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It acted as a combustion chamber and also contained densely packed black powder propellant. The military success of his rockets was their iron casing. He had 16 to 24 such cushoons at his command. In Tipu Sultan’s military manual Fathul Mujahidin, 200 rocket men were assigned to each Mysorean rocket artillery brigade called Cushoon. From 1801, Congreve began a research and development programme at the Arsenal’s laboratory, leading to the Congreve rocket, an improvement upon the Mysore rocket. Several of the Mysore rockets were sent to England for analysis. It was developed at the Royal Arsenal after the impressive performance of the Mysore rockets deployed by Hyder Ali (1721-1782) and his son Tipu Sultan (1750-1799) against the British East India Company in India, in the Second, Third and Fourth Mysore Wars, until the ‘Tiger of Mysore’ Tipu died valiantly in battle in 1799 and his kingdom fell with him. The rockets referred to in the anthem are the Congreve rocket, designed and developed by Sir William Congreve (1772-1828) ten years earlier. It is not the easiest of anthems to sing, on account of its wide note range, a twelfth (an octave plus a perfect fifth). Robert Ripley (of Ripley’s Believe it or Not fame) in 1929 drew a panel in his syndicated cartoon, captioned “Believe it or not, America has no national anthem.” The Star-Spangled Banner was officially adopted as the national anthem of the USA in 1931. Although it became the official tune to be played at the raising of the flag in 1889, and at military and other occasions in 1916, there was no official anthem. It eventually took on the title “The Star-Spangled Banner”. Nicholson realised that the words of the poem fit the melody of a popular tune “The Anacreontic Song” by English composer John Stafford Smith. It inspired him to write the poem on the back of an envelope in his pocket while returning to Baltimore. At dawn, it was still waving, and Key knew that the British attack had failed. However, since he and his colleague had heard details of the plan for the attack on Baltimore, they were held captive aboard British warships until after the battle.Īccording to historical accounts, the Americans imposed a complete black-out in Baltimore, and the only light that rainy night was given off by the exploding shells over Fort McHenry (“the rockets’ red glare”), illuminating the American flag, then with fifteen strips and fifteen stars, the “star-spangled banner”, still stubbornly fluttering atop the fort. Key was sent across a few days earlier to the British flagship HMS Tonnant as part of a two-man delegation sent to secure the exchange of prisoners between the warring sides. During the Anglo-American War of 1812, Key was witness to the 25-hour bombardment of American-held Fort Mc Henry at Chesapeake Bay, at the entrance to Baltimore harbour, by British ships of the Royal Navy on the night of 13-14 September. The poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry” was written by Francis Scott Key (1779-1843), lawyer and amateur poet. This year marks the bicentenary of the writing of the lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner, the national anthem of the United States of America.
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