John Schettler - Devil's Garden

“You say it was built by the British? What year, Nikolin? When was it commissioned?”

“Laid down in 1890. Launched on the 25th of March, and her maiden voyage was15 July 1891.”

“1891? Quite an old ship…How long was this ship in service? Does it list that information?”

“Yes, sir. The registry reads that the ship ran aground in rough seas and fog on 27 July 1911 off Yokohama. She was abandoned, salvaged and scrapped there in 1912.”

“My God! 1912? If that is, in fact, the Empress of China, then we…We must be somewhere between those dates, between 1891 and 1912! We must have moved further back in time, not forward.”

“We should verify this information, Captain,” said Rodenko. That ship could be a replica. We have never displaced to a time earlier than 1941.”

“Why would it refuse our radio hail and answer only in Morse Code? Nikolin… Signal them back in Morse. Give our callsign as KIRV. Tell them our ship’s chronometer is damaged. Request the current date and time.” It was a good ploy, because ship’s chronometers were essential to navigation in early decades.

Nikolin tapped out the message in Morse, and within minutes they received a reply. “Sir…They reply and state their ship’s chronometer currently reads 09:40 — 100708. That would be the 10th day of July-”

“1908?” The look of astonishment on Karpov’s face said everything.”

* * *

The balldropped for the very first time in Times Square that year, marking the start of a long tradition counting down the last few seconds as time rolled on in its endless round. 1908 had begun with a flourish of celebration and renewed optimism, in an era where new firsts, and the energy of discovery still infused life with a sense of vigor and boldness.

People were different then. They were not tethered to one another by wires just yet, or slaves to modern devices like computers, touch pads, cell phones. Planes and cars were in their infancy, more items of fancy for the adventurous and the very rich than anything else. A man named Henry Ford would change all that later that year, when he began turning out the very first Model Ts from an assembly line in September. Oil was discovered on the Arabian peninsula for the first time in May of 1908, insuring that Ford's cars would have a steady and reliable source of fuel for the next 150 years.

The people of 1908 were not yet dependent on all these electronics and engines, the full bloom of a seed that was only now being planted in the fields of technology and industry. They were stronger in many ways than the denizens of our modern cities, taking life in their hands and carrying it on their broad shoulders in a way people in the modern world of 2021 would never understand. They were quieter of spirit, more settled, rooted to the land, much like the farmer Walt Whitman wrote about in his poetry, a man “of wonderful vigor, calmness, beauty of person; the shape of his head, the pale yellow and white of his hair and beard, and the immeasurable meaning of his black eyes-the richness and breadth of his manners…”

There was something of that farmer that was still the root and sinew of most people of that day. Life was more rustic, even in the big cities. It was raw, unrefined, and in some ways still vested with a quality of innocence. The world had not yet committed itself to the insanity of a world war yet, though that dreadful experience was just ahead as the century settled into its stride. It was to be a year of fire, of discovery, and first time achievements; a year of hard won races and marathon journeys of endurance. It was a year where the color of white was all the rage for navies and athletes, and for the strange and largely unexplained “white nights” that illuminated most of Europe and even parts of North America in early July.

Scientists and industrialists of that day were flush with the energy of invention and discovery as well. A 40,000 year old Neanderthal skeleton was dug up in southwest France. Helium had been liquefied for the first time. The term schizophrenia entered the English language, darkening the ruminations of psychologists in all the days ahead. The Geiger counter was invented to detect an energy that few, if any, really understood in that day. The Nobel Prize in physics went to Gabriel Lippman for the first reproduction of colors in photography. Atomic theory was being pioneered by Ernest Rutherford at a time when a great future physicist like Edward Teller, inventor of the hydrogen bomb, was just being born. Astronomers discovered one of Jupiter's moons that year, and ruminated on comets and meteors, but failed to spot something else looming on the near horizon of the ecliptic plane, even now bearing down on planet earth.

Twelve days into the new year the first long distance radio message was sent from the Eiffel tower, marking a new era in communications. On a roll, the very next day the French pilot Henry Farman became the first European to fly roundtrip, heralding the onset of airline operations that would span the whole of the globe in decades to come. The first passenger flight actually occurred on May 14th that year, with many more to come in a time long before the endless security and check-in lines at modern day airports.

In New York City women's rights took a hit when the city passed an ordinance forbidding women to smoke. The men of the city were exempt, however, allowing them to preserve the ritual with cigar, pipe and cigarette as yet one more privilege they could lord over the fairer sex. Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith also proclaimed that, “women are not physically fit to operate automobiles.” Thankfully, the first railway tunnel under the Hudson River opened that year on February 21st, so they could go by train.

It was a good year for explorers when Shackleton climbed Mt. Erebus in Antarctica on March 5th, while at the opposite end of the earth, Frederick A. Cook claimed to reach North Pole-a proclamation that was later disputed and found to be false. In the US, one John Krohn began his walk around the entire perimeter of country, which was to take him all of 357 days. On wheels, the “Great Auto Race,” an around the world marathon from New York to Paris kicked off on February 12th. They would head west to cross the US, planning to work their way up the coast through Alaska and cross the Bering Sea to Siberia where top German and American contenders would witness a truly earth shattering event before their journey ended.

Not to be upstaged by achievements in the burgeoning airline industry, the “Great White Fleet,” a conglomeration of 16 American battleships and smaller escorts, pulled into San Francisco Bay May 5th while circumnavigating the globe and showing the world the US had a real blue water navy. Germany quickly responded by ordering the construction of four new battleships. A part of the US fleet smugly watched the explosion of an airship dirigible over San Francisco Bay on May 23rd, sending sixteen passengers into the drink, who thankfully all survived the mishap. And to prove that there was still a fast, viable alternative to those damnable flying contraptions, the Lusitania crossed the Atlantic and set a new speed record of 4 days, 15 hours to New York City.

The untimely eruption of Mount Vesuvius on April 7, 1906 had devastated the city of Naples and caused a postponement of the Olympic games scheduled for Rome that year. London was selected for 1908, and the games were held in the “White City Stadium” in Shepherds Bush, West London. Causing a bit of a row, US flag bearer, Ralph Rose, refused to dip the flag to Edward VII when he passed in review, and it was later said that “this flag dips for no earthly king.” The chastened, upstart Americans, with all the bravado of their President Teddy Roosevelt, relented and deigned to dip their flag at last before the whole of the Royal family. To further rub their noses in it, the British ran away with the games that year, winning 56 gold to only 23 for the 2nd place US team, and taking 146 medals in all to the US 47. If the Americans believed in their imminent sunrise, that same sun still never set on the far flung British Empire.