Research Results For 'Escort'

FORD ESCORT

The Ford Escort was a very popular range of small cars and vans produced from 1980. The Ford Escort cars were produced in a range of engine sizes ranging from 1.3 litres in the popular models providing a top speed of about 93 mph, through to the 2.0 litre Cosworth models providing a top speed in excess of 125 mph.
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SCAM

A scam is a trick or fraud. All scams rely on a single premise in order to function; the greed of the victim. Popular scams through the ages have ranged from low-key confidence tricks such as the 'find the lady' scam performed on street corners by card sharps in which victims are encouraged to bet on being able to locate the position of a specific playing card - often a queen - which is in a row of three cards mixed by the performer, though elaborate frauds such as the 'sale' of London's Tower Bridge or Australia's Sydney Opera House to unsuspecting foreign millionaires. A popular scam is the 'get rich quick' scam in which victims are invited to send money for details or a book proffering to detail a sure-fire method of achieving immense earnings with negligible effort. The secret to doing so is to place adverts in newspapers or on the Internet inviting people to send money for details or a book detailing how to earn vast income with negligible effort.

During the late 1990's a new scam appeared in Britain, or at least became more obvious. That of the 'male escort'. Adverts appeared, generally in free newspapers where advertising rates are very low, purporting to be recruiting 'male escorts', and explaining that age, size and looks are unimportant to earn up to five-hundred pounds a night with the implied bonus of having sex with beautiful women. The 'agencies' offering to recruit such men in reality require interested parties to send a registration fee for inclusion in their catalogue of escorts. Any cynical prospect who considers checking the agency catalogue first, to ensure that they are genuine, finds that prospective customers also have to send a registration fee before being allowed access to the catalogue. In comparison, genuine escort agencies do not require a registration fee from clients, instead the client simply contacts the agency with their requirements and is suggested a suitable escort, which they may then contact or gracefully decline.

The growth of the Internet saw with it the growth of another scam. That of the 'affiliate scheme' where naïve web site publishers are enticed to place an advert for a third company which in turn offers a percentage sales commission for all sales originating from customers who have accessed the web site through the advert placed on the web site publisher's own site. Very often - but not always - these schemes have get out clauses that allow the company to avoid paying sales commission, perhaps because they claim at their discretion that the web site publisher has broken the rules of the affiliation, or because they claim that the customer has not originated from the advert. By paying a small amount of money these scams operate the same as the classic 'find the lady' scam, by enticing a few naïve victims with a small amount of revenue to recommend them to many more naïve victims who never receive anything. Most of the victims of the affiliate scam are teenagers who publish small web sites and who lack the experience to read the contract, and the money to pursue claims for owed monies which are almost impossible to prove anyway.

The most insidious of all scams is 'The Nigerian Scam', which follows a general pattern of a victim receives correspondence, often by email, purporting to come from a close relative of a dead African - originally a Nigerian, whence the name - politician or some such who just before his death deposited a large amount of money in a European bank account. The scam implores the victim to assist in retrieving the money, as the scammer is unable to leave his country. In return, the victim is offered a large amount of money, perhaps as much as $50 million. The victim is asked to contact the scammer and then later is asked to send some money to assist with arrangements, or to travel to Africa with some money to make arrangements. Several victims travelling to Africa have subsequently disappeared, presumed murdered and robbed.
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AFRIDIS

The Afridis are a tribe or clan on the north-west frontier of India, about the Khyber Pass, who have at various times in history given trouble to the British when India was occupied as part of the British Empire. In 1897-98 a campaign (known as the 'the Tirah campaign') had to be undertaken against them, costly both in men and money before British authority was asserted. In 1905 the Afridis of the force called the Khyber Rifles formed an escort for the Prince and Princess of Wales on their visit to the famous pass, which was then entrusted to their charge.
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ANDREW BARTON

Andrew Barton was a Scottish sailor. He was born abour 1470 and died in 1512. He was one of Scotland's first great naval commanders, and belonged to a family which for two generations had produced able and successful seamen. In 1497 he commanded the escort which accompanied Perkin Warbeck from Scotland. After doing considerable damage to English shipping he was killed in an engagement with two ships which had been specially fitted out against him in 1512.
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JANE MCCREA

Jane McCrea was an American woman. She was born in 1753 and died in 1777. She was taken prisoner by Indians led by Le Loup, a Wyandotte chief, in 1777. On the way to the English camp they were met by other Indians led by Duluth, sent by David Jones, Miss McCrea's lover, to escort her to the English camp, where they were to be married. During the ensuing quarrel Le Loup allegedly shot Miss McCrea. The story has many versions of events, and has become something of a legend in America.
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RUDOLPH NUREYEV

