Humanity is on the run
In Wells accounts, he describes the Martians spreading the black, stifling vapor over the Londonward country as methodically as men might smoke out a wasps’ nest. The horns of the crescent slowly spreading apart, until they form a line from Hanwell to Coombe and Maiden.
Rumours have begun to circulate that the crews of the torpedo-boats and destroyers that had brought their quick-firers up the Thames had mutinied, refused to stop, and are heading back down the river. Authorities refused to comment on this.
From the log of HMS Thunder Child, 08 June 1897 09:15 GMT
Arrived off Thames Estuary. Waters are busy with civilian shipping of all manner. Light cloud cover, seas moderate, winds from the northeast, 16 mph. Channel Squadron under Admiral Sir Walter Kerr on HMS Majestic, reinforced by elements of Atlantic Squadron, steaming in line ahead close to shore. Continued wireless interference.
We see Martians harvesting refugees as they try to escape over bridges.
It is suspected that the supplies Morant mentions were from the Tower of London, which at that time served as the arsenal of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Although how he managed the feat has never been explained. However, the Fusiliers had been positioned east of London to try and hold the London defences against the Martians which would have made a raid easier.
We enter the subway at Charing Cross and use candle light and lamps to make our way to our bivouac in the newly completed Waterloo station. In my new uniform, nobody argues, and we gain a further ten for our little militia, including three railroad engineers.
Absolute #chaos in the streets of #London
Started a breakfast handover.
We station more guides to keep the refugees moving through the tunnels.
Brown has got hold of thousands of Union Jack Flags that would have been used for the Diamond Jubilee. We can use them to indicate safe passages and to wave refugees through.
The Birmingham Illustrated News’ headlines for today: “Martians seize London. Tripods seen in Highgate.”
The Chronicle brings out its last newspaper, a single-sheet display-insert.
With half the government now gathered at Birmingham, the Government orders the military to hold the Martians to the south of the newly established #Gascoyne-Cecil-Line, named after the then PM who drew the line on a map following the GWR’s mainline from London to Bristol.
Recognising the importance of Swindon to the national rail network, the CinC Field Marshal Wolseley moves to reinforce Swindon, Didcot and other towns along ‘the Line’, and orders enormous quantities of high explosives to be prepared to be used in automatic mines across the Midland counties.
From the log of HMS Thunder Child, 09 June 1897 10:40 GMT
Captain Allenby and Lt Commander Carver summoned to meet with C in C Channel Squadron Admiral Sir Walter Kerr on HMS Majestic.
Sir J Dullanty – whose Scottish estate (Rotch Wood) abutted Balmoral, was a chemist, engineer, inventor, and philanthropist. The Dullenty family often visited when the Queen when she was in residence. The Queen in fact serving as the god-mother to his youngest son. Dullanty had a large laboratory and had often communicated with Alfred Nobel before Nobel’s death in 1896.
Sir J Dullanty found himself driven to invent the first gas mask against black dust, as a result of communications from his son. Initially a simple hessian sack with glass goggles, the hood placed over the head and tied at the neck had to be kept wet. Recognising its many failings, a mask with an external box respirator with a built in trickle feed was issued within 17 days (22nd June).
Unfortunately, we have been unable to discover any records detailing the agreement to centralise information facilities at Rotch Wood. Sir J Dullanty was in Scotland on the 6th, but as a close confident of the Queen, and a personal friend of the then Secretary of State for War, it is possible that the decision was one taken between the Queen and the Secretary of State.
Churchill, in his ‘Hidden Histories’ later suggested that it may have due to the fact that #RotchWood was some considerable distance from the Martians, had a private telegraph line, and large laboratory, and abutting Balmoral #RotchWood’s location adjacent to Balmoral gave it easy access to the train network, and the protection of those units of the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, the Scots Guards, the Irish Guards and the Welsh Guards emplaced around Balmoral.
Unfortunately, given the amount of secrecy that subsequently surrounded the #RotchWood establishment it is unlikely we will ever find out.
