title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: As a result, people with multiple symptoms that may be explained by a complex disorder such as DM1 or DM2 will generally be referred by their primary care physician to a neurologist for diagnosis. Depending on the presentation of symptoms, people may be referred to a number of medical specialists including cardiologists, ophthalmologists, endocrinologists, and rheumatologists. In addition, the clinical presentation is obscured by the degree of severity or the presence of unusual phenotypes.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Though there is presently no cure for DM and management is currently symptom-based, a precise diagnosis is still necessary to anticipate multiple other problems that may develop over time (e.g. cataracts). An accurate diagnosis is important to assist with appropriate medical monitoring and management of symptoms. In addition, genetic counseling should be made available to all people because of the high risk of transmission. Potentially serious anesthetic risks are important to note, so the presence of this disorder should be brought to the attention of all medical providers.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: There are two main types of myotonic dystrophy. Type 1 (DM1), also known as Steinert disease, has a severe congenital form and a milder childhood-onset form as well as an adult-onset form. This disease is most often in the facial muscles, levator palpebrae superioris, temporalis, sternocleidomastoids, distal muscles of the forearm, hand intrinsic muscles, and ankle dorsiflexors. Type 2 (DM2), also known as proximal myotonic myopathy (PROMM), is rarer and generally manifests with milder signs and symptoms than DM1.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Other forms of myotonic dystrophy not associated with DM1 or DM2 genetic mutations have been described. One case which was proposed as a candidate for the "DM3" label, was later characterized as an unusual form of inclusion body myopathy associated with Paget's disease and frontotemporal dementia.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Genetic tests, including prenatal testing, are available for both confirmed forms. Molecular testing is considered the gold standard of diagnosis.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Testing at pregnancy to determine whether an unborn child is affected is possible if genetic testing in a family has identified a DMPK mutation. This can be done at 10–12 weeks gestation by a procedure called chorionic villus sampling (CVS) that involves removing a tiny piece of the placenta and analyzing DNA from its cells. It can also be done by amniocentesis after 14 weeks gestation by removing a small amount of the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby and analyzing the cells in the fluid. Each of these procedures has a small risk of miscarriage associated with it and those who are interested in learning more should check with their doctor or genetic counselor.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: There is also another procedure called preimplantation diagnosis that allows a couple to have a child that is unaffected by the genetic condition in their family. This procedure is experimental and not widely available. Those interested in learning more about this procedure should check with their doctor or genetic counselor.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: It is possible to test someone who is at risk for developing DM1 before they are showing symptoms to see whether they inherited an expanded trinucleotide repeat. This is called predictive testing. Predictive testing cannot determine the age of onset that someone will begin to have symptoms or the course of the disease. If the child is not having symptoms, the testing is not possible with an exception of emancipated minors as a policy.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Electrodiagnostic testing (EMG and NCS) can detect the electrical signs of myotonia before myotonia becomes noticeable to the affected individual.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Muscle biopsy can reveal damage of the muscle, but findings are generally nonspecific and do not greatly aid in diagnosis.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: There is currently no cure for or treatment specific to myotonic dystrophy. Management is focused on the complications of the disease, particularly those related to the lungs and heart, which are life-threatening. Complications relating to the cardiopulmonary system account for 70% of deaths due to DM1. Compromised lung function can, in turn, contribute to life-threatening complications during anesthesia and pregnancy.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Lung complications are the leading cause of death in DM1, warranting lung function monitoring with pulmonary function tests every 6 months. Central sleep apnea or obstructive sleep apnea may cause excessive daytime sleepiness, and these individuals should undergo a sleep study. Non-invasive ventilation may be offered if there is an abnormality. Otherwise, there is evidence for the use of modafinil as a central nervous system stimulant, although a Cochrane review has described the evidence thus far as inconclusive.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Cardiac complications are the second leading cause of death in DM1, and commonly no symptoms are present prior to adverse events. All affected individuals are advised to have an annual or biennial ECG. Pacemaker insertion may be required for individuals with cardiac conduction abnormalities. Improving the quality of life which can be measured using specific questionnaires is also a main objective of the medical care.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: There is a lack of high-quality evidence to determine the effectiveness and the safety of physical activities for people who have myotonic dystrophy. Further research is required to determine if combined strength and aerobic training at moderate intensity is safe for people who have neuromuscular diseases, however the combination of aerobic and strength exercises may increase muscle strength. Aerobic exercise via stationary bicycle with an ergometer may be safe and effective in improving fitness in people with DM1. Cardiovascular impairments and myotonic sensitivities to exercise and temperature necessitate close monitoring of people and educating people in self-monitoring during exercise via the Borg scale, heart rate monitors, and other physical exertion measurements.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Muscular weakness of dorsiflexors (dorsiflexion) hinders the ability to clear the floor during the swing phase of gait and people may adopt a steppage gait pattern or ankle-foot-orthotics may be indicated. Factors such as hand function, skin integrity, and comfort must be assessed prior to prescription. Neck braces can also be prescribed for neck muscle weakness.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Upper and lower limb weakness, visual impairments and myotonia may lead to the need for mobility aids and functional adaptive equipment such as buttonhooks and handled sponges for optimal hand function. If assistive devices and home adaptations are needed, physical therapists may refer on to occupational therapist(s) for further assessment.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Life expectancy in non-congenital late-onset or adult onset DM1 is in the early 50s, with pulmonary complications being the leading cause of death, followed by cardiac complications. DM2 life expectancy has yet to be studied.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: The prevalence of DM1 ranges from 5 to 20 per 100,000 (1:20,000–1:5000). Up to 48 per 100,000 (1:2100) of individuals tested positive for the mutation of DM1 in New York, although not all of these individuals would have become symptomatic. Again in New York, premutations for DM1 were found in 191 per 100,000 (1:525). DM2 prevalence is not known, but genetic studies estimate it to be as high as 1:1830. DM affects males and females approximately equally. About 30,000 people in the United States are affected. In most populations, DM1 appears to be more common than DM2. However, recent studies suggest that type 2 may be as common as type 1 among people in Germany and Finland.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: DM1 is the most common form of myotonic muscular dystrophy diagnosed in children, with a prevalence ranging from 1 per 100,000 in Japan to 3–15 per 100,000 in Europe. The prevalence may be as high as 1 in 500 in regions such as Quebec, possibly due to the founder effect. The incidence of congenital myotonic dystrophy is thought to be about 1:20,000.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Myotonic dystrophy was first described by a German physician, Hans Gustav Wilhelm Steinert, who first published a series of 6 cases of the condition in 1909. Isolated case reports of myotonia had been published previously, including reports by Frederick Eustace Batten and Hans Curschmann, and type 1 myotonic dystrophy is therefore sometimes known as Curschmann-Batten-Steinert syndrome. The underlying cause of type 1 myotonic dystrophy was determined in 1992.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Altered splicing of the muscle-specific chloride channel 1 (ClC-1) has been shown to cause the myotonic phenotype of DM1 and is reversible in mouse models using Morpholino antisense to modify splicing of ClC-1 mRNA.


