DOC Every Man a Tiger: The 731st United States Air Force Night Intruders over Korea by Chester Blunk in History

Description

Despite the relative obscurity surrounding the earliest English settlements in Newfoundland; the documents in this volume show that they were neither unimportant; nor; ultimately; unsuccessful. Unlike the sites of other English colonies founded in the New World in the early 17th century; Newfoundland had an already-established economic base - the flourishing fishery for cod in which European fishermen had engaged for over a century. Settlement; from its beginnings in 1610; was closely tied to the exploitation of the fishery. But fishing was not the only occupation; the early settlers searched for iron and tried to grow food; to make glass and soap; and to establish a trade in furs with the indigenous Beothuk Indians. Keenly aware of their new and often hostile environment; the colonists recorded their impressions of the island's geography; climate; resources; and people; as well as their own struggle to survive. Some of their earliest letters are printed in this collection. In the third decade of the century; the first wave of settlers sent by the Newfoundland company were followed by a second despatched by independent proprietors: the Welshmen; William Vaughan; the courtier; Lord Baltimore; and the lord deputy of Ireland; Lord Falkland. Their correspondence and the writings of their publicists reveal not only their idiosyncratic reasons for involvement in Newfoundland; but also place the island and its fishery firmly in the context of their economic and strategic significance to England. In the works of Richard Whitbourne; reprinted here for the first time; are to be found the most complete statements of the value and practice of the fishery and the international trade in fish; together with vividly detailed descriptions of the island with which a lifetime connection had bred a loving obsession.