======================== S T O P - P R E S S + MUTINY out in October + ======================== "THE BOSUN'S CHRONICLE" --- emailed to Shipmates around the world --- VOL. 3, ISSUE 4, April 2003 Avast there - and welcome aboard from the Bosun of the Thomas Kydd Shipmates' Network! 1) SPOTLIGHT 2) ASK JULIAN 3) RECOMMENDED READING 4) SALTY SAYINGS 5) WHO'S WHO 6) FEATURE 7) CONTEST ==================== 1) SPOTLIGHT --- publishing news, author appearances, shipmates ahoy! --- + PUBLISHING NEWS MUTINY launched in October! Hodder and Stoughton, Julian's UK publishers are bringing forward publication of MUTINY, the fourth book in the Thomas Kydd series, to October this year. Subsequently, each new hardback in the series will be published in October. More on MUTINY next month... + AUTHOR APPEARANCES Julian will be visiting a number of London and regional bookstores to sign copies of the UK edition of SEAFLOWER. If you're looking for a signed First Edition try: Hatchards, Harrods, Crime in Store, Pan Bookshop and many of the Waterstones and Ottakars bookshops around the UK. SEAFLOWER will be available in the US in June. ++ Upcoming Events Talk/book signing at Waterstones, Plymouth, Tuesday April 29th, 7pm. Book reading, Ivybridge Library, Ivybridge, Devon. Wednesday May 7, 7pm. Lincoln Literary Festival, May 21. At the "Indefatigable Olds Boys Association" Annual Dinner, May 31 in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Anglesey, Wales, Julian will be guest speaker. And yes, it is the longest town name in the world! + SHIPMATES AHOY! Today, boys do not go to sea at a young age, but even up until quite recently, it was not uncommon. Ron Morris of Nottinghamshire in England, like Julian, prepared for a career at sea at a sea training school. Julian's was T.S. "Indefatigable", Ron's was T.S. "Mercury". There was a score of similar schools in Britain, dotted around the coast with large clusters on the Mersey and the Thames. Many were based in hulks of the Napoleonic era. Ron's first trip to the Persian Gulf, in 1947 as a sixteen-year-old cadet officer on the general cargo ship, the "Turkistan", was one of the most eventful of his career. He tells the story: "We began the return trip loaded with barley, red oxide and 500 tons of stores for the military base at Suez, including cases of ammunition and explosives. We were halfway between the Strait of Hormuz and Aden when smoke began billowing out of the ventilators. It was noon, desperately hot and there was a huge sea running. A group of men tackled the fire while boats were readied to abandon ship. I was in the second boat. The "Turkistan" slewed beam on to the swell when her boilers lost steam and she rolled massively, causing the boat to swing out like the weight on a giant pendulum on the port roll and crash into the ship's side on the starboard. I soon realised that no-one in my boat had any experience of handling it. The "Turkistan" was likely to go up at any time. I moved to the sternsheets, ignored the man at the tiller and placed a hand on the loom of each stroke oar. The men accepted my authority but it took hours to reach the safety of a tanker waiting well out of reach. I picked up the grass line floating beside her hull and saw all my crew on board before following them. Then I found the heads, locked the door and wept." (The "Turkistan" was later saved and the crew able to re-board.) Ron has written a book about his time at sea training school with an incredible female commander. "The Captain's Lady", published by Chatto & Windus, 1985, tells the story of Beatrice Holme Fry who ruled supreme at "Mercury" from 1885 until her death in 1946, three months short of her 84th birthday. ===================== 2) ASK JULIAN --- a forum for Shipmates questions --- Stan Lanier of Georgia, USA, writes: "I heard that the Royal Navy, in 1655, changed the drink ration of sailors from beer to rum. Do you know why this was done?" Julian responds: "Since the early days of sailing ships, the most readily available liquids to take on voyages were water and beer, both of which could only be stored for a short time before they became unpalatable. The beer issue was a gallon a day per man. Vice Admiral William Penn's fleet conquered Jamaica in 1655 and it was here that rum was first issued on board ships of the Royal Navy. The spirit was also known as 'rumbustion'. Rum has the advantage of keeping well, even improving with age. When abroad, captains of ships were allowed to replace beer with fortified wine, sometimes brandy, but neither was available in the West Indies. Rum, however, was, and became a popular alternative to beer for ships serving in this part of the world, even though the Victualling Board back in England had not officially sanctioned its use. From 1655 until well into the eighteenth century, the issue of rum very much depended on individual captains. In 1731 it was officially decreed that if beer was not available then each man was entitled to a pint of wine or half a pint of rum or other spirits. I can personally vouch for the efficacy of rum in warming the cockles - a recent research trip to Sheerness in the depths of winter soon sent me in search of a warming tot at a nearby hotel. In 1740 Admiral Vernon (nicknamed 'Old Grogham' because of the boatcloak he wore made of that material), decreed that the rum issue would be diluted 1:4 and thereafter the drink was called grog. By 1793 the dilution was usually 1:3. From Vernon's time to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, two issues of grog per day remained the custom whenever beer was unavailable. But the use of rum gradually became more widespread as did the issuing ritual. In Kydd's day, the ship's fiddler played 'Nancy Dawson', the signal for cooks of messes to repair to the rum tub to draw rations for their messmates. This was always done in the open air due to the combustible nature of rum! Rum acquired the