M History, References, SPECTRE

Peringue/Goltz the French heavy-water specialist/scientist.

… the assassination of Peringue, the French heavy-water specialist who went over to the Communists through Berlin, added, thanks to the importance of his knowledge and the fact that we got him before he had talked, one billion francs from the Deuxième Bureau.

Fleming, Ian. Thunderball (James Bond) (p. 54).

Mathis admits now that Goltz, that French heavy-water scientist who went over last year, was assassinated by them, for big money, for big money, as a result of an offer he got out of the blue.

Fleming, Ian. Thunderball (James Bond) (p. 75).

Interesting passages here in Thunderball, about 20 pages apart. Are we to believe that S.P.E.C.T.R.E. assassinated two French heavy water specialists/scientists who had defected to the communists for Mathis, or are they the same person, and Fleming just got the name mixed up?

What even is a heavy-water specialist? What is Heavy Water? From PBS.org:

Heavy water is a form of water with a unique atomic structure and properties coveted for the production of nuclear power and weapons. Like ordinary water—H20—each molecule of heavy water contains two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. The difference, though, lies in the hydrogen atoms. In ordinary water, each hydrogen atom has just a single proton in its nucleus. In heavy water, each hydrogen atom is indeed heavier, with a neutron as well as a proton in its nucleus. This isotope of hydrogen is called deuterium, and heavy water’s more scientific name is deuterium oxide, abbreviated as D20.

That same page notes:

To Norwegian Resistance fighters during World War II, heavy water was a mysterious substance considered so perilous that they were willing, under orders from the Special Operations Executive in London, to sacrifice the lives of their countrymen in order to keep it out of Nazi hands.

Heavy Water also called deuterium oxide, is used in some nuclear reactors to slow down the pace of neutrons as they split, allowing for a more consistent flow of energy.

As this page shows, (under Heavy Water in Europe) French scientists in the 1940s were front and center with the research into heavy water and its uses and also had to take steps to keep their research out of German hands. Nothing is said about any of them attempting to defect to the communists.

in 2016 there was a Norwegian limited run series called The Heavy Water War, which recounts “one of the most compelling stories of World War II: British intelligence and the Norwegian military’s heroic struggle to thwart Nazi Germany’s atomic bomb ambitions by sabotaging the heavy water plant in Rjukan, Norway.”

M Caribbean, References

The Pipe of Peace

The girl gave a cheerful wave of a sunburned hand, raced up the street in second, and stopped in front of The Pipe of Peace, the Dunhills of Nassau.

Fleming, Ian. Thunderball (James Bond) (p. 112).

In Thunderball, James Bond gets his first view of Domino Vitali as she enters the tobacconist’s shop The Pipe of Peace looking for a cigarette so disgusting it will make her stop smoking.

Bond introduces himself as “the world’s authority on giving up smoking” as he does it “constantly.”

After Bond purchases a carton of “Dukes, king-size with filter” for her, they step outside and agree to go have a drink together.

This was a real tobacconist shop at the time of the writing of the novel and for many years before and after. It appears to have closed sometime in the last decade. The photo from the header of this post is from 1962.

M Caribbean, History, References

The 72-lb Silver Bar on Gorda Cay

Every year, treasure hunts for these and other ships are carried out among the Southern Bahamas. No one can guess how much, if anything, has been recovered, but every-one in Nassau knows of the 72-lb. silver bar recovered by two Nassau businessmen off Gorda Cay in 1950, and since presented to the Nassau Development Board, in whose offices it is permanently on view.

Fleming, Ian. Thunderball (James Bond) (p. 107).

Treasure hunts are referenced several times in the James Bond novels. The incident described above is real.

As Fleming described, two Nassau businessmen, Howard Lightbourn and Roscoe Thompson recovered a 72-lb silver bar off of Gorda Cay in 1950. The bar was dated to 1652 and was the property of King Philip IV of Spain.

For many years the bar was indeed displayed at the offices of the Nassau Development Board.