title: Myotonic dystrophy

text: Some small studies have suggested that imipramine, clomipramine and taurine may be useful in the treatment of myotonia. However, due to the weak evidence and potential side effects such as cardiac arrhythmias, these treatments are rarely used. A recent study in December 2015 showed that a common FDA approved antibiotic, Erythromycin reduced myotonia in mice. Human studies are planned for erythromycin. Erythromycin has been used successfully in patients with gastric issues.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in "Principles of Biology" (1864) after reading Charles Darwin's 1859 book "On the Origin of Species". The term strongly suggests natural selection, yet Spencer saw evolution as extending into realms of sociology and ethics, so he also supported Lamarckism.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, astronomy, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia. "The only other English philosopher to have achieved anything like such widespread popularity was Bertrand Russell, and that was in the 20th century." Spencer was "the single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth century" but his influence declined sharply after 1900: "Who now reads Spencer?" asked Talcott Parsons in 1937.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer was born in Derby, England, on 27 April 1820, the son of William George Spencer (generally called George). Spencer's father was a religious dissenter who drifted from Methodism to Quakerism, and who seems to have transmitted to his son an opposition to all forms of authority. He ran a school founded on the progressive teaching methods of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and also served as Secretary of the Derby Philosophical Society, a scientific society which had been founded in 1783 by Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer was educated in empirical science by his father, while the members of the Derby Philosophical Society introduced him to pre-Darwinian concepts of biological evolution, particularly those of Erasmus Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. His uncle, the Reverend Thomas Spencer, vicar of Hinton Charterhouse near Bath, completed Spencer's limited formal education by teaching him some mathematics and physics, and enough Latin to enable him to translate some easy texts. Thomas Spencer also imprinted on his nephew his own firm free-trade and anti-statist political views. Otherwise, Spencer was an autodidact who acquired most of his knowledge from narrowly focused readings and conversations with his friends and acquaintances.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Both as an adolescent and as a young man, Spencer found it difficult to settle to any intellectual or professional discipline. He worked as a civil engineer during the railway boom of the late 1830s, while also devoting much of his time to writing for provincial journals that were nonconformist in their religion and radical in their politics.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer published his first book, "Social Statics" (1851), whilst working as sub-editor on the free-trade journal "The Economist" from 1848 to 1853. He predicted that humanity would eventually become completely adapted to the requirements of living in society with the consequential withering away of the state. Its publisher, John Chapman, introduced Spencer to his salon which was attended by many of the leading radical and progressive thinkers of the capital, including John Stuart Mill, Harriet Martineau, George Henry Lewes and Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot), with whom he was briefly romantically linked. Spencer himself introduced the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, who would later win fame as 'Darwin's Bulldog' and who remained Spencer's lifelong friend. However, it was the friendship of Evans and Lewes that acquainted him with John Stuart Mill's "A System of Logic" and with Auguste Comte's positivism and which set him on the road to his life's work. He strongly disagreed with Comte.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer's second book, "Principles of Psychology", published in 1855, explored a physiological basis for psychology, and was the fruit of his friendship with Evans and Lewes. The book was founded on the fundamental assumption that the human mind was subject to natural laws and that these could be discovered within the framework of general biology. This permitted the adoption of a developmental perspective not merely in terms of the individual (as in traditional psychology), but also of the species and the race. Through this paradigm, Spencer aimed to reconcile the associationist psychology of Mill's "Logic", the notion that human mind was constructed from atomic sensations held together by the laws of the association of ideas, with the apparently more 'scientific' theory of phrenology, which located specific mental functions in specific parts of the brain.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer argued that both these theories were partial accounts of the truth: repeated associations of ideas were embodied in the formation of specific strands of brain tissue, and these could be passed from one generation to the next by means of the Lamarckian mechanism of use-inheritance. The "Psychology", he believed, would do for the human mind what Isaac Newton had done for matter. However, the book was not initially successful and the last of the 251 copies of its first edition were not sold until June 1861.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer's interest in psychology derived from a more fundamental concern which was to establish the universality of natural law. In common with others of his generation, including the members of Chapman's salon, he was possessed with the idea of demonstrating that it was possible to show that everything in the universe – including human culture, language, and morality – could be explained by laws of universal validity. This was in contrast to the views of many theologians of the time who insisted that some parts of creation, in particular the human soul, were beyond the realm of scientific investigation. Comte's "Système de Philosophie Positive" had been written with the ambition of demonstrating the universality of natural law, and Spencer was to follow Comte in the scale of his ambition. However, Spencer differed from Comte in believing it was possible to discover a single law of universal application which he identified with progressive development and was to call the principle of evolution.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: In 1858 Spencer produced an outline of what was to become the System of Synthetic Philosophy. This immense undertaking, which has few parallels in the English language, aimed to demonstrate that the principle of evolution applied in biology, psychology, sociology (Spencer appropriated Comte's term for the new discipline) and morality. Spencer envisaged that this work of ten volumes would take twenty years to complete; in the end it took him twice as long and consumed almost all the rest of his long life.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Despite Spencer's early struggles to establish himself as a writer, by the 1870s he had become the most famous philosopher of the age. His works were widely read during his lifetime, and by 1869 he was able to support himself solely on the profit of book sales and on income from his regular contributions to Victorian periodicals which were collected as three volumes of "Essays". His works were translated into German, Italian, Spanish, French, Russian, Japanese and Chinese, and into many other languages and he was offered honours and awards all over Europe and North America. He also became a member of the Athenaeum, an exclusive Gentleman's Club in London open only to those distinguished in the arts and sciences, and the X Club, a dining club of nine founded by T.H. Huxley that met every month and included some of the most prominent thinkers of the Victorian age (three of whom would become presidents of the Royal Society).


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Members included physicist-philosopher John Tyndall and Darwin's cousin, the banker and biologist Sir John Lubbock. There were also some quite significant satellites such as liberal clergyman Arthur Stanley, the Dean of Westminster; and guests such as Charles Darwin and Hermann von Helmholtz were entertained from time to time. Through such associations, Spencer had a strong presence in the heart of the scientific community and was able to secure an influential audience for his views. Despite his growing wealth and fame he never owned a house of his own.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: The last decades of Spencer's life were characterised by growing disillusionment and loneliness. He never married, and after 1855 was a life-long hypochondriac who complained endlessly of pains and maladies that no physician could diagnose at that time. His excitability and sensitivity to disagreement handicapped his social life:His nervous sensibility was extreme. A game of billiards was enough to deprive him of his night's rest. He had been looking forward with pleasure to a meeting with Huxley; but he gave it up because there was a difference on some scientific question between them, and this might have given rise to an argument, which Spencer's nerves could not bear. By the 1890s his readership had begun to desert him while many of his closest friends died and he had come to doubt the confident faith in progress that he had made the center-piece of his philosophical system. His later years were also ones in which his political views became increasingly conservative. Whereas "Social Statics" had been the work of a radical democrat who believed in votes for women (and even for children) and in the nationalisation of the land to break the power of the aristocracy, by the 1880s he had become a staunch opponent of female suffrage and made common cause with the landowners of the Liberty and Property Defence League against what they saw as the drift towards 'socialism' of elements (such as Sir William Harcourt) within the administration of William Ewart Gladstone – largely against the opinions of Gladstone himself. Spencer's political views from this period were expressed in what has become his most famous work, "The Man Versus the State".


title: Herbert Spencer

text: The exception to Spencer's growing conservatism was that he remained throughout his life an ardent opponent of imperialism and militarism. His critique of the Boer War was especially scathing, and it contributed to his declining popularity in Britain.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer also invented a precursor to the modern paper clip, though it looked more like a modern cotter pin. This "binding-pin" was distributed by Ackermann & Company. Spencer shows drawings of the pin in Appendix I (following Appendix H) of his autobiography along with published descriptions of its uses.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: In 1902, shortly before his death, Spencer was nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature, that was assigned to the German Theodor Mommsen. He continued writing all his life, in later years often by dictation, until he succumbed to poor health at the age of 83. His ashes are interred in the eastern side of London's Highgate Cemetery facing Karl Marx's grave. At Spencer's funeral the Indian nationalist leader Shyamji Krishna Varma announced a donation of £1,000 to establish a lectureship at Oxford University in tribute to Spencer and his work.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: The basis for Spencer's appeal to many of his generation was that he appeared to offer a ready-made system of belief which could substitute for conventional religious faith at a time when orthodox creeds were crumbling under the advances of modern science. Spencer's philosophical system seemed to demonstrate that it was possible to believe in the ultimate perfection of humanity on the basis of advanced scientific conceptions such as the first law of thermodynamics and biological evolution.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: In essence, Spencer's philosophical vision was formed by a combination of deism and positivism. On the one hand, he had imbibed something of eighteenth-century deism from his father and other members of the Derby Philosophical Society and from books like George Combe's immensely popular "The Constitution of Man" (1828). This treated the world as a cosmos of benevolent design, and the laws of nature as the decrees of a 'Being transcendentally kind.' Natural laws were thus the statutes of a well-governed universe that had been decreed by the Creator with the intention of promoting human happiness. Although Spencer lost his Christian faith as a teenager and later rejected any 'anthropomorphic' conception of the Deity, he nonetheless held fast to this conception at an almost subconscious level. At the same time, however, he owed far more than he would ever acknowledge to positivism, in particular in its conception of a philosophical system as the unification of the various branches of scientific knowledge. He also followed positivism in his insistence that it was only possible to have genuine knowledge of phenomena and hence that it was idle to speculate about the nature of the ultimate reality. The tension between positivism and his residual deism ran through the entire System of Synthetic Philosophy.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer followed Comte in aiming for the unification of scientific truth; it was in this sense that his philosophy aimed to be 'synthetic.' Like Comte, he was committed to the universality of natural law, the idea that the laws of nature applied without exception, to the organic realm as much as to the inorganic, and to the human mind as much as to the rest of creation. The first objective of Synthetic Philosophy was thus to demonstrate that there were no exceptions to being able to discover scientific explanations, in the form of natural laws, of all the phenomena of the universe. Spencer's volumes on biology, psychology, and sociology were all intended to demonstrate the existence of natural laws in these specific disciplines. Even in his writings on ethics, he held that it was possible to discover 'laws' of morality that had the status of laws of nature while still having normative content, a conception which can be traced to George Combe's "Constitution of Man".