It is believed that this photograph taken at Glenquoich in 1905 of King Edward VII may be the only photograph we have of the 1st Earl RotchWood. The Earl being the 3rd from the left.
From the personal journal of Hiram Maxim, Inventor:
I have returned from my week’s reconnaissance of the Martian pits and works near Woking. Nothing human lives in that blighted town. It is a forest of blackened walls without roofs. Tangles of red weed run riot in what were once lush green gardens.
My survey confirms that the Martians have driven out all humanity from a three-mile radius around their initial landing site in Woking. No reminder of humanity remains, save for the shadow of a mother embracing her child, permanently etched on a wall by the Heat Ray.
I crept to a point within one hundred yards of the Martian pit on Horsell Common. I could see the tower of adamantine metal, taller even than the tower raised by Monsieur Eiffel in Paris. It crackles with a blueish glow.
I have developed a theory regarding the purpose of the Martian tower at Woking. By the initial pattern of fall of the enemy cylinders, I believe the tower to be broadcasting a powerful wireless beacon used to guide incoming Martian craft for their landings.
As I draw closer to the tower, I feel a most curious effect: which I can describe as the feeling of pins and needles running up and down the length of my body. Was this strange energy being generated by the tower? This cannot be just the beacon; I believe there is more here.
With the first phase of the enemy’s operations concluded, it is clear from the patrolling war machines that the Martians view the tower as critical to their continued success here on Earth. I believe there is a second, yet undiscovered but more important reason behind the tower. I now view the tower’s destruction as critical to the survival of humanity.
One day, I witnessed a group of soldiers plus a few armed civilians, try to storm the Martian pit by surprise. I watched as they crept by me, within a few feet of my own hide, rose to charge the position, and were slaughtered to a man by the Heat Ray. I vowed my own attempt would succeed.
Refugees to continue to flee in the face of Martian advances. But with the Martian’s now controlling London, boats are no longer able come up the Thames to ferry people to the relative safety of Europe.
Instead they gather on the Essex coast, Harwich, Walton and Clacton, and as far as Foulness and Shoebury, to take the people off, in what later Sir Winston Churchill describes in his work A Short History of the World as ‘The Miracle of Deliverance’.
By noon the Essex coast is crowded with ships of all sizes in a huge sickle-shaped curve that vanishes into the mist towards the Naze. Inshore is a multitude of fishing-smacks — English, Scotch, French, Dutch, and Swedish; steam-launches from the Thames, yachts, electric boats.
While beyond the smacks and launches are the larger ships, filthy colliers, trim merchantmen, cattle-ships, passenger-boats, petroleum-tanks, ocean tramps, an old white transport even, neat white and gray liners from Southampton and Hamburg.
And along the entire coast, with its mill-smooth surface, a dense swarm of boats chaffering with the people on the beach, a swarm which also extended up the Blackwater almost to Maldon, with people being quoted 36 pounds to be transported to Ostend.
In the distance, a couple of miles out, like some swan shadowing its cygnets, someone on the shore might just make out an ironclad, very low in the water, the Majestic class battleship HMS Thunder Child.
Beyond the Thunder Child a serpent of black smoke marks the ironclads of the Channel Fleet. A fleet that had hovered in an extended line, steam up and ready for action, across the Thames estuary during the course of the Martian conquest, vigilant and yet powerless to prevent it.
Turbinia was the world’s first steam turbine-powered steamship. Built as an experimental vessel in 1894, and easily the fastest ship in the world at that time, Turbinia was demonstrated dramatically at the Spithead Navy Review in early 1897 and set the standard for the next generation of steamships, the majority of which would be turbine powered.
The vessel is currently located at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, while her original powerplant is located at the Science Museum in London.
From the personal log of Lt Roger Carver, Royal Marines, HMS Thunder Child, 10 June 1897 16:57 GMT
Like a knife, Thunder Child’s bow slid into legs of the first tripod, causing it to tumble into the water. Smoke pouring from its stack, the battleship plowed forward into the legs of the second Martian, which scarcely had time to react.
