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100 Years on

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Occasionally over the next four years I will record the actions of some of my ancestors during the First World War. 100 years ago today, on the 7th August 1814, a great great Uncle of mine, Charles Robert Stephens, enlisted with the Royal Engineers (Territorials) in Falmouth aged 42. He was comfortably employed in the Family rope making business and enlisted the second day after Great Britain declared war on Germany without telling his brother and business partner. This probably caused some tension between them because Charles was the company Engineer and in addition the family was prominent amongst the Cornish Quaker community. After building defensive positions around Falmouth his unit was attached to the Hampshires and Wiltshires and served in France building bridges and water supplies for trenches and hospitals. He was awarded the Military Cross in June 1917 having been twice mentioned in dispatches.
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Ocean trash disposal... what can and cant go over the side?

As we traverse the oceans we try not to leave too much of an environmental impact from the waste we generate aboard. There are some types of waste we cannot keep on board for any length of time, black water being the most obvious, although we do have a limited holding capacity for when we are in port or areas where it is against the law to dispose of human waste direct to sea. Out on the deep ocean we have no qualms of disposing of our sewage straight to the sea. The same is true of our vegetable and food waste, which we dispose of over the side in the hope that it will degrade without any measurable impact on sea life. As a crew we are all agreed that all plastic waste should be kept aboard but what has split the crew straight down the middle is what to do with metal waste? One view is that as long as you ensure that the tin can is guaranteed to sink, and that the sea bed deep enough, then we should go ahead and throw them overboard. This half of the crew feel that the steel or alumin...
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