
Base Oil 107 m3/hr @ 90 m hd
Brine 2 x 80 m3/hr @ 90 m hd
Cement 80 T/hr @ 90 m hd
Barytes 60 T/hr @ 90 m hd
Bentonite 100 T/hr @ 90 m hd
Methanol 2 x 75 m3/hr @ 90 m hd
Drill Water 250 m3/hr @ 90 m
Veiled Woman - Full Length Back: Setting up the photography studio for some more shots to combat being super busy and dealing with winter blues. Godox v1 in 120x30 softboxes front left and right.
The last activity of the day was the laps pool. Our eldest student was well capable of swimming the length (at least 50 mtrs) a couple of times. The big surprise was when our youngest followed her, and did two full laps!
When the same scene is shot from the same location...
1. A longer focal length makes objects look larger and closer to the camera.
2. A shorter focal length makes objects look smaller and farther from the camera.
These photos were taken around 2007.
The lenses used were:
18mm Nikon f/3.5
24mm Nikon f/2 AI
28mm Nikon f/2.8 AIS
35mm Nikon f/1.4 AI
50mm Nikon f/1.4 AF-D
85mm Nikon f/1.8 AI converted
105mm image was either Nikon f/2.5 AIS or Nikon f/2.8 micro
180mm Nikon f/2.8 AI converted
400mm f/5.6 Tokina AT-X auto focus
1000mm Nikon f/11 mirror
2000mm image was taken with the 1000mm mirror lens and a Nikon TC-300 2x Tele-Converter
Exposure was probably f/11 at 1/125 second shutter speed for everything except 2000mm which was probably f/22 at 1/30 second.
The lenses were mounted on a Nikon F2, which was on a tripod.
The film used was probably Kodak 160NC or Fuji NPS-160 color print film.
The developed color negatives were scanned on a 9900F CanoScan.
The scanned digital jpeg images were not cropped, color corrected, or edited.
Adobe PhotoShop Elements was used to make this composite photo.
See the images at the following address to see how focal length effects the relationship between the foreground and background.
Here's a clearer pic of my dreads, the other full-length pic wasn't very clear.
My hair is getting long enough to sit on...a few of my dreads I can actually sit on. I was going to trim them to all be waist-length but my husband asked me not to. He adores my long hair! I've trimmed them before a few times in the 9 years I have had this set of locks, it's no big deal to me.
A little info: I started this set in early 1998, late January or February I think. So I'm going on 10 years! Prior to that I had dreadlocks from August 1992 to October 1997 and they were to my shoulder blades. I cut them during my last pregnancy because I was feeling huge and gross and thought a new hairstyle would make me feel better. Big mistake! I immediately regretted it and re-started my locks soon after. My son that I was pregnant with says he remembers when I cut my locks, and he wants me to never cut my hair again. LOL!
My hair is naturally jet black ( I know, that's kinda rare among af-ams) but over the years I have colored them with henna, lemon juice, and commercial hair dyes. Overall my locks now have a slight dark reddish dark brown tint to them. I've been thinking of dyeing them blue-black, but will probably leave them alone. I mean it just takes so much time to do it, right.
Jewelry in hair is sewn-in cowrie shells. :)
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.
Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. His father was absent and his mother struggled financially—he was sent to a workhouse twice before age nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he was signed to the Fred Karno company, which took him to the United States. He was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and attracted a large fanbase. He directed his own films and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual, and First National corporations. By 1918, he was one of the world's best-known figures.
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length film was The Kid (1921), followed by A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), and The Circus (1928). He initially refused to move to sound films in the 1930s, instead producing City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) without dialogue. His first sound film was The Great Dictator (1940), which satirised Adolf Hitler. The 1940s were marked with controversy for Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly. He was accused of communist sympathies, and some members of the press and public were scandalised by his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the U.S. and settle in Switzerland. He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952), A King in New York (1957), and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture. His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramp's struggles against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. He received an Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, as part of a renewed appreciation for his work. He continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator often ranked on lists of the greatest films.
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members within the genus of Buteo in North America or worldwide. The red-tailed hawk is one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the "chickenhawk", though it rarely preys on standard-sized chickens. The bird is sometimes also referred to as the red-tail for short, when the meaning is clear in context. Red-tailed hawks can acclimate to all the biomes within their range, occurring on the edges of non-ideal habitats such as dense forests and sandy deserts. The red-tailed hawk occupies a wide range of habitats and altitudes, including deserts, grasslands (from small meadows to the treed fringes of more extensive prairies), coniferous and deciduous forests, agricultural fields, and urban areas. Its latitudinal limits fall around the tree line in the subarctic and it is absent from the high Arctic. Generally it favors varied habitats with open woodland, woodland edge and open terrain. It is legally protected in Canada, Mexico, and the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
The 14 recognized subspecies vary in appearance and range, varying most often in color, and in the west of North America, red-tails are particularly often strongly polymorphic, with individuals ranging from almost white to nearly all black. The subspecies Harlan's hawk (B. j. harlani) is sometimes considered a separate species (B. harlani). The red-tailed hawk is one of the largest members of the genus Buteo, typically weighing from 690 to 1,600 g (1.5 to 3.5 lb) and measuring 45–65 cm (18–26 in) in length, with a wingspan from 110–141 cm (3 ft 7 in – 4 ft 8 in). This species displays sexual dimorphism in size, with females averaging about 25% heavier than males.
The diet of red-tailed hawks is highly variable and reflects their status as opportunistic generalists, but in North America, they are most often predators of small mammals such as rodents of an immense diversity of families and species. Prey that is terrestrial and at least partially diurnal is preferred, so types such as ground squirrels are preferred where they naturally occur. Over much of the range, smallish rodents such as voles alternated with larger rabbits and hares often collectively form the bulk of the diet. Large numbers of birds and reptiles can occur in the diet in several areas, and can even be the primary foods. Meanwhile, amphibians, fish and invertebrates can seem rare in the hawk's regular diet, but they are not infrequently taken by immature hawks. Red-tailed hawks may survive on islands absent of native mammals on diets variously including invertebrates such as crabs, as well as lizards or birds. Like many Buteo species, they hunt from a perch most often, but can vary their hunting techniques where prey and habitat demand it. Because they are so common and easily trained as capable hunters, in the United States they are the most commonly captured hawks for falconry. Falconers are permitted to take only passage hawks (which have left the nest, are on their own, but are less than a year old) so as to not affect the breeding population. Passage red-tailed hawks are also preferred by falconers because they have not yet developed the adult behaviors that would make them more difficult to train.
Taxonomy
The red-tailed hawk was formally described in 1788 by German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin under the binomial name Falco jamaicensis. Gmelin based his description on the "cream-coloured buzzard" described in 1781 by John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The type locality is Jamaica. The red-tailed hawk is now placed in the genus Buteo that was erected by French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799.
The red-tailed hawk is a member of the subfamily Buteoninae, which includes about 55 currently recognized species. Unlike many lineages of accipitrids, which seemed to have radiated out of Africa or south Asia, the Buteoninae clearly originated in the Americas based on fossil records and current species distributions (more than 75% of the extant hawks from this lineage are found in the Americas). As a subfamily, the Buteoninae seem to be rather old based on genetic materials, with monophyletic genera bearing several million years of individual evolution. Diverse in plumage appearance, habitat, prey, and nesting preferences, buteonine hawks are nonetheless typically medium- to large-sized hawks with ample wings (while some fossil forms are very large, larger than any eagle alive today). The red-tailed hawk is a member of the genus Buteo, a group of medium-sized raptors with robust bodies and broad wings. Members of this genus are known as "buzzards" in Eurasia, but "hawks" in North America. Under current classification, the genus includes about 29 species, the second-most diverse of all extant accipitrid genera behind only Accipiter. The buzzards of Eurasia and Africa are mostly part of the genus Buteo, although two other small genera within the subfamily Buteoninae occur in Africa.
At one time, the rufous-tailed hawk (B. ventralis), distributed in Patagonia and some other areas of southern South America, was considered part of the red-tailed hawk species. With a massive distributional gap consisting of most of South America, the rufous-tailed hawk is considered a separate species now, but the two hawks still compromise a "species pair" or superspecies, as they are clearly closely related. The rufous-tailed hawk, while comparatively little studied, is very similar to the red-tailed hawk, being about the same size and possessing the same wing structure, and having more or less parallel nesting and hunting habits. Physically, however, rufous-tailed hawk adults do not attain a bright brick-red tail as do red-tailed hawks, instead retaining a dark brownish-cinnamon tail with many blackish crossbars similar to juvenile red-tailed hawks. Another, more well-known, close relative to the red-tailed hawk is the common buzzard (B. buteo), which has been considered as its Eurasian "broad ecological counterpart" and may also be within a species complex with red-tailed hawks. The common buzzard, in turn, is also part of a species complex with other Old World buzzards, namely the mountain buzzard (B. oreophilus), the forest buzzard (B. trizonatus ), and the Madagascar buzzard (B. brachypterus). All six species, although varying notably in size and plumage characteristics, in the alleged species complex that contains the red-tailed hawk share with it the feature of the blackish patagium marking, which is missing in most other Buteo spp.
Subspecies
At least 14 recognized subspecies of B. jamaicensis are described, which vary in range and in coloration. Not all authors accept every subspecies, though, particularly some of the insular races of the tropics (which differ only slightly in some cases from the nearest mainland forms) and particularly Krider's hawk, by far the most controversial red-tailed hawk race, as few authors agree on its suitability as a full-fledged subspecies.
ImageSubspeciesDistribution
Jamaican red-tailed hawk (B. j. jamaicensis)occurs throughout the West Indies (including Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles) except for the Bahamas and Cuba.
Alaska red-tailed hawk (B. j. alascensis)breeds (probably resident) from southeastern coastal Alaska to Haida Gwaii and Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
Eastern red-tailed hawk (B. j. borealis)breeds from southeast Canada and Maine south through Texas and east to northern Florida.
Western red-tailed hawk (B. j. calurus)greatest longitudinal breeding distribution of any race of red-tailed hawk.
Central American red-tailed hawk (B. j. costaricensis)from Nicaragua to Panama.
Southwestern red-tailed hawk (B. j. fuertesi)breeds from northern Chihuahua to South Texas.
Tres Marias red-tailed hawk (B. j. fumosus)endemic to Islas Marías, Mexico.
Mexican Highlands red-tailed hawk (B. j. hadropus)native to the Mexican Highlands.
Harlan's hawk (B. j. harlani)breeds from central Alaska to northwestern Canada, with the largest number of birds breeding in the Yukon or western Alaska, reaching their southern limit in north-central British Columbia.
Red-tailed hawk (kemsiesi) (B. j. kemsiesi)a dark subspecies resident from Chiapas, Mexico, to Nicaragua.
Krider's hawk (B. j. kriderii)breeds from southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, and extreme western Ontario south to south-central Montana, Wyoming, western Nebraska, and western Minnesota.
Socorro red-tailed hawk (B. j. socorroensis)endemic to Socorro Island, Mexico.
Cuban red-tailed hawk (B. j. solitudinis)native to the Bahamas and Cuba.
Florida red-tailed hawk (B. j. umbrinus)occurs year-round in peninsular Florida north to as far Tampa Bay and the Kissimmee Prairie south throughout the rest of peninsular Florida south to the Florida Keys.
Description
Red-tailed hawk plumage can be variable, depending on the subspecies and the region. These color variations are morphs, and are not related to molting. The western North American population, B. j. calurus, is the most variable subspecies and has three main color morphs: light, dark, and intermediate or rufous. The dark and intermediate morphs constitute 10–20% of the population in the Western United States, but seem to constitute only 1–2% of B. j. calurus in western Canada. A whitish underbelly with a dark brown band across the belly, formed by horizontal streaks in feather patterning, is present in most color variations. This feature is variable in eastern hawks and generally absent in some light subspecies (i.e. B. j. fuertesi). Most adult red-tails have a dark-brown nape and upper head, which gives them a somewhat hooded appearance, while the throat can variably present a lighter brown "necklace". Especially in younger birds, the underside may be otherwise covered with dark-brown spotting, and some adults may too manifest this stippling. The back is usually a slightly darker brown than elsewhere with paler scapular feathers, ranging from tawny to white, forming a variable imperfect "V" on the back. The tail of most adults, which gives this species its name, is rufous brick-red above with a variably sized, black subterminal band and generally appears light buff-orange from below. In comparison, the typical pale immatures (i.e. less than two years old) typically have a mildly paler headed and tend to show a darker back than adults with more apparent pale wing-feather edges above (for descriptions of dark morph juveniles from B. j. calurus, which is also generally apt for description of rare dark morphs of other races, see under that subspecies description). In immature red-tailed hawks of all morphs, the tail is a light brown above with numerous small dark brown bars of roughly equal width, but these tend to be much broader on dark morph birds. Even in young red-tails, the tail may be a somewhat rufous tinge of brown. The bill is relatively short and dark, in the hooked shape characteristic of raptors, and the head can sometimes appear small in size against the thick body frame. The cere, the legs, and the feet of the red-tailed hawk are all yellow, as is the color of bare parts in many accipitrids of different lineages. Immature birds can be readily identified at close range by their yellowish irises. As the bird attains full maturity over the course of 3–4 years, the iris slowly darkens into a reddish-brown, which is the adult eye-color in all races. Seen in flight, adults usually have dark brown along the lower edge of the wings, against a mostly pale wing, which bares light brownish barring. Individually, the underwing coverts can range from all dark to off-whitish (most often more heavily streaked with brown) which contrasts with a distinctive black patagium marking. The wing coloring of adults and immatures is similar but for typical pale morph immatures having somewhat heavier brownish markings.
Though the markings and color vary across the subspecies, the basic appearance of the red-tailed hawk is relatively consistent.