title: Herbert Spencer

text: The second objective of the Synthetic Philosophy was to show that these same laws led inexorably to progress. In contrast to Comte, who stressed only the unity of the scientific method, Spencer sought the unification of scientific knowledge in the form of the reduction of all natural laws to one fundamental law, the law of evolution. In this respect, he followed the model laid down by the Edinburgh publisher Robert Chambers in his anonymous "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation" (1844). Although often dismissed as a lightweight forerunner of Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species", Chambers' book was, in reality, a programme for the unification of science which aimed to show that Laplace's nebular hypothesis for the origin of the solar system and Lamarck's theory of species transformation were both instances of 'one magnificent generalisation of progressive development' (Lewes' phrase). Chambers was associated with Chapman's salon and his work served as the unacknowledged template for the Synthetic Philosophy.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer first articulated his evolutionary perspective in his essay, 'Progress: Its Law and Cause', published in Chapman's "Westminster Review" in 1857, and which later formed the basis of the "First Principles of a New System of Philosophy" (1862). In it he expounded a theory of evolution which combined insights from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's essay 'The Theory of Life' – itself derivative from Friedrich von Schelling's Naturphilosophie – with a generalisation of von Baer's law of embryological development. Spencer posited that all structures in the universe develop from a simple, undifferentiated, homogeneity to a complex, differentiated, heterogeneity, while undergoing increasing integration of the differentiated parts. This evolutionary process could be observed, Spencer believed, throughout the cosmos. It was a universal law, applying to the stars and galaxies and to biological organisms, and to human social organisation and to the human mind. It differed from other scientific laws only in its greater generality, and the laws of the special sciences could be shown to be illustrations of this principle.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: The principles described by Herbert Spencer received a variety of interpretations. Bertrand Russell stated in a letter to Beatrice Webb in 1923: 'I don't know whether [Spencer] was ever made to realize the implications of the second law of thermodynamics; if so, he may well be upset. The law says that everything tends to uniformity and a dead level, diminishing (not increasing) heterogeneity'.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer's attempt to explain the evolution of complexity was radically different from that of Darwin's "Origin of Species" which was published two years later. Spencer is often, quite erroneously, believed to have merely appropriated and generalised Darwin's work on natural selection. But although after reading Darwin's work he coined the phrase 'survival of the fittest' as his own term for Darwin's concept, and is often misrepresented as a thinker who merely applied the Darwinian theory to society, he only grudgingly incorporated natural selection into his preexisting overall system. The primary mechanism of species transformation that he recognised was Lamarckian use-inheritance which posited that organs are developed or are diminished by use or disuse and that the resulting changes may be transmitted to future generations. Spencer believed that this evolutionary mechanism was also necessary to explain 'higher' evolution, especially the social development of humanity. Moreover, in contrast to Darwin, he held that evolution had a direction and an end-point, the attainment of a final state of equilibrium. He tried to apply the theory of biological evolution to sociology. He proposed that society was the product of change from lower to higher forms, just as in the theory of biological evolution, the lowest forms of life are said to be evolving into higher forms. Spencer claimed that man's mind had evolved in the same way from the simple automatic responses of lower animals to the process of reasoning in the thinking man. Spencer believed in two kinds of knowledge: knowledge gained by the individual and knowledge gained by the race. Intuition, or knowledge learned unconsciously, was the inherited experience of the race.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer in his book "Principles of Biology" (1864), proposed a pangenesis theory that involved "physiological units" assumed to be related to specific body parts and responsible for the transmission of characteristics to offspring. These hypothetical hereditary units were similar to Darwin's gemmules.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer read with excitement the original positivist sociology of Auguste Comte. A philosopher of science, Comte had proposed a theory of sociocultural evolution that society progresses by a general law of three stages. Writing after various developments in biology, however, Spencer rejected what he regarded as the ideological aspects of Comte's positivism, attempting to reformulate social science in terms of his principle of evolution, which he applied to the biological, psychological and sociological aspects of the universe.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Given the primacy which Spencer placed on evolution, his sociology might be described as social Darwinism mixed with Lamarckism. However, despite its popularity, this view of Spencer's sociology is mistaken. While his political and ethical writings had themes consistent with social Darwinism, such themes are absent in Spencer's sociological works, which focus on how processes of societal growth and differentiation lead to changing degrees of complexity in social organization


title: Herbert Spencer

text: The evolutionary progression from simple, undifferentiated homogeneity to complex, differentiated heterogeneity was exemplified, Spencer argued, by the development of society. He developed a theory of two types of society, the militant and the industrial, which corresponded to this evolutionary progression. Militant society, structured around relationships of hierarchy and obedience, was simple and undifferentiated; industrial society, based on voluntary, contractually assumed social obligations, was complex and differentiated. Society, which Spencer conceptualised as a 'social organism' evolved from the simpler state to the more complex according to the universal law of evolution. Moreover, industrial society was the direct descendant of the ideal society developed in "Social Statics", although Spencer now equivocated over whether the evolution of society would result in anarchism (as he had first believed) or whether it pointed to a continued role for the state, albeit one reduced to the minimal functions of the enforcement of contracts and external defense.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Though Spencer made some valuable contributions to early sociology, not least in his influence on structural functionalism, his attempt to introduce Lamarckian or Darwinian ideas into the realm of sociology was unsuccessful. It was considered by many, furthermore, to be actively dangerous. Hermeneuticians of the period, such as Wilhelm Dilthey, would pioneer the distinction between the natural sciences ("Naturwissenschaften") and human sciences ("Geisteswissenschaften"). In the United States, the sociologist Lester Frank Ward, who would be elected as the first president of the American Sociological Association, launched a relentless attack on Spencer's theories of laissez-faire and political ethics. Although Ward admired much of Spencer's work he believed that Spencer's prior political biases had distorted his thought and had led him astray. In the 1890s, Émile Durkheim established formal academic sociology with a firm emphasis on practical social research. By the turn of the 20th century the first generation of German sociologists, most notably Max Weber, had presented methodological antipositivism. However, Spencer's theories of laissez-faire, survival-of-the-fittest and minimal human interference in the processes of natural law had an enduring and even increasing appeal in the social science fields of economics and political science, and one writer has recently made the case for Spencer's importance for a sociology that must learn to take energy in society seriously.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: The end point of the evolutionary process would be the creation of 'the perfect man in the perfect society' with human beings becoming completely adapted to social life, as predicted in Spencer's first book. The chief difference between Spencer's earlier and later conceptions of this process was the evolutionary timescale involved. The psychological – and hence also the moral – constitution which had been bequeathed to the present generation by our ancestors, and which we in turn would hand on to future generations, was in the process of gradual adaptation to the requirements of living in society. For example, aggression was a survival instinct which had been necessary in the primitive conditions of life, but was maladaptive in advanced societies. Because human instincts had a specific location in strands of brain tissue, they were subject to the Lamarckian mechanism of use-inheritance so that gradual modifications could be transmitted to future generations. Over the course of many generations the evolutionary process would ensure that human beings would become less aggressive and increasingly altruistic, leading eventually to a perfect society in which no one would cause another person pain.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: However, for evolution to produce the perfect individual it was necessary for present and future generations to experience the 'natural' consequences of their conduct. Only in this way would individuals have the incentives required to work on self-improvement and thus to hand an improved moral constitution to their descendants. Hence anything that interfered with the 'natural' relationship of conduct and consequence was to be resisted and this included the use of the coercive power of the state to relieve poverty, to provide public education, or to require compulsory vaccination. Although charitable giving was to be encouraged even it had to be limited by the consideration that suffering was frequently the result of individuals receiving the consequences of their actions. Hence too much individual benevolence directed to the 'undeserving poor' would break the link between conduct and consequence that Spencer considered fundamental to ensuring that humanity continued to evolve to a higher level of development.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer adopted a utilitarian standard of ultimate value – the greatest happiness of the greatest number – and the culmination of the evolutionary process would be the maximization of utility. In the perfect society individuals would not only derive pleasure from the exercise of altruism ('positive beneficence') but would aim to avoid inflicting pain on others ('negative beneficence'). They would also instinctively respect the rights of others, leading to the universal observance of the principle of justice – each person had the right to a maximum amount of liberty that was compatible with a like liberty in others. 'Liberty' was interpreted to mean the absence of coercion, and was closely connected to the right to private property. Spencer termed this code of conduct 'Absolute Ethics' which provided a scientifically-grounded moral system that could substitute for the supernaturally-based ethical systems of the past. However, he recognized that our inherited moral constitution does not currently permit us to behave in full compliance with the code of Absolute Ethics, and for this reason we need a code of 'Relative Ethics' which takes into account the distorting factors of our present imperfections.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer's distinctive view of musicology was also related to his ethics. Spencer thought that the origin of music is to be found in impassioned oratory. Speakers have persuasive effect not only by the reasoning of their words, but by their cadence and tone – the musical qualities of their voice serve as "the commentary of the emotions upon the propositions of the intellect," as Spencer put it. Music, conceived as the heightened development of this characteristic of speech, makes a contribution to the ethical education and progress of the species. "The strange capacity which we have for being affected by melody and harmony, may be taken to imply both that it is within the possibilities of our nature to realize those intenser delights they dimly suggest, and that they are in some way concerned in the realization of them. If so the power and the meaning of music become comprehensible; but otherwise they are a mystery."


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer's last years were characterized by a collapse of his initial optimism, replaced instead by a pessimism regarding the future of mankind. Nevertheless, he devoted much of his efforts in reinforcing his arguments and preventing the misinterpretation of his monumental theory of non-interference.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer's reputation among the Victorians owed a great deal to his agnosticism. He rejected theology as representing the 'impiety of the pious.' He was to gain much notoriety from his repudiation of traditional religion, and was frequently condemned by religious thinkers for allegedly advocating atheism and materialism. Nonetheless, unlike Thomas Henry Huxley, whose agnosticism was a militant creed directed at 'the unpardonable sin of faith' (in Adrian Desmond's phrase), Spencer insisted that he was not concerned to undermine religion in the name of science, but to bring about a reconciliation of the two. The following argument is a summary of Part 1 of his "First Principles" (2nd ed. 1867).


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Starting either from religious belief or from science, Spencer argued, we are ultimately driven to accept certain indispensable but literally inconceivable notions. Whether we are concerned with a Creator or the substratum which underlies our experience of phenomena, we can frame no conception of it. Therefore, Spencer concluded, religion and science agree in the supreme truth that the human understanding is only capable of 'relative' knowledge. This is the case since, owing to the inherent limitations of the human mind, it is only possible to obtain knowledge of phenomena, not of the reality ('the absolute') underlying phenomena. Hence both science and religion must come to recognise as the 'most certain of all facts that the Power which the Universe manifests to us is utterly inscrutable.' He called this awareness of 'the Unknowable' and he presented worship of the Unknowable as capable of being a positive faith which could substitute for conventional religion. Indeed, he thought that the Unknowable represented the ultimate stage in the evolution of religion, the final elimination of its last anthropomorphic vestiges.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencerian views in 21st-century circulation derive from his political theories and memorable attacks on the reform movements of the late 19th century. He has been claimed as a precursor by right-libertarians and anarcho-capitalists. Austrian School economist Murray Rothbard called "Social Statics" "the greatest single work of libertarian political philosophy ever written." Spencer argued that the state was not an "essential" institution and that it would "decay" as voluntary market organisation would replace the coercive aspects of the state. He also argued that the individual had a "right to ignore the state." As a result of this perspective, Spencer was harshly critical of patriotism. In response to being told that British troops were in danger during the Second Afghan War (1878-1880) he replied: "When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don't care if they are shot themselves."