The Development Board was replaced by the Tourism Board, and the current whereabouts of the bar is unknown. (I’ve made an inquiry with the Tourism Board about this.)

The Island is small, approximately 1000 acres in size. It was first inhabited in 1783, and has had a colorful history of pirates, bootleggers and drug runners.

Looking for Gorda Cay on a map today? You won’t find it. In 1997, The Walt Disney Company purchased a 99-year lease on the island and renamed it Castaway Cay. It is now a stop for the Disney Cruise Line.

M Uncategorized

SPECTRE Organizational Chart

When Ian Fleming introduces us to SPECTRE in Thunderball, we get our most detailed listing of the organization and how it is structured.

Fleming says there are 20 full members under Blofeld, with six three-man sections plus experts Kotze and Maslov.

There is one item of confusion for me, Fleming says there were 20 men (not counting Blofeld) in attendance for the briefing behind the facade of F.I.R.C.O., but we learn that No. 1, Largo, is already on location in the Bahamas.

The twenty men who looked up the long table at this man and waited patiently for him to speak were a curious mixture of national types. But they had certain characteristics in common. They were all in the thirty-to-forty age-group, they all looked extremely fit, and nearly all of them—there were two who were different—had quick, hard, predatory eyes, the eyes of the wolves and the hawks that prey upon the herd. The two who were different were both scientists with scientists’ other-worldly eyes—Kotze, the East German physicist who had come over to the West five years before and had exchanged his secrets for a modest pension and retirement in Switzerland, and Maslov, formerly Kandinsky, the Polish electronics expert who, in 1956, had resigned as head of the radio research department of Philips AG of Eindhoven and had then disappeared into obscurity. The other eighteen men consisted of cells of three (Blofeld accepted the Communist triangle system for security reasons) from six national groups and, within these groups, from six of the world’s great criminal and subversive organizations. There were three Sicilians from the top echelon of the Unione Siciliano, the Mafia; three Corsican Frenchmen from the Union Corse, the secret society contemporary with and similar to the Mafia that runs nearly all organized crime in France; three former members of SMERSH, the Soviet organization for the execution of traitors and enemies of the State that had been disbanded on the orders of Khrushchev in 1958 and replaced by the Special Executive Department of the M.W.D.; three of the top surviving members of the former Sonderdienst of the Gestapo; three tough Yugoslav operatives who had resigned from Marshal Tito’s Secret Police, and three highland Turks (the Turks of the plains are no good) formerly members of Blofeld’s RAHIR and subsequently responsible for KRYSTAL, the important Middle Eastern pipeline whose outlet is Beirut.

Here is the breakdown of men, as best as I can determine:

Corsican Section
#7 Marius Domingue
#12 Pierre Borraud (executed)
?

Sicilian Section
#1 Emilio Largo
#4 Fonda
#? Fidelio Sciacca

Russian (SMERSH) Section
#10 Strelik (executed on Disco)
#11
?

German (Gestapo) Section
#? Bruno Bayer
#6 (Kills Lippe)
#14

 Yugoslav (Tito’s) Section

#17? (exposes Domino)
?
?

Highland Turks
?
?
?

RAHIR
?
?
?

#5 Kotze (East German Physicist)
#18 Maslov/Kandinsky (Polish Electronics Expert)

Others:

Sub-Operator G (Count Lippe)
Sub-Operator 52
Sub-Operator 201

Crew of Disco Volante are all Sub-Operators

M Cigarettes

Vanguard Tobaccoless Cigarette

In Thunderball, after James Bond has taken the “nature cure” he has also adjusted his smoking habits. But there was one brand that just didn’t work out for him.

The Dukes tasted of almost nothing, but they were at least better than Vanguards, the new ‘tobaccoless’ from America that despite its health-protecting qualities, filled the room with a faint ‘burning leaves’ smell that made visitors to his office inquire whether ‘something was on fire somewhere.’