nickname 'Nelson's Blood' after 1805 when legend has it that Nelson's body was preserved in a keg of rum. Historians now think this highly unlikely, it was probably brandy. The American Navy ended the rum ration on September 1, 1862 but the practice continued in the British Navy for over a century. On Friday July 31, 1970, rum was issued for the last time in the British Navy. The day was to become known as Black Tot Day." There's a signed set of the Kydd series postcards - KYDD, ARTEMIS and SEAFLOWER - for every published question. Email your questions to JulianStockwin@JulianStockwin.com. Please write ASK JULIAN in the subject line. ==================== 3) RECOMMENDED READING --- books, magazines and journals about the sea --- "Jane Austen and the Navy" by Brian Southam, Hambledon Press. ISBN 1852852917 Two of Jane Austen's brothers served in the Royal Navy, and later became Admirals. Her novels, especially "Mansfield Park" and "Persuasion" reflect her interest in, and admiration for, the Navy. Based on family papers and naval records, Southam's book shows the novelist as a historian of Nelson's Navy - not the Navy of great victories at sea but the Navy at home and of sailors amongst their family and friends. ==================== 4) SALTY SAYINGS --- what today's English owes to Jack Tar --- A square meal Today, if we're talking about a square meal we mean a pretty substantial repast. The origins of this phrase are definitely salty. In Kydd's day sailors ate their food off square wooden plates which had a raised edge called a fiddle. This design was partly to stop food falling off the plate, partly to set a limit on the amount of food taken. If a sailor overfilled the plate he was said to be "on the fiddle", and could be punished, but he always insisted on a square meal. ==================== 5) WHO'S WHO --- bio details of the characters in the series --- Stirk Tobias Stirk hails from Hythe, and a fishing family. He became impatient with the back breaking work of fisherfolk with their small boats on the rough shingle, and disappeared into the notorious Romney Marsh to join a smuggler's crew. His luck ran out when he was caught by the press gang in the last year of the American war. However he took to the life and volunteered for the Navy on discharge. His talents as a gunner were noted in "Alcide" in action on the Barbary Coast and again in "San Fiorenzo" in the West Indies. After a spell in the sloop "Terrier" in Burma he returned to England to serve (ironically) in a Revenue cutter looking for Cornish smugglers. He was transferred into "Duke William" for service in the North American station but at the likelihood of war with the French she was sent to England and the Nore. ==================== 6) FEATURE Julian and Kathy Stockwin's Caribbean Odyssey - Part Two +Bosun. You began your trip in Jamaica. Where did you go from there? +Julian. We took a light aircraft to Antigua, and set off for English Harbour, a fascinating Georgian dockyard that Kydd worked in, and an important careenage in the eighteenth century. Next stop was Guadeloupe gathering background on the French presence, then it was off to Barbados, a country they say was more English than England in the eighteenth century! +Bosun. What most surprised you during your time in the Caribbean? +Julian. I think it was the intensity of the colours, which Geoff Hunt superbly captured in the cover art. +Bosun. Where did the title of the book come from? +Julian. Book titles are interesting things. Sometimes they suggest themselves fairly quickly; at other times they announce themselves in their own good time! "Seaflower" was a real ship, a trim little cutter that actually sailed in the Caribbean - and once I'd read about her I realised I had the title for book three! +Bosun. What was the highlight of the trip? +Julian. This is hard to decide. Among the special moments that come to mind - setting up deckchairs at the edge of the ocean at the end of a long day and just watching the glorious sunset; looking out across the bay at Antigua to the angry, spuming steam of the Monserrat volcano, not more than ten miles away; and, being an old Navy man, visiting Mount Gay Distilleries, the world's oldest rum distillery. +Bosun. The Caribbean islands have an incredible variety of culinary delights. Can you tell us about some of the exotic food in SEAFLOWER. +Kathy. The cuisine was definitely a wake-up call for Kydd's and Renzi's tastebuds after their plain ship-board fare. In chapter eight, for example, there's callalloo (a sort of spinach, popular at breakfast with green banana); black crab pepperpot (pepperpot is thought to have arrived from South America with the Amerindians; it's a delicious, spicy stew) and sangaree (a refreshing long drink made with madeira, sugar, water and grated nutmeg on top). Later in the book, in chapter thirteen, we come across ackee, really a fruit but eaten as a vegetable and resembling scrambled egg in appearance; bammy (a local bread) and jerk hog. Rum production was well underway in the Caribbean by 1703, plenty of time to perfect this recipe: =Rum Punch One of sour (lemon or lime juice) Two of sweet (sugar or syrup) Three of strong (dark rum) Four of weak (water) Five drops of Angostura bitters (admittedly not around in Kydd's day, but a great addition) Grated nutmeg to taste Serve well chilled with plenty of ice! But be warned; they're quite addictive... Next month: Kathy's favourite recipe for jerk pork ==================== 7) CONTEST Win an abridged audiobook of SEAFLOWER. The first two correct answers out of the hat each win a copy. Here's the question. What was the name of the carpenter's mate called to give evidence at the court martial in SEAFLOWER? Send your emails to bosun@julianstockwin.com Please put AUDIOBOOK in the subject line. Deadline: April 30 =================== Yours aye, THE BOSUN ++ Back issues of the newsletter downloadable from the website ++