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:
“We can never safely exceed the actual facts in our narratives. Of pure invention, such as some suppose, there is no instance. To write a true work of fiction even is only to take leisure and liberty to describe some things more exactly as they are.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Ktaadn, near which we were to pass the next day, is said to mean “Highest Land.” So much geography is there in their names.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Our current obsession with creativity is the result of our continued striving for immortality in an era when most people no longer believe in an after-life.”
—Arianna Stassinopoulos (b. 1950)
“We have not given science too big a place in our education, but we have made a perilous mistake in giving it too great a preponderance in method in every other branch of study.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)