The Vanguard was a real product, introduced during the early stages of the creation of Thunderball. The cigarette was actually very controversial, as “big tobacco” viewed it as a threat and did all it could to suppress the introduction of it.

From the Tobacco Timeline:

1959-Fall: The “Vanguard Issue.” Vanguard was a tobaccoless smoke introduced in the Fall of 1959. The product’s creator, Bantop Products Corporation of Bay Shore, Long Island, immediately ran into problems advertising it. Bantop claimed the tobacco industry conspired to prevent its “Now Smoke Without Fear” ads. In the New York metropolitan area, for example, only one newspaper would accept the ads. (ASG)

Here is a look at the Vanguard and the claims it was making:

Click to access vanguard.pdf

During the 1950’s, tobacco advertising was omnipresent, and made big dollars for Madison Avenue. As various studies were made and questions raised about the health effects of smoking, the industry fought back with various insidious tactics of its own, from doing their own “studies” and carefully finding ways around regulations that were put into place as far as the claims that could be made in cigarette advertising.

When Vanguard was announced, the maker of the product found that it could not get advertisements for the cigarette published. They charged that big tobacco was exerting pressure on outlets to not carry the ads for Vanguard.

This was the subject of an article in the October 2, 1959 issue of Advertising Week

Click to access advertising-week-vanguard-1959.pdf

It’s an interesting history for a product that never really made the big time, but is forever immortalized in an Ian Fleming James Bond novel.

There have been other cigarettes named Vanguard, both tobacco and electronic, but the above brand is the one Fleming was referencing in the book.

M Cocktails, Drinks, Whisky

Old Fashioned

old-fashioned-glass

On the Phantom train with Solitaire in Live and Let Die, they get settled in after boarding.

Bond ordered Old Fashioneds, and stipulated ‘Old Grandad’ Bourbon, chicken sandwiches, and decaffeined ‘Sanka’ coffee so that their sleep would not be spoilt.

In Thunderball, after a long first day (and before a long night) arriving in the Bahamas and searching for clues, James Bond via room service, orders a “double Bourbon Old Fashioned” before collapsing on his bed.

The Old Fashioned is essentially a way to give Bourbon some flavor with bitters (usually Angostura) and some sweetness with sugar and fruit.

old-fashioned

The roots of the cocktail can be traced back to the early days of the 19th century when drinks of spirits, bitters sugar and water become popular. In time, other ingredients were added to the cocktail, but eventually the original came back into popularity as people began requesting the “Old Fashioned” version.

M Drinks, Whisky

Bourbon

This page will be updated as we go through the novels)

This Kentucky-based barrel-aged whisky seems to be a Bond staple when abroad.

bourbon-barrelsAn observation can be made about Bond’s drinking preferences and habits. He’ll drink a martini at a bar or restaurant or when in company, while when drinking alone or in his hotel room, he often has bourbon.

He has a few favorite brands that are specifically mentioned throughout the series. These each have their own page:

I.W. Harper’s
Jack Daniels (coming – though not Bourbon)
Walker’s DeLuxe
Old Grandad
Virginia Gentleman

Here are other references to Bond drinking Bourbon throughout the series.

In Live and Let Die, Bond orders Old Fashions on the Silver Phantom, stipulating Old Grandad Bourbon. Before meeting up with The Robber, he has a quarter of a pint of Old Grandad with his steak dinner, and  later has two double Old Grandads on the rocks while preparing to leave Tampa.

Throughout Diamonds are Forever, Bond consumes Bourbon and Bourbon and Branch water.

The opening chapter of Goldfinger is entitled REFLECTIONS IN A DOUBLE BOURBON and Bond has several before heading out with Mr Dupont.

In Thunderball, after finding the plane, Bond goes back to his room and orders a “club sandwich and double bourbon on the rocks” before phoning Domino.

In The Spy Who Loved Me, Vivienne Michel is consuming the last of her bottle of Virginia Gentleman bourbon as the story gets going.

In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, while at Piz Gloria, Bond sits next to Ruby at dinner, who is having a Daiquiri, and Bond orders a double Bourbon on the rocks.

