The next date for the diary is November 15th , when Cliff White will be giving a talk entitled Behind the Scenes at the Antiques Roadshow. Cliff was the Floor Manager with the BBC Antiques Roadshow for almost a quarter of a century. In his talk, liberally laced with amusing anecdotes, he recounts a brief history of the show, gives interesting insights into some of the most famous experts, and tells the story of the planning, preparation and production techniques that go into bringing this most popular programme to our television screens.

Buy your tickets early - this could be a sell-out!

Very many thanks to Burnham U3A member Graham Smith, MBE, who came to talk to us on September 19th 2008 about his life as an ‘explosives dustman’. He had a fascinating story to tell and I was struck by the extraordinary personal courage that must have been required for the countless dangers that he faced. Special thanks to Les Hughes for his inestimable help on the technical side of this talk. And of course to Peggy Dancer and her team for their work in the kitchen, providing us, yet again, with a smooth flow of tea and coffee and biscuits before the talk.

Graham Smith MBE

Prof. Simon Haslett.

Professor Simon Haslett gave a scintillating and educational talk on his research into the devastating 1607 flood that affected Burnham-On-Sea and the Bristol Channel in January 1607. Since 2002, this phenomenon has been the subject of a study between Simon Haslett, then Head of Geography at Bath Spa University College, author of Coastal Systems and Dr Ted Bryant, School of Geosciences at the University of Wollongong, Australia, author of Tsunami: the Underrated Hazard. Simon described in detail the foundation of his hypothesis citing the following as evidence of tsunami: 1. Some historical accounts indicate that the weather was fine e.g. "for about nine of the morning, the same being most fayrely and brightly spred, many of the inhabitants of these countreys prepared themselves to their affayres" and the ship at Appldedore was unlikely to be ready to sail in stormy weather. 2. The sea appears to have been "driven back" i.e. retreated out to sea, before the wave struck, a classic tsunami herald. 3. The wave appeared as "mighty hilles of water tombling over one another in such sort as if the greatest mountains in the world had overwhelmed the lowe villages or marshy grounds. Sometimes it dazzled many of the spectators that they imagined it had bin some fogge or mist coming with great swiftness towards them and with such a smoke as if mountains were all on fire, and to the view of some it seemed as if myriads of thousands of arrows had been shot forth all at one time." This is very similar to descriptions of more recent tsunami, such as the tsunami associated with the eruption of Krakatau in 1883, where accounts refer to the sea as being 'hilly', and the reference to dazzling, fiery mountains, and myriads of arrows, is reminiscent of accounts of tsunami on the Burin Peninsula (Newfoundland) in 1929, where the wave crest was shining like car headlights, and in Papua New Guinea in 1998 where the wave was frothing and sparkling. 4. The speed of the wave appears to have been faster than a storm flood as the wave is 'affirmed to have runne …. with a swiftness so incredible, as that no gray-hounde could have escaped by running before them' He then went on to illustrate details of his fieldwork especially the imbrications of boulders in the Bristol channel and evidence of overlying sand in unexpected places explained only by being carried by such a mamoth wall of water. Altogether, a compelling and fascinating talk.

The British Whaling Fleet The first of the proposed series of talks was on Friday February 15th. Tony Winterburn told us of his experiences in British Whaling ships in the Antarctic. He set the scene with a brief history of Whaling and we learnt that in the seventeenth century rich men’s houses over most of Europe were lit by lamps burning whale oil because it burned with such a clear smokeless flame. Church candles were made largely from sperm whales for the same reason. Before the end of the nineteenth century whales in the Arctic were fished almost to extinction and in 1910 ships started looking for whales in the Antarctic and by 1963 this area was also almost denuded of whales so the British ceased whaling altogether. Tony’s part in this started after the war in 1946/7 when he was part of the crew of a whale catcher. Factory ships went down to the Weddel Sea and each factory had about ten catcher vessels catching and bringing their whales to the factory ship where they were processed. By now many more valuable products were got from these animals. For example, a ninety foot Blue whale would produce about 300 barrels of oil used for making margarine, for cleaning wool, softening leather and making cosmetics, whilst the meat and bone would be turned into fertiliser and animal feed. Vitamin A and insulin, paint and soap were also made. Life in these ships, working amongst the ice of the Weddel Sea was hard but the rewards were high. Apart from the Japanese, Islanders and Norwegians, who still take the small Minke whales, whaling has finished since all these products can be got from other sources. Thank you Tony for a fascinating opening talk.

Tony Winterburn