Greenwich Mean Time

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the international civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes (but this is not formalized) and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1 (the modern form of mean solar time at 0° longitude); these two meanings can differ by up to 0.9 s. Consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes.

Because of Earth's uneven speed in its elliptical orbit and its axial tilt, noon (12:00:00) GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian and reaches its highest point in the sky there. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, a discrepancy calculated by the equation of time. Noon GMT is the annual average (i.e., "mean") moment of this event, which accounts for the word "mean" in "Greenwich Mean Time".

Vieux Fort Quarter

Vieux Fort is located in the southern part of St. Lucia. It is the second-largest town on the island and is the home of St Lucia's international airport, Hewanorra International Airport. (Hewanorra is the island's old Amerindian name). Vieux Fort is also the name of the Quarter that encompasses the city.

Geography

It has several small communities which include Augier, Belle Vue, Black Bay, Grace, La Resource, Pierrot, St.Urban, Vige and Zaboo.

Economy

Every Friday and Saturday is market day where you can buy local goods such as spices, ground provisions and fruits. It also houses St. Lucia's biggest fish market.

History

In the second half of the 18th century, Vieux Fort was the center of St Lucia's sugar industry; today it is more industrial.

Part of Vieux Fort is called Black Bay. It got its name because legend has it that the infamous pirate Blackbeard used this part of the country to stash his ill-gotten gains.

During the Second World War, Vieux Fort became a base for American troops. Some of the evidence can still be seen around town, such as the underground tunnel that runs from Clark Street all the way to St. Judes Hospital in Augier. This tunnel was used for storage of supplies and also a quick route to the hospital. Many people who reside in Vieux-Fort today have no idea about such a tunnel.

Rolex

Rolex SA and its subsidiary Montres Tudor SA design, manufacture, distribute and service wristwatches sold under the Rolex and Tudor brands. Founded by Alfred Davis and Hans Wilsdorf in London, England in 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis, Rolex moved its base of operations to Geneva, Switzerland in 1919.

Forbes ranked Rolex No.72 on its 2014 list of the world's most powerful global brands. Rolex is the largest single luxury watch brand, producing about 2,000 watches per day, with estimated 2012 revenues of US$7.7 billion.

The company is owned by the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a family private trust which does not pay corporate tax.

History

Alfred Davis and his brother-in-law Hans Wilsdorf founded Wilsdorf and Davis, the company that would eventually become Rolex SA, in London, England in 1905. Wilsdorf and Davis' main commercial activity at the time involved importing Hermann Aegler's Swiss movements to England and placing them in high-quality watch cases made by Dennison and others. These early wristwatches were sold to jewellers, who then put their own names on the dial. The earliest watches from Wilsdorf and Davis were usually hallmarked "W&D" inside the caseback.

Rolex GMT Master II

The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date GMT Master is part of the Rolex Professional Watch Collection. Designed in collaboration with Pan American Airways for use by their pilots and navigators, it was launched in 1954.

History

The Rolex GMT-Master wristwatch was originally designed in collaboration with Pan American Airways and issued by the airline to their crews on long-haul flights. ("GMT" in the name stands for Greenwich Mean Time now known as Coordinated Universal Time). The original GMT Master watch has a 24-hour display fourth hand complication directly linked to and displaying the same time zone as the standard 12-hour hand. This GMT hand enabled the crews to set the watch to GMT or another time zone, and using the rotatable 24-hour scale bezel set to the correct offset a second time zone could be read. GMT or UTC is the time zone that is required for all aviation planning, weather forecasts, schedules and other paperwork. Among known characters, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara wore a Rolex GMT Master.

Miles Master

The Miles M.9 Master was a British 2-seat monoplane advanced trainer built by Miles Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War. It went through a number of variants according to engine availability and was even modified as an emergency fighter during the Battle of Britain. It was a fast, strong and fully aerobatic aircraft and served as an excellent introduction to the high performance British fighter aircraft of the day: the Spitfire and Hurricane.

Design and development

The M.9A Master I was based on the M.9 Kestrel trainer that was first demonstrated at the Hendon Air show in July 1937, although it never entered production. The M.9 Kestrel, powered by the 745 hp (555 kW) Rolls-Royce Kestrel XVI V-12 engine, could reach 296 mph (477 km/h). The Air Ministry had selected the de Havilland Don as its advanced trainer, but this proved to be a failure, and the RAF placed a £2 million order for 500 examples of a modified version of the Kestrel, the M.9A Master. Miles rebuilt the prototype M.9 to form a prototype for the Master, fitting a lower powered (715 hp (535 kW)) Rolls-Royce Kestrel XXX engine, of which there were large surplus stocks available, and with extensive revisions to the airframe, which included a new cockpit canopy, a modified rear fuselage and tail, and moving the radiator from under the nose to under the centre-section of the wing. These modifications significantly reduced the aircraft's speed, but it remained one of the fastest and most maneuverable trainers of its day. The first true production Master I made its maiden flight on 31 March 1939. The Master entered service just before the start of the war, and eventually 900 Mk. I and Mk. IA Masters were built. This total included 26 built as the M.24 Master Fighter which were modified to a single-seat configuration, and armed with six .303 in machine guns for use as an emergency fighter, but did not see combat.