From the personal log of Admiral Sir Walter Kerr, C in C, Channel Squadron, aboard HMS Majestic, 10 June 1897, 17:20 GMT:
Lookouts report HMS Thunder Child lost, presumably with all hands after destroying three Martians. My commendation for her captain and crew shall note that they gave their lives in the performance of their duties.
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury KG GCVO PC FRS DL (1830 – 1903) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 3 times for a total of over 13 years, including during the Martian invasion.
Lord Robert Cecil, also known as Lord Salisbury, was first elected to the House of Commons in 1854. Following the death of his father in 1868 he became the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, moving to the House of Lords. He was the last PM to serve from the House of Lords.
After Disraeli’s death in 1881, Salisbury emerged as Conservative leader in the Lords. He was prime minister three times (1885–86, 1886–92, 1895–1900), the most significant period being the last when he faced the Martian invasion.
Despite beating the Martians, the 1900 election resulted in Salisbury’s coalition of Unionists and Conservatives being reduced to a mere rump with the Liberals gaining 54% of the vote, and the Labour Representation Committee, later to become the Labour Party. winning 25%.
Historians generally agree that Salisbury’s loss was due to the anger those south of the Gascoyne-Cecil Line felt against the government who’d ‘left them behind’ to fend for themselves.
The organisation and grass roots support by groups, such as the NUWSS whose organisational ability had been built, and refined during the war, also proved vital to the size of the swing. Their reward, of course was the introduction of ‘The Universal Suffrage Act’ of 1902.
The historian, Paul Smith characterises Salisbury’s personality as “deeply neurotic, depressive, agitated, introverted, fearful of change and loss of control, and self-effacing but capable of extraordinary competitiveness.”
A representative of the landed aristocracy, Salisbury held the reactionary credo, “Whatever happens will be for the worse, and therefore it is in our interest that as little should happen as possible”
Dame Antoinette Louise Clark, GCVO (aka @toniwantsthevote), and Britain’s first female health minister was once heard to remark of Salisbury: ‘Only a neurotic control freak would think that drawing a line on a map would stop a Martian in a tripod. Fortunately, our earthly bacteria have more fortitude than that man. And so did the voting public.’
To: Sec of State for War, Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess Lansdowne, cc Colonel Coldstream Guards, Gen Sir Stephenson. Sirs, I have the honour to present the results of the autopsy on the Martian captured by No 4 Company Coldstream Guards.
Respectfully Dr John H Watson.
“The Martian has a huge round body—or, rather, a head—about 4 feet in diameter. In the front of this body, or head, is a face. This face has no nostrils but rather a pair of very large, dark-colored eyes, with just beneath the eyes a kind of fleshy beak…
“At the back of this head/body—I scarcely know how to speak of it—is a single tight tympanic surface, an ear, though it must be almost useless in our denser air. Grouped round the mouth were sixteen slender, almost whip-like tentacles, arranged in two bunches of eight each…
“These bunches have were named, by the distinguished anatomist, Professor Howes, who assisted me – the hands. Those brave men of the Cold Stream Guards,or recovered the body, have told me that they saw the Martians endeavoring to raise themselves on these hands…
“Of course, Earth’s increased gravity made it impossible for the Martians to raise themselves in this fashion. But there is reason to suppose that on Mars they may have progressed upon these “hands” with some facility…
“Internally, dissection revealed that the greater part of the structure was the brain, linked to the eyes, ear, and tactile tentacles by enormous nerves. Besides this were the complex lungs, into which the mouth opened, and the heart and its vessels…
“Strange as it may seem, the Martian fail to possess any apparatus of digestion. They were heads—merely heads, without entrails. They did not eat, much less digest. Instead, it appears they take the fresh, living blood of other creatures, and inject it into their own veins…
“The physiological advantages of the practice of injection are undeniable, if one thinks of the tremendous waste of time and energy occasioned by eating and the digestive process…