Overall, this species is blocky and broad in shape, often appearing (and being) heavier than other Buteos of similar length. They are the heaviest Buteos on average in eastern North America, albeit scarcely ahead of the larger winged rough-legged buzzard (Buteo lagopus), and second only in size in the west to the ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis). Red-tailed hawks may be anywhere from the fifth to the ninth heaviest Buteo in the world depending on what figures are used. However, in the northwestern United States, ferruginous hawk females are 35% heavier than female red-tails from the same area.[2] On average, western red-tailed hawks are relatively longer winged and lankier proportioned but are slightly less stocky, compact and heavy than eastern red-tailed hawks in North America. Eastern hawks may also have mildly larger talons and bills than western ones. Based on comparisons of morphology and function amongst all accipitrids, these features imply that western red-tails may need to vary their hunting more frequently to on the wing as the habitat diversifies to more open situations and presumably would hunt more variable and faster prey, whereas the birds of the east, which was historically well-wooded, are more dedicated perch hunters and can take somewhat larger prey but are likely more dedicated mammal hunters. In terms of size variation, red-tailed hawks run almost contrary to Bergmann's rule (i.e. that northern animals should be larger in relation than those closer to the Equator within a species) as one of the northernmost subspecies, B. j. alascensis, is the second smallest race based on linear dimensions and that two of the most southerly occurring races in the United States, B. j. fuertesi and B. j. umbrinus, respectively, are the largest proportioned of all red-tailed hawks. Red-tailed hawks tend have a relatively short but broad tails and thick, chunky wings. Although often described as long-winged, the proportional size of the wings is quite small and red-tails have high wing loading for a buteonine hawk. For comparison, two other widespread Buteo hawks in North America were found to weigh: 30 g (1.1 oz) for every square centimeter of wing area in the rough-legged buzzard (B. lagopus) and 44 g (1.6 oz)/cm2 in the red-shouldered hawk (B. lineatus). In contrast, the red-tailed hawk weighed considerably more for their wing area: 199 g (7.0 oz) per square cm.
As is the case with many raptors, the red-tailed hawk displays sexual dimorphism in size, as females are on average 25% larger than males. As is typical in large raptors, frequently reported mean body mass for red-tailed hawks is somewhat higher than expansive research reveals. Part of this weight variation is seasonal fluctuations; hawks tend to be heavier in winter than during migration or especially during the trying summer breeding season, and also due to clinal variation. Furthermore, immature hawks are usually lighter in mass than their adult counterparts despite having somewhat longer wings and tails. Male red-tailed hawks may weigh from 690 to 1,300 g (1.52 to 2.87 lb) and females may weigh 801 to 1,723 g (1.766 to 3.799 lb) (the lowest figure from a migrating female immature from Goshute Mountains, Nevada, the highest from a wintering female in Wisconsin). Some sources claim the largest females can weigh up to 2,000 g (4.4 lb), but whether this is in reference to wild hawks (as opposed to those in captivity or used for falconry) is not clear. The largest known survey of body mass in red-tailed hawks is still credited to Craighead and Craighead (1956), who found 100 males to average 1,028 g (2.266 lb) and 108 females to average 1,244 g (2.743 lb). However, these figures were apparently taken from labels on museum specimens, from natural history collections in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, without note to the region, age, or subspecies of the specimens. However, 16 sources ranging in sample size from the aforementioned 208 specimens to only four hawks in Puerto Rico (with 9 of the 16 studies of migrating red-tails), showed that males weigh a mean of 860.2 g (1.896 lb) and females weigh a mean of 1,036.2 g (2.284 lb), about 15% lighter than prior species-wide published weights. Within the continental United States, typical weights of males can range from 840.8 g (1.854 lb) (for migrating males in Chelan County, Washington) to 1,031 g (2.273 lb) (for male hawks found dead in Massachusetts), and females ranged from 1,057.9 g (2.332 lb) (migrants in the Goshutes) to 1,373 g (3.027 lb) (for females diagnosed as B. j. borealis in western Kansas). Size variation in body mass reveals that the red-tailed hawk typically varies only a modest amount and that size differences are geographically inconsistent.[9][40]
Male red-tailed hawks can measure 45 to 60 cm (18 to 24 in) in total length, females measuring 48 to 65 cm (19 to 26 in) long. Their wingspan typically can range from 105 to 141 cm (3 ft 5 in to 4 ft 8 in), although the largest females may possible span up to 147 cm (4 ft 10 in). In the standard scientific method of measuring wing size, the wing chord is 325.1–444.5 mm (12.80–17.50 in) long. The tail measures 188 to 258.7 mm (7.40 to 10.19 in) in length. The exposed culmen was reported to range from 21.7 to 30.2 mm (0.85 to 1.19 in) and the tarsus averaged 74.7–95.8 mm (2.94–3.77 in) across the races. The middle toe (excluding talon) can range from 38.3 to 53.8 mm (1.51 to 2.12 in), with the hallux-claw (the talon of the rear toe, which has evolved to be the largest in accipitrids) measuring from 24.1 to 33.6 mm (0.95 to 1.32 in) in length.
Identification
Although they overlap in range with most other American diurnal raptors, identifying most mature red-tailed hawks to species is relatively straightforward, particularly if viewing a typical adult at a reasonable distance. The red-tailed hawk is the only North American hawk with a rufous tail and a blackish patagium marking on the leading edge of its wing (which is obscured only on dark morph adults and Harlan's hawks by similarly dark-colored feathers). Other larger adult Buteo spp. in North America usually have obvious distinct markings that are absent in red-tails, whether the rufous-brown "beard" of Swainson's hawks (B. swainsonii) or the colorful rufous belly and shoulder markings and striking black-and-white mantle of red-shouldered hawks (also the small "windows" seen at the end of their primaries).[ In perched individuals, even as silhouettes, the shape of large Buteo spp. may be distinctive, such as the wingtips overhanging the tail in several other species, but not in red-tails. North American Buteo spp. range from the dainty, compact builds of much smaller ones, such as broad-winged hawk (B. platypterus) to the heavyset, neckless look of ferruginous hawks or the rough-legged buzzards, which have a compact, smaller appearance than a red-tail in perched birds due to its small bill, short neck, and much shorter tarsi, while the opposite effect occurs in flying rough-legs with their much bigger wing area. In flight, most other large North American Buteo spp. are distinctly longer and more slender-winged than red-tailed hawks, with the much paler ferruginous hawk having peculiarly slender wings in relation to its massive, chunky body. Swainson's hawks are distinctly darker on the wing and ferruginous hawks are much paler-winged than typical red-tailed hawks. Pale morph adult ferruginous hawk can show mildly tawny-pink (but never truly rufous) upper tail, and like red-tails tend to have dark markings on underwing-coverts and can have a dark belly band, but compared to red-tailed hawks have a distinctly broader head, their remiges are much whiter looking with very small, dark primary tips, they lack the red-tail's diagnostic patagial marks and usually also lack the dark subterminal tail-band, and ferruginous hawks have totally feathered tarsi. With its whitish head, the ferruginous hawk is most similar to Krider's red-tailed hawks, especially in immature plumage, but the larger hawk has broader head and narrower wing shape, and the ferruginous immatures are paler underneath and on their legs. Several species share a belly band with the typical red-tailed hawk, but they vary from subtle (as in the ferruginous hawk) to solid blackish, the latter in most light-morph rough-legged buzzards. More difficult to identify among adult red-tails are their darkest variations, as most species of Buteo in North America also have dark morphs. Western dark morph red-tails (i.e. B. j. calurus) adults, however, retain the typical distinctive brick-red tail, which other species lack, and may stand out even more against the otherwise all chocolate-brown to black bird. Standard pale juveniles when perched show a whitish patch in the outer half of the upper surface of the wing, which other juvenile Buteo spp. lack.[ The most difficult to identify stages and plumage types are dark morph juveniles, Harlan's hawk and some Krider's hawks (the latter mainly with typical ferruginous hawks as mentioned). Some darker juveniles are similar enough to other Buteo juveniles that they "cannot be identified to species with any confidence under various field conditions." However, field identification techniques have advanced in the last few decades and most experienced hawk-watchers can distinguish even the most vexingly plumaged immature hawks, especially as the wing shapes of each species becomes apparent after seeing many. Harlan's hawks are most similar to dark morph rough-legged buzzards and dark morph ferruginous hawks. Wing shape is the most reliable identification tool for distinguishing Harlan's hawks from these, but also the pale streaking on the breast of Harlan's, which tends to be conspicuous in most individuals, and is lacking in the other hawks. Also, dark morph ferruginous hawks do not have the dark subterminal band of a Harlan's hawk, but do bear a black undertail covert lacking in Harlan's.
Vocalization
The cry of the red-tailed hawk is a 2- to 3-second, hoarse, rasping scream, variously transcribed as kree-eee-ar, tsee-eeee-arrr or sheeeeee, that begins at a high pitch and slurs downward. This cry is often described as sounding similar to a steam whistle. The red-tailed hawk frequently vocalizes while hunting or soaring, but vocalizes loudest and most persistently in defiance or anger, in response to a predator or a rival hawk's intrusion into its territory. At close range, it makes a croaking guh-runk, possibly as a warning sound. Nestlings may give peeping notes with a "soft, sleepy quality" that give way to occasional screams as they develop, but those are more likely to be a soft whistle rather than the harsh screams of the adults. Their latter hunger call, given from 11 days (as recorded in Alaska) to after fledgling (in California), is different, a two-syllabled, wailing klee-uk food cry exerted by the young when parents leave the nest or enter their field of vision. A strange mechanical sound "not very unlike the rush of distant water" has been reported as uttered in the midst of a sky-dance. A modified call of chirp-chwirk is given during courtship, while a low key, duck-like nasal gank may be given by pairs when they are relaxed.
The fierce, screaming cry of the adult red-tailed hawk is frequently used as a generic raptor sound effect in television shows and other media, even if the bird featured is not a red-tailed hawk. It is especially used in depictions of the bald eagle, which contributes to the common misconception that it is a bald eagle cry; actual bald eagle vocalizations are far softer and more chirpy than those of a red-tailed hawk.
Distribution and habitat
The red-tailed hawk is one of the most widely distributed of all raptors in the Americas. It occupies the largest breeding range of any diurnal raptor north of the Mexican border, just ahead of the American kestrel (Falco sparverius). While the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) has a greater latitudinal distribution as a nester in North America, its range as a breeding species is far more sporadic and sparse than that of red-tailed hawks. The red-tailed hawk breeds from nearly north-central Alaska, the Yukon, and a considerable portion of the Northwest Territories, there reaching as far as a breeder as Inuvik, Mackenzie River Delta and skirting the southern shores of Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake. Thereafter in northern Canada, breeding red-tails continue to northern Saskatchewan and across to north-central Ontario east to central Quebec and the Maritime Provinces of Canada, and south continuously to Florida. No substantial gaps occur throughout the entire contiguous United States where breeding red-tailed hawks do not occur. Along the Pacific, their range includes all of Baja California, including Islas Marías, and Socorro Island in the Revillagigedo Islands. On the mainland, breeding red-tails are found continuously to Oaxaca, then experience a brief gap at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec thereafter subsequently continuing from Chiapas through central Guatemala on to northern Nicaragua. To the south, the population in highlands from Costa Rica to central Panama is isolated from breeding birds in Nicaragua. Further east, breeding red-tailed hawks occur in the West Indies in north Bahamas (i.e. Grand Bahama, Abaco and Andros) and all larger islands (such as Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico) and into the northern Lesser Antilles (Virgin Islands, Saint Barthélemy, Saba, Saint Kitts, and Nevis, being rare as a resident on Saint Eustatius and are probably extinct on Saint Martin). Their typical winter range stretches from southern Canada south throughout the remainder of the breeding range.
Red-tailed hawks have shown the ability to become habituated to almost any habitat present in North and Central America. Their preferred habitat is mixed forest and field, largely woodland edge with tall trees or alternately high bluffs that may be used as nesting and perching sites. They occupy a wide range of habitats and altitudes, including deserts, grasslands, nearly any coastal or wetland habitat, mountains, foothills, coniferous and deciduous woodlands, and tropical rainforests. Agricultural fields and pastures, which are more often than not varied with groves, ridges, or streamside trees in most parts of America, may make nearly ideal habitat for breeding or wintering red-tails. They also adapt well to suburban areas especially ones with tall trees or any kind of parkland. Some red-tails may survive or even flourish in urban areas, usually hunting and roosting in available urban parks, cemeteries, road verges, and so on, and nesting freely either in trees or virtually any tall man-made structures. One famous urban red-tailed hawk, known as "Pale Male", became the subject of a nonfiction book, Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park, and is the first known red-tail in decades to successfully nest and raise young in the crowded New York City borough of Manhattan. As studied in Syracuse, New York, the highway system has been very beneficial to red-tails as it juxtaposed trees and open areas and blocks human encroachment with fences, with the red-tailed hawks easily becoming acclimated to car traffic. The only practice that has a negative effect on the highway-occupying red-tails is the planting of exotic Phragmites, which may occasionally obscure otherwise ideal highway habitat.
In the northern Great Plains, the widespread practices of wildfire suppression and planting of exotic trees by humans has allowed groves of aspen and various other trees to invade what was once vast, almost continuous prairie grasslands, causing grassland obligates such as ferruginous hawks to decline and allowing parkland-favoring red-tails to flourish. To the contrary, clear-cutting of mature woodlands in New England, resulting in only fragmented and isolated stands of trees or low second growth remaining, was recorded to also benefit red-tailed hawks, despite being to the determent of breeding red-shouldered hawks. The red-tailed hawk, as a whole, rivals the peregrine falcon and the great horned owl among raptorial birds in the use of diverse habitats in North America. Beyond the high Arctic (as they discontinue as a breeder at the tree line), few other areas exist where red-tailed hawks are absent or rare in North and Central America. Some areas of unbroken forest, especially lowland tropical forests, rarely host red-tailed hawks, although they can occupy forested tropical highlands surprisingly well. In deserts, they can only occur where some variety of arborescent growth or ample rocky bluffs or canyons occur.
Behavior
The red-tailed hawk is highly conspicuous to humans in much of its daily behavior. Most birds in resident populations, which are well more than half of all red-tailed hawks, usually split nonbreeding-season activity between territorial soaring flight and sitting on a perch. Often, perching is for hunting purposes, but many sit on a tree branch for hours, occasionally stretching on a single wing or leg to keep limber, with no signs of hunting intent. Wintering typical pale-morph hawks in Arkansas were found to perch in open areas near the top of tall, isolated trees, whereas dark morphs more frequently perched in dense groups of trees. For many, and perhaps most, red-tailed hawks being mobbed by various birds is a daily concern and can effectively disrupt many of their daily behaviors. Mostly larger passerines, of multiple families from tyrant flycatchers to icterids, mob red-tails, despite other raptors, such as Accipiter hawks and falcons, being a notably greater danger to them. The most aggressive and dangerous attacker as such is likely to be various crows or other corvids, i.e. American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos), because a mobbing group (or "murder") of them can number up to as many as 75 crows, which may cause grievous physical harm to a solitary hawk, and if the hawks are nesting, separate the parent hawks and endanger the eggs or nestlings within their nest to predation by crows. Birds that mob red-tailed hawks can tell how distended the hawk's crop is (i.e. the upper chest and throat area being puffy versus flat-feathered and sleek), thus mob more often when the hawk is presumably about to hunt.
