Rule, Britannia? Not In My House

This day in American History.

August 2, 1812

Do you like to invest in scrappy upstarts? Do you overweight emerging market economies? Perhaps you would be interested in taking down a slug of the United States of America, circa 1800.

The battle for economic supremacy between London and New York has captured the attention of the financial press over the past year, but this long-running story is older than any journalist or publicly-traded futures exchange.

In the early 1790’s England’s naval supremacy was undisputed.  Britain ruled the world’s oceans. Although the United States was officially neutral in the conflict between the British and the French, its mercantile class of traders were being preyed on by both European superpowers on the high seas.  And given the pathetic state of the Navy, America was powerless to stop the predations. Until the Federal Government decided it had seen enough.

By the spring of 1794 marine insurance premiums were soaring, and on March 10, 1794, an act to Provide Naval Armament passed the House by a margin of 50-39. Senate passage quickly followed, and it was signed into law on March 27, 1794.  A sum of $688,888 was authorized for the construction of Six Frigates. These ships, including the famous USS Constitution, were to play a pivotal role in the emergence of a new world power.

On August 2, 1812 the USS Constitution set sail from Boston, MA. The crew was bound for destiny, and in a scant 17 days the ship would engage the HMS Guerriere in a naval engagement that went down in history, “raising the United States in one half hour to the rank of a first class power in the world” in the words of Henry Adams.

On August 19th we will commemorate the actual date of the battle by sitting down with Ian Toll, the author of Six Frigates, The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy. You might know Ian from his time spent covering the enterprise software and e-commerce sectors at Credit Suisse, Thomas Weisel and Alex Brown & Sons.  A jack of all Wall Street trades, he even paid his dues working at the Federal Reserve.

With vacation season starting in earnest, his book could provide a welcome break from reading solely about the financial markets. And while we will save the Constitution’s battle with the Guerriere for its August 19th anniversary, the following passage might give you a taste of what you are in for…

At dawn on Sunday, October 25th, when the frigate United States was about 500 miles south of the Azores, the lookout hailed the deck to report a large sail on the weather beam, about 12 miles north. Though the Americans did not yet know it, the strange ship was the HMS Macedonian, a 38-gun frigate commanded commanded by Captain John Surinam Carden.....

At 8:30 a.m. as the two frigates were closing, Macedonian made the private English signals. United States, ignorant of the countercode, answered by hoisting an American ensign at each masthead. A few minutes later, Decatur made an unexpected maneuver. The United States wore round and turned away from the wind. It almost seemed as is she was attempting to flee. As the Macedonian attempted to close the distance between the two ships, the United States kept two points off the wind, and as a result, Carden later reported, “I was not enabled to get as close to her as I could have wished”. In fact, Decatur chose his tactics deliberately. Knowing that his 24-pounder long guns would be more effective at long range than the Englishman’s 18’s,he kept the United States in a position to rake the Macedonian as she steered down on the American frigate’s starboard quarter.

You will have to read the book to cover this particular encounter, but we will whet your appetite. Subprime issues might be getting ugly, but naval warfare can truly be called hell…

As the United States’s heavy shot smashed through the hull of the Macedonian, “torrents of blood” ran on the deck and “the cries of the wounded rang through all parts of the ship.” One of the men stationed at Leech’s gun was struck in the wrist by a round shot; his hand apparently vanished, with a jet of blood suddenly appearing in its place. A Portuguese boy assigned to carry gunpowder had the bad luck to have a cartridge ignite in his hands. The explosion “burnt the flesh almost off his face. In this pitiable situation, the agonized boy lifted both hands, as if imploring relief, when a passing shot instantly cut him in two.” Men who were killed outright-and at least one who was alive but thought unlikely to survive-were lifted from the deck and thrown overboard. It was deemed essential to keep the area around the guns clear of bodies......

The United States was barely scratched. She had suffered superficial damage to her rigging and shrouds, and only nine shots in her hull. She had five men killed and seven wounded.

We will stop there, lest we offend our British readers.

Please join us on August 19th as we chat with Ian Toll about his remarkable account of the founding of the U.S. Navy.

Ian received his undergraduate degree in American History at Georgetown University (1989) and his Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (1995).

Ian, his wife, Kathryn, and their son, Henry, divide their time between San Francisco, California and Chatham, New York.

Additional excerpts from Six Frigates

Until someone commits this remarkable story to film, you will have to be satisfied with scenes from the incomparable movie Master and Commander-The Far Side of the World

48Hours: Make your Own Wine at Crushnet

Sick of rising prices for European wine? Sticker shock is hitting wine buyers right in the wallet. Wines that ran $40 at retail not long ago are going for $60+ as distributors pass along the pain.  Browsing your local wine shop might not ever go the way of the dinosaur, but now you can hook up with your friends and design your own wine. Pick a vineyard, target alcohol and acidity levels, and even go for Taransaud oak barrels if you can afford it.

