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Pelorus Jack
Pelorus Jack ( fl. 1888 – April 1912) was a Risso's dolphin (''Grampus griseus'') that was famous for meeting and escorting ships through a stretch of water in Cook Strait, New Zealand. The animal was reported over a 24 year period, from 1888 until his disappearance after 1912. Pelorus Jack was usually spotted in Admiralty Bay between Cape Francis and Collinet Point, near French Pass, a notoriously dangerous channel used by ships travelling between Wellington and Nelson. How he got his name is uncertain. It is recorded in the book ''Breverton's nautical curiosities : a book of the sea'' that he was named after the pelorus, a marine navigational instrument. However, ''Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand'', says the name came from Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere because it was at the entrance to that stretch of water where he would regularly meet ships to accompany them. Pelorus Jack was shot at from a passing ship, and was later protected by a 1904 New Zealand law. App ...
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Risso's Dolphin
Risso's dolphin (''Grampus griseus'') is a dolphin, the only species of the genus ''Grampus''. Some of the closest related species to these dolphins include: pilot whales (''Globicephala'' spp.), pygmy killer whales (''Feresa attenuata''), melon-headed whales (''Peponocephala electra''), and false killer whales (''Pseudorca crassidens''). Taxonomy Risso's dolphin is named after Antoine Risso, whose study of the animal formed the basis of the recognised description by Georges Cuvier in 1812. The holotype referred to specimen at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, an exhibit using preserved skin and skull obtained at Brest, France. The type and sole species of the genus ''Grampus'' refers to ''Delphinus griseus'' Cuvier 1812. A proposition to name this genus ''Grampidelphis'' in 1933, when the taxonomic status of 'blackfish' was uncertain, and conserving the extensive use of "''Grampus''" for the 'killer' ''Orcinus orca''", also suggested renaming this species (''Grampidel ...
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Interislander
Interislander is a road and rail ferry service across New Zealand's Cook Strait, between Wellington in the North Island and Picton in the South Island. It is owned and operated by state-owned rail operator KiwiRail. Three roll-on roll-off (RORO) vessels operate the route, taking about three hours to complete the crossing. The inter-island rail ferry service began in August 1962 by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR). The service primarily provided a RORO rail link between its North and South Island networks, allowing NZR to compete directly with coastal shipping companies for inter-island freight. It also provided the first RORO road link between the two islands, which saw the Wellington to Picton ferries compete with, and then completely replace, the Union Company's Wellington– Lyttelton ferry service. Today, the Interislander service is still well patronised despite competition on the Wellington–Picton sea route with Bluebridge and from airlines, carrying around ...
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Charles Causley
Charles Stanley Causley CBE FRSL (24 August 1917 – 4 November 2003) was a British poet, school teacher and writer. His work is often noted for its simplicity and directness as well as its associations with folklore, legends and magic, especially when linked to his native Cornwall. Early years Causley was born at Launceston, Cornwall, to Charles Samuel Causley, who worked as a groom and gardener, and his wife Laura Jane Bartlett, who was in domestic service. He was educated at the local primary school and Launceston College. When he was seven, in 1924, his father died from long-standing injuries incurred in World War I. Causley left school at 16, working as a clerk in a builder's office. He played in a semi-professional dance band, and wrote plays—one of which was broadcast on the BBC West Country service before World War II. Career and achievements He enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1940 and served as an ordinary seaman during the Second World War, firstly aboard the des ...
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Battlecruiser
The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of attributes. Battlecruisers typically had thinner armour (to a varying degree) and a somewhat lighter main gun battery than contemporary battleships, installed on a longer hull with much higher engine power in order to attain greater speeds. The first battlecruisers were designed in the United Kingdom, as a development of the armoured cruiser, at the same time as the dreadnought succeeded the pre-dreadnought battleship. The goal of the design was to outrun any ship with similar armament, and chase down any ship with lesser armament; they were intended to hunt down slower, older armoured cruisers and destroy them with heavy gunfire while avoiding combat with the more powerful but slower battleships. However, as more and more battlecruisers were ...
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HMS New Zealand (1911)
HMS ''New Zealand'' was one of three s built for the defence of the British Empire. Launched in 1911, the ship was funded by the government of New Zealand as a gift to Britain, and she was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1912. She had been intended for the China Station, but was released by the New Zealand government at the request of the Admiralty for service in British waters. During 1913, ''New Zealand'' was sent on a ten-month tour of the British Dominions, with an emphasis on a visit to her namesake nation. She was back in British waters at the start of the First World War, and operated as part of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, in opposition to the German High Seas Fleet. During the war, the battlecruiser participated in all three of the major North Sea battles—Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank, and Jutland—and was involved in the response to the inconclusive Raid on Scarborough, and the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. ''New Zealand'' contributed to the destruction ...
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Viva Voce (album)
''Viva voce'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "with living voice" but most often translated as "by word of mouth." It may refer to: *Word of mouth *A voice vote in a deliberative assembly *An oral exam **Thesis defence, in academia *Spoken evidence in law *Viva Voce (band) Viva Voce was an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon, formed by Kevin Robinson and Anita Robinson. Their music drew on several influences including psychedelic rock, classic rock, folk and R&B. History The Robinsons formed Viva Vo ...