Flight
In flight, this hawk soars with wings often in a slight dihedral, flapping as little as possible to conserve energy. Soaring is by far the most efficient method of flight for red-tailed hawks, so is used more often than not. Active flight is slow and deliberate, with deep wing beats. Wing beats are somewhat less rapid in active flight than in most other Buteo hawks, even heavier species such as ferruginous hawks tend to flap more swiftly, due to the morphology of the wings. In wind, it occasionally hovers on beating wings and remains stationary above the ground, but this flight method is rarely employed by this species. When soaring or flapping its wings, it typically travels from 32 to 64 km/h (20 to 40 mph), but when diving may exceed 190 km/h (120 mph). Although North American red-tailed hawks will occasionally hunt from flight, a great majority of flight by red-tails in this area is for non-hunting purpose. During nest defense, red-tailed hawks may be capable of surprisingly swift, vigorous flight, while repeatedly diving at perceived threats.
Migration
Red-tailed hawks are considered partial migrants, as in about the northern third of their distribution, which is most of their range in Canada and Alaska, they almost entirely vacate their breeding grounds. In coastal areas of the north, however, such as in the Pacific Northwest to southern Alaska and in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic, red-tailed hawks do not usually migrate. More or less, any area where snow cover is nearly continuous during the winter shows an extended absence of most red-tailed hawks, so some areas as far south as Montana may show strong seasonal vacancies of red-tails. In southern Michigan, immature red-tailed hawks tended to remain in winter only when voles were abundant. During relatively long, harsh winters in Michigan, many more young ones were reported in northeastern Mexico. To the opposite extreme, hawks residing as far north as Fairbanks, Alaska, may persevere through the winter on their home territory, as was recorded with one male over three consecutive years. Birds of any age tend to be territorial during winter but may shift ranges whenever food requirements demand it. Wintering birds tend to perch on inconspicuous tree perches, seeking shelter especially if they have a full crop or are in the midst of poor or overly windy weather. Adult wintering red-tails tend to perch more prominently than immatures do, which select lower or more secluded perches. Immatures are often missed in winter bird counts, unless they are being displaced by dominant adults. Generally, though, immatures can seem to recognize that they are less likely to be attacked by adults during winter and can perch surprisingly close to them. Age is the most significant consideration of wintering hawks' hierarchy, but size does factor in, as larger immatures (presumably usually females) are less likely to displaced than smaller ones. Dark adult red-tailed hawks appear to be harder to locate when perched than other red-tails. In Oklahoma, for example, wintering adult Harlan's hawks were rarely engaged in fights or chased by other red-tails. These hawks tended to gather in regional pockets and frequently the same ones occurred year-to-year. In general, migratory behavior is complex and reliant on each individual hawk's decision-making (i.e. whether prey populations are sufficient to entice the hawk to endure prolonged snow cover). During fall migration, departure may occur as soon as late September, but peak movements occur in late October and all of November in the United States, with migration ceasing after mid-December. The northernmost migrants may pass over resident red-tailed hawks in the contiguous United States, while the latter are still in the midst of brooding fledglings. Not infrequently, several autumn hawk watches in Ontario, Quebec, and the northern United States record 4,500–8,900 red-tailed hawks migrating through each fall, with records of up to 15,000 in a season at Hawk Ridge hawk watch in Duluth, Minnesota. Unlike some other Buteo spp., such as Swainson's hawks and broad-winged hawks, red-tailed hawks do not usually migrate in groups, instead passing by one-by-one, and only migrate on days when winds are favorable. Most migrants do not move past southern Mexico in late autumn, but a few North American migrants may annually move as far south as breeding red-tailed hawks happen to occur, i.e. in Central America to as far south Panama. However, a few records were reported of wintering migrant red-tails turning up in Colombia, the first records of them anywhere in South America. Spring northward movements may commence as early as late February, with peak numbers usually occurring in late March and early April. Seasonal counts may include up to 19,000 red-tails in spring at Derby Hill hawk watch, in Oswego, New York, sometimes more than 5,000 are recorded in a day there. The most northerly migratory individuals may not reach breeding grounds until June, even adults.
Immature hawks migrate later than adults in spring on average, but not, generally speaking, in autumn. In the northern Great Lakes, immatures return in late May to early June, when adults are already well into their nesting season and must find unoccupied ranges. In Alaska, adults tend to migrate before immatures in early to mid-September, to the contrary of other areas, probably as heavy snowfall begins. Yearlings that were banded in southwestern Idaho stayed for about 2 months after fledging, and then traveled long distances with a strong directional bias, with 9 of 12 recovered southeast of the study area- six of these moved south to coastal lowlands in Mexico] and as far as Guatemala, 4,205 km (2,613 mi) from their initial banding. In California, 35 hawks were banded as nestlings; 26 were recovered at less than 50 miles away, with multidirectional juvenile dispersals. Nestlings banded in Southern California sometimes actually traveled north as far as 1,190 km (740 mi) to Oregon, ranging to the opposite extreme as far as a banded bird from the Sierra Nevadas that moved 1,700 km (1,100 mi) south to Sinaloa. Nestlings banded in Green County, Wisconsin, did not travel very far comparatively by October–November, but by December, recoveries were found in states including Illinois, Iowa, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.
Diet
The red-tailed hawk is carnivorous, and a highly opportunistic feeder. Nearly any small animal they encounter may be viewed as potential food. Their most common prey are small mammals such as rodents and lagomorphs, but they also consume birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. Prey varies considerably with regional and seasonal availability, but usually centers on rodents, accounting for up to 85% of a hawk's diet. In total, nearly 500 prey species have been recorded in their diet, almost as many as great horned owls have been recorded as taking. When 27 North American studies are reviewed, mammals make up 65.3% of the diet by frequency, 20.9% by birds, 10.8% by reptiles, 2.8% by invertebrates, and 0.2% by amphibians and fish. The geometric mean body mass of prey taken by red-tailed hawks in North America is about 187 g (6.6 oz) based on a pair of compilation studies from across the continent, regionally varying at least from 43.4 to 361.4 g (1.53 to 12.75 oz). Staple prey (excluding invertebrates) has been claimed to weigh from 15 to 2,114 g (0.033 to 4.661 lb), ranging roughly from the size of a small mouse or lizard to the size of a black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus). The daily food requirements range from 7 to 11.2% of their own body weight, so that about three voles or the equivalent weight are required daily for a typical range adult.
The talons and feet of red-tailed hawks are relatively large for a Buteo hawk; in an average-sized adult red-tail, the "hallux-claw" or rear talon, the largest claw on all accipitrids, averages about 29.7 mm (1.17 in). In fact, the talons of red-tails in some areas averaged of similar size to those of ferruginous hawks which can be considerably heavier and notably larger than those of the only slightly lighter Swainson's hawk. This species may exert an average of about 91 kg/cm2 (1,290 lbf/in2) of pressure through its feet. Owing to its morphology, red-tailed hawks generally can attack larger prey than other Buteo hawks typically can, and are capable of selecting the largest prey of up to their own size available at the time of hunting, though in all likelihood numerically most prey probably weighs on average about 20% of the hawk's own weight (as is typical of many birds of prey). Red-tailed hawks usually hunt by watching for prey activity from a high perch, also known as still hunting. Upon being spotted, prey is dropped down upon by the hawk. Red-tails often select the highest available perches within a given environment, since the greater the height they are at, the less flapping is required and the faster the downward glide they can attain toward nearby prey. If prey is closer than average, the hawk may glide at a steep downward angle with few flaps, if farther than average, it may flap a few swift wingbeats alternating with glides. Perch hunting is the most successful hunting method generally speaking for red-tailed hawks and can account for up to 83% of their daily activities (i.e. in winter). Wintering pairs may join and aseasonally may join forces to group hunt agile prey that they may have trouble catching by themselves, such as tree squirrels. This may consist of stalking opposites sides of a tree, to surround the squirrel and almost inevitably drive the rodent to be captured by one after being flushed by the other hawk.
The most common flighted hunting method for red-tail is to cruise around 10 to 50 m (33 to 164 ft) over the ground with flap-and-glide type flight, interspersed occasionally with harrier-like quarters over the ground. This method is less successful than perch hunting, but seems relatively useful for capturing small birds and may show the best results while hunting in hilly country. Hunting red-tailed hawks readily use trees, bushes, or rocks for concealment before making a surprise attack, even showing a partial ability to dodge among trees in an Accipiter-like fashion. Among thick stands of spruce in Alaska, a dodging hunting flight was thought to be unusually important to red-tails living in extensive areas of conifers, with hawks even coming to the ground and walking hurriedly in prey pursuit especially if the prey was large, a similar behavior to goshawks. Additional surprisingly swift aerial hunting has reported in red-tails that habitually hunt bats in Texas. Here, the bat-hunting specialists stooped with half-closed wings, quite falcon-like, plowing through the huge stream of bats exiting their cave roosts, then zooming upwards with a bat in its talons. These hawks also flew parallel closely to the stream, then veer sharply into it and seize a bat. In the neotropics, red-tails have shown the ability to dodge amongst forest canopy whilst hunting. In Kansas, red-tailed hawks were recorded sailing to catch flying insects, a hunting method more typical of a Swainson's hawk. Alternately, they may drop to the ground to forage for insects like grasshoppers and beetles as well as other invertebrates and probably amphibians and fish (except by water in the latter cases). Hunting afoot seems to be particularly prevalent among immatures. Young red-tailed hawks in northeastern Florida were recorded often extracting earthworms from near the surface of the ground and some had a crop full of earthworms after rains. Ground hunting is also quite common on Socorro Island, where no native land mammals occur, and invertebrates are more significant to their overall diet. A red-tailed hawk was observed to incorporate an unconventional killing method, which was drowning a heron immediately after capture. One red-tailed hawk was seen to try to grab a young ground squirrel and, upon missing it, screamed loudly, which in turn caused another young squirrel to break into a run, wherein it was captured. Whether this was an intentional hunting technique needs investigation. Upon capture, smaller prey is taken to a feeding perch, which is almost always lower than a hunting perch. Among small prey, rodents are often swallowed whole, as are shrews and small snakes, while birds are plucked and beheaded. Even prey as small as chipmunks may take two or three bites to consume. Larger mammals of transportable size are at times beheaded and have part of their fur discarded, then leftovers are either stored in a tree or fall to the ground. Large prey, especially if too heavy to transport on the wing, is often dragged to a secluded spot and dismantled in various ways. If they can successfully carry what remains to a low perch, they tend to feed until full and then discard the rest.
Mammals
Rodents are certainly the type of prey taken most often by frequency, but their contribution to prey biomass at nests can be regionally low, and the type, variety, and importance of rodent prey can be highly variable. In total, well over 100 rodent species have turned up the diet of red-tailed hawks. Rodents of extremely varied sizes may be hunted by red-tails, with species ranging in size from the 8.2 g (0.29 oz) eastern harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys humulis) to full grown muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus). At times, the red-tailed hawk is thought of as a semi-specialized vole-catcher, but voles are a subsistence food that is more or less taken until larger prey such as rabbits and squirrels can be captured. In an area of Michigan, immature hawks took almost entirely voles but adults were diversified feeders. Indeed, the 44.1 g (1.56 oz) meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) was the highest frequency prey species in 27 dietary studies across North America, accounting for up to 54% of the food at nests by frequency. It is quite rare for any one species to make up more than half of the food in any dietary study for red-tailed hawks. In total about 9 Microtus species are known in the overall diet, with 5 other voles and lemmings known to be included in their prey spectrum. Another well-represented species was the 27.9 g (0.98 oz) prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster), which were the primary food, making up 26.4% of a sample of 1322, in eastern Kansas. While crepuscular in primary feeding activity, voles are known to be active both day and night, and so are reliable food for hawks than most non-squirrel rodents, which generally are nocturnal in activity. Indeed, most other microtine rodents are largely inaccessible to red-tailed hawks due to their strongly nocturnal foraging patterns, even though 24 species outside of voles and lemmings are known to be hunted. Woodrats are taken as important supplemental prey in some regions, being considerably larger than most other crictetid rodents, and some numbers of North American deermouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) may turn up. The largest representation of the latter species was contributing 11.9% of the diet in the Great Basin of Utah, making them the second best-represented prey species there. Considering this limited association with nocturnal rodents, the high importance of pocket gophers in the diet of red-tailed hawks is puzzling to many biologists, as these tend to be highly nocturnal and elusive by day, rarely leaving the confines of their burrow. At least 8 species of pocket gopher are included in the prey spectrum (not to mention 5 species of pocket mice). The 110 g (3.9 oz) northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) is particularly often reported and, by frequency, even turns up as the third most often recorded prey species in 27 American dietary studies. Presumably, hunting of pocket gophers by red-tails, which has possibly never been witnessed, occurs in dim light at first dawn and last light of dusk when they luck upon a gopher out foraging.
By far, the most important prey among rodents is squirrels, as they are almost fully diurnal. All told, nearly 50 species from the squirrel family have turned up as food. In particular, where they are distributed, ground squirrels are doubly attractive as a primary food source due to their ground-dwelling habits, as red-tails prefer to attack prey that is terrestrial. There are also many disadvantages to ground squirrels as prey: they can escape quickly to the security of their burrows, they tend to be highly social and they are very effective and fast in response to alarm calls, and a good deal of species enter hibernation that in the coldest climates can range up to a 6 to 9-month period (although those in warmer climates with little to no snowy weather often have brief dormancy and no true hibernation). Nonetheless, red-tailed hawks are devoted predators of ground squirrels, especially catching incautious ones as they go out foraging (which are often younger animals). A multi-year study conducted on San Joaquin Experimental Range in California, seemingly still the largest food study to date done for red-tailed hawks with 4031 items examined, showed that throughout the seasons the 722 g (1.592 lb) California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi) was the most significant prey, accounting for 60.8% of the breeding season diet and about 27.2% of the diet for hawks year-around. Because of the extremely high density of red-tailed hawks on this range, some pairs came to specialize in diverse alternate prey, which consisted variously of kangaroo rats, lizards, snakes or chipmunks. One pair apparently lessened competition by focusing on pocket gophers instead despite being near the center of ground squirrel activity. In Snake River NCA, the primary food of red-tailed hawks was the 203.5 g (7.18 oz) Townsend's ground squirrel (Urocitellus townsendii), which made up nearly 21% of the food in 382 prey items across several years despite sharp spikes and crashes of the ground squirrel population there. The same species was the main food of red-tailed hawks in southeastern Washington, making up 31.2% of 170 items. An even closer predatory relationship was reported in the Centennial valley of Montana and south-central Montana, where 45.4% of 194 prey items and 40.2% of 261 items, respectively, of the food of red-tails consisted of the 455.7 g (1.005 lb) Richardson's ground squirrel (Urocitellus richardsonii). Locally in Rochester, Alberta, Richardson's ground squirrel, estimated to average 444 g (15.7 oz), were secondary in number to unidentified small rodents but red-tails in the region killed an estimated 22–60% of the area's ground squirrel, a large dent in the squirrel's population. Further east, ground squirrels are not so reliably distributed, but one study in southern Wisconsin, in one of several quite different dietary studies in that state, the 172.7 g (6.09 oz) thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus) was the main prey species, making up 29.7% of the diet (from a sample of 165).