After Tracy gives Bond a detailed description of what she had for dinner, Bond tells her over the phone that “I had two ham sandwiches with stacks of mustard and half a pint of Harper’s Bourbon on the rocks.The bourbon was better than the ham.”

When Bond meets Marc-Ange to discuss the commando job on Piz Gloria, he “poured himself a stiff Jack Daniel’s sourmash bourbon on the rocks and added some water.”

In You Only Live Twice, Bond, while at the Miyako hotel in Kyoto, Bond orders “a pint of Jack Daniels and a double portion of eggs Benedict to be brought up to his room.”

Fleming himself preferred bourbon to scotch. He had the notion that it was somehow better for his heart as he explained to Richard Hughes: ‘The muscles expand under bourbon; Dikko, but they contract under scotch. ‘ He also suggested that bourbon counteracted the ill-effects of the nicotine in the many cigarettes that he smoked each day. (Foreign Devil: Thirty Years Of Reporting In The Far East by Richard Hughes)

Sadly, history proves out that Mr Fleming’s theories were perhaps not accurate in this case, at least.

M References, SPECTRE

Spectre Before S.P.E.C.T.R.E.

Even before it became the name of perhaps the most famous criminal organization in fiction in the novel Thunderball, Ian Fleming liked the word “spectre”.

This interesting little word, according to Collins English Dictionary can be defined thusly:

spectre (ˈspɛktə) or specter

n

1. (Alternative Belief Systems) a ghost; phantom; apparition
2. a mental image of something unpleasant or menacing: the spectre of redundancy.

The usage of the word had declined and actually reached its lowest point during the time that Fleming started using it:

As you can see, it has increased somewhat in use since that time.

Here are some instances in which Fleming used it prior to Thunderball, when it became the abbreviation for the SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. 

Here are some examples of its use:

Live and Let Die:

The great grey football of a head under the hurricane lamp looked like an elemental, a malignant spectre from the centre of the earth, as it hung in mid air, the golden eyes blazing steadily, the great body in shadow.

Diamonds Are Forever:

Spectreville. The Spectre Range. In total throughout the book there are 11 mentions of the two of these.

From Russia With Love:

Kronsteen…had sweated away a pound of weight in the last two hours and ten minutes, and the spectre of a false move still had one hand at his throat.

The decoding machine which is the MacGuffin of the novel is called a Spektor. (17 mentions)

Goldfinger:

Bond walked slowly up to the putt, knocking Goldfinger’s ball away. Come on, you bloody fool! But the spectre of the big swing – from an almost certain one up to a possible one down – made Bond wish the ball into the hole instead of tapping it in.

Despite the chart above, I don’t actually know how commonly this word was used in every day language. From here, it seems like a rather obscure word, which Fleming liked the sound, sight and meaning of, and enjoyed using it whenever he could, even a variation on the word in Spektor. He also used the variations Spectral and Spectrally on occasion. (also meaning ghostly)

Live and Let Die:

All through the centre of the state, the moss lent a dead, spectral feeling to the landscape.

Most of the tanks were dark, but in some a tiny strip of electric light glimmered spectrally and glinted on little fountains of bubbles…

…in the grey valleys they caught the light of the moon and waved spectrally…

From Russia With Love:

The spectral eye of the nightlight cast its deep velvet sheen over the little room.

You Only Live Twice:

The poisons listed fall into six main categories: Deliriant. Symptoms: spectral illusions…

When the novel Thunderball came out, and all the controversy and eventual court case surrounding it, one of the items at issue was the criminal organization of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and who actually came up with it. Kevin McClory claimed that he did and even later named his company Spectre Associates Inc.

From the outside, it would seem that Fleming had an affinity for the word, especially with his creation of the Spektor in From Russia With Love, and it would seem reasonable that it was a creation of Flemings. Eventually, McClory was awarded the film rights to all of Thunderball, including S.P.E.C.T.R.E and Ernst Stavro Blofeld while Fleming retained the literary rights to these.