, an American indie rock band {{disambig ...
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Andrea Prodan
Andrea Prodan (born 16 November 1961) is an Italian-Argentinian film actor, composer and musician. He is the younger brother of rock star Luca Prodan, notable for his musical career in Argentina, leading the rock band Sumo. Biography The Prodan family, after suffering internment in a Japanese concentration camp during World War II, was expelled from China due to the civil war. Andrea's Italian father was an author and talented sportsman, and had run a prosperous business, with expertise in ancient Chinese pottery. His mother is Scottish. The family moved to Rome and Tuscany in 1948, where Andrea spent his early years. He was educated in England, and aged 12, became head chorister at The King's School, Canterbury. As solo voice he recorded ''"A Song for All Seasons"''. He started in films as a sound assistant on ''Krull'' and also on '' The Scarlet and the Black'', with Gregory Peck. In 1983, he dropped out of Exeter University to join his elder sister Michela on the set of ...
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Sydney Harbour
Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (part of the South Pacific Ocean). It is the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. The location of the first European settlement and colony on the Australian mainland, Port Jackson has continued to play a key role in the history and development of Sydney. Port Jackson, in the early days of the colony, was also used as a shorthand for Sydney and its environs. Thus, many botanists, see, e.g, Robert Brown's ''Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen'', described their specimens as having been collected at Port Jackson. Many recreational events are based on or around the harbour itself, particularly Sydney New Year's Eve celebrations. The harbour is also the starting point of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht ...
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Peter Duck
''Peter Duck'' is the third book in the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series by Arthur Ransome. The Swallows and Amazons sail to Crab Island with Captain Flint and Peter Duck, an old sailor, to recover buried treasure. During the voyage the ''Wildcat'' (Captain Flint's ship) is chased by another vessel, the ''Viper'', whose piratical crew are also intending to recover the treasure. The book, first published in 1932, is considered to be one of the metafictional books in the series, along with ''Missee Lee'' and perhaps '' Great Northern?''. Most of the book was written in Aleppo where Ransome was staying with the Altounyans. Sources The appearance, sailing background and many of the characteristics of Peter Duck are based on Captain Sehmel, a Latvian sailor who accompanied Ransome on a cruise aboard his yacht ''Racundra'' in the Baltic Sea, as documented in Ransome's sailing book, ''Racundra's First Cruise''. Ransome used as a major resource for ''Peter Duck'' a book by one of his f ...
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Arthur Ransome
Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. The entire series remains in print, and ''Swallows and Amazons'' is the basis for a tourist industry around Windermere and Coniston Water, the two lakes Ransome adapted as his fictional North Country lake. He also wrote about the literary life of London, and about Russia before, during, and after the revolutions of 1917. His connection with the leaders of the Revolution led to him providing information to the Secret Intelligence Service, while he was also suspected by MI5 of being a Soviet spy. Early life Ransome was the son of Cyril Ransome (1851–1897) and his wife Edith Ransome (née Baker Boulton) (1862–1944). Arthur was the eldest of four children: he had two sisters Cecily ...
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Ngāti Kuia
Ngāti Kuia is a Māori iwi of the Northern South Island in New Zealand. They first settled in the Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere, and later spread to the Marlborough Sounds, Nelson and Tasman districts to Taitapu on the West Coast, and as far south as the Nelson Lakes National Park. Ngāti Kuia tradition states that their founding tupuna Matua Hautere, a descendant of Kupe, came to Te Waipounamu in his waka Te Hoiere, guided by the kaitiaki (tribal guardian) Kaikaiawaro. Ngāti Kuia are the largest and oldest iwi of Te Tauihu o Te Waka a Māui in Te Waipounamu (The Prow of the Canoe of Māui). Also known as The Top of the South Island of New Zealand. The founding tipuna is Matua Hautere, a descendant of Kupe, who came to Te Waipounamu in his waka Te Hoiere. According to Ngāti Kuia whakapapa, Matua Hautere was guided by the kaitiaki Kaikaiāwaro and Ruamano who took the form of dolphins. Hinepopo/Hinepoupou, a Ngāti Kuia tipuna credited as being the first woman to swim Rau ...
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Kaumātua
A kaumātua is a respected tribal elder of either sex in a Māori community who has been involved with their whānau for a number of years. They are appointed by their people who believe the chosen elders have the capacity to teach and guide both current and future generations. Kaumātua have good knowledge of Māori '' tikanga'', language and history; and their contribution ensures that the mana of the whānau, hapū and iwi are maintained. Barlow (1994) refers to kaumātua as being the "keepers of knowledge and traditions of the family, sub-tribe and tribe". Although the term ''kaumātua'' is widely used to refer to all elders, male kaumātua are more correctly called ''koroua'' or ''koro'', and female elders are called ''kuia''. The word ''kaumātua'' comes from ''kau'', meaning alone, without or none, and ''mātua'', meaning parents; thus, ''kaumātua'' literally means "no parents" and reflects how the parents of older generations have passed on. Characteristics Kaumātua nev ...
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