History, Travel

Three Cheers for Admiral Sir Robert Lambert Baynes

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On our recent trip to Seattle on a delightful rainy, foggy day we took the ferry out to an island called San Juan Island, stopping along the way at three other islands in the group called the San Juan Islands.

San Juan Islands 15p

The San Juan Islands mark one of the places on the map I have looked at with longing. I was so enthralled by the two-hour ride I did not even bother with the couple dozen jigsaw puzzles constantly under progress on the ferry.

Ferry 01p

San Juan Island was delightful, better than I had hoped. Perhaps best of all was discovering a little know moment of history. On both ends of the island are a National Historic Park. The north end is called the British Camp; the south end the American Camp. The park remembers what is called either The Pig War or The Pig and Potato War. (I prefer the lilt of the second name myself.) For a full explanation you can consult Wikipedia.

The essence is that after the 49th parallel was made the border between Canada and the United States, with the exception of Vancouver Island, the exact boundary through the San Juan Islands could not be determined for lack of a clear map. Great Britain and the United States agreed on what the boundary should be like but had to wait to see what line through the San Juan Islands would best meet those conditions. San Juan Island was left in limbo and had settlers on it from both countries, peacefully until the day of the pig.

A British settler had a pig which kept getting into the potato garden of an American settler. One day the American had enough and shot the pig. The American then offered the Brit $10 for the pig; the Brit demanded $100. Both sides bristled. Sabers were rattled. American troops landed. Their leader declared he would make it another Bunker Hill, seeming to forget that the U.S. lost that battle. The leader of the British forces, then titled Rear Admiral Robert Lambert Baynes, who later went on to great prominence and a knighthood, was ordered to attack. He refused, explaining that two great nations do not go to war over a pig. For a few days the two sides tried to goad each other into starting a fight, but soon became friends. For a dozen more years, waiting for a peaceful decision, settlers and pigs from both nations lived together in peace, and the two nations had token forces, more comrades than enemies, on both ends of the islands, the sites of the two parts of the National Park.

Vancouver 05p

Eventually, by international arbitration the U.S. was awarded the island. The island is worth a visit today for several reasons. One, for a beautiful view of Vancouver Island.

And a very picturesque lighthouse, The Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse.

Lighthouse 01p

But one thing is missing from the island, a statue of the noble Admiral Sir Robert Lambert Baynes. We put up statues for great fighters. Why not for a great non-fighter? There is a code about statues of military leaders on horses, the number of feet the horse has off the ground telling us if the man was wounded or died in battle. I think Sir Baynes should be shown sitting on a camp stool drinking a cup of coffee.

How should you be posed for your statue?

64 thoughts on “Three Cheers for Admiral Sir Robert Lambert Baynes”

  1. Lovely post and photos, Clyde. Makes me want to go there (or at least be on the less swanky but still thrilling ferry to Madeline).

    I should perhaps be depicted as a Midwestern Parvati, seated in my battered Mission rocker, one cat on my shoulder, one on the lap, my many arms each holding one of my attributes…. and an open book balanced on my knee.

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  2. As mig says, Clyde, that’s a nice post with lovely photos.

    I answered this question once by suggesting my statue should show the younger outdoorsman Steve squatting in brush, pants around ankles, during an attack of diarrhea. I have twice published stories about myself at such moments.

    But today I’ll switch to a more positive vision. We have a photo for this. In fact, we have three very similar photos. I am sitting on a sofa with Molly (about three years 0ld) sitting on my lap. Pippin, our excellent cat, is in the meatloaf position on the back of the sofa, trying to be close. In my left hand I hold the book I am reading to Molly. As I say, we have several such photos because reading to Molly was such a central activity in our home then.

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    2. Catalog

      (Rosalie Moore)

      Cats sleep fat and walk thin.
      Cats, when they sleep, slump;
      When they wake, pull in–
      And where the plump’s been
      There’s skin.
      Cats walk thin.