In Kluane Lake, Yukon, 750 g (1.65 lb) Arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) were the main overall food for Harlan's red-tailed hawks, making up 30.8% of a sample of 1074 prey items. When these ground squirrels enter their long hibernation, the breeding Harlan's hawks migrate south for the winter. Nearly as important in Kluane Lake was the 200 g (7.1 oz) American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), which constituted 29.8% of the above sample. Red squirrels are highly agile dwellers on dense spruce stands, which has caused biologists to ponder how the red-tailed hawks are able to routinely catch them. It is possible that the hawks catch them on the ground such as when squirrels are digging their caches, but theoretically, the dark color of the Harlan's hawks may allow them to ambush the squirrels within the forests locally more effectively. While American red squirrels turn up not infrequently as supplementary prey elsewhere in North America, other tree squirrels seem to be comparatively infrequently caught, at least during the summer breeding season. It is known that pairs of red-tailed hawks will cooperatively hunt tree squirrels at times, probably mostly between late fall and early spring. Fox squirrels (Sciurus niger), the largest of North America's tree squirrels at 800 g (1.8 lb), are relatively common supplemental prey but the lighter, presumably more agile 533 g (1.175 lb) eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) appears to be seldom caught based on dietary studies. While adult marmot may be difficult for red-tailed hawks to catch, young marmots are readily taken in numbers after weaning, such as a high frequency of yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) in Boulder, Colorado. Another grouping of squirrels but at the opposite end of the size spectrum for squirrels, the chipmunks are also mostly supplemental prey but are considered more easily caught than tree squirrels, considering that they are more habitual terrestrial foragers In central Ohio, eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus), the largest species of chipmunk at an average weight of 96 g (3.4 oz), were actually the leading prey by number, making up 12.3% of a sample of 179 items.
Outside of rodents, the most important prey for North American red-tailed hawks is rabbits and hares, of which at least 13 species are included in their prey spectrum. By biomass and reproductive success within populations, these are certain to be their most significant food source (at least in North America). Adult Sylvilagus rabbits known to be hunted by red-tails can range from the 700 g (1.5 lb) brush rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani) to the Tres Marias rabbit (Sylvilagus graysoni) at 1,470 g (3.24 lb) while all leporids hunted may range the 421.3 g (14.86 oz) pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) to hares and jackrabbits potentially up twice the hawk's own weight. While primarily crepuscular in peak activity, rabbits and hares often foraging both during day and night and so face almost constant predatory pressure from a diverse range of predators. Male red-tailed hawks or pairs which are talented rabbit hunters are likely to have higher than average productivity due to the size and nutrition of the meal ensuring healthy, fast-growing offspring. Most widely reported are the cottontails, which the three most common North America varieties softly grading into mostly allopatric ranges, being largely segregated by habitat preferences where they overlap in distribution. Namely, in descending order of reportage were: the eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus), the second most widely reported prey species overall in North America and with maximum percentage known in a given study was 26.4% in Oklahoma (out of 958 prey items), the mountain cottontail (Sylvilagus nuttallii), maximum representation being 17.6% out of a sample of 478 in Kaibab Plateau, Arizona and the desert cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii), maximum representation being 22.4% out of a sample of 326 in west-central Arizona. Black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus) are even more intensely focused upon as a food source by the hawks found in the west, particularly the Great Basin. With the weight around 2,114 g (4.661 lb), adults of this species is the largest prey routinely hunted by red-tailed hawks. When jackrabbit numbers crash, red-tailed hawk productivity tends to decline as well. In northern Utah, black-tailed jackrabbits made up 55.3% of a sample of 329. Elsewhere, they are usually somewhat secondary by number.
In the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska, red-tails are fairly dependent on the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), falling somewhere behind the great horned owl and ahead of the Anerican goshawk in their regional reliance on this food source. The hunting preferences of red-tails who rely on snowshoe hares are variable. In Rochester, Alberta, 52% of snowshoe hares caught were adults, such prey estimated to average 1,287 g (2.837 lb), and adults, in some years, were six times more often taken than juvenile hares, which averaged an estimated 560 g (1.23 lb). 1.9–7.1% of adults in the regional population of Rochester were taken by red-tails, while only 0.3–0.8 of juvenile hares were taken by them. Despite their reliance on it, only 4% (against 53.4% of the biomass) of the food by frequency here was made up of hares. On the other hand, in Kluane Lake, Yukon, juvenile hares were taken roughly 11 times more often than adults, despite the larger size of adults here, averaging 1,406.6 g (3.101 lb), and that the overall prey base was less diverse at this more northerly clime. In both Rochester and Kluane Lake, the number of snowshoe hares taken was considerably lower than the number of ground squirrels taken. The differences in average characteristics of snowshoe hares that were hunted may be partially due to habitat (extent of bog openings to dense forest) or topography. Another member of the Lagomorpha order has been found in the diet include juvenile white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) and the much smaller American pika (Ochotona princeps), at 150 g (5.3 oz).
A diversity of mammals may be consumed opportunistically outside of the main food groups of rodents and leporids, but usually occur in low numbers. At least five species each are taken of shrews and moles, ranging in size from their smallest mammalian prey, the cinereus (Sorex cinereus) and least shrews (Cryptotis parva), which both weigh about 4.4 g (0.16 oz), to Townsend's mole (Scapanus townsendii), which weighs about 126 g (4.4 oz). A respectable number of the 90 g (3.2 oz) eastern mole (Scalopus aquaticus) were recorded in studies from Oklahoma and Kansas. Four species of bat have been recorded in their foods. The red-tailed hawks local to the large cave colonies of 12.3 g (0.43 oz) Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) in Texas can show surprising agility, some of the same hawks spending their early evening and early morning hours in flight patrolling the cave entrances in order to stoop suddenly on these flighted mammals. Larger miscellaneous mammalian prey are either usually taken as juveniles, like the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), or largely as carrion, like the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana). Small carnivorans may be taken, usually consisting of much smaller mustelids, like the least weasels (Mustela nivalis), stoats (Mustela erminea), and long-tailed weasels (Neogale frenata). slightly larger carnivores, such as small Indian mongooses (Herpestes auropunctatus), ringtails (Bassariscus astutus), small American minks (Neovison vison) and even adult striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), which can be much larger than a fully grown hawk, was reportedly taken by red-tailed hawks. Additionally, red-tailed hawks are considered as potential predators of white-nosed coati (Nasua narica) and kit fox (Vulpes macrotis) Remains of exceptionally large carnivoran species, such as domestic cats (Felis catus), red fox ( Vulpes vulpes) and common raccoon (Procyon lotor) are sometimes found amongst their foods, but most are likely taken as juveniles or consumed only as carrion. Many of these medium-sized carnivorans are probably visited as roadkill, especially during the sparser winter months, but carrion has turned up more widely than previously thought. Some nests have been found (to the occasional "shock" of researchers) with body parts from large domestic stock like sheep (Ovis aries), pigs (Sus domesticus), horses (Equus caballus ) and cattle (Bos taurus) (not to mention wild varieties like deer), which red-tails must visit when freshly dead out on pastures and take a couple of talonfuls of meat. In one instance, a red-tailed hawk was observed to kill a small but seemingly healthy lamb. These are born heavier than most red-tails at 1,500 g (3.3 lb) but in this case, the hawk was scared away before it could consume its kill by the rifle fire of the shepherd who witnessed the instance.
Birds
Like most (but not all) Buteo hawks, red-tailed hawks do not primarily hunt birds in most areas, but can take them fairly often whenever they opportune upon some that are vulnerable. Birds are, by far, the most diverse class in the red-tailed hawk's prey spectrum, with well over 200 species known in their foods In most circumstances where birds become the main food of red-tailed hawks, it is in response to ample local populations of galliforms. As these are meaty, mostly terrestrial birds which usually run rather than fly from danger (although all wild species in North America are capable of flight), galliforms are ideal avian prey for red-tails. Some 23 species of galliforms are known to be taken by red-tailed hawks, about a third of these being species introduced by humans. Native quails of all five North American species may expect occasional losses. All 12 species of grouse native to North America are also occasionally included in their prey spectrum. In the state of Wisconsin, two large studies, from Waupun and Green County, found the main prey species to be the ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), making up 22.7% of a sample of 176 and 33.8% of a sample of 139, respectively. With a body mass averaging 1,135 g (2.502 lb), adult pheasants are among the largest meals that male red-tails are likely to deliver short of adult rabbits and hares and therefore these nests tend to be relatively productive. Despite being not native to North America, pheasants usually live in a wild state. Chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) are also taken throughout North America, with all Wisconsin studies also found large numbers of them, making up as much as 14.4% of the diet. Many studies reflect that free-ranging chickens are vulnerable to red-tailed hawks although somewhat lesser numbers are taken by them overall in comparison to nocturnal predators (i.e. owls and foxes) and goshawks. In Rochester, Alberta, fairly large numbers of ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) were taken but relatively more juveniles were taken of this species than the two other main contributors to biomass here, snowshoe hare and Townsend's ground squirrel, as they are fairly independent early on and more readily available. Here the adult grouse was estimated to average 550 g (1.21 lb) against the average juvenile which in mid-summer averaged 170 g (6.0 oz).
Beyond galliforms, three other quite different families of birds make the most significant contributions to the red-tailed hawk's avian diet. None of these three families are known as particularly skilled or swift fliers, but are generally small enough that they would generally easily be more nimble in flight. One of these are the woodpeckers, if only for one species, the 131.6 g (4.64 oz) northern flicker (Colaptes auratus), which was the best represented bird species in the diet in 27 North American studies and was even the fourth most often detected prey species of all. Woodpeckers are often a favorite in the diet of large raptors as their relatively slow, undulating flight makes these relatively easy targets. The flicker in particular is a highly numerous species that has similar habitat preferences to red-tailed hawks, preferring fragmented landscapes with trees and openings or parkland-type wooded mosaics, and often forage on the ground for ants, which may make them even more susceptible. Varied other woodpecker species may turn up in their foods, from the smallest to the largest extant in North America, but are much more infrequently detected in dietary studies. Another family relatively often selected prey family are corvids, which despite their relatively large size, formidable mobbing abilities and intelligence are also slower than average fliers for passerines. 14 species of corvid are known to fall prey to red-tailed hawks. In the Kaibab Plateau, the 128 g (4.5 oz) Steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) were the fourth most identified prey species (10.3% of the diet). 453 g (0.999 lb) American crows are also regularly detected supplemental prey in several areas. Even the huge common raven (Corvus corax), at 1,050 g (2.31 lb) at least as large as red-tailed hawk itself, may fall prey to red-tails, albeit very infrequently and only in a well-staged ambush. One of the most surprising heavy contributors are the icterids, despite their slightly smaller size and tendency to travel in large, wary flocks, 12 species are known to be hunted. One species pair, the meadowlarks, are most often selected as they do not flock in the same ways as many other icterids and often come to the ground, throughout their life history, rarely leaving about shrub-height. The 100.7 g (3.55 oz) western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), in particular, was the third most often detected bird prey species in North America. Red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) which are probably too small, at an average weight of 52.4 g (1.85 oz), and fast for a red-tailed hawk to ever chase on the wing (and do travel in huge flocks, especially in winter) are nonetheless also quite often found in their diet, representing up to 8% of the local diet for red-tails. It is possible that males, which are generally bold and often select lofty perches from which to display, are most regularly ambushed. One bird species that often flocks with red-winged blackbirds in winter is even better represented in the red-tail's diet, the non-native 78 g (2.8 oz) European starling (Sturnus vulgaris), being the second most numerous avian prey species and seventh overall in North America. Although perhaps most vulnerable when caught unaware while calling atonally on a perch, a few starlings (or various blackbirds) may be caught by red-tails which test the agile, twisting murmurations of birds by flying conspicuously towards the flock, to intentionally disturb them and possibly detect lagging, injured individual birds that can be caught unlike healthy birds. However, this behavior has been implied rather than verified.
Over 50 passerine species from various other families beyond corvids, icterids and starlings are included in the red-tailed hawks' prey spectrum but are caught so infrequently as to generally not warrant individual mention. Non-passerine prey taken infrequently may include but are not limited to pigeons and doves, cuckoos, nightjars, kingfishers and parrots. However, of some interest, is the extreme size range of birds that may be preyed upon. Red-tailed hawks in Caribbean islands seem to catch small birds more frequently due to the paucity of vertebrate prey diversity here.
This is sooo Woodstock era! Perfect for Rainbow Gatherings, concerts, parties or your Authentic vintage hippy collection! :D
Super fem with loads of Flower Power and sweet details... a wreath of flowers in your hair and you're ready for a barefoot walk in the park! :)
Please see my profile for details! :D
Fixed stock versions of SMG-45 and SMG-9
Parameters:
Overall length - 680mm
Barrel lenght - 330mm
Rest is the same as in standard version
Since this version is much longer than the original one, it's less suitable for crewmen. Due to increased accuracy, it became standard issue SMG for DX Shock Core (9x19 ammo version).
This version also features detachable silencer (not shown)
Again, forgive me grouping errors:D
Before you ask:
- Rail on magazine tilts with the magazine, so it doesn't obstruct magazine changing
- I have two foregrips, vertical and horizontal. Some find more comfortable using the vertical one, some the other one. So here's two of them, pick one and shoot:D
- Sight aren't obstructed by the rail, since it's 'empty' in the middle (like upper rail in M1014)
- Flashlight is detachable, you can put laser pointer in it's place (or something like that, even a small banana if you manage to fit it there:D)
Pastie: pastie.org/967437 (includes only SMG-9F)
Winchester Cathedral is a cathedral of the Church of England in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It is one of the largest cathedrals in Europe, with the longest nave and greatest overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe.