“Their undeniable preference for men as their source of nourishment is partly explained by the nature of the remains of the victims they had brought with them as provisions from Mars. And which had been recovered from Woking on a previous occassion…
“These ‘supplies” or creatures, to judge from the shrivelled remains, were bipeds, with flimsy, silicious skeletons (almost like those of the silicious sponges) and feeble musculature…
“They stood about six feet high, with round, erect heads, and large eyes in flinty sockets. Two or three of these seem to have been brought in each cylinder, and all were killed and drained before Earth was reached…
“In 3 other points their physiology differs strangely from ours. They did not sleep, any more than the heart of man sleeps. Secondly Martians were absolutely without sex, and therefore without any of the tumultuous emotions that arise from that difference among men…
“Despite the lack of sex, they do reproduce-in a manner similar to how young lily-bulbs bud off, or the young of fresh-water polyps. The recovered body included the bud of a young Martian, probably born upon earth during the war, still attached to its parent…
“The last salient point was the appearance of gangrene on the creature’s skin, and internal organs. From the pattern of the gangrene’s spread it appears that a minor cut may have become infected, with the infection then spreading throughout the body…
“However, no sign of the original entry point could be found, and the young “bud” was also severely compromised. It has been suggested that the systems of these creatures differ significantly from ours by the apparent ease and speed with which it had succumbed to the bacteria…
“Professor Howes has posseted that this may be because Micro-organisms, which cause so much disease and pain on earth, have either never appeared upon Mars, or Martian sanitary science eliminated them ages ago…
“How significant this difference is remains to be determined, however, there was clear signs of putrification in several of its “hands” which had thereby been rendered useless.
I remain your faithful Servant, John H. Watson M.D.
In London, once again Toni’s diary has only a few entries for the day, but they are important ones – documenting decisions to make sure they remain safe, research on the black smoke, and the frightening sounds made by the Martians during their patrols.
Morant’s guests, Marie and Pierre Curie, become fixated (according to Morant) on the idea that the Martians are unable to digest arsenic.
Commander Carver, now behind enemy lines with a small scratch group of 25 (Marines, Horse Guards, and misc. stragglers) prepares to march on Woking to destroy the radio mask erected by the Martians.
Sergeant Hugh and the 1st Platoon returned. According to the Sergeant the army arranged an ‘extra’ consisting of a single carriage and locomotive to pick up the body and the platoon and transferred them via Shenfield to Peterborough on the Great Eastern Railways Line.
At Peterborough the carriage was transferred onto the Great Northern Railway’s connection to Aberdeen and then onwards to Balmoral, and my father’s laboratories at #RotchWood.
They were then left to arrange their own arrangements for their return. Sometimes, I have doubts regarding whether the army could organise a piss-up in a brewery.
With the decision on the 9th to establish the Gascoyne-Cecil-Line, Didcot’s junction on the routes to London, Bristol, Oxford and to Southampton made the town of strategic importance to military logistics. Recognising this the army quickly set about reinforcing the town, and establishing a Central Ordinance Facility in the town.
However, the CinC Field Marshal Wolseley was not the only one to recognise Didcot’s importance and on the 13th the Martians attempted a raid in force. Luckily over half the units in Didcot had been issued with the Mark 1 Gas-mask the previous day and with the automatic mines that had already been emplaced across the Midland counties were able to hold, although civilian casualties have been variously been estimated at between 50%-75%.
From the personal log of Admiral Sir Walter Kerr, C in C, Channel Squadron, aboard HMS Majestic, 13 June 1897, 19:00 GMT:
No response to our messages from Lieutenant Commander Carver. More disturbing was the appearance of a flying disc that circled over the fleet, out of reach of our guns. I have heard rumours the Martians have the secret of flight. I wish Carver Godspeed with greater urgency.
Rebuffed, the Martians pulled backed to regroup. Recognising that even a successful assault would only result in them then to having force the defences constructed along the Thames, they pivoted west, and with the obvious intention of avoiding the Thames defences, began to prepare for an attempt to break the line at Swindon.