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Politics in late Victorian Britain moved in directions that Spencer disliked, and his arguments provided so much ammunition for conservatives and individualists in Europe and America that they are still in use in the 21st century. The expression "There is no alternative" (TINA), made famous by prime minister Margaret Thatcher, may be traced to its emphatic use by Spencer. By the 1880s, he was denouncing "the new Toryism", that is, the "social reformist wing" of the Liberal Party, the wing to some extent hostile to prime minister William Ewart Gladstone, this faction of the Liberal Party Spencer compared to the interventionist "Toryism" of such people as the former Conservative Party prime minister Benjamin Disraeli. In "The Man Versus the State" (1884), he attacked Gladstone and the Liberal Party for losing its proper mission (they should be defending personal liberty, he said) and instead promoting paternalist social legislation (what Gladstone himself called "Construction", an element in the modern Liberal party that he opposed). Spencer denounced Irish land reform, compulsory education, laws to regulate safety at work, prohibition and temperance laws, tax funded libraries, and welfare reforms. His main objections were threefold: the use of the coercive powers of the government, the discouragement given to voluntary self-improvement, and the disregard of the "laws of life". The reforms, he said, were tantamount to "socialism", which he said was about the same as "slavery" in terms of limiting human freedom. Spencer vehemently attacked the widespread enthusiasm for annexation of colonies and imperial expansion, which subverted all he had predicted about evolutionary progress from 'militant' to 'industrial' societies and states.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer anticipated many of the analytical standpoints of later right-libertarian theorists such as Friedrich Hayek, especially in his "law of equal liberty", his insistence on the limits to predictive knowledge, his model of a spontaneous social order, and his warnings about the "unintended consequences" of collectivist social reforms. While often caricatured as ultra-conservative, Spencer had been more radical, or left-libertarian, earlier in his career, opposing private property in land and claiming that each person has a latent claim to participate in the use of the earth (views that influenced Georgism), calling himself "a radical feminist" and advocating the organisation of trade unions as a bulwark against "exploitation by bosses", and favoured an economy organised primarily in free worker co-operatives as a replacement for wage-labor. Although he retained support for unions, his views on the other issues had changed by the 1880s. He came to predict that social welfare programmes would eventually lead to socialisation of the means of production, saying "all socialism is slavery." Spencer defined a slave as a person who "labours under coercion to satisfy another's desires" and believed that under socialism or communism the individual would be enslaved to the whole community rather than to a particular master, and "it means not whether his master is a single person or society."


title: Herbert Spencer

text: For many, the name of Herbert Spencer is virtually synonymous with social Darwinism, a social theory that applies the law of the survival of the fittest to society and is integrally related to the nineteenth century rise in scientific racism. In his famed work "Social Statics" (1850), he argued that imperialism had served civilization by clearing the inferior races off the earth: "The forces which are working out the great scheme of perfect happiness, taking no account of incidental suffering, exterminate such sections of mankind as stand in their way. … Be he human or be he brute – the hindrance must be got rid of." Yet, in the same work, Spencer goes on to say that the incidental evolutionary benefits derived from such barbarous practices do not serve as justifications for them going forward.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer's association with social Darwinism might have its origin in a specific interpretation of his support for competition. Whereas in biology the competition of various organisms can result in the death of a species or organism, the kind of competition Spencer advocated is closer to the one used by economists, where competing individuals or firms improve the well being of the rest of society. Spencer viewed private charity positively, encouraging both voluntary association and informal care to aid those in need, rather than relying on government bureaucracy or force. He further recommended that private charitable efforts would be wise to avoid encouraging the formation of new dependent families by those unable to support themselves without charity. Focusing on the form as well as the content of Spencer's "Synthetic Philosophy", one writer has identified it as the paradigmatic case of "social Darwinism", understood as a politically motivated metaphysic very different in both form and motivation from Darwinist science.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: In a letter to the Japanese government regarding intermarriage with Westerners, Spencer stated that "if you mix the constitution of two widely divergent varieties which have severally become adapted to widely divergent modes of life, you get a constitution which is adapted to the mode of life of neithera constitution which will not work properly." He goes on to say that America has failed to limit the immigration of Chinese and restrict their contact, especially sexual, with the presumed European stock. He states "if they mix they must form a bad hybrid" regarding the issue of Chinese and (ethnically European) Americans. Spencer ends his letter with the following blanket statement against all immigration: "In either case, supposing the immigration to be large, immense social mischief must arise, and eventually social disorganization. The same thing will happen if there should be any considerable mixture of European or American races with the Japanese."


title: Herbert Spencer

text: While most philosophers fail to achieve much of a following outside the academy of their professional peers, by the 1870s and 1880s Spencer had achieved an unparalleled popularity, as the sheer volume of his sales indicate. He was probably the first, and possibly the only, philosopher in history to sell over a million copies of his works during his own lifetime. In the United States, where pirated editions were still commonplace, his authorised publisher, Appleton, sold 368,755 copies between 1860 and 1903. This figure did not differ much from his sales in his native Britain, and once editions in the rest of the world are added in the figure of a million copies seems like a conservative estimate. As William James remarked, Spencer "enlarged the imagination, and set free the speculative mind of countless doctors, engineers, and lawyers, of many physicists and chemists, and of thoughtful laymen generally." The aspect of his thought that emphasised individual self-improvement found a ready audience in the skilled working class.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer's influence among leaders of thought was also immense, though it was most often expressed in terms of their reaction to, and repudiation of, his ideas. As his American follower John Fiske observed, Spencer's ideas were to be found "running like the weft through all the warp" of Victorian thought. Such varied thinkers as Henry Sidgwick, T.H. Green, G.E. Moore, William James, Henri Bergson, and Émile Durkheim defined their ideas in relation to his. Durkheim's "Division of Labour in Society" is to a very large extent an extended debate with Spencer, from whose sociology, many commentators now agree, Durkheim borrowed extensively.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: In post-1863-Uprising Poland, many of Spencer's ideas became integral to the dominant "fin-de-siècle" ideology, "Polish Positivism". The leading Polish writer of the period, Bolesław Prus, hailed Spencer as "the Aristotle of the nineteenth century" and adopted Spencer's metaphor of society-as-organism, giving it a striking poetic presentation in his 1884 micro-story, "Mold of the Earth", and highlighting the concept in the introduction to his most universal novel, "Pharaoh" (1895).


title: Herbert Spencer

text: The early 20th century was hostile to Spencer. Soon after his death, his philosophical reputation went into a sharp decline. Half a century after his death, his work was dismissed as a "parody of philosophy", and the historian Richard Hofstadter called him "the metaphysician of the homemade intellectual, and the prophet of the cracker-barrel agnostic." Nonetheless, Spencer's thought had penetrated so deeply into the Victorian age that his influence did not disappear entirely.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: In recent years, much more positive estimates have appeared, as well as a still highly negative estimate.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Despite his reputation as a social Darwinist, Spencer's political thought has been open to multiple interpretations. His political philosophy could both provide inspiration to those who believed that individuals were masters of their fate, who should brook no interference from a meddling state, and those who believed that social development required a strong central authority. In "Lochner v. New York", conservative justices of the United States Supreme Court could find inspiration in Spencer's writings for striking down a New York law limiting the number of hours a baker could work during the week, on the ground that this law restricted liberty of contract. Arguing against the majority's holding that a "right to free contract" is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote: "The Fourteenth Amendment does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer's Social Statics." Spencer has also been described as a quasi-anarchist, as well as an outright anarchist. Marxist theorist Georgi Plekhanov, in his 1909 book "Anarchism and Socialism", labelled Spencer a "conservative Anarchist."