M United States

Boston

Residing as I do in the greater Boston area, I’m interested in the occasions when Ian Fleming brings James Bond close to my home. Unfortunately, in the novels at least, the only glimpse Bond gets of Boston is from the air. He does venture into New England, going into Vermont for the events of For Your Eyes Only, but for that trek, he flies into Montreal, not Boston.

Boston is city on the east coast of the United States, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The city is one of the oldest (settled in 1630) in America and the site of much rich history – including some of the earliest rebellions of the colonists against the British Empire. (We’re friends now though, right?) Fleming mentions the city in three of the novels.

In Live and Let Die the city is used as part of Bond’s cover while on assignment:

He was given a military haircut and was told that he was a New Englander from Boston and that he was on holiday from his job with the London office of the Guaranty Trust Company.

In Diamonds Are Forever, Bond gets a brief view of the city as he flies into New York.

And then there were three hours when the plane hung dead-steady in the middle of the world, and only the patches of bright sunshine swaying slowly a few inches up and down the walls of the cabin gave a sense of motion. But at last there was the great sprawl of Boston below them, and then the bold pattern of a clover-leaf on the New Jersey Turnpike, and Bond’s ears began to block with the slow descent towards the pall of haze that was the suburbs of New York.

Finally, in Thunderball the city is mentioned simply as a geographical marker:

Bond said, “Did the American D.E.W. line pick it up—their Defense Early Warning system?”

“There’s a query on that. The only grain of evidence we’ve got. Apparently about five hundred miles east of Boston there was some evidence that a plane had peeled off the inward route to Idlewild and turned south. But that’s another big traffic lane—for the northern traffic from Montreal and Gander down to Bermuda and the Bahamas and South America. So these D.E.W. operators just put it down as a B.O.A.C. or Trans-Canada plane.”

Actually it was the DISTANT Early Warning system, but I’ll give Mr Fleming the benefit of the doubt and say he was being dramatic. Also, the hijacker of the Vindicator, Giuseppe Petacchi notes his location in relation to Boston while delivering the plane to S.P.E.C.T.R.E.

The coastline of America should be on the screen by now. He got up and had a look. Yes, there, 500 miles away, was the coastline map already in high definition, the bulge that was Boston, and the silvery creek of the Hudson River.

And that’s it. I’m just glad Boston was on Fleming’s radar – no pun intended – while he was writing the Bond novels.

M Drinks

Gordon’s Gin

In Casino Royale, when James Bond first orders his famous martini, later to be called The Vesper, he specifies “three measures of Gordon’s.”

Earlier in the book, Bond overhears some people at the bar:

‘Moi, j’adore le “Dry”,’ (Me, I like the “dry”)  a bright-faced girl at the next table said to her companion, too neat in his unseasonable tweeds, who gazed at her with moist brown eyes over the top of an expensive shooting-stick from Hermes, ‘fait avec du Gordon’s, bien entendu.’ (made with gordon’s, of course.)

‘D’accord, Daisy. Mais tu sais, un zeste de citron . . .’
(I agree Daisy. But you know a piece of lemon peel…)

It appears Bond is not the only one who prefers Gordon’s in his dry martini.

In Thunderball, when Felix Leiter is giving his lecture to the barman on bar profits, he notes that One bottle of Gordon’s Gin contains 16 true measures double measures that is, the only ones I drink.

In Risico, when meeting Kristatos, Bond is specific in ordering his drink:

Bond nodded. “A Negroni. With Gordon’s, please.”

The waiter walked back to the bar. “Negroni. Uno. Gordon’s.”

These are the only occasions in the Ian Fleming novels where Gordon’s is mentioned. The context of how the brand is mentioned however, surely indicates that it was a preferred brand of Bond’s.

Gordon’s was first made in 1769 by Alexander Gordon, and according to the brand website, the recipe – a tightly guarded secret – remains the same today.

SpringGordons

54gordingin