      Cats wait in a lump,
      Jump in a streak.
      Cats, when they jump, are sleek
      As a grape slipping its skin–
      They have technique.
      Oh, cats don’t creak.
      They sneak.

      Cats sleep fat.
      They spread out comfort underneath them
      Like a good mat,
      As if they picked the place
      And then sat.
      You walk around one
      As if he were the City Hall
      After that.

      If male,
      A cat is apt to sing on a major scale;
      This concert is for everybody, this
      Is wholesale.
      For a baton, he wields a tail.
      (He is also found,
      When happy, to resound
      With an inclosed and private sound.)

      A cat condenses.
      He pulls in his tail to go under bridges,
      And himself to go under fences.
      Cats fit
      In any size box or kit;
      And if a large pumpkin grew under one,
      He could arch over it.

      When everyone else is just ready
      To go out,
      The cat is just ready to come in.
      He’s not where he’s been.
      Cats sleep fat and walk thin.

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      1. I’m not a cat person, but maybe I’m a cat poetry person. Rosalie Moore has opened my eyes to the possibilities. Thanks Steve!

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    3. This post reminds me of one of my son, Steve’s, great inventions during childhood: a sling which wrapped around a tree and had a hole in its seat. This contraption was designed to make going to the bathroom comfortable ( wish I could find that picture…….). Although we thought it hilarious, it did seem like a great alternative to squatting over the brush!

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    4. This is my 3rd and final attempt to share a story. My son, Steve, created a “potty sling” many years ago. It was a large, long piece of cloth that wrapped around a tree. The seat had a hole in it, making it possible to sit in the sling and poop comfortably rather than squatting above some brush. We thought it was hilarious, but still an unique idea (wish I could find that picture!).

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  3. Good morning. I could be posed doing something like shoveling snow, spading the garden, or raking leaves. I think the pose, that would most accurately portray me at this stage in my life, would show me sleeping in an easy chair in front of a TV.

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    1. The anonymous post is mine. Very good job telling us about your trip Clyde. Also, I like the information about you and the picture of you that is found at Baboon Congress.

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  4. I love the idea of a military leader sitting on a camp chair drinking coffee. Excellent imagery. (Slightly related – my family’s brush with the Massachusetts witch trials came because of a pig, in our case a neighbor’s pig that died.)

    How shall I be posed? Perhaps like the Statue of Liberty, with a spatula and wooden spoon in one hand and a Bundt pan in the other. “Bring me your hungry, your cranky, your lacking in baked goods…”

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    2. Hmm, I have Bundt Cake Bliss in my long-term stack of checkouts from the library and a some what open day…..

      Thanks for the inspiration!

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      1. There are some good recipes in Bundt Cake Bliss. Some, I have found, wind up a bit dense – there are some that start with a cake mix and then add pudding to that cake mix, so I think it’s that they were created with a non-pudding-in-the-mix product. That said, there are a couple of coffee cakes that are included that are divine.

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  6. One possibility is: standing holding up a book in one hand, while beckoning others with the other hand to “come and get it.”
    I’m still thinking…

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  7. There is a statue of John Stevens by Minnehaha Falls that I have always liked you crawl up on top of the statue and John is the correct size 6 feet tall he has on a beautiful top coat and hat and a long beard and he just looks like a guy like to have coffee with he’s not puffing out his chest store standing with his hands on his hip he’s just in a mirror looking like a guy like to have coffee with and discuss the good old days and I think that’s how my pose would be.
    It used to be fairly close to the Falls area and when they put in the train tracks and shuffled everything around John got moved to the other end of the park further south I haven’t seen them for a couple years he and Gunnar were the two statues that I used to enjoy their Gunnar was 12 feet tall and not quite as accessible I like John because she’s just to get it stand next to kind of like F Scott Fitzgerald on the corner in St. Paul.
    Just a guy.