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer’s work has frequently been seen as a model for later libertarian thinkers, such as Robert Nozick, and he continues to be read–and is often invoked–by libertarians on issues concerning the function of government and the fundamental character of individual rights.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer's ideas also became very influential in China and Japan largely because he appealed to the reformers' desire to establish a strong nation-state with which to compete with the Western powers. His thought was introduced by the Chinese scholar Yen Fu, who saw his writings as a prescription for the reform of the Qing state. Spencerism was so influential in China that it was synthesized into the Chinese translation of the Origin of Species, in which Darwin’s branching view of evolution was converted into a linear-progressive one. Spencer also influenced the Japanese Westernizer Tokutomi Soho, who believed that Japan was on the verge of transitioning from a "militant society" to an "industrial society," and needed to quickly jettison all things Japanese and take up Western ethics and learning. He also corresponded with Kaneko Kentaro, warning him of the dangers of imperialism. Savarkar writes in his "Inside the Enemy Camp", about reading all of Spencer's works, of his great interest in them, of their translation into Marathi, and their influence on the likes of Tilak and Agarkar, and the affectionate sobriquet given to him in Maharashtra – Harbhat Pendse.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer greatly influenced literature and rhetoric. His 1852 essay, "The Philosophy of Style", explored a growing trend of formalist approaches to writing. Highly focused on the proper placement and ordering of the parts of an English sentence, he created a guide for effective composition. Spencer aimed to free prose writing from as much "friction and inertia" as possible, so that the reader would not be slowed by strenuous deliberations concerning the proper context and meaning of a sentence. Spencer argued that writers should aim "To so present ideas that they may be apprehended with the least possible mental effort" by the reader.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: He argued that by making the meaning as readily accessible as possible, the writer would achieve the greatest possible communicative efficiency. This was accomplished, according to Spencer, by placing all the subordinate clauses, objects and phrases before the subject of a sentence so that, when readers reached the subject, they had all the information they needed to completely perceive its significance. While the overall influence that "The Philosophy of Style" had on the field of rhetoric was not as far-reaching as his contribution to other fields, Spencer's voice lent authoritative support to formalist views of rhetoric.


title: Herbert Spencer

text: Spencer influenced literature inasmuch as many novelists and short story authors came to address his ideas in their work. Spencer was referenced by George Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, Machado de Assis, Thomas Hardy, Bolesław Prus, George Bernard Shaw, Abraham Cahan, Richard Austin Freeman, D. H. Lawrence, and Jorge Luis Borges. Arnold Bennett greatly praised "First Principles", and the influence it had on Bennett may be seen in his many novels. Jack London went so far as to create a character, "Martin Eden", a staunch Spencerian. It has also been suggested that the character of Vershinin in Anton Chekhov's play "The Three Sisters" is a dedicated Spencerian. H.G. Wells used Spencer's ideas as a theme in his novella, "The Time Machine", employing them to explain the evolution of man into two species. It is perhaps the best testimony to the influence of Spencer's beliefs and writings that his reach was so diverse. He influenced not only the administrators who shaped their societies' inner workings, but also the artists who helped shape those societies' ideals and beliefs. In Rudyard Kipling's novel "Kim", the Anglophile Bengali spy Hurree Babu admires Herbert Spencer and quotes him to comic effect: "They are, of course, dematerialised phenomena. Spencer says." "I am good enough Herbert Spencerian, I trust, to meet little thing like death, which is all in my fate, you know." "He thanked all the Gods of Hindustan, and Herbert Spencer, that there remained some valuables to steal." Upton Sinclair, in "One Clear Call", 1948, quips that "Huxley said that Herbert Spencer's idea of a tragedy was a generalization killed by a fact; ..."


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: HMS "Prince of Wales" was a "King George V"-class battleship of the Royal Navy that was built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England. She had an extensive battle history, first seeing action in August 1940 while still being outfitted in her drydock when she was attacked and damaged by German aircraft. In her brief career, she was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the May 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait where she scored three hits on the German battleship "Bismarck", forcing "Bismarck" to abandon her raiding mission and head to port for repairs. "Prince of Wales" later escorted one of the Malta convoys in the Mediterranean, during which she was attacked by Italian aircraft. In her final action, she attempted to intercept Japanese troop convoys off the coast of Malaya as part of Force Z when she was sunk by Japanese aircraft on 10 December 1941, two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: She was sunk alongside her consort, the battlecruiser HMS "Repulse", in an attack by 85 Mitsubishi G3M and G4M bombers of the Japanese navy air service. HMS "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" became the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea, a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was subsequently to play in naval warfare. The wreck of "Prince of Wales" lies upside down in of water, near Kuantan, in the South China Sea.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: In the aftermath of the First World War, the Washington Naval Treaty was drawn up in 1922 in an effort to stop an arms race developing between Britain, Japan, France, Italy and the United States. This treaty limited the number of ships each nation was allowed to build and capped the tonnage of all capital ships at 35,000 tons. These restrictions were extended in 1930 through the Treaty of London, however, by the mid-1930s Japan and Italy had withdrawn from both of these treaties, and the British became concerned about a lack of modern battleships within their navy. As a result, the Admiralty ordered the construction of a new battleship class: the "King George V" class. Due to the provisions of both the Washington Naval Treaty and the Treaty of London, both of which were still in effect when the "King George V"s were being designed, the main armament of the class was limited to the guns prescribed under these instruments. They were the only battleships built at that time to adhere to the treaty, and even though it soon became apparent to the British that the other signatories to the treaty were ignoring its requirements, it was too late to change the design of the class before they were laid down in 1937.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: "Prince of Wales" was originally to be named "King Edward VIII" but upon the abdication of Edward VIII the ship was renamed even before she had been laid down. This occurred at Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead on 1 January 1937, although it was not until 3 May 1939 that she was launched. She was still fitting out when war was declared in September, causing her construction schedule, and that of her sister, , to be accelerated. Nevertheless, the late delivery of gun mountings caused delays in her outfitting.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: In early August 1940, while she was still being outfitted and was in a semi-complete state, "Prince of Wales" was attacked by German aircraft. One bomb fell between the ship and a wet basin wall, narrowly missing a 100-ton dockside crane, and exploded underwater below the bilge keel. The explosion took place about six feet from the ship's port side in the vicinity of the aft group of 5.25-inch guns. Buckling of the shell plating took place over a distance of 20 to , rivets were sprung and considerable flooding took place in the port outboard compartments in the area of damage, causing a ten-degree port list. The flooding was severe, because final compartment air tests had not yet been made and the ship did not have her pumping system in operation.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: The water was pumped out through the joint efforts of a local fire company and the shipyard, and "Prince of Wales" was later dry-docked for permanent repairs. This damage and the problem with the delivery of her main guns and turrets delayed her completion. As the war progressed there was an urgent need for capital ships, and so her completion was advanced by postponing compartment air tests, ventilation tests and thorough testing of her bilge, ballast and fuel-oil systems.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: "Prince of Wales" displaced as built and fully loaded. The ship had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . Her designed metacentric height was at normal load and at deep load.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines, driving four propeller shafts. Steam was provided by eight Admiralty boilers which normally delivered , but could deliver at emergency overload.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: This gave "Prince of Wales" a top speed of . The ship carried of fuel oil. She also carried of diesel oil, of reserve feed water and of freshwater. During full-power trials on 31 March 1941, "Prince of Wales" at 42,100 tons displacement achieved 28 knots with 111,600 shp at 228 rpm and a specific fuel consumption of 0.73 lb per shp. "Prince of Wales" had a range of at .