Crushpad offers soup to nuts solutions for enthusiasts to make their own wine…

Crushpad is a San Francisco winery where you are the wine maker. Crushpad provides grapes from the West Coast’s top vineyards, an industry-acclaimed wine making team and a state-of-the-art winery 100% focused on making wine in small lots. You choose your level of involvement and we do the rest. No matter where you live, you can now make your own “cult” wine.
Crushpad

Their Crushnet online wine community is a turnkey solution to winemaking.  Fans of Cabernet might want to climb Howell Mountain and source grapes that could best described as “Ink Grade”. These should stain your teeth…

This is a new vineyard for us this year. It was planted in 1990 and spans 200 acres of mountainous terrain. This is definitely one of the most visually exciting vineyards we source from. Much of the vineyard is beautifully terraced and it is all well-tended. The vineyard is actually planted to a quad trellis that ekes out about 2 to 2.5 tons per acre. We are sourcing from two different blocks in the vineyard - one that we share with, well, you wouldn’t believe it if we told you. But ask and we’ll grin ear to ear and swear you to secrecy. This is also one of the more technologically advanced sites, using “stress modules” to determine ripening and enables us to do multiple picks for optimal ripeness. Crushnet Ink Grade Vineyard

Commodity trader Roy Niederhoffer, brother of the famous Victor, picked out the Kiona vineyard for his Cab, but the summer heat might have you thinking white instead. And if you skip the oak you won’t have to wait three years to drink it either…

As in Bordeaux, sauvignon blanc tends to do extremely well where cabernet grows. And Rutherford produces some mighty fine cabernet. This vineyard (located, not surprisingly, on Galleron Road) was the source of our first sauvignon blanc made in 2006. Crisp citrus: grapefruit and lemon-lime combined with minerality and a hint of herbalness that makes Sauvignon Blanc a great warm weather wine. Crushnet Galleron Road Vineyard

Grab your friends, pass the hat to raise some money, and sign up to make your own wine at Crushpad. Agreeing on a name for your wine and designing your label could be the hardest thing about it…

More or less, customers can get as involved (or stay as uninvolved) in the process as they want, with limits on what untrained people can do. “You’ll be involved in the decision-making process, and to some degree in the actual process, assuming we can do it in a way that’s safe within the confines of the winery,” said John Tracy, cofounder of Sonoma Grapemasters, which is lining up its first clients for this fall’s harvest. Among the customers they hope to attract are small businesses or departments that would make a barrel of wine (about $6,500 to $7,000) as a team-building exercise. Wine Spectator

Wanna be a Winemaker?
WS

Fine Wine Index up 42% in 2007

Have you been priced out of the market for fine wine? The wealth creation in Russia and China is partially responsible, but we will blame it on the hedgies in the City of London, those guys are animals..

The Liv-ex 100 index, an index of the top 100 investable wines (90 per cent weighted to the French wine-producing region of Bordeaux) has risen 42 per cent this year. The index, used by 155 wine wholesalers, is trading at its highest level since its inception in 2000.

Hopefully their holding period is longer than a stock or bond.. Patience is not a part of their vocabulary. Infanticide could be endemic as they drink’em up before their time....pushing prices even higher down the road for top vintages.

Stephen Williams, chief executive of London merchant Antique Wine, said that while traditional wine connoisseurs typically start off drinking less expensive wines and gradually work their way up, “the new money wants to drink the top wine from the very beginning . . . they don’t want to build it up gradually, they suddenly want an entire cellar”.

At this rate we will all be drinking plonk. And soon....

New money’s taste for fine wine cleanses wallets as well as palates
Financial Times

Entourage: Hot Heads and Pot Heads

Oh the boys had fun this week and so did we.  The writers wove an interesting theme—relax, go with it, embrace it. And the guys all did… or at least they tried.

For the Hot Heads, of course we have Eric and director Billy Walsh.  Eric tried to get along with Billy but how can he when Billy is such a crazed director.  (side note, the actor playing Walsh, Rhys Coiro wins in my book for best guest star--he’s embraced this role and has it down.  Actually reminds me of a few director’s I’ve worked with.)

Walsh is out of his mind that the trailer for “Medellin” has been leaked to You Tube.  Of course Billy accuses Eric which leads to an explosive fist fight at Barney’s Greengrass—always a good way to spice up lunch.  While none of the gang claims to know who leaked the trailer, Ari sure is happy.  Ari needed the good buzz to land Vince another job and as a result he set up a high profile interview with Elvis Mitchell of Interview magazine.  Problem is, Eric, Vince and Walsh are all to attend.

Vince begs both Eric and Billy to relax for the interview.  The tension was so thick during the sit down, that Elvis actually thought they have all been friends since childhood.  As soon they walked out of the Beverly Wilshire, the temptation was too great and Eric almost decked Billy again.

Billy and Eric need to chill, maybe they should start hanging out with Drama. Yes I’ve transitioned to the Pot Heads.  Are we surprised that this issue was Johnny Drama and Turtles’s storyline?  The funny thing is, Drama only wanted a trucker hat with a California Homegrown label, that’s so exclusive, you have to be a card carrying member of the medical marijuana facility in order to buy it.  After a very funny visit to the special doctor, he’s got a prescription and he’s got the card.  Drama’s diagnosis:  anxiety disorder.

Now Drama really just wanted to buy a hat but upon Turtle’s suggestion, he also buys a little pot.  You can’t go into a marijuana facility and NOT buy some pot!  Behind the scenes we hear that the Entourage producers and writers wanted to give the issue some screen time.

I’m not sure if they helped the cause to legalize marijuana but they did entertain us especially with the payoff scene.  Drama, Turtle and a dressing room filled with crew people, hitting the bong while playing strip poker.  Drama is flying so high from smoking so much pot that he actually gets anxiety!

So ironic that Turtle acts as the voice of reason, telling Drama to “embrace it”.  And once he does, it’s all good.  In a move To set up next week’s episode and I suspect the rest of the season, Ari gave some similar advice to Eric.  You see now that the buzz on Medellin is so good, Ari set up Vince’s next movie with the Dream Team, Vince starring, Eric producing and Billy directing.

All this, and a guest appearance by Snoop Dogg.

In the spirit of Lloyd, can I get a couple of “woo woo’s” over here for this episode.

Medellin: The Film
Website

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