Dedicated to the Holy Trinity, Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and before the Reformation, Saint Swithun, it is the seat of the Bishop of Winchester and centre of the Diocese of Winchester. The cathedral is a Grade I listed building.
In 1079, Walkelin, Bishop of Winchester, began work on a completely new cathedral. Much of the limestone used to build the structure was brought across from quarries around Binstead, Isle of Wight. Nearby Quarr Abbey draws its name from these workings, as do several nearby places such as Stonelands and Stonepitts. The remains of the Roman trackway used to transport the blocks are still evident across the fairways of the Ryde Golf Club, where the stone was hauled from the quarries to the hythe at the mouth of Binstead Creek, and thence by barge across the Solent and up to Winchester.
The building was consecrated in 1093. On 8 April of that year, according to the Annals of Winchester, "in the presence of almost all the bishops and abbots of England, the monks came with the highest exultation and glory from the old minster to the new one: on the Feast of S. Swithun they went in procession from the new minster to the old one and brought thence S. Swithun's shrine and placed it with honour in the new buildings, and on the following day Walkelin's men first began to pull down the old minster."
A substantial amount of the fabric of Walkelin's building, including crypt, transepts and the basic structure of the nave, survives. The original crossing tower, however, collapsed in 1107, an accident blamed by the cathedral's medieval chroniclers on the burial of the dissolute William Rufus beneath it in 1100. Its replacement, which survives today, is still in the Norman style, with round-headed windows. It is a squat, square structure, 50 feet (15 m) wide, but rising only 35 feet (11 m) above the ridge of the transept roof. The Tower is 150 feet (46 m) tall.
After the consecration of Godfrey de Luci as bishop in 1189, a retrochoir was added in the Early English style. The next major phase of rebuilding was not until the mid-14th century, under bishops Edington and Wykeham. Edingdon (1346–1366) removed the two westernmost bays of the nave, built a new west front and began the remodelling of the nave.
Under William of Wykeham (1367–1404) the Romanesque nave was transformed, recased in Caen stone and remodelled in the Perpendicular style, with its internal elevation divided into two, rather than the previous three, storeys. The wooden ceilings were replaced with stone vaults.
Wykeham's successor, Henry of Beaufort (1405–1447) carried out fewer alterations, adding only a chantry on the south side of the retrochoir, although work on the nave may have continued through his episcopy. His successor, William of Waynflete (1447–1486), built another chantry in a corresponding position on the north side. Under Peter Courtenay (Bishop 1486–1492) and Thomas Langton (1493–1500), there was more work. De Luci's Lady chapel was lengthened, and the Norman side aisles of the presbytery replaced. In 1525, Richard Foxe (Bishop 1500–1528) added the side screens of the presbytery, which he also gave a wooden vault. With its progressive extensions, the east end is now about 110 feet (34 m) beyond that of Walkelin's building.
King Henry VIII seized control of the Catholic Church in England and declared himself head of the Church of England. The Benedictine foundation, the Priory of Saint Swithun, was dissolved. The priory surrendered to the king in 1539. The next year a new chapter was formed, and the last prior, William Basyng, was appointed dean. The monastic buildings, including the cloister and chapter house, were later demolished, mostly during the 1560–1580 tenure of the reformist bishop Robert Horne.
The Norman choir screen, having fallen into a state of decay, was replaced in 1637–40 by a new one, designed by Inigo Jones. It was in a classical style, with bronze figures by Hubert le Sueur of James I and Charles I in niches. It was removed in 1820, by when its style was felt inappropriate in an otherwise medieval building. The central bay, with its archway, is now in the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge; it was replaced by a Gothic screen by Edward Garbett, its design based on the west doorway of the nave.
This stone structure was itself removed in the 1870s to make way for a wooden one designed by George Gilbert Scott, who modelled it on the canopies of the choir stalls of the monks (dating from around 1308). Scott's west-facing screen has been much criticised, although the carving is of superlative workmanship and virtually replicates the earlier, albeit finer, carving of the early 14th century east-facing return stalls on to which it backs. The displaced bronze statues of the Stuart kings were moved to the west end of the Cathedral, standing in niches on each side of the central door. Scott's work was otherwise conservative. He moved the lectern to the north side of the quire beside the pulpit, facing west, where it remained for a century before returning to its present central position, now facing east.
(Wikipedia)
Die Kathedrale von Winchester, offiziell: The Cathedral Church of The Holy and Indivisible Trinity, ist eine der größten Kathedralen in Großbritannien. Sie wurde von 1079 bis 1093 in Winchester errichtet.
Um das Jahr 828 wurde Winchester die erste Hauptstadt Englands, bevor es ab dem 11. Jahrhundert London wurde.
Die Kathedrale besitzt das größte europäische Langhaus. Im 14. Jahrhundert hatte es noch eine Länge von 180 Metern. Später wurde die Westfassade abgerissen und um 12 Meter zurück versetzt, so dass sich eine heutige Länge des Langhauses von 168 Metern ergibt. Im ausgehenden 14. Jahrhundert wurden große Teile der Kirche im Perpendicular Style umgebaut.
Im alten Münster wurde 1043 Eduard der Bekenner gekrönt und noch Wilhelm der Eroberer und einige seiner Nachfolger ließen sich außer in London auch noch in ihrer anderen Hauptstadt Winchester krönen.
Das Querschiff wurde von 1079 bis 1090 errichtet. Erhalten sind von diesem romanischen Bau das nördliche Querhaus und die Krypta als der eindrucksvollste Innenraum der frühromanischen Jahrzehnte. Die um die Schmalseiten herumgeführten Seitenschiffe besitzen eigene Emporen.
Zum ersten Mal tritt hier das Aufriss-System 1:2:3 auf, das für England das übliche wird: einem Arkadenbogen des Erdgeschosses entspricht eine Doppelarkade in der Emporenregion und eine dreiteilige Bogenstellung im Lichtgaden nach dem Schema a-b-a (größere Breite der Mitte mit dem Fenster, das nach normannischer Art hinter dem Laufgang liegt). Bezeichnend sind die normannischen Blendbogenarkaturen der unteren Seitenschiffwände. Ursprünglich waren die Seitenschiffe nur mit Kreuzgratgewölben zwischen Gurtbögen gedeckt. „Die Gesamtwirkung wird durch die kompakte Gesteinsmasse der Wände bestimmt“ (Pevsner).
Nach einem Einsturz im Jahr 1107 vollzog man im beginnenden 12. Jahrhundert eine Verstärkung der Vierungspfeiler und eine Erneuerung des Vierungsturms.
Der Retrochor aus den Jahren 1189–1202 wurde in der späten Gotik verändert. In ihm befinden sich die Totenmesskapellen für Kardinal Beaufort und für Bischof Waynfletes.
Die Fresken in der Kapelle zum Heiligen Grab stammen aus der Zeit um 1230 und dokumentieren den damaligen Hofstil.
Der Umbau des normannischen Baues erfolgte im Chor seit etwa 1320. 1371 bis zum ausgehenden 15. Jahrhundert folgte das Langhaus. Der Grundriss und Teile des Mauerwerks wurden beibehalten. Die drei Schiffe erscheinen als in sich selbständige, einfach kubisch begrenzte Räume. Auffallend ist die gerüstartige Vergitterung der Wände.
Die Lady Chapel wurde im ausgehenden 15. Jahrhundert verlängert und ihr Gewölbe erneuert.
Im ersten Viertel des 16. Jahrhunderts wurden die Chor-Seitenschiffe umgebaut.
1635 wurde das Gewölbe des Vierungsturm im gotischen Stil erneuert.
Der Taucher William Walker arbeitete 1906–1911 am Fundament der Kathedrale, um es zu sichern und einen Einsturz zu verhindern. Eine Büste erinnert bis heute an ihn.
Die Schriftstellerin Jane Austen wurde 1817 in der Kathedrale beigesetzt. Eine Grabsteinplatte – allerdings ohne Hinweis auf ihre Tätigkeit – erinnert an sie.
(Wikipedia)
Haytor Granite Tramway
a granite rail or tramway wagon notice the wheels are not flanged. That’s because the rails – made out of lengths of granite are flanged. The wheels sit on one ledge on the blocks and inside the wheelbase, the rails are stepped up. The wagon can’t fall off the rails.
The Haytor Granite Tramway was a tramway built to convey granite from Haytor Down, Dartmoor, Devon to the Stover Canal. It was very unusual in that the track was formed of granite sections, shaped to guide the wheels of horse-drawn wagons.
It was built in 1820; the granite was in demand in the developing cities of England as masonry to construct public buildings and bridges. In 1850 the quarries employed about 100 men but by 1858 they had closed due to the availability of cheaper Cornish granite.
The Haytor rocks and quarries are protected from development and disturbance as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Operation and purpose
Haytor quarry today
The granite from the quarries near Haytor Rock was much in demand for construction work in the cities of England, but in an era when railways and reliable roads had not yet been developed, the transport of this heavy and bulky commodity was a significant problem. Coastal shipping was a practicable transport medium, and the Stover Canal was available from Ventiford to the Teign Navigation.
The Haytor Tramway was constructed to carry the granite the 10 miles (16 km) to the canal, which involved a falling vertical interval of 1,300 feet (400 m) to the basin of the Stover Canal. Its form was a close relative of a plateway, where longitudinal L-shaped metal plates were used to support and guide the wheels of wagons. In the Haytor case, the "plates" were cut from granite blocks; the upstand guided the wheels of the wagons. As the wagons had plain wheels without flanges, they could be manouevred at the terminals without the need for sidings and points.
Detail of the track on the Haytor Granite Tramway
The gauge of the track was 4 ft 3 in (1,295 mm), and at junctions the wheels were guided by 'point tongues', pivoted on the granite-block rails. Authorities differ on whether the point tongues were oak or iron. In the upward direction, the empty tram wagons were pulled to the quarries by teams of horses; the loaded trams were run downhill by gravity to the Stover Canal basin at Ventiford, Teigngrace.
The route was carefully engineered to follow a consistent downward gradient to the canal basin, following the contours of the land (although one of the upper branches had a contrary gradient, requiring horse draught in the loaded direction). A siding at Manaton Road may have been used to allow trains to pass when meeting in opposing directions.
Another section of the tramway
The Stover Canal had been built between 1790 and 1792[2] by James II Templer (1748–1813) of Stover House, Teigngrace, for the clay traffic, and was extended to Teigngrace in 1820.[3] From here the granite was carried by canal boat to the New Quay at Teignmouth for export by ship, the quay having been built in 1827 for the purpose, making midstream transshipment no longer necessary.[2] In 1829, due to financial difficulties, James Templer's son George Templer (1781–1843) sold Stover House, the Stover Canal and the Haytor Granite Tramway to Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset (1775-1855), whose family had long owned the nearby large Berry Pomeroy Castle Estate. George Templer left Devon, only to return a few years later and build a new mansion at Sandford Orleigh on the outskirts of Newton Abbot. He became the granite company's chief Devonshire agent.
The wooden flat-topped waggons had iron flangeless wheels and ran in trains of usually twelve waggons drawn by around 18 horses in single file, in front for the upward journey and at the rear for the downward. An old sailor called Thomas Taverner wrote a poem which gives us this information:
Nineteen stout horses it was known,
From Holwell Quarry drew the stone,
And mounted on twelve-wheeled car
'Twas safely brought from Holwell Tor.
The vehicles used were probably adapted road waggons and were about 13 feet (3.96 m) long, with a wheelbase of 10 ft (3.05 m). The wheels were 2 ft (610 mm) in diameter with a 3-inch (76 mm) tread, and were loose on the axles. The twelve-wheeled reference in the poem above means 'twelve waggons with wheels'.
Stover House itself, then the home of the Templer family, had been constructed of Haytor granite in 1781. Granite's popularity as a building material was increasing and the reason for the quarry and tramway's creation was most likely a contract for George Templer to use the stone for London Bridge. Part of the British Museum, the old General Post Office in London and the Waltham Monument in Ludgate Circus were built of Haytor granite in the 19th century. The last use of Haytor quarried granite was the building of the Exeter War Memorial.
The splitting of the granite was done by a method known as feather and tare, which had replaced the former 'wedge and groove' method around 1800; this more reliable method being another reason why the use of granite had become practicable. The new method worked by means of a series of holes was made along a potential line of fracture using a tool called a 'jumper'. Feathers were metal prongs with a curved upper end. Two of these were inserted into the holes, the curves in opposite directions at 90 degrees to the line of potential fracture. A wedge-shaped metal tare was hammered between the two until the granite fractured.
The granite trade was always somewhat sporadic with fluctuating production and indeed no granite was produced or transported between 1841 and 1851 and the quarries and tramway had closed by 1858. Several thousands of tons of granite had been quarried some years, but competition from Cornish granite quarries with cheaper transport put paid to the business and the tramway fell into neglect, however its robust construction and low recyclable value meant that it was never lifted and much has survived the passage of time.
Thomas claims that there were proposals in about 1905 to lay an electric tramway along the route as a tourist attraction, but this scheme failed to mature.
Construction
The tramway was built in 1820 without an Act of Parliament and opened on 16 September 1820, but the consulting engineer is unknown, although George Templer of Stover House managed the quarries and was no doubt responsible. A contemporary description of the official opening shows the extent of the achievement:
On Saturday Mr. Templer, of Stover House, gave a grand fete champetre on Haytor Down, on the completion of the granite rail road. The company assembled at its foot on Bovey Heathfield, and in procession passed over it to the rock. A long string of carriages, filled with elegant and beautiful females, multitudes of horsemen, workmen on foot, the wagons covered with laurels and waving streamers, formed in their windings through the valley, an attractive scene to spectators on the adjacent hill. Old Haytor seemed alive: its sides were lined with groups of persons, and on its top a proud flag fluttered in the wind. Previously to returning to dine, Mr Templer addressed the assemblage in a short and energetic speech, which excited bursts of applause...