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: "Prince of Wales" mounted 10 BL 14-inch (356 mm) Mk VII guns. The 14-inch guns were mounted in one Mark II twin turret forward and two Mark III quadruple turrets, one forward and one aft. The guns could be elevated 40 degrees and depressed 3 degrees. Training arcs were: turret "A", 286 degrees; turret "B", 270 degrees; turret "Y", 270 degrees. Training and elevating was done by hydraulic drives, with rates of two and eight degrees per second, respectively. A full gun broadside weighed , and a salvo could be fired every 40 seconds. The secondary armament consisted of 16 QF 5.25-inch (133 mm) Mk I guns which were mounted in eight twin mounts, weighing 81 tons each. The maximum range of the Mk I guns was at a 45-degree elevation, the anti-aircraft ceiling was . The guns could be elevated to 70 degrees and depressed to 5 degrees. The normal rate of fire was ten to twelve rounds per minute, but in practice, the guns could only fire seven to eight rounds per minute. Along with her main and secondary batteries, "Prince of Wales" carried 32 QF 2 pdr (1.575-inch, 40.0 mm) Mk.VIII "pom-pom" anti-aircraft guns. She also carried 80 UP projectors, short-range rocket-firing anti-aircraft weapons used in the early days of the Second World War by the Royal Navy.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: On 22 May 1941, "Prince of Wales", the battlecruiser and six destroyers were ordered to take station south of Iceland and intercept the if she attempted to break out into the Atlantic. Captain John Leach knew that main-battery breakdowns were likely to occur, since Vickers-Armstrongs technicians had already corrected some that took place during training exercises in Scapa Flow. These technicians were personally requested by the captain to remain aboard. They did so and played an important role in the resulting action.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: The next day "Bismarck", in company with the heavy cruiser , was reported heading south-westward in the Denmark Strait. At 20:00 Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland, in his flagship "Hood", ordered the force to steam at , which it did most of the night. His battle plan called for "Prince of Wales" and "Hood" to concentrate on "Bismarck", while the cruisers and would handle "Prinz Eugen". However the two cruisers were not informed of this plan because of strict radio silence. At 02:00, on 24 May, the destroyers were sent as a screen to search for the German ships to the north, and at 02:47 "Hood" and "Prince of Wales" increased speed to and changed course slightly to obtain a better target angle on the German ships. The weather improved, with visibility, and crews were at action stations by 05:10.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: At 05:37 an enemy contact report was made, and course was changed to starboard to close range. Neither ship was in good fighting trim. "Hood", designed twenty-five years earlier, lacked adequate decking armour and would have to close the range quickly, as she would become progressively less vulnerable to plunging shellfire at shorter ranges. She had completed an overhaul in March and her crew had not been adequately retrained. "Prince of Wales", with thicker armour, was less vulnerable to 15-inch shells at ranges greater than , but her crew had also not been trained to battle efficiency. The British ships made their last course change at 05:49, but they had made their approach too fine (the German ships were only 30 degrees on the starboard bow) and their aft turrets could not fire. "Prinz Eugen", with "Bismarck" astern, had "Prince of Wales" and "Hood" slightly forward of the beam, and both ships could deliver full broadsides.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: At 05:53, despite seas breaking over the bows, "Prince of Wales" opened fire on "Bismarck" at .<ref name="ADM 234/509">ADM 234/509</ref> There was some confusion among the British as to which ship was "Bismarck" and thirty seconds earlier "Hood" had mistakenly opened fire on "Prinz Eugen" as the German ships had similar profiles. "Hood"s first salvo straddled the enemy ship, but "Prinz Eugen", in less than three minutes, scored 8-inch-shell hits on "Hood". The first shots by "Prince of Wales" – two three-gun salvoes at ten-second intervals – were 1,000 yards over. The turret rangefinders on "Prince of Wales" could not be used because of spray over the bow and fire was instead directed from the rangefinders in the control tower.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: The sixth, ninth and thirteenth salvos were straddles and two hits were made on "Bismarck". One shell holed her bow and caused "Bismarck" to lose 1,000 tons of fuel oil, mostly to salt-water contamination. The other fell short, and entered "Bismarck" below her side armour belt, the shell exploded and flooded the auxiliary boiler machinery room and forced the shutdown of two boilers due to a slow leak in the boiler room immediately aft. The loss of fuel and boiler power were decisive factors in the "Bismarck"s decision to return to port. In "Prince of Wales", "A1" gun ceased fire after the first salvo due to a defect. Sporadic breakdowns occurred until the decision to turn away was made, and during the turn "Y" turret jammed.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: Both German ships initially concentrated their fire on "Hood" and destroyed her with salvoes of 8- and 15-inch shells. An 8-inch shell hit the boat deck and struck a ready service locker for ammunition, and a fire blazed high above the first superstructure deck. At 05:58 at a range of , the force commander ordered a turn of 20 degrees to port to open the range and bring the full battery of the British ships to bear on "Bismarck". As the turn began, "Bismarck" straddled "Hood" with her third and fourth four-gun salvoes and at 06:01 the fifth salvo hit her, causing a large explosion. Flames shot up near "Hood"s masts, then an orange-coloured fireball and an enormous smoke cloud obliterated the ship. On "Prince of Wales", it seemed that "Hood" collapsed amidships, and the bow and stern could be seen rising as she rapidly settled. "Prince of Wales" made a sharp starboard turn to avoid hitting the debris and in doing so further closed the range between her and the German ships. In the four-minute action, "Hood", the largest battlecruiser in the world, had been sunk. 1,419 officers and men were killed. Only three men survived.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: "Prince of Wales" fired unopposed until she began a port turn at 05:57, when "Prinz Eugen" took her under fire. After "Hood" exploded at 06:01, the Germans opened intense and accurate fire on "Prince of Wales", with 15-inch, 8-inch and 5.9-inch guns. A heavy hit was sustained below the waterline as "Prince of Wales" manoeuvred through the wreckage of "Hood". At 06:02, a 15-inch shell struck the starboard side of the compass platform and killed the majority of the personnel there. The navigating officer was wounded, but Captain Leach was unhurt. Casualties were caused by the fragments from the shell's ballistic cap and the material it dislodged in its diagonal path through the compass platform. A 15-inch diving shell penetrated the ship's side below the armour belt amidships, failed to explode and came to rest in the wing compartments on the starboard side of the after boiler rooms. The shell was discovered and defused when the ship was docked at Rosyth.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: At 06:05 Captain Leach decided to disengage and laid down a heavy smokescreen to cover "Prince of Wales"s escape. Leach then radioed "Norfolk" that "Hood" had been sunk and went to join "Suffolk" astern of "Bismarck". The British ships continued to chase "Bismarck" until 18:16 when "Suffolk" sighted the German battleship at . "Prince of Wales" then opened fire on "Bismarck" at an extreme range of . All 12 salvos missed. At 01:00 on 25 May "Prince of Wales" again regained contact and opened fire at a radar range of , after observers believed that she had scored a hit on "Bismarck", "Prince of Wales"s "A" turret temporarily jammed, leaving her with only six operational guns. After losing "Bismarck" owing to poor visibility, and after searching for 12 hours, "Prince of Wales" headed for Iceland. Thirteen of her crew had been killed, and nine wounded.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: On Friday 6 June, while in dry dock, a hole was found just above the starboard bilge keel. After the inner space had been pumped out, an unexploded shell from "Bismarck" was found nose forward, with its fuse, but without a ballistic cap. The shell was removed by the Bomb Disposal Officer from "HMS Cochrane"


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: After repairs at Rosyth, "Prince of Wales" took Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic for a secret conference with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On 5 August Roosevelt boarded the cruiser from the presidential yacht . "Augusta" proceeded from Massachusetts to Placentia Bay and Argentia in Newfoundland with the cruiser and five destroyers, arriving on 7 August while the presidential yacht played a decoy role by continuing to cruise New England waters as if the president were still on board. On 9 August, Churchill arrived in the bay aboard "Prince of Wales", escorted by the destroyers HMS "Ripley", and . At Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, Roosevelt transferred to the destroyer to meet Churchill on board "Prince of Wales". The conference continued from 10 to 12 August aboard "Augusta" and, at the end of the conference, the Atlantic Charter was proclaimed. "Prince of Wales" arrived back at Scapa Flow on 18 August.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: In September 1941, "Prince of Wales" was assigned to Force H, in the Mediterranean. On 24 September "Prince of Wales" formed part of Group II, led by Vice-Admiral Alban Curteis and consisting of the battleships "Prince of Wales" and , the cruisers , , and , and twelve destroyers. The force provided an escort for Operation Halberd, a supply convoy from Gibraltar to Malta. On 27 September the convoy was attacked by Italian aircraft, with "Prince of Wales" shooting down several with her guns. Later that day there were reports that units of the Italian Fleet were approaching. "Prince of Wales", the battleship "Rodney" and the aircraft carrier were despatched to intercept, but the search proved fruitless. The convoy arrived in Malta without further incident, and "Prince of Wales" returned to Gibraltar, before sailing on to Scapa Flow, arriving there on 6 October.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: On 25 October "Prince of Wales" and a destroyer escort left home waters bound for Singapore, there to rendezvous with the battlecruiser and the aircraft carrier . "Indomitable" however ran aground off Jamaica a few days later and was unable to proceed. Calling at Freetown and Cape Town South Africa to refuel and generate publicity, "Prince of Wales" also stopped in Mauritius and the Maldive Islands. "Prince of Wales" reached Colombo, Ceylon, on 28 November, joining "Repulse" the next day. On 2 December the fleet docked in Singapore. "Prince of Wales" then became the flagship of Force Z, under the command of Admiral Sir Tom Phillips. Admiral of the Home Fleet Sir John Tovey was opposed to sending any of the new "King George V" battleships as he believed that they were not suited to operating in tropical climates.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: Japanese troop-convoys were first sighted on 6 December. Two days later, Japanese aircraft raided Singapore; although the "Prince of Wales"s anti-aircraft batteries opened fire, they scored no hits and had no effect on the Japanese aircraft. A signal was received from the Admiralty in London ordering the British squadron to commence hostilities, and that evening, confident that a protective air umbrella would be provided by the RAF presence in the region, Admiral Phillips set sail. Force Z at this time comprised the battleship "Prince of Wales", the battlecruiser "Repulse", and the destroyers , , and .