Rudolf Hametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer and choreographer. He was born in 1938 and died in 1993. A soloist with the Kirov Ballet, he defected to the West during a visit to Paris in 1961. Mainly associated with the Royal Ballet (London) and as Margot Fonteyn's principal partner, he was one of the most brilliant dancers of the 1960s and 1970s. Nureyev danced in such roles as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake and Armand in Marguerite and Armand, which was created especially for Fonteyn and Nureyev. He also danced and acted in films and on television and choreographed several ballets. It was due to his enormous impact on the ballet world that the male dancer's role was elevated to the equivalent of the ballerina's. Nureyev was a Tatar. He was born near Lake Baikal, on a train journey, and grew up in Ufa in extreme poverty. A love of folk dancing and the sight of professional dancers at the town's small opera house led to lessons with Anna Udeltsova, who had been a member of the Diaghilev Ballet. At the age of 17 he entered the famous
Vaganova Institute (also known as the Kirov Ballet School) in St Petersburg in the class of Aleksandr Pushkin, a brilliant teacher. Just three years later he joined the Kirov Ballet as a soloist, dancing with Natalya Dudinskaya, its top prima ballerina, for his first engagement. In 1961 the Kirov Ballet was in Paris on its first important tour of the West. Nureyev was highly praised but his socializing with French friends incurred the displeasure of the Soviet officials, who told him he had to return. Sensing that he would never again be allowed to leave the Soviet Union, he slipped his escort at Le Bourget Airport and sought political asylum - and a new career. In Nov 1961 he made his London debut at a gala in aid of the Royal Academy of Dancing with Poeme Tragique, a short solo composed for him by Frederick Ashton, the director of the Royal Ballet, and this led to an invitation to partner Margot Fonteyn, the academy's president, in Giselle at Covent Garden. Thus began the legendary partnership and a new lease of
artistic life for Fonteyn, who was 19 years his senior. As well as dancing in the classics of the 19th century, he created many roles in modern works, most notably with Fonteyn in Ashton's Marguerite and Armand, first performed at Covent Garden 1963. He choreographed and staged ballets for nearly all the major companies, reviving works from the Russian repertoire like The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Raymonda. In 1983 he was appointed director of the Ballet at the Opera in Paris, revitalized it, and gave much encouragement to young dancers. He appeared many times on television and in films, including the feature I Am a Dancer, shown first in 1972.
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BATTLE OF CAPE MATAPAN

The Battle of Cape Matapan was a British naval victory on the 28th of March 1941 over an Italian force sent to disrupt Allied shipping in the Mediterranean during the Second World War. The Italians were intercepted just south of Crete by a British fleet under Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham which sank the Italian cruiser Pola, along with six ships left to escort it after it had been crippled in an earlier attack.
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ENGLISH-SPANISH NAVAL WAR

The English-Spanish Naval War was fought from 1585 to 1604 between England and Spain, and was due in no small part to religion, Elizabeth of England being protestant, Philip II of Spain catholic. Philip had delayed attacking England for thirty years because he was not anxious to rush into a conflict, of which the result might be doubtful, and which would in any case involve considerable expense. However, the English sailors had, for over twenty years, been conducting piratical raids on Spanish ships and Spanish ports, the climax of which was Sir Francis Drake's destructive raid on the West Indies in 1585. Elizabeth's interference in the Netherlands had become intolerable. And the Pope was urging Philip to embark on a war which he regarded as a crusade to destroy a heretic government. The execution of Mary Queen of Scots in February 1587 removed whatever doubts remained in Philip's mind. He had always questioned the wisdom of placing Mary on the English throne, for Mary was French, not Spanish, by upbringing and sympathy. Besides this, her son, James VI of Scotland, who was presumably the heir to both kingdoms, was a Protestant. But Mary had, not long before her death, disinherited James, and passed on her claims to the English throne to Philip himself. After that, Philip hesitated no longer. He gave orders for a great Armada to be prepared in all the ports of Spain.

It was while these preparations were being made that Drake made the Raid on Cadiz. The result of this raid justified the boast of Fenner (Drake's friend) that twelve of Her Majesty's ships were a match for all the galleys in the king's service. But all his countrymen did not share Fenner's confidence. To many, perhaps to most, the danger seemed appalling. England was without allies, a small country, with no regular army, standing alone against the might of the greatest empire in the world, an empire on which, it was boasted, 'the sun never set'. Philip was the master of the New World, and of a considerable portion of the Old. By annexing Portugal in 1580 he had absorbed the
dominions of his only serious rival in America and the Indies. The famous Spanish infantry were thought to be unbeatable. And it was these very soldiers, commanded by one of the greatest generals in history - the Duke of Parina - who were waiting to invade England. Philip' s plan was to conquer England from the Netherlands, where Parma's army, 30,000 strong, was mustered. Parma built flat-bottomed boats at Antwerp in sufficient numbers to convey his army to England. When the Dutch blockaded the mouth of the Scheldt he caused a canal to be dug, so that the boats could be moved to Dunkirk. But, as Parma well knew, to cross to England was impossible without a protecting fleet. It was for this purpose that the Armada was provided. It was thought that a large Spanish fleet could easily dispose of a smaller number of English vessels, and that then the way would be clear for Parma to invade England. But this plan of invasion was never carried into effect, for the Spanish fleet, though slightly superior in numbers, was hopelessly inferior in every other respect.