A later description listed some of the dignitaries who attended:
Among the company were Lord and Lady Clifford of Ugbrooke; Mr. Bastard from Buckland; Sir Thomas Dycke Acland; Sir Henry Carew came from Haccombe; and Sir Lawrence Palk from Haldon, beside many other county magnates from other parts.[9]
The New Quay at Teignmouth in 1827 with a large crane and blocks of cut granite
The construction is exceedingly unusual, the closest possibly being the Weedon Stoneway in Northamptonshire of 1837 which was built at great expense as a mail coach route by the Turnpike Commissioners who were in competition with the newly constructed London & Birmingham Railway. The only other comparable tramway known to exist was a very short 3 ft gauge limestone line at Conisbrough, near Doncaster.The tramway itself was built out of the granite it would carry and ran from the Haytor quarries to Ventiford Quay on the Stover Canal. At first, it was about 7 miles (11 km) long, but it was later extended to about 9 miles (14 km) or 10 miles (16 km) including the various sidings. The hard granite stone was well-suited to the purpose as it can withstand high pressures and was laid in lieu of iron rails. The tramway had a mainline running down to the Stover canal and six branches or sidings running from the separate quarries. The sidings were altered several times during the existence of the line and track was often lifted and used elsewhere as circumstances demanded. Various minor and one substantial cutting, small embankments and a few short bridges exist along the length of the line. Owing to the nature of the 'rails' large parts of the old tramway still exist, especially in the area near Haytor itself.
© Wikipedia online encyclopedia
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, 9 miles (14 kilometres) west of Edinburgh City Centre. It is considered an iconic structure and a symbol of Scotland, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was designed by the English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker.
Construction of the bridge began in 1882 and it was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Prince of Wales.[2] The bridge spans the Forth between the villages of South Queensferry and North Queensferry and has a total length of 8,296 feet (2,528.7 m). It was the longest single cantilever bridge span in the world until 1917 when the Quebec Bridge in Canada was completed. It continues to be the world's second-longest single cantilever span.
The bridge and its associated railway infrastructure is owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Limited.
It is sometimes referred to as the Forth Rail Bridge to distinguish it from the Forth Road Bridge, though this has never been its official name.
Prior to the construction of the bridge, ferry boats were used to cross the Firth.[3] In 1806, a pair of tunnels, one for each direction, was proposed, and in 1818 James Anderson produced a design for a three-span suspension bridge close to the site of the present one.[4] Calling for approximately 2,500 tonnes (2,500 long tons; 2,800 short tons) of iron, Wilhelm Westhofen said of it "and this quantity [of iron] distributed over the length would have given it a very light and slender appearance, so light indeed that on a dull day it would hardly have been visible, and after a heavy gale probably no longer to be seen on a clear day either."[5]
Thomas Bouch designed for the Edinburgh and Northern Railway a roll-on/roll-off railway ferry between Granton and Burntisland that opened in 1850, which proved so successful that another was ordered for the Tay.[6] In autumn 1863, a joint project between the North British Railway and Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, which would merge in 1865, appointed Stephenson and Toner to design a bridge for the Forth, but the commission was given to Bouch around six months later.[7]
It had proven difficult to engineer a suspension bridge that was able to carry railway traffic, and Thomas Bouch, engineer to the North British Railway (NBR) and Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, was in 1863-1864 working on a single-track girder bridge crossing the Forth near Charlestown, where the river is around 2 miles wide, but mostly relatively shallow.[7][8] The promoters, however, were concerned about the ability to set foundations in the silty river bottom, as borings had gone as deep as 231 feet (70 m) into the mud without finding any rock, but Bouch conducted experiments to demonstrate that it was possible for the silt to support considerable weight.[9] Experiments in late 1864 with weighted caissons achieved a pressure of 5 tons/ft2 on the silt, encouraging Bouch to continue with the design.[9] In August 1865, Richard Hodgson, chairman of the NBR, proposed that the Company invest £18,000 to try a different kind of foundation, as the weighted caissons had not been successful.[10] Bouch proposed using a large pine platform underneath the piers, 80 by 60 by 7 feet (24.4 m × 18.3 m × 2.1 m) (the original design called for a 114 by 80 by 9 feet (34.7 m × 24.4 m × 2.7 m) platform of green beech) weighed down with 10,000 tonnes (9,800 long tons; 11,000 short tons) of pig iron which would sink the wooden platform to the level of the silt.[9] The platform was launched on 14 June 1866 after some difficulty in getting it to move down the greased planks it rested on, and then moored in the harbour for six weeks pending completion.[9][11] The bridge project was aborted just before the platform was sunk as the NBR expected to lose "through traffic" following the amalgamation of the Caledonian Railway and the Scottish North Eastern Railway.[9] In September 1866, a Committee of Shareholders investigating rumours of financial difficulties found that accounts had been falsified, and the chairman and the entire board had resigned by November.[12] By mid-1867 the NBR was nearly bankrupt, and all work on the Forth and Tay bridges was stopped.
The North British Railway took over the ferry at Queensferry in 1867, and completed a rail link from Ratho in 1868, establishing a contiguous link with Fife.[14] Interest in bridging the Forth increased again, and Bouch proposed a stiffened steel suspension bridge on roughly the line of the present rail bridge in 1871, and after careful verification, work started in 1878 on a pier at Inchgarvie.[14]
After Tay Bridge collapsed in 1879, confidence in Bouch dried up and the work stopped.[14] The public inquiry into the disaster, chaired by Henry Cadogan Rothery, found the Tay Bridge to be "badly designed, badly constructed and badly maintained," with Bouch being "mainly to blame" for the defects in construction and maintenance and "entirely responsible" for the defects in design.[15]
After the disaster, which occurred in high winds for which Bouch had not properly accounted, the Board of Trade imposed a lateral wind allowance of 56 lbs/ft2.[16] Bouch's 1871 design had taken a much lower figure of 10 lbs/ft2 on the advice of the Astronomer Royal, although contemporary analysis showed it would likely have stood, but the engineers making the analysis stated that "we do not commit ourselves to an opinion that it is the best possible" [design].[17] Bouch's design was formally abandoned on 13 January 1881, and Sir John Fowler, W. H. Barlow and T. E. Harrison, consulting engineers to the project, were invited to give proposals for a bridge.
It is 8,094 feet (2,467.05 m) in length, and the double track is elevated 150 feet (45.72 m) above the water level at high tide. It consists of two main spans of 1,700 feet (518.16 m), two side spans of 680 ft (207.3 m), and 15 approach spans of 168 ft (51.2 m).[1][19] Each main span consists of two 680 ft (207.3 m) cantilever arms supporting a central 350 feet (106.7 m) span truss. The weight of the bridge superstructure was 50,513 long tons (51,324 t), including the 6.5 million rivets used.[19] The bridge also used 640,000 cubic feet (18,122 m3) of granite.[20]
The three great four-tower cantilever structures are 361 feet (110.03 m) tall,[1] each tower resting on a separate granite pier. These were constructed using 70 ft (21 m) diameter caissons; those for the north cantilever and two on the small uninhabited island of Inchgarvie acted as cofferdams, while the remaining two on Inchgarvie and those for the south cantilever, where the river bed was 91 ft (28 m) below high-water level, used compressed air to keep water out of the working chamber at the base.
The bridge is built on the principle of the cantilever bridge, where a cantilever beam supports a light central girder, a principle that has been used for thousands of years in the construction of bridges.[22] In order to illustrate the use of tension and compression in the bridge, a demonstration in 1887 had the Japanese engineer Kaichi Watanabe supported between Fowler and Baker sitting in chairs.[23] Fowler and Baker represent the cantilevers, with their arms in tension and the sticks under compression, and the bricks the cantilever end piers which are weighted with cast iron.
The bridge was the first major structure in Britain to be constructed of steel;[25] its French contemporary, the Eiffel Tower, was built of wrought iron.
Large amounts of steel had become available after the invention of the Bessemer process in 1855. Until 1877 the British Board of Trade had limited the use of steel in structural engineering because the process produced steel of unpredictable strength. Only the Siemens-Martin open-hearth process developed by 1875 yielded steel of consistent quality.
The original design required 42,000 tonnes (41,000 long tons; 46,000 short tons) for the cantilevers only, of which 12,000 tonnes (12,000 long tons; 13,000 short tons) was to come from Messrs. Siemens' steel works in Landore and the remainder from the Steel Company of Scotland's works near Glasgow.[26] When modifications to the design necessitated a further 16,000 tonnes (16,000 long tons; 18,000 short tons), about half of this was supplied by the Steel Company of Scotland and half by Dalzell's Iron and Steel Works in Motherwell.[27] About 4,200 tonnes (4,100 long tons; 4,600 short tons) of rivets came from the Clyde Rivet Company of Glasgow.[27] Around three or four thousand tons of steel was scrapped, some of which was used for temporary purposes, resulting in the discrepancy between the quantity delivered and the quantity erected.
The Bill for the construction of the bridge was passed on 19 May 1882 after an eight day enquiry, the only objections being from rival railway companies.[29] On 21 December of that year, the contract was let to Sir Thomas Tancred, Mr. T. H. Falkiner and Mr. Joseph Philips, civil engineers and contractor, and Sir William Arrol & Co..[30] Arrol was a self-made man, who had been apprenticed to a blacksmith at the age of thirteen before going on to have a highly successful business.[31] Tancred was a professional engineer who had worked with Arrol before, but he would leave the partnership during the course of construction.[32] The steel was produced by Frederick and William Siemens (England) and Pierre and Emile Martin (France), following advances in the furnace designs by the Siemens brothers and improvements on this design by the Martin brothers ,the process of manufacture was thus that it enabled high quality steel to be produced very quickly.
Offices and stores erected by Arrol in connection with Bouch's bridge were taken possession of for the new works, and would be expanded considerably over time.[35] An accurate survey was taken by Mr. Reginald Middleton, to establish the exact position of the bridge and allow the permanent construction work to commence.[36][37]
The old coastguard station at the Fife end had to be removed to make way for the north-east pier.[38] The rocky shore was levelled to a height of 7 feet (2.1 m) above high water to make way for plant and materials, and huts and other facilities for workmen were set up further inland.[38]
The preparations at South Queensferry were of a much more substantial character, and required the steep hillside to be terraced.[38] Wooden huts and shops for the workmen were put up, as well as more substantial brick houses for the foremen and tenements for leading hands and gangers.[38] Drill roads and workshops were built, as well as a drawing loft 200 by 60 feet (61 by 18 m) to allow full size drawings and templates to be laid out.[38] A cable was also laid across the Forth to allow telephone communication between the centres at Queensferry, Inchgarvie, and Fife, and girders from the collapsed Tay Bridge were laid across the railway to the west in order to allow access to the ground there.[38] Near the shore a sawmill and cement store were erected, and a substantial jetty around 2,100 feet (640 m) long was started early in 1883, and extended as necessary, and sidings were built to bring railway vehicles among the shops, and cranes set up to allow the loading and movement of material delivered by rail.[38]
In April 1883, construction of a landing stage at Inchgarvie commenced.[38] Extant buildings, including fortifications built in the 15th century, were roofed over to increase the available space, and the rock at the west of the island was cut down to a level 7 feet (2.1 m) above high water, and a seawall was built to protect against large waves.[38] In 1884 a compulsory purchase order was obtained for the island, as it was found that previously available area enclosed by the four piers of the bridge was insufficient for the storage of materials.[38] Iron staging reinforced wood in heavily used areas was put up over the island, eventually covering around 10,000 square yards (8,400 m2) and using over 1,000 tonnes (980 long tons; 1,100 short tons) of iron.
The bridge uses 55,000 tonnes (54,000 long tons; 61,000 short tons) of steel and 140,000 cubic yards (110,000 m3) of masonry.[39] Many materials, including granite from Aberdeen, Arbroath rubble, sand, timber, and sometimes coke and coal, could be taken straight to the centre where they were required.[39] Steel was delivered by train and prepared at the yard at South Queensferry before being painted with boiled linseed oil before being taken to where it was needed by barge.[39] The cement used was Portland cement manufactured on the Medway.[40] It required to be stored before it was able to be used, and up to 1,200 tonnes (1,200 long tons; 1,300 short tons) of cement could be kept in a barge, formerly called the Hougomont that was moored off Queensferry.[40]
For a time a paddle steamer was hired for the movement of workers, but after a time it was replaced with one capable of carrying 450 men, and the barges were also used for people carrying.[39] Special trains were run from Edinburgh and Dunfermline, and a steamer ran to Leith in the summer.
The three towers of the cantilever are each seated on four circular piers. Since the foundations were required to be constructed at or below sea level, they were excavated with the assistance of caissons and cofferdams.[40]
Six caissons were excavated by the pneumatic process, by the French contractor L. Coisea.[41][42] This process used a positive air pressure inside a sealed caisson to allow dry working conditions at depths of up to 89 feet (27 m).[42][43]
These caissons were constructed and assembled in Glasgow by the Arrol Brothers, namesakes of but unconnected to W. Arrol, before being dismantled and transported to Queensferry.[41][44] The caissons were then built up to a large extent before being floated to their final resting-places.[45] The first caisson, for the south-west pier at Queensferry was launched on 26 May 1884, and the last caisson was launched on 29 May 1885 for the south-west pier at Inchgarvie.[45] When the caissons had been launched and moored, they were extended upwards with a temporary portion in order to keep water out and allow the granite pier to be built when in place.[45]
Above the foundations each of which is different to suit the different sites, is a tapered circular granite pier with a diameter of 55 feet (17 m) at the bottom and a height of 36 feet (11 m).
The rock on which the two northern piers at Inchgarvie are located is submerged at high water, and of the other two piers, the site of eastern one is about half submerged and the western one three-quarters submerged.[47] This meant work initially had to be done at low tide.[47]
The southern piers on Inchgarvie are sited on solid rock with a slope of around 1 in 5, so the rock was prepared with concrete and sandbags to make a landing-spot for the caissons.[48][49] Excavation was carried out by drilling and blasting.
Once the positions of the piers had been established, the first task at Fife was to level the site of the northernmost piers, a bedrock of whinstone rising to a level of 10 to 20 feet (3.0 to 6.1 m) above high water, to a height of 7 feet (2.1 m) above high water.[40] The south piers at Fife are sited on rock sloping into the sea, and the site was prepared by diamond drilling holes for explosive charges and blasting the rock.
