March 15, 2006

Funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs

Location: Latitude 63° 15' S, Longitude 52° 22' W

Air Temperature: -2.7°C

A Condensed Brief History of Cornwall (Kernow)

Long before the invasion of Britain by the Angles, Saxons, Romans, and later Normans, Britain was a Celtic nation. The Celts were steadily driven to the extremities of the country, i.e., Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and later Brittany in France. Cornwall was blessed with being a very rich mineral land and the Celtic people knew how to extract, smelt, and fashion the metals. Copper and tin could be dug and streamed and mixed to make bronze. This has been proved to go back some four thousand years in time. It is almost certain that the Phoenicians from the eastern Mediterranean came to the Stannum Islands, meaning tin in Latin, to trade leather and pottery goods for tin some two thousand years ago. Legend has it that Jesus Christ as a young boy came to Cornwall with his uncle Joseph of Armathea on such a trading venture. This by the way is why we call Cornwall God's Country. The Romans invaded Britain around 50 AD and brought with them great skills and technology, but very little activity in Cornwall as they were probably trading with the Cornish long before and saw them as little threat.

Time moves on, and the Romans, with troubles in their empire, left Britain. Further invasion by the Norseman (Vikings), Angles, and Saxons took place until the successful invasion of the Normans in 1066. The successful King William rewarded his military leaders with gifts of land for their services. Some of the powerful families that came to Cornwall were the Bassets, the Robartes, the De Dunstables, and the Vivians. They were to acquire a large area of land from the new crown and to have them worked at great profit for the copper and tin by the local Cornish who had now become mere serfs. Little is recorded about the Middle Ages but by the fifteenth century King John was fighting the Crusades in the Middle East. King John was desperate for metal form Cornwall to make armaments but the miners would not work for him complaining about the high taxation imposed upon them. In desperation, the king granted Cornwall its own parliament, which was known as the Stanuary Parliament (Latin for tin). Its purpose was to grant anyone working in mining exemption from paying tax levies.

Time moves on to the sixteen-century when black powder, or gunpowder, was introduced into Cornish mining. This was to revolutionize the extraction of the ores. Mineshafts were blasted and sunk and much more ore was extracted. The early eighteenth century was to bring great changes and wealth. It was the birth of the industrial revolution. The need for metals was staggering. Mineshafts were being sunk by the thousands all over the county and heavy industry began in earnest in order to make big mining machinery. The first ever propelled vehicle that was not using horses but steam was invented in Camborne in Cornwall by Richard Trevithiak and driven up Camborne Hill in 1801. It was later improved and was put on rail track and used in South Wales. Inventions like the Humphries-Davy safety lamp, the bar and arm rock drill, air compressors, and Cornish beam pumping engines began to abound in Cornwall resulting in bigger and ever deeper mining. Around 1850 Cornwall was producing about 80% of the world's copper, but after that tin was then being alluvially mined in Malaysia, part of the British Empire. This was to bring about a great recession and extreme hardship to mining families.

Like the Irish, who were enduring the potato famine, thousands of miners were forced to travel all over the globe seeking work: countries like South Africa, Australia, South America, Canada, the USA. The greatest in numbers traveled to the USA. There was much work in mining in the Klondike and places like Tombstone, Arizona, Michigan, Butte, Montana, Pittsburg, Death Valley, California, and countless others. The miners were to be known as the 49ers and Cousin Jacks. Cousin Jack comes from the fact that the miners were always asking mine owners if there were any jobs going for a cousin Jack back home. The Cornish brought with them their mining skills and mining terms such as shaft depths being measured in fathoms and mine leaders being known as captains. This was to be the same as back in Cornwall where the miners were ex-fisherman and seafarers. Today, in any mine in the world, the boss is still known as the mine captain. A blacksmith named Harry Old from Pendeen Cornwall started up the Oldsmobile car company. And, the man who shot Jesse James in the back was also from Penzance, Cornwall. Although Britain is very skimpy, you may know some descendants of the Cornish or maybe even have some relatives. Cornish names begin with prefixes like Tre--meaning before, Pol--meaning a small stream or small river, and Pen--meaning top or head.

I myself am very glad that I learned a trade and worked 30 years in a Cornish tin mine. Absolutely unmissable in all ways. The very last one closed in 1996. What a tragedy that was. It trained miners, fitters, welders, blacksmiths, surveyors, geologists, metallurgists, electricians, masons, timbermen, sawyers, drillers, etc., etc. All gone. But there we are. Who would have thought that in a way I would be mining again? This time though not in the ground but over water somewhere in the world. The friendship and camaraderie that I enjoyed working underground with people like yourselves lives on and I am very proud and honored to be here working with you all.

--Jango

p.s., During SHALDRIL 1, I edited each of the journals. This year I have written half and edited the rest. This journal is the first for which I have been a typist, partially from a manuscript and partially from dictation. It is unique in other ways as well and I am so pleased to be able share it. I hope that you have enjoyed as thoroughly as I. -Julia

Penguins swimming by Denise Kulhanek.

Jango, photo by Andy Frazer.

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