Allusions/references To Actual History, Geography and Current Science
In addition to the part of the story set in the fictional past the author references a number of actual historic people and events including:
- The Cumberland - a Union frigate sunk in 1862 by the Confederate ironclad Merrimack (known as the Virginia) The Cumberland was the first ship ever destroyed by an armored ship. She put up a terrific fight and in the end the Merrimack rammed the Cumberland sending her to the bottom with her flag still flying. As the Merrimack backed away her wedge-shaped ram caught inside the frigate and broke off.
- Augustine Volcano which is the most active volcano in Alaska and was named by Captain Cook in 1778.
- LeMat revolvers
- Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip on the Mississippi in New Orleans. Admiral Farragut ran the forts during his capture of New Orleans for the Union in 1862.
- Authors Horatio Alger and Sax Rohmer.
- The terra-cotta Warriors who guarded tomb of China's early emperor Ch'in Shih Huang Ti.
- Lloyd's of London
- The French liner Normandie which burned and rolled over in New York Harbor.
- Colonel Moammar Qadhafi
- The Watergate Scandal
- SDECE - France's intelligence service
- Don Quixote
Read more about this topic: Deep Six (novel)
Famous quotes containing the words actual, geography, current and/or science:
“The true thrift is always to spend on the higher plane; to invest and invest, with keener avarice, that he may spend in spiritual creation, and not in augmenting animal existence. Nor is the man enriched, in repeating the old experiments of animal sensation; nor unless through new powers and ascending pleasures he knows himself by the actual experience of higher good to be already on the way to the highest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“Men perceive that equating love and domestic work is a trap. They fear that to get involved with housework would send them hurtling into the bottomless pit of self-sacrifice that is women’s current caring roles.”
—Debbie Taylor (20th century)
“It is impossible to dissociate language from science or science from language, because every natural science always involves three things: the sequence of phenomena on which the science is based; the abstract concepts which call these phenomena to mind; and the words in which the concepts are expressed. To call forth a concept, a word is needed; to portray a phenomenon, a concept is needed. All three mirror one and the same reality.”
—Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794)