The four Queensferry caissons were all sunk by the pneumatic method, and are identical in design except for differences in height.[41] A T shaped jetty was built at the site of the Queensferry piers, to allow one caisson to be attached to each corner, and when launched the caissons were attached to the jetty and permitted to rise and fall with the tide.[45][50] Excavation beneath the caissons was generally only carried out at high tide when the caisson was supported by buoyancy, and then when the tide fell the air pressure was reduced in order to allow the caisson to sink down, and digging would begin anew.[43]
The north-west caisson was towed into place in December 1884, but an exceptionally low tide on New Year's Day 1885 caused the caisson to sink into the mud of the river bed and adopt a slight tilt.[48] When the tide rose, it flooded over the lower edge, filling the caisson with water, and when the tide fell but the water did not drain from the caisson, its top-heaviness caused to tilt further.[48] Plates were bolted on by divers to raise the edge of the caisson above water level, and the caisson was reinforced with wooden struts as water was pumped out, but pumping took place too quickly and the water pressure tore a hole between 25 and 30 feet (7.6 and 9.1 m) long.[48] It was decided to construct a "barrel" of large timbers inside the caisson to reinforce it, and it was ten months before the caisson could be pumped out and dug free.[48] The caisson was refloated on October 19, 1885, and then moved into position and sunk with suitable modifications.
The approach viaducts to the north and south had to be carried at 130 feet 6 inches (39.78 m) above the level of high water, and it was decided to build them at a lower level and then raise them in tandem with the construction of the masonry piers.[51] The two viaducts have fifteen spans between them, each one 168 feet (51 m) long and weighing slightly over 200 tonnes (200 long tons; 220 short tons).[51] Two spans are attached together to make a continuous girder, with an expansion joint between each pair of spans.[51] Due to the slope of the hill under the viaducts, the girders were assembled at different heights, and only joined when they had reached the same level.[52] Lifting was done using large hydraulic rams, and took place in increments of around 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m) every four days.
The tubular members were constructed in the No. 2 workshop further up the hill at Queensferry.[53] To bend plates into the required shape, they were first heated in a gas furnace, and then pressed into the correct curve.[53] The curved plates were then assembled on a mandrel, and holes drilled for rivets, before they were marked individually and moved to the correct location to be added to the structure.[53] Lattice members and other parts were also assembled at South Queensferry, using cranes and highly efficient hydraulic rivetters.
The bridge was completed in December 1889, and load testing of the completed bridge was carried out on 21 January 1890. Two trains, each consisting of three heavy locomotives and 50 wagons loaded with coal, totalling 1,880 tons in weight, were driven slowly from South Queensferry to the middle of the north cantilever, stopping frequently to measure the deflection of the bridge. This represented more than twice the design load of the bridge: the deflection under load was as expected.[21] A few days previously there had been a violent storm, producing the highest wind pressure recorded to date at Inchgarvie, and the deflection of the cantilevers had been less than 25 mm (1 in). The first complete crossing took place on 24 February, when a train consisting of two carriages carrying the chairmen of the various railway companies involved made several crossings. The bridge was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, who drove home the last rivet, which was gold plated and suitably inscribed.[20] The key for the official opening was made by Edinburgh silversmith John Finlayson Bain, commemorated in a plaque on the bridge.
At its peak, approximately 4,600 workers were employed in its construction. Wilhelm Westhofen recorded in 1890 that 57 lives were lost; but in 2005 the Forth Bridge Memorial Committee was set up to erect a monument to the briggers, and a team of local historians set out to name all those who died.[55] As of 2009, 73 deaths have been connected with the construction of the bridge and its immediate aftermath.[56] It is thought that the figure of 57 deaths excluded those who died working on the approaches to the bridge, as those parts were completed by a subcontractor, as well as those who died after the Sick and Accident Club stopped.[56] Of the 73 recorded deaths, 38 were as a result of falling, 9 of being crushed, 9 drowned, 8 struck by a falling object, 3 died in a fire in a bothy, 1 of caisson disease, and the cause of five deaths is unknown.[57]
The Sick and Accident Club was founded in the summer of 1883, and membership was compulsory for all contractors employees.[58] It would provide medical treatment to men and sometimes their families, and pay them if they were unable to work.[58] The Club also paid for funerals within certain limits, and would provide grants to the widows of men killed or the wives of those permanently disabled.[58] Eight men were saved from drowning by rowing boats positioned in the river under the working areas.
Exposure 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture f/3.5
Focal Length 6.3 mm
ISO Speed 100
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother church of the Diocese of London. The present church dating from the late 17th century was built to an English Baroque design of Sir Christopher Wren, as part of a major rebuilding program which took place in the city after the Great Fire of London, and was completed within his lifetime.
The cathedral is one of the most famous and most recognisable sights of London, with its dome, framed by the spires of Wren's City churches, dominating the skyline for 300 years. At 365 feet (111 m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world. In terms of area, St Paul's is the second largest church building in the United Kingdom after Liverpool Cathedral.
St Paul's Cathedral occupies a significant place in the national identity of the English population.[5] It is the central subject of much promotional material, as well as postcard images of the dome standing tall, surrounded by the smoke and fire of the Blitz. Important services held at St Paul's include the funerals of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Winston Churchill; Jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer, the launch of the Festival of Britain and the thanksgiving services for the Golden Jubilee, the 80th Birthday and the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. St Paul's Cathedral is a busy working church, with hourly prayer and daily services.
www.social6.com/alexkane Camera: Nikon 1 J4
Aperture: f/4.0
Exposure: ¹⁄₈₀ sec at f/4.0
ISO: 160
Lens: 1 NIKKOR 18.5mm f/1.8
Focal Length: 18.5mm (49mm in 35mm equivalent)
Sunseeker Manhattan 56
Boat Name: LUNA SEA
Year Built: 2001
Length: 17.07 m
Beam: 4.72 m
Draught: 2.65 m
Material: Glass-reinforced plastic GRP
No. of Cabins: 3 Cabins
No. of berths: 3 beds
WaterFresh water tank: 750 l
Propulsion: Inboard Direct-Drive
Engine: MAN
Engine Performance: 2 x 800 HP / 588 kW
Fuel Type: Diesel
Fuel tank: 2'500 l
Max speed: 30 knots
Details
The Manhattan 56 is a great fly bridge yacht for Mediterranean cruising. Consisting of three cabins and an amidships crew/utility cabin, she sleeps six guests in comfort and one crew or nanny in a dedicated area. She boasts a highly specified galley and a spacious main saloon that beams light through her large windows. She is fitted to a Mediterranean specification and contains many extras, including the full beam hydraulic platform for tender launching. Viewings of this exceptionally well-maintained yacht are recommended to fully appreciate her condition. Recent works include but are not limited to; full antifoul removal and epoxy coatings applied, new electronics including plotter, radar, WIFI hotspot, 2019 external upholstery, cockpit covers, charger and batteries, underwater lights, domestic appliances.
Layout/Interior:
The Manhattan 56 consists of 3 good size cabins sleeping for 6 people with an additional crew bunk adjacent to the galley. The forward VIP owner cabin with ensuite, then 2 twin cabins aft on the port and starboard sides, the port cabin having an ensuite facility to the second head. Above deck you have the superb split level saloon, the upper area next to the helm with dining table giving a unique panoramic view whilst dining or under way, the lower saloon opens into the cockpit area to extend the social space. ?Me and Him? has the classic Sunseeker high gloss cherry wood throughout with cream carpet and cream leather. The yacht is complimented by many recent upgrades.
Additional Extras:
Air Conditioning AnchorAntifoul Removed Jan 2019, New Epoxy And 2 Coats Of Antifoul Applied.Bilge PumpsBimini For FlybridgeBow ThrusterCompassRay70 VHF Radio with GPS and AISFire ExtinguisherFull Med Specification. All Cabins Air Con. Kohler Generator Fitted.Generator Guest Remote Search And FloodlightHot/Cold Transom ShowerHydraulic Passarelle With Remote ControlHydraulic Trim TabsMultiview Wind SystemNavtex StationNew 24v Charger 2018 And Domestic Batteries X 4 2019New Cockpit Covers 2017New Electronics To Both Helms, VHF/AIS, Raymarine Radar, Touchscreen Chart Plotters, Wifi Hotspot All Fitted In 2018/2019.New Galley Fridge, AEG Fan Oven/Microwave And Hob 2018New Porthole Lenses And Flybridge Hatch Seal 2019New Seat Covers/Sunpads 2019.Quick Anchor Control With Chain CounterStern WinchesSunpad CushionsTeak Extended Hydraulic Bathing PlatformTeak Laid CockpitTeak Laid FlybridgeTeak Laid Side DecksUnderwater Bluefin LED Lights 2019Wetbar On Flybridge
P/1074
440 bhp at 6,800 rpm, 289 cu in OHV V-8 engine, four 48 IDA Weber carburetors, ZF 5DS25/1 five-speed manual gearbox, independent front suspension with unequal-length A-arms and Koni adjustable shock absorbers, independent rear suspension with trailing arms, unequal-length A-arms, and Koni adjustable shock absorbers, and four-wheel stage II Girling ventilated disc brakes. Wheelbase: 95"
Please note that this vehicle will be sold on a Bill of Sale only.
• Debut win at Spa 1967 with Jacky Ickx and Dr. Dick Thompson
• Extraordinary racing history; ex-David Hobbs, Brian Redman, Mike Hailwood, and Paul Hawkins
• The first win for the famed Gulf/Wyer Partnership
• Only Gulf team car to win both as a Mirage (’67 Spa) and a GT40 (’68 Monza)
• First of three lightweight production GT40s; one of two surviving
• Early use of carbon fiber-reinforced bodywork
• Famous Gulf camera car used in the epic Steve McQueen film, Le Mans
• Distinguished provenance, including Sir Anthony Bamford, Harley Cluxton, and others
• Complete with original 1967 Mirage bodywork
• Countless books, models, awards, and event participations
In March 2013, it will be 50 years since Ford instituted the GT40 program. The purposeful mid-engine sports coupe is the finest Anglo-American supercar of the last century, with four straight victories at the Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race between 1966 and ’69. In 1966 alone, it finished 1-2-3 against Ferrari, in one of the most memorable photo finishes in the race’s distinguished history, cementing the car’s place in motorsports history and on the postered walls of teenaged bedrooms the world over.
Its genesis alone is the stuff of legends and the subject of countless books, summarized most succinctly as a failed buy-out of Ferrari by Henry Ford II.
Blank checks were signed in Detroit, engineering and racing heavyweights were hired, and Lolas were modified and readied for testing. GT/101, the first prototype, was assembled in March 1964, in time for testing and the imminent Ford-Ferrari battle at Le Mans in the summer. Undaunted by a lack of wins, Ford regrouped for 1965 with Carroll Shelby—already a veteran with his Cobras—taking over the GT40 MK II program.
He delivered a win at Daytona with Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby in GT/103 and a Second Place at Sebring with Ken Miles and Bruce McLaren in the same car. Shelby also ran the first MK II at Le Mans in June of ’65. Meanwhile, John Wyer continued development of the customer 289 GT40 racing cars.
The stunning GT40 offered here, chassis P/1074, is very well-documented in GT40 history. It began life as Mirage M.10003, and in its debut at Spa, in May 1967, the legendary endurance racer Jacky Ickx and the “Flying Dentist,” Dr. Dick Thompson, finished First Overall. This was also the first win for any car under the fabled powder blue (1125) and marigold (1456) Gulf livery. Such an accomplishment on its own would be sufficient to impress any enthusiast, but it marks only the beginning of P/1074’s storied history. It should be noted that Ickx was only in his early-twenties at the time, had just made his first Grand Prix start the same year, and was on the cusp of beginning one of the great careers in motorsports that, to date, includes an extraordinary six wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 25 podium finishes in Formula One, factory racing for Porsche, and everything in between, not to mention winning the Paris-Dakar Rally and even piloting the famous Ferrari 512S for the Steve McQueen film Le Mans.
Unfortunately, however, this particular car DNF’d later that year at Le Mans and Brands Hatch, and then won at Karlskoga and finished Second at Skarpnack, before finished with a convincing win at Montlhery. Quite the stunning debut for this exceptional racing car!
Following the FIA’s regulation change for the 1968 season, which reduced prototype engine size to three-liters and five-liters for production (Group 4) sports cars, with a limited build of 25 examples, Mirage M.10003 was taken back to J.W.A. in England for its conversion into a Group 4 GT40. The conversion was completed on February 23, 1968, whereupon it became GT40 P/1074, but has since remained complete with its original Mirage bodywork and could easily be returned to that configuration.
It was the first (by serial number) of three lightweight racing GT40’s built for the J.W.A./Gulf team. Its chassis retained the unique Mirage straight substructure forward of the windscreen. Specific to the car were Stage II ventilated disc brakes, a lightweight frame, and a lightened roof.
The body was described as “super lightweight with carbon filament aluminum, fully-vented spare wheel cover, extra wide rear wheel arches, double engine coolers, and rear panel vented (sic) for brake air exit.” The carbon fiber-reinforced bodywork used on the Mirage M1s, now P/1074, P/1075, and P/1076, are reputed to be among the first, if not the very first, uses of carbon fiber panels in race car fabrication.
Currently, P/1074 is fitted with an original, period correct GT40 Ford 289 cubic inch V-8 with Gurney-Weslake cylinder heads, four Weber twin-choke carburetors, and a 351 oil pump with an Aviaid oil pan. During its active career, P/1074 (M.10003) was powered by four other V-8 Ford push-rod engines, including a 289, a 302 (1074), a 305, and a 351 (M.10003). It was painted in powder blue Gulf livery, with a distinctive, constant-width, marigold (orange) center stripe, which instantly identified it as J.W.A’s number two car. On several occasions, it was raced with triangular nose-mounted canard fins to improve downforce. From the outset, 8.5-inch front and 11.0-inch rear BRM Mirage wheels were fitted.
Soon after conversion to a GT40, driven by endurance racing greats David Hobbs and Paul Hawkins, P/1074 raced at Daytona (February 3, 1968), where it was a DNF. This record would soon improve. On March 3, 1968, with the same drivers, it finished 28th at Sebring, then ran at the Le Mans Trials with Jacky Ickx, where it set a 3 minute 35.4-second lap record. Driven again by Hawkins and Hobbs, P/1074 won at the Monza 1000 Kilometre on April 25, 1968. On May 19, 1968, competing at the Nürburgring, David Hobbs and Brian Redman finished in Sixth Place. Hawkins and Hobbs teamed up in P/1074 at Watkins Glen to finish Second. This was the first race that P/1074 was fitted with the larger 302 cubic inch V-8 engine. It DNF’d at Le Mans (September 8, 1968), which was the last race of the season that year, again with Hawkins and Hobbs driving.
In October 1968, P/1074 was loaned to Ecurie Fracorchamps and to a Belgian racer, Jean (Beurlys) Blaton, as a replacement for his P/1079, which had been crashed at Le Mans earlier that year. Beurlys and DeFierlant ran the car at Montlhery on October 13th, achieving an Eighth Place finish. Early in 1969, J.W.A acquired P/1074 again, and in its only race that year, David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood finished Fifth at the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch in April, still running the 302 V-8.