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: The object of the sortie was to attack Japanese transports at Kota Bharu, but in the afternoon of 9 December the Japanese submarine "I-65" spotted the British ships, and in the evening they were detected by Japanese aerial reconnaissance. By this time it had been made clear that no RAF fighter support would be forthcoming. At midnight a signal was received that Japanese forces were landing at Kuantan in Malaya. Force Z was diverted to investigate. At 02:11 on 10 December the force was again sighted by a Japanese submarine and at 08:00 arrived off Kuantan, only to discover that the reported landings were a diversion.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: At 11:00 that morning the first Japanese air attack began. Eight Type 96 "Nell" bombers dropped their bombs close to "Repulse", one passing through the hangar roof and exploding on the 1-inch plating of the main deck below. The second attack force, comprising seventeen "Nells" armed with torpedoes, arrived at 11:30, divided into two attack formations. Despite reports to the contrary, "Prince of Wales" was struck by only one torpedo. Meanwhile, "Repulse" avoided the seven torpedoes aimed at her, as well as bombs dropped by six other "Nells" a few minutes later.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: The torpedo struck "Prince of Wales" on the port side aft, abaft "Y" Turret, wrecking the outer propeller shaft on that side and destroying bulkheads to one degree or another along the shaft all the way to B Engine Room. This caused rapid uncontrollable flooding and put the entire electrical system in the after part of the ship out of action. Lacking effective damage control, she soon took on a heavy list.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: A fourth attack, conducted by torpedo-carrying Type 1 "Bettys", developed. This one scored hits on "Repulse" and she sank at 12:33. Six aircraft from this wave also attacked "Prince of Wales", hitting her with three torpedoes, causing further damage and flooding. Finally, a bomb hit "Prince of Wales"'s catapult deck, penetrated to the main deck, where it exploded, causing many casualties in the makeshift aid centre in the Cinema Flat. Several other bombs from this attack scored very near misses, indenting the hull, popping rivets and causing hull plates to split along the seams and intensifying the flooding. At 13:15 the order to abandon ship was given, and at 13:20 "Prince of Wales" capsized to port, floated for a few brief moments upside down, and sank stern first; Admiral Phillips and Captain Leach were among the 327 fatalities.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" were the first capital ships to be sunk solely by naval air power on the open sea (albeit by land-based rather than carrier-based aircraft), a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was to play in naval warfare thereafter. It is often pointed out, however, that contributing factors to the sinking of "Prince of Wales" were her surface-scanning radars being inoperable in the humid tropic climate, depriving Force Z of one of its most potent early-warning devices, and the critical early damage she sustained from the first torpedo. Another factor which led to "Prince of Wales"s demise was the loss of her dynamos, depriving "Prince of Wales" of many of her electric pumps. Further electrical failures left parts of the ship in total darkness, and added to the difficulties of her damage repair parties as they attempted to counter the flooding.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: The sinking was the subject of an inquiry chaired by Mr. Justice Bucknill, but the true causes of the ship's loss were only established when divers examined the wreck after the war. The Director of Naval Construction's report on the sinking claimed that the ship's anti-aircraft guns could have inflicted heavy casualties before torpedoes were dropped, if not preventing the successful conclusion of attack had crews been more adequately trained in their operation.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: The wreck lies upside down in of water at . A Royal Navy White Ensign attached to a line on a buoy tied to a propeller shaft is periodically renewed. The wreck site was designated a 'Protected Place' in 2001 under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, just prior to the 60th anniversary of her sinking. The ship's bell was manually raised in 2002 by British technical divers with the permission of the Ministry of Defence and blessing of the Force Z Survivors Association. It was restored, then presented for display by First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sir Alan West, to the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool. The bell has been since moved to the National Museum of the Royal Navy at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard for display in the Hear My Story Galleries.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: In May 2007, Expedition 'Job 74', a dedicated survey of the exterior hull of both "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse", was conducted. The expedition's findings sparked considerable interest among naval architects and marine engineers around the world; as they detailed the nature of the damage to "Prince of Wales" and the exact location and number of torpedo hits. Consequently, the findings contained in the initial expedition report and later supplementary reports were analysed by the SNAME (Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers) Marine Forensics Committee and a resultant paper was drawn up entitled "Death of a Battleship: A Re-analysis of the Tragic Loss of HMS Prince of Wales", and was subsequently presented at a meeting of RINA (Royal Institution of Naval Architects) and IMarEST (Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology) members in London in 2009 by Mr William Garzke. This report was also presented to the IMarEST, this time in New York, in 2011. However, in 2012 the original paper was updated and expanded (and renamed "Death of a Battleship: The Loss of HMS Prince of Wales. A Marine Forensics Analysis of the Sinking") in light of a subsequent diver being able to penetrate deep into the port outer propeller shaft tunnel with a high definition camera, taking photos along the entire length of the propeller shaft all the way to the aft bulkhead of 'B' Engine Room.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: In October 2014, the "Daily Telegraph" reported that both "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" were being "extensively damaged" with explosives by scrap metal dealers.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: It is currently traditional for every passing Royal Navy ship to perform a remembrance service over the site of the wrecks.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: In spring 2019, Cammell Laird was commissioned to make a replica of the ship's bell for the ship's successor, , the second . The original at the National Museum of the Royal Navy's Portsmouth Historic Dockyard location was surveyed as part of the process.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: Cammell Laird were able to contact Utley Offshore in St Helens, the foundry that made both the original bell and 's bell, who still had the original pattern based on the 1908 Admiralty design. Compared to the bronze or bell metal that is used in most modern ship bells, specially sourced nickel silver was used for authenticity. The engraving was done by Shawcross in Birkenhead, while Cammell Laird shipwrights constructed the hardwood base. Cammell Laird COO Tony Graham presented the finished replica to commanding officer Captain Darren Houston during the ship's week-long visit to Liverpool in March 2020.


title: HMS Prince of Wales (53)

text: During her career, "Prince of Wales" was refitted on several occasions, to bring her equipment up to date. The following are the dates and details of the refits undertaken.


title: Joely Collins

text: Joely Collins (born Joely Meri Bertorelli; August 8, 1972) is a British-Canadian actress and producer. She is the daughter of Andrea Bertorelli and of English musician Phil Collins.


title: Joely Collins

text: Born and raised largely in Vancouver, British Columbia, Collins studied at the Vancouver Youth Theatre, and later at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She was adopted by her mother's husband, Phil Collins, upon their marriage in 1975. They later had one child, son Simon (born in 1976). She was named Canada's "Best Leading Actress" at the age of 22 for her work on the television series "Madison". She appeared on the long-running drama "Cold Squad". In 2009, she co-founded StoryLab Productions and produced the award-winning feature film "Becoming Redwood".


title: Joely Collins

text: Actress Lily Collins is her paternal step-sister, born to her adoptive father Phil Collins and his second wife Jill Tavelman after he and her mother Andrea Bertorelli divorced in 1980.


title: Joely Collins

text: Collins won the award for Best Actress in a Canadian Film at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2004 for "The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess".


title: Joely Collins

text: Collins married Dutch-born Stefan Buitelaar on August 23, 2008, in Leiden, Netherlands. On October 26, 2009, Collins gave birth to their daughter, Zoë Amelie.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: The Sandman (William Baker, a.k.a. Flint Marko) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. A shapeshifter endowed through an accident with the ability to turn himself into sand, he started out as a recurring adversary to the superhero Spider-Man, but has been slowly redeemed over time, eventually becoming an antihero. The Sandman has also been an enemy of the Fantastic Four and is a founding member of the supervillain teams the Sinister Six and the Frightful Four.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: The character has been adapted into various other media incarnations of Spider-Man, including films, television series, and video games. In live-action, he was portrayed by Thomas Haden Church in "Spider-Man 3" (2007) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film "" (2021). A creature based on the Sandman appeared in the MCU film "" (2019), which was actually an illusion created by a series of drones operated by Mysterio. In 2009, the Sandman was ranked as IGN's 72nd Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: The Sandman first appeared in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #4 (Sept. 1963), created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko as an adversary of Spider-Man. The character returned in "The Amazing Spider-Man Annual" #1 and "The Amazing Spider-Man" #18-19, and was soon depicted in other comics, such as "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Fantastic Four".


