Suchergebnisse

Part one: Rising -- Ordeal with ANson, 1740-44 -- A Lincolnshire lad, 1755-59 -- Man and boy, 1756-59 -- To the Eastern seas, 1760-70 -- Farther still and farther, 1768-88 -- Hands across the ATlantic, 1775-83 -- Black gold, 1750-90 -- Coming home, 1771-83 -- Fruits of peace, 1783-92 -- 'A terror to seamen, 1788-92 -- Interlude: The deep -- Part two: Atop -- 'These valuable but helpless people', 1792-97 -- Family and friends, 1793-98 -- A rising tide, 1794-97 -- Revolution at Spithead, 1797 -- 'The machinations of evil incendiaries', 1797 -- Hellfire and redemption, 1797-1801 -- Tom Bowling, 1801-03 -- Apotheosis, 1805 -- Winning ways, 1806-09 -- Old friends, old foes, 1803-04 -- Passages to Waterloo, 1809-15 -- Over the side, 1816-36 -- Storytellers, 1810-40 -- Safe Moor'd, 1820-40 -- Pax Britannica, 1819-40.

British maritime history in the age of sail is full of the deeds of officers like Nelson but has given little voice to plain, "illiterate" seamen. Now Stephen Taylor draws on published and unpublished memoirs, letters, and naval records, including court-martials and petitions, to present these men in their own words. In this account, ordinary seamen are far from the hapless sufferers of the press gangs. Proud and spirited, learned in their own fashion, with robust opinions and the courage to challenge overweening authority, they stand out from their less adventurous compatriots. Taylor demonstrates how the sailor was the engine of British prosperity and expansion up to the Industrial Revolution. From exploring the South Seas with Cook to establishing the East India Company as a global corporation, from the sea battles that made Britain a superpower to the crisis of the 1797 mutinies, these "sons of the waves" held the nation's destiny in their calloused hands

The National Senior Certificate or "matric" examination is a key point of access to further education and the labour market in South Africa. Since 1999, matric candidates whose first language is not Afrikaans or English and are, therefore, forced to write in a second or third language have received a compensation of five per cent of their original mark in non-language subjects. Whether this policy, which was intended as an interim measure, should continue is a matter of on-going debate. Two questions must be answered for a decision to be made. The first is an empirical question: is there a significant disadvantage facing candidates not writing in their first language? The second is normative: should these candidates receive the compensation?This paper employs several statistical techniques, beginning with a replication of the method used previously by Umalusi (the official education quality assurance council), to arrive at a credible estimate of the language disadvantage faced by candidates qualifying for the compensation. After demonstrating that a language disadvantage does persist, the normative question of whether the policy should be continued is discussed. It is argued that the answer to this question depends on various political, economic and philosophical considerations regarding the fairness and the purpose of the matric examination.