McQueen
This car’s life was about to change dramatically. In 1970, David Brown, of Tampa, Florida, purchased P/1074 and P/1076 from J.W.A. He in turn leased P/1074 to Steve McQueen’s Solar Productions, of North Hollywood, California, in May of that year. Under the care of J.W.A, it was to be used as a mobile camera car for McQueen’s epic production of the movie Le Mans. Steve McQueen had insisted that the cars be filmed at speed. This necessitated that the camera car be capable of very high performance and keeping up with the “star” cars.
For filming purposes, the entire roof section was removed, which left P/1074 with a windscreen that was just a few inches high. It is believed that this operation rendered the doors inoperable. Period photographs of the car show the doors securely taped shut. At the same time, the car’s fully-vented spare tire cover was removed and replaced with the less aerodynamically-efficient “twin nostril” unit from a road-going Mk III GT40.
The modified GT40 was tested at the Fighting Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (FVRDE) in Surrey England. The radical changes to P/1074 resulted in a race car with adversely impacted aerodynamics and, in the words of Jonathan Williams, “diabolical” handling. During a test, P/1074 ran over a section of tank tread, which punctured one of its racing tires, precipitating an off-road excursion that dented the belly pan in a few places. Its driver, John Horsman, author of Racing in the Rain, and the film’s director, who was accompanying him as a passenger, were unharmed.
P/1074 was employed as a camera car at the start of the 1970 Le Mans 24-Hour race, where its former driver, Jacky Ickx, was coincidentally also in attendance, racing a Ferrari 512S, no less! Its spare tire cover was removed, and a pair of movie cameras were mounted securely in the spare tire well. Several runs were made up and down the pit lanes prior to the race. It’s uncertain as to whether the car actually ran during the race. A gyroscopically-stabilized, compressed air-powered, 180 degree rotating Arriflex camera was mounted on the rear deck, where it could be remotely-controlled by a dashboard-mounted TV screen. A 35 mm manually-rotated camera was securely mounted above the passenger side door. Its operation required intrepid cameraman Alex Barbey to crouch alongside it in a small rotating seat.
But the combination of these heavy cameras, along with the car’s substantially reduced aerodynamics and now less rigid chassis, meant the car was very hard to control at the 150 mph speeds the filming required. At this time, Dutch skid-pad expert Rob Slotemaker replaced a probably very relieved Jonathan Williams as P/1074’s driver. The much-modified GT40 “roadster” was used in its altered configuration for some five months, until the filming of Le Mans was completed. It was still finished in powder blue and marigold.
After the film wrapped production, Harley E. Cluxton III (then of Glenview, Illinois) bought P/1074 from Mr. Brown. He tested the car at the Glenview Naval Air Station and said that crossing the runway arresting cables at speed was what he could only describe as “interesting.” P/1074 was sold to noted collector Sir Anthony Bamford (Staffordshire, England) in 1972. It was subsequently reconstructed by Willie Green, of Derby, England, who did the rework using a new roof structure obtained from Abbey Panels Ltd. The cut-down doors were replaced with early GT40 units, which meant the car was now equipped with early type “rocker” door handles instead of the sliding levers that are found on later J.W.A. racers.
Other body modifications performed at this time included new rear bodywork, fabricated from a “standard” GT40 production unit with widened wheel flares, so the transom lacked the additional outlet vents found on Gulf GT40s, and the rear wheel arches did not have carbon fiber reinforcement. Finally, the number plate location had to be modified to clear the exhaust pipes when the rear section was opened. Willie Green raced the reconstituted P/1074 at several UK racing events. Subsequent ownership history is well-documented and includes Mr. Cluxton’s re-acquisition of the car in 1983, prior to another restoration.
The peripatetic P/1074 was present at the GT40 25th Anniversary Reunion at Watkins Glen in September 1989 and at the 30th Anniversary Reunion in July, 1994. It has appeared in numerous books, on the “Competition Ford GT40” poster, and it’s been replicated in several models, both as the topless Le Mans camera car and in “conventional” Le Mans racing configuration. The current owner bought P/1074, and sent it to Harley Cluxton for a complete restoration in 2002, where it received a straight nose stripe and a fully vented nose cover. The doors were replaced with units featuring the later rocker style handles (as the car’s original sliding lever handles). The infamous cut-down tail section, which was removed when the car was reconstructed, reportedly survives in France. P/1074 has since been fastidiously maintained by its current owner.
In 2003, Jackie Oliver drove P/1074 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Again in 2004, this well-known and highly-respected GT40 reappeared at Goodwood fitted with nose canard fins and an adjustable height rear spoiler. In 2009, it was driven by its original driver, David Hobbs, at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, where it was awarded Best in Class.
For a fortunate bidder, the acquisition of GT40 P/1074 represents a special opportunity. Aside from its current, stunning presentation, the fact that it is one of only two surviving Gulf Mirage M1s, in which form it accumulated much of its racing history, renders it particularly attractive to an enthusiast who now has the option of relatively easily returning the car to this configuration and actively campaigning the car with its remarkable Jacky Ickx provenance.
This car’s impeccable credentials, both as a winning racer and as the camera car for the legendary Steve McQueen film Le Mans, as well as its long documented history of prominent owners and its meticulous restoration in J.W.A./Gulf livery, mark it as one of the most desirable GT40s, and indeed endurance racing cars, ever built.
Please note that a number of spare parts accompany the sale, including 1967 Mirage bodywork. Please consult an RM specialist for further details.
Special thanks to the GT40 Registry, Ronnie Spain, author of GT40: An Individual History and Race Record, and John S. Allen, author of The Ford GT40 and The Ford That Beat Ferrari, for their help and research on this car.
[Text from RM Auctions]
www.rmauctions.com/mo12/monterey/lots/1968-ford-gt40-gulf...
This Lego miniland-scale Ford GT40 Guld/Mirage P/1074 (1968), has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 89th Build Challenge, - "Over a Million, Under a Thousand", - a challenge to build vehicles valued over one million (US) dollars, or under one thousand (US) dollars.
This particular vehicle was auctioned by the RM Auction house on Friday, August 17, 2012, where it sold for US$11,000,000.
It is now generally accepted that the colour, length and overall thickness of a lion’s mane is primarily determined by the local climate though testosterone levels do also still play a part. Lions have manes to make them appear bigger and to advertise their strength and fitness to competitors but this comes at a cost, because of their large size males are prone to heat stress. At the height of the dry season Zakouma is ferociously hot, a lion with the sort of huge luxurious black mane such as you may see in the Kalahari would really suffer, as a result the males here don’t have great shaggy manes they’re generally quite short and pale in colour.
Lions are in trouble, the story from across Africa is one of decline in West Africa they are perilously close to extinction it is thought that just 400 remain with only one viable population left there. Here in Central Africa the picture is somewhat brighter with perhaps a similar number of lions surviving in the southeast of Chad alone, the last count in Zakouma revealed a population of between 140 and 150 in the park further illustrating why Zakouma is the most important protected area in this region and one of the most important in Africa.
7:19 pm CET ->
Focal length: 100 mm
Aperture: f/9
Exposure: 30 sec
ISO Speed: 100
Manfrotto 190CXPRO4 + 460MG
FLUIDR I flickriver I Flickr Hive Mind I Getty Images I 500px
1950s full-length bridal portrait with a printed-in-background by Strands Studio of Rugby, North Dakota
The Strand Studio negative collection 1948-1988 is housed at the NDSU Archives at North Dakota State University NDSU Libraries in Fargo,ND.
Built 1973,
Builder: John Manly Ltd. Vancouver,
Gross tonnage: 68.22,
Engines; 2XMTU series 60, 950 bhp,
Twin screw,
Tow winch: Westminster Machine Works Ltd.,
Tow line: 1 3/8 x 6X 26 Galvd. 2275" ( 2x400' pennants ),
Length Overall x Breadth Extreme: 16 x 6 m,
North Arm, of the, Fraser River, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Brisbanes Story Bridge length is 777m (includes road approaches at both ends) and is the main city bridge on the edge of the city centre.
At the far side at water level are some heritage listed Howard Smith Wharves.
Brisbane City Council had initially proposed an extensive commercial development of the site that includes hotel, sport and entertainment facilities in new or refurbished old buildings.
This plan was rejected by the local community which resulted in a revised plan incorporating greater public space and less commercial development. The revised plan was then rejected by the state government over concerns with flooding.
During 1941 and 1942, five air-raid shelters were constructed below the cliff face, and still remain there.
Below is a shot of the walkway along the bridge.
As much as I love short sexy cheongsam/qipaos, I really would like a floor length red dress to look proper as a Chinese bride. Maybe soon?
Type Geophysical survey FleetMon Geophysical survey Icon
Flag The Bahamas Flag of The Bahamas
IMO 9239446
MMSI 311222000
Callsign C6RX4
Year Built 2001
Length 84 m
Width 20 m
Draught Avg 5.5 m / ...
Speed Avg/Max 6.9 kn / 14.1 kn
Skandi Carla berthed at Pocra Quay, what a beauty, first time I've seen her in the harbour , I love it when I can get up close to these magnificent vessels.
Skandi Carla is one of Fugro’s purpose-designed and built ROV survey, IRM and construction support vessels. Delivered in 2001, it is a diesel-electric, DP2 vessel equipped with advanced DGPS, USBL acoustic system and a Seapath 200. A moon pool allows work class ROVs to be launched safely and the large main deck is available for exclusive client use.
One of the distinguishing features of the vessel are the three optional mezzanine decks. These 4.8 m x 14 m platforms can be used for the deployment of a second work class ROV system, or other client equipment.
Skandi Carla is tted with a heave compensated Hydramarine 50T/15m knuckle boom deck crane with optimum deployment and recovery speeds at depths down to 3,000 metres. The combination of knuckle boom design and full active heave compensation has proven to provide ideal construction support capability.
The primary work class ROV - FCV 3087C is deployed through the moon pool using a custom-built Rolls-Royce Launch & Recovery System (LARS) designed to minimise the impact of vessel motion, thus extending the window within which the vehicle can be deployed. The 5.4 m x 5.5 m moon pool is enclosed in a large hanger which, with adjoining workshops and stores areas, provides a safe and protected environment for the maintenance of the vehicle. The winch for the LARS provides heave compensated, high speed deployment and recovery of the vehicle in water depths down to 3,000 metres.
Norway's west coast maritime cluster has again demonstrated its technological skills and business verve through the delivery of a complex, diesel-electric offshore support vessel equipped to carry out deepwater subsea inspection and construction tasks. Ordered from Aukra Industrier by local operator District Offshore (DOF), the 275-ft. (84-m) Skandi Carla ranks among the world's most sophisticated ships designed for ROV(remote-operated vehicle) deployment. The powerful, dynamic-positioning vessel entered an immediate five-year charter assignment to Aberdeen-based survey specialist Fugro-UDI, to whose requirements she has been customized.
She is considered equally well suited to the harsh environment of the North Sea as to the so-called Golden Triangle development areas of West Africa, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico, where operations in extreme water depths are the norm. ROV-based work can be carried out by the new vessel at depths as great as 3,000 m.
Built to a design developed by the Norwegian consultancy Marin Teknikk (MT), the versatile Skandi Carla has integrated, protected moonpool for ROV operations, just forward of midships, complemented by an open deck area of 640-sq. m. The deck has been strengthened for a 5-t/sq. m. loading, with a total carrying capacity of 2,000-tons, and is plumbed by a 50-ton, heave-compensated Hydramarine crane stooled on the starboard side.
The main, work-class ROV is dispatched and retrieved through the moonpool using a custom-designed launch and recovery system (LARS). A moveable mezzanine deck arranged in the after part of the ship provides a platform that can be used for a second ROV - or for trenching equipment. The arrangements permit two ROVs to be deployed simultaneously, with the second unit put overboard to starboard by way of the Hydramarine crane. Facilities are in place on deck to support clients' trenching, pipeline and cable deployment spreads.
Scope for undertaking unbroken, longer work assignments is enhanced by the foreship helideck, strengthened to receive a Super Puma-type aircraft, and enabling personnel to be changed out at sea. In terms of bunker capacity relative to the fuel consumption profile, the ship has an endurance of around 40 days.
Characteristic of such vessels, Skandi Carla has a large accommodation capacity for up to 80 persons in single-berth and two-berth cabins, so that charterers' own technical specialists can be carried in addition to the vessel's regular complement. Her power and propulsion plant is based on four eight-cylinder engines of the Caterpillar 3600-series, a popular marquee among Norwegian operators yield. The 'Big Cats' serve as the prime movers in the 2,475-kV main gensets.
Diesel-electric has become the mode of choice for many Norwegian supply and support vessel owners in the latest period of fleet investment, through the recognition of benefits with regard to overall operating performance in terms of flexibility and full-cycle economy. The location of the diesel-alternator aggregates only about one-third aft in Skandi Carla is also indicative of the increased ship design and layout possibilities conferred by a diesel-electric system. Furthermore, its adoption denotes a perception of environmental benefits, in terms not only of reduced exhaust emissions but also as concerns onboard noise and vibration levels. In fact, the vessel's environmental attributes as a whole have been recognized in the award of the Clean class notation by Det Norske Veritas.
The propulsion, maneuvering and station-keeping devices which form the main electrical energy consumers are the two 2,200-kW main thrusters, of contra-rotating azimuth type, plus two 1,000-kW bow tunnel thrusters and adjacent, retractable unit of 1,000-kW. ABB had total responsibility for the ship's electrotechnical systems, engineering and installation.
A Simrad SDP21 system from Kongsberg ensures the precise dynamic positioning critical to the safe and efficient performance of subsea assignments, as well for operations alongside structures. The nature of the outfit is such that it meets the Norwegian Maritime Directorate's Class II requirements for DP. The propulsion arrangements give a free-running speed of 14 knots.
Aukra undertook the District Offshore build project on the basis of a delivery time of less than 10 months, demonstrating the depth of individual capability within the Aker Yards group. Production scheduling and work quality, key competitive factors in Aukra's target markets, benefit considerably from the full weather protection afforded by the yard's facilities near Molde. Skandi Carla has been taken under the wing of DOF Management, which was already familiar with the Aker build philosophy and delivery performance as a result of earlier projects at the group's other Norwegian yards, namely Aker Brattvaag, Langsten Slip and Soviknes Verft.