Given the impact of the Martian’s Red Weed on England’s urban and country environments we take a short detour to consider the plants that for a short time drowned much of England in a sea of red.
In London, the entries in Toni’s diary offers essential reading for the modern historian to properly understand the sweeping political changes that occurred after 1897. Many historians speculate that without ‘The Line’ and the anger it caused, the changes to society that swept from London, and indeed into the wider world, would have taken many more decades.
The Curies continue to collect evidence that the Martians are highly susceptible to arsenic.
Lt Dullanty decides to move his two platoons closer to London, setting up a heligraph in Greenwich to maintain contact with Tilbury Fort, while Lt Carver (ex HMS Thunder Child) continues to march his ragtag group towards Woking.
Things may be getting a bit crowded in London 😉
Decision made. #communication paramount. @sirjohntheengineer has been attempting to #communicate with anyone on #wireless marvel. #wetaketurnsonthegeneratorhandle
It is Wells’ and the curate’s 6th day confined to the collapsed house in Sheen, and they are amongst the first to notice the red weed. Biologists remain divided as to whether the Martians intentionally or accidentally brought the seeds with them. #RedWeed
There is no doubt to its hypertrophy, however, Wells recording that the red weed “grew with astonishing vigour and luxuriance, spreading up the sides of the pit so that its cactus-like branches quickly formed a carmine fringe to the edges of their triangular window.”
The botanist Ernest Marquand, author of “Flora of Guernsey” and “The Red Weed” was fascinated by the Martian vegetation. Forced to remain in London during the invasion due to the pregnancy of his wife, he seized the opportunity to observe and document the plants as they appeared.
Marquand was the first to note that the red creeper was actually a transitory growth, which failed to gain any footing in competition with terrestrial forms. In its initial stages however, it appeared throughout the country, especially wherever there was a source of water.
Marquand was also one of the first to note the appearance of what he described as “a brown sheet of flowing shallow water, where meadows used to be along the Thames”. #Marquand #TheRedWeed
While initially surprised at this flood in an otherwise hot, dry summer, Marquand postulated that the flooding was caused by the tropical exuberance of the red weed.
He writes: “Directly the Red Weed encounters water it straightway becomes gigantic and of unparalleled fecundity. Its seeds simply poured down into the water of the Wey and Thames, its swiftly growing and Titanic water-fronds speedily choking both these rivers.” #Marquand
Investigating the appearance of the Red Weed, Marquand walks to Putney where he observes the bridge almost lost in a tangle of this weed. While the Thames spreads out across the meadows of Hampton and Twickenham around it.
Marquand later writes that “as the waters spread the weed followed them, until the ruined villas of the Thames valley were for a time lost in this red swamp, whose margin I explored, and much of the desolation the Martians had caused was concealed.”
In the end, the red weed succumbed almost as quickly as it had spread, when it was attacked by a cankering disease, now confirmed as being either the Pectobacterium carotovorum or Pseudomonas viridiflava bacteria. Some biologists consider it may have been a combination of both.
Alfred R Wallace, the well know naturalist and biologist, and 74 at the time of the invasion, remained at “Old Orchard” his house in Dorset throughout the war, and observed the spread and later death of the Martian weeds through the kitchen window.
Wallace is the first to suggest that by the action of natural selection, terrestrial plants have acquired a resisting power against bacterial diseases — never succumbing without a severe struggle. The red weed had no defence, however.
In Wallace’s “Darwin and the Martian” (1899) he wrote: “The Red Weed grew like a thing already dead. The fronds bleach, shrivel and become brittle. Dead, they break off at the least touch, and the waters that stimulated their early growth carried their last vestiges out to sea.”
@sirjohntheengineer spent the rest of the day #engineering and adjusting the #antenna on top of #QueenAnnesMansions How did I not notice the #antenna? @GMarconiwireless had been tossing ideas around with him in letters, so he built them.
@sirjohntheengineer made contact with #governmentinBirmingham #weareonourown #thereisaline #meningovernmentareheartless #wedemandthevote #thingswillchange #angry