“Alfred Thomas Wood’s life reads like a cross between the scams and impersonations of Catch me if you can and the tribulations of Forrest Gump.” Webster on the Absquatulator One hundred years before the Hollywood film The Great Impostor, Alfred Thomas Wood roved through the momentous mid-19th century events, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to New… Read more »

World trade was revolutionized in the 19th century when ships went from sail to steam. Crossing the Atlantic under steam was clearly an engineering and navigating feat to be celebrated. A controversy thus developed about which was the first steamship to make the crossing, who built it, and where. Several ships, including the Great Western… Read more »