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:
“A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry, for common sense always takes a hasty and superficial view.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Without the Empire we should be tossed like a cork in the cross current of world politics. It is at once our sword and our shield.”
—William Morris Hughes (1864–1952)
“It is not too much to say that next after the passion to learn there is no quality so indispensable to the successful prosecution of science as imagination. Find me a people whose early medicine is not mixed up with magic and incantations, and I will find you a people devoid of all scientific ability.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)