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: The Sandman served as the villain of the first issue of the Spider-Man spin-off series "Marvel Team-Up" (March 1972), which gave him a more morally ambiguous depiction. Writer Roy Thomas later commented, "I've been pleased to see Sandman's gradual redemption, whose seeds perhaps I helped plant in that story. He just seemed to me like a character who might have that in him ..." Subsequent stories stuck with the character's original depiction, but a decade later the more sympathetic portrayal of the Sandman returned, starting with "Marvel Two-in-One" #86 (April 1982), in which the Sandman is given co-star billing with his nemesis the Thing. The Sandman was later an ally of Spider-Man, as well as a reserve member of the Avengers and a member of Silver Sable's "Wild Pack" team of mercenaries.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: Besides being most notable as a Spider-Man supervillain, he has also been depicted as a Fantastic Four antagonist in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby comic books (mostly due to being introduced as a founding member of the original Frightful Four) along with being on the heroic side (being an Avengers reserve member) until being introduced as a tragic supervillain in the Spider-Man comics once again.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: William Baker was born in Queens, New York. When he was three years old, his father abandoned him and his mother. In these early years, she took her son to Coney Island beach. He lost himself happily in sand sculptures, a craft he would use in secondary school under the encouragement of his teacher (and first crush), Miss Flint.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: In preparatory school, a boy named Vic bullied Baker until he learned to fight using an opponents' motions against themselves, a technique he performed as if he "slipped through their fingers like sand". Vic and his buddies eventually befriended Baker. In high school, William played on his school's football team, using the sport to channel his anger. While playing football, he adopted the nickname "Flint", after his former teacher.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: After Vic incurs a large gambling debt to a mobster, he begs Flint to fix a football game he bet on to pay off his debt. Flint does, but is kicked off the team after the coach discovers his involvement. The coach taunts Baker, telling him that he will accomplish nothing of importance in his life. Flint hits his ex-coach, resulting in his expulsion from school and the beginning of his life of crime.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: His illegal activity increases in depth and scope, turning him into a violent, bitter man. Eventually he ends up in prison on Ryker's Island where he meets his father, Floyd Baker. He is friendly to his father, but does not tell him who he is. He tells Floyd his nickname, Flint, and a false surname, Marko, inspired by his former coach's taunts about not "making a mark" on the world. He uses the alias Flint Marko from that point on (he changed his name also to prevent his mother from discovering he was a criminal). After Floyd is released from prison, Marko escapes.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: Marko flees to a nuclear testing site on a beach near Savannah, Georgia where he comes into contact with sand that had been irradiated by an experimental reactor. His body and the radioactive sand bond, changing Marko's molecular structure into sand. Impressed, he calls himself the Sandman after his new powers.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: Marko clashes with Peter Parker/Spider-Man for the first time in Peter's high school. Spider-Man defeats Marko with a vacuum cleaner and hands it over to the police. The Sandman escapes by getting through his window after turning himself to sand, but is recaptured by the Human Torch after the Torch lures the Sandman to a building by disguising himself as Spider-Man, then activating the sprinkler system. After this Marko resurfaces as a member of the Sinister Six, led by Doctor Octopus. He battles Spider-Man inside an airtight metal box, which is activated when Spider-Man touches a card saying where the Vulture is, but the Sandman is defeated due to Spider-Man having stronger lungs than he does.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: Alongside the Enforcers, he captures the Human Torch but later succumbs to Spider-Man and the Human Torch.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: After Spider-Man defeats Marko numerous times, Marko diverts his attention to other superheroes. He teams with the Wizard, Paste-Pot Pete (later known as the Trapster) and Medusa to form the Frightful Four to combat the Fantastic Four, which attacks during Reed and Sue's engagement party. The Fantastic Four, with the help of a few other superheroes, defeat the group. In another battle, in which he teams up with Blastaar and loses against the Four, he dons a diamond-patterned green costume designed by the Wizard. Later, he and the Hulk battle for the first time. The Mandarin joins him in his next conflict against the Hulk.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: In time the Sandman discovers—-starting with his hands—-that his body can transform into glass and back again. He contracts cancer and takes over a medical research center, battling the Hulk again. He battles Wonder Man but is cured of his cancer by radiation.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: Afterward, he allies himself with Hydro-Man to battle their mutual enemy, Spider-Man. An accident merges the two villains into a monster called the Mud-Thing. Spider-Man and the police are able to dehydrate the monstrosity. Months later, the supervillains manage to separate themselves and go their separate ways.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: The time trapped with Hydro-Man caused Marko to question his bad life choices. The Thing, after an aborted attempt to fight Baker, urges him to straighten himself out and use his ability to do good. The story continues when he meets with the Thing for a second time to see a sports game.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: Marko boards with the Cassadas and teams with Spider-Man against the Enforcers. The Sandman then makes sporadic appearances in Spider-Man comics assisting his former enemy. His first appearance has him coming to the rescue of Spider-Man and Silver Sable, who are outnumbered and surrounded by the Sinister Syndicate. Silver Sable is impressed by the Sandman's performance and recruits him as a freelance operative. Doctor Octopus coerces him to rejoin the Sinister Six, but Marko turns against them. Doctor Octopus turns him into glass for his treason. Spider-Man, however, saved the Sandman. Sandman also appears as part of the Outlaws, a group of reformed Spider-Man enemies, such as the Prowler, the Rocket Racer, the Puma and the Will o' the Wisp, that on occasion that would aid Spider-Man.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: Later, he receives a presidential pardon and briefly joins the Avengers as a reserve member. Later, he becomes a full-time mercenary in the employ of Silver Sable, as a member of her Wild Pack, serving alongside heroes such as Paladin and Battlestar. The Sandman is one of the few heroes temporarily overwhelmed by their evil doubles during the Infinity War. This double almost kills them all.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: Marko turns against Spider-Man and his sometimes ally the Thing and declares his allegiance to evil and his former employer, the Wizard. This change proved incompatible to what many fans had thought Sandman had become, a hero. This outcry caused Marvel to rush out a story which retconned "The Amazing Spider-Man" (vol. 2) #4 in which the Wizard had kidnapped the Sandman and used his mind control machine, the Id Machine, to turn him back into a villain.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: The machine worked too well and the Sandman went about reforming the Sinister Six to destroy both Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus, only to be double-crossed by Venom, who the Sandman recruited as the sixth member of the team. During Venom's brawl against the Sandman, the vicious black symbiote's mouth rips a chunk of sand from the Sandman. That missing sand destabilizes the Sandman, causing him to lose his ability to maintain his human form. Before falling into the sewer (and as a nod to fans who rejected Marvel's attempt to re-villainize the character), the Sandman admitted that part of the reason for his fall from grace was the trouble he had to really cope with life on the good guys' side, and asks Spider-Man to tell his mother he was sorry he did not fulfill his promise to her, to be a force for good. The Sandman washes away and slides down a sewer, from which he mixes into Jones Beach, New York and is thought dead.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: The Sandman's body and mind are scattered throughout the beach. This separation lasts too long for him, causing his mind to split into good and its opposite, evil, which when dominant created sand vortexes to ensnare beachcombers. Spider-Man arrived to confront the Sandman, ultimately using the Sandman's mental instability to free his captives and cause him to explode.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: His sand wafts throughout New York and touches down into piles forming beings that personify him: the good, the bad, the gentle and the innocent. Spider-Man locates these Sandmen to convince them to unify. The Sandman's evil persona merges with his innocent and gentle personas, but the Sandman's good persona rebuffs the evil one. Because the Sandman's mind can handle his personality in separation for only a limited time, he loses his ability to retain himself, crumbling and blowing away, leaving Spider-Man to ponder the nature of his scuttled foe.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: The Sandman is one of the villains recruited to recover the Identity Disc, but during its recovery seemingly he is killed in a mutiny. At the series' end, the Sandman is found alive and working with the Vulture to manipulate the other villains.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: In the storyline "Sandblasted", in "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" #17–19 (April–June 2007), the Sandman asks Spider-Man to help him redeem his father, who has been charged with and imprisoned for murdering a homeless man. He admits his father was a petty criminal, but insists he would not commit murder. Marko also said the victim resembles Peter Parker's Uncle Ben, who had been murdered years before then. The Sandman and Spider-Man find the killer, the Chameleon 2211. The Chameleon 2211 kills the Uncle Ben who the Hobgoblin 2211 brought from an alternate universe and had been posing as him after that. Thanks to Spider-Man, Floyd Baker is switched with the Chameleon 2211 and saved, for which the Sandman thanks Spider-Man.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: The Sandman returned in "Spider-Man: The Gauntlet" storyline, which redefined the character and his powers/mental state. While investigating a series of murders and a missing girl named Keemia Alvarado, whose mother is a victim of those murders, Spider-Man traces the murders and the abduction to the Sandman, the girl's father, who is hiding on Governor's Island with Keemia. The Sandman's powers have evolved to where he can create duplicates of himself who have their own personalities and, to Marko's shock, claim they committed the murders. Spider-Man sneaks away and uses a fan to obliterate the Sandmen. Originally Spider-Man believed Keemia would be handed to her grandmother, but instead she was sent to a foster home by Child Protective Services. Carlie Cooper is exonerated upon being under police suspicion for tampering with the murder evidences, but the Sandman is still at large.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: During the "Origin of the Species" storyline, the Sandman is among the supervillains invited by Doctor Octopus to join his villains' team where he becomes involved in a plot to receive a reward and securing some specific items for him. The Sandman went after Spider-Man for Menace's infant, believing that Doctor Octopus would reward him by reuniting him with Keemia. He ended up being accidentally struck with lightning by Electro, temporarily turning him into fulgurite. Spider-Man goes on a rampage against all the villains after the Chameleon stole the infant and tricked him into believing it had died. At the dock, the Sandman, along with the Shocker and the Enforcers, are hiding. However, Spider-Man collapses the floor of the building which falls into the water. The Sandman attempts to rise to attack, but Spider-Man shoots him using the Shocker's vibrational air-blasts.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: In "", he is part of the new Sinister Six along with Mysterio, the Rhino, Doctor Octopus, the Chameleon and Electro. He rises up against Doctor Octopus' plan to detonate New York, saying Keemia is still there. He is later angered when, during a confrontation between the Sinister Six and the Intelligencia, Doctor Octopus teleports the Wizard into the upper atmosphere using the Intelligencia's equipment. The Sandman was talking with his former Frightful Four teammate and old friend at the time. When the Mad Thinker goes after Electro, the Sandman violently attacks him, claiming that he did not want to lose any more friends.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: When Doctor Octopus puts his plan into action, the Sandman is satisfied with the job because of the planned 2 billion dollar "compensation fee", which he reasons will help him gain custody of Keemia. However, although sent to guard a facility in the Sahara Desert giving him complete control of the largest body of sand in the world, he is defeated by Spider-Man, the Black Widow and Silver Sable when Spider-Man identifies and isolates the one grain of sand that contains his conscious mind. Spider-Man and Silver Sable then violently interrogate the Sandman to reveal all of Doctor Octopus' secrets to them.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: Following the "Dying Wish" storyline, the Sandman's captive form is later stolen from the Baxter Building by the Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in Spider-Man's body) where he takes him to his underwater lab. The Sandman, the Chameleon, Electro, Mysterion (an impersonator of Mysterio), and the Vulture are later seen as part of a team led by the Superior Spider-Man called the "Superior Six". The Superior Spider-Man has been temporarily controlling their minds in order to redeem them for their crimes. He does this by forcing them do heroic deeds against their will, some of which almost get some of them killed. Every time he is done controlling them, he puts them back in their containment cells. They eventually break free of the Superior Spider-Man's control and attempt to exact revenge on the wall-crawler, while nearly destroying New York in order to do so. With the help of Sun Girl, the Superior Spider-Man is barely able to stop the Superior Six.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: Inspired by the heroism of the villains who had their moralities inverted by the events of "AXIS", the Sandman rejoins one of his old gangs and breaks into Ryker's Island in search of the group's leader Dixon. Upon reaching Dixon's cell, the Sandman turns on and incapacitates him and his followers. He then leaves with Dixon's cellmate, a "good egg" whom the Sandman had deemed deserving of a second chance.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: During the "Secret Wars" storyline, the Sandman is among the villains at the Kingpin's viewing party of the incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: The Sandman later appears as a member of the Sinister Six led by Aaron Davis in a recolored Iron Spider armor. He accompanied the Sinister Six in a plot to steal a decommissioned S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.


title: Sandman (Marvel Comics)

text: During the "Infinity Wars" storyline, the Sandman is among the villains that accompany Turk Barrett to his meeting with the Infinity Watch at Central Park.