The English fleet was smaller than the Armada, but comprised of real ships of war, all heavily armed with guns. The Armada entered the English Channel on Saturday the 20th of July 1588 and on Monday the 29th of July, was fought the Battle of Gravelines. The English naval war with Spain continued until after Elizabeth's death, when peace was made by James I in 1604. Elizabeth knew that war is very costly. But, in the first flush of the victory over the Armada, the war party, led by Walsingham and Drake, was in the ascendant. Early in 1589, therefore, the offensive was taken against Spain with the Expedition to Portugal. In 1591 Admiral Lord Thomas Howard was sent to the Azores, with Sir Richard Grenville as second in command. Arriving there, the Admiral learnt that the Spaniards had mustered a large battle fleet to escort their treasure-ships home. He wisely decided to retreat, as he was completely outnumbered. Sir Richard Grenville, however, in the Revenge, remained - to wage his immortal fight with one ship against the whole Spanish fleet. So formidable were the English guns that the Revenge put up a fight lasting a day and a night before she surrendered. Then a storm arose which sank the Revenge together with over a hundred of the enemy- warships and treasure-ships. The years 1595 to 1597 saw a vigorous revival of the prosecution of the Spanish war. Elizabeth, alarmed at the news that Philip was preparing another Armada, sent once more for her old sailors. Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake undertook a raid on the Spanish possessions in the West Indies in 1595, but it was a failure. As he once more sailed his ship on Nombre de Dios Bay, Drake found that the Spaniards were considerably stronger than in the great days of his youth. Hawkins died at sea, and soon afterwards Drake himself died of a sickness which had already carried off large numbers of his men. He was buried at sea, in the waters that washed the Spanish Main, where his name had been a word of
ror for a generation.

The next year another fleet sailed from England under Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord Thomas Howard, and Sir Waiter Raleigh. Essex commanded the army of 8000 men which it carried. This fleet destroyed the shipping in Cadiz harbour; Essex and his men landed and took the town, which they gave to the flames. Philip swore vengeance, and, against the advice of his captains, dispatched another Armada to England in the late autumn of 1596. It was, however, destroyed by a storm and never even sighted the English coast. The next year Essex and Raleigh went off on the 'Islands Voyage' - to the Azores. They missed the Spanish treasure-fleet by a few hours, quarrelled bitterly, and returned home empty- handed to face a wrathful queen. By way of reply Philip, who was now a dying man, ordered a third Armada to sail, but it suffered the same fate as its predecessor. The Islands Voyage was the last effort of the war as far as Elizabeth was concerned, though English privateers continued to attack Spanish merchant ships. The damage they did was considerable, and the main Spanish fleet from America could only cross the Atlantic with a large convoy of warships.
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AICHI E13A

The Aichi E13A was a Japanese three-seat long-range reconnaissance sea-plane of the Second World War developed from the Aichi E12A to meet a Japanese navy requirement for a long-range reconnaissance sea- plane to escort maritime convoys, and entering service in 1941. The E13A was powered by a Mitsubishi Kinsei 43 14-cylinder radial piston engine supplying 1080 hp of power and providing a top speed of 375 kmh and a range of 2090 km. The E13A was armed with one trainable 7.7 mm Type 92 machine-gun in the aft position and up to 250 kg of bombs. A 20 mm Type 99 cannon could also be fitted on a ventral- flexible mount for anti-ship operations.
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CA 314

The Caproni Bergamaschi Ca 314 was an Italian convoy escort and maritime patrol aircraft of the Second World War. The Ca 314A was powered by two 730 hp Isotta-Fraschini Delta RC.35 12-cylinder inverted Vee piston engines providing a top speed of 395 kmh and a range of 1690 km. Armaments consisted of two 12.7mm machine-guns in the wing roots and one 7.7 mm machine-gun in a dorsal turret and a payload of 500 kg of bombs. A torpedo-bomber variant, the Ca 314RA carried a 900 kg torpedo or one 500 kg bomb or two 250 kg bombs. A ground attack variant, the Ca 314C carried an additional pair of 12.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine-guns beneath the wing roots.
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