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  9. Morning all. I suppose my statue will have me reading and surrounded by dogs and cats. That’s what my life feels like currently. My high season workload has come to an end and I’ve been doing nothing at home but reading for several days now! Eventually I’ll get off the sofa or the bed and get back to life again, but now it’s bliss.

    But Clyde, I want to know more about the jigsaw puzzles!!

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    1. What do you want to know? There is a culture to the ferries because many people ride them all the time, those who live on the islands. They do lots of things to pass the time. The direct ride from San Juan Island is an hour, and then you are close to an hour from downtown Seattle. There are many ferry rides, some right across from Seattle on which people commute to work and work on the 30 minute ride. All the ferries have several jig saws going. So people just it down at a puzzle and put in pieces to pass the time.
      That is Sandy in the ferry pictures my d-i-l and JackJack. JackJack loves to study the world. He studied the ferries carefully.
      My son had a gold story last night. When JackJack wakes up in the morning, their dog Archie lets them know. Then they watch on the monster as Archie puts a paw up between the crib slats an JackJack puts his hand on the paw. Archie and JackJack are lack mates.

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      1. Watch on the monster, not monster. And Archie and JackJack are pack mates.
        I am using the IPad for the sake of my shoulders. But I make more errors here.

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      2. Thanks… I was wondering if people brought the puzzles or they were already there. This would be a problem for me as I have a problem with jigsaw puzzles… I simply cannot stop. I’ve had to stop doing puzzles on my own at home because I end up still at until the wee hours of the morning because I want to do “just a bit more”. So for now I have content myself with online jigsaw puzzles that I can do in 20 minutes or less.

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        1. I assume they were left there by passengers, not by the State Hwy Dept. which runs the ferries.
          So you would not get off the boat until you were done with all of them?

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        2. Well, I could probably get off the boat, but I’d be the last one off and I wouldn’t be good company during the ride unless you were working on the puzzle with me. And I would miss all the pretty scenery!

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  10. Completey OT. Two more little goatlings for BiB yesterday – if you are friends with her on FB, there are photos!

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  11. I have switched to the computer where all the errors are my own.
    This is the first guest post under the new regime. What do you think and why for heavens embarrassing sake am I the only one in Baboon Congress?

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      1. Yup. Also it is Spring Break, which at my house means alot of permissiveness and procrastination, so when a friend tells me about a movie we might like, we just drop everything and go.

        S&h chose the Tunnel of Fudge cake-but that might have to wait until tomorrow. We might also be freezing a lot of it against time of (dessert) famine.

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  13. Clyde, how beautiful! Thanks for this glimpse of San Juan Island. We have visited friends in Port Townsend, and made it to Whidbey Island – next time we’ll have to take in San Juan.

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  14. i took a ferry near the olymia natural forest up there somewhere and was mesmerizer by the scenery. i cant imaginge doing crosswords in the midst of all that. it would be like reading the paper at the moulan rouge.

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    1. But so many of the riders of the boats ride them over and over, some twice a day M-F. So, you know, same old, same old to them.

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  15. Hi–
    We went to Seattle for our Honeymoon (coming up on 24 years! Huh!) and traveled the San Juan Islands. They were pretty. One of our wedding gifts was a gift certificate to the Captain Whidbey Inn on Whidbey Island — a part of the San Juan Islands. Had to wait 2 or 3 days to get into the restaurant.
    With the hotel at the end of the Navy base runway and jets taking off 6′ over my head at 6AM my statue would be both boredom and irritation.
    ‘I spent a week on Whidbey Island one night…’

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  17. Wonderful story and writing. A relaxing and interesting tale to help distract from current world events of this past two weeks. Thank you, Clyde. I would love to be bronzed on my Marin Muirwoods bicycle, wearing my helmet and signalling my turn….into the “Lovely Lanes” or “No Cars In Heaven” as my paradise is called.

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    3. Rico, I used to bike 5-6000 miles a year but am now too old to do it. Not too old as much as broken down body.

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