The Pilgrims are "busted" for vandalism, the pilfering of souvenirs from Ephesus. They are quite indignant about it when they think the order to empty their pockets originated with the Ottomans. They become contrite when it is discovered that the British Empire is only protecting an English company holding the excavation rights. I assume this is the same company John Turtle Wood is associated with.
I've been rather curious about the oyster beds described by Mark Twain, or rather the veins of shells mixed with broken crockery. My attempts at Google searching this rarely get me past New Smyrna Beach, Florida. What I have found out, though, is this region once supported a rather flourishing neolithic population that utilized shellfish and other marine resources. I did find one paper available on-line as a PDF, Neolithic Shellfish Gathering at Yeşilova: An Ethnoarchaeological View by Zafer Derin.
The crew of the Quaker City has some fun at the expense of the pilgrims, conducting parodies of the meeting with Alexander II. They sail from Constantinople to Smyrna, modern day Izmir. This is where journalist, writer, and adventurer Ian Strathcarron picks up the scent. He has written a book, Innocence and War Mark Twain's Holy Land Revisited, After an extended prologue on the making of Mark Twain and how he found himself on the Quaker City Excursion Strathcarron joins the route, moored in the harbor of Izmir.
Far-Away Moses is rather an interesting individual. I did a search on him and found this:
from Making a Place in the World: Jews and the Holy Land at World's Fairs by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Be sure to read the section in the newspaper clipping on "Cheerful Bathing". This portion was omitted from the book, and is thus not part of the recording. But it is of interest.
This chapter may be considered rather politically incorrect. He rails at what he sees as a lack of morals amongst the Moors, citing the slave-girl situation and the sultans harem. He even provides what would be a market report for this trade if it occurred in the United States. The chapter also notes the lose of two of his preconceived notions of the Orient, the dogs of Constantinople and the luxury of a Turkish bath.
Mark Twain and the pilgrims are all back on board the Quaker City, depart Naples, and head for Greece. They arrive at the harbor of Piraeus and are told they will be in quarantine for eleven days or they must leave. It is a great disappointment to the passengers to miss Athens and several attempt to break the quarantine. They slip ashore during the night. Twain makes the run to the Acropolis with three others and view Athens from above in the moonlight. They make it back to the ship followed by dogs and various grape growers with muskets.
This chapter has been produced using a different video software program, Openshot. This is an improvement for me because it allows a video preview synced with the audio. Previously I've always had to calculate the start and end times for clips by following the text while playing the audio in audacity. This program also allows me to combine video clips with still images. Technically I could do that with PiTiVi but the results often failed during export. Anyway, chapter 31 is Mark Twain's visit to Pompeii.
