<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> T H E B O S U N ' S C H R O N I C L E All the latest news/views for fans of Julian Stockwin ++ always sent in plain text: guarantees no virus/malware on your computer ++ <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> August 2009 In this issue: launching the first of a series on sea trades is the shipwright; in celebration of the 10th Kydd title, INVASION, out this year there's a 10-item mega-prize up for grabs - and we've also got a double helping of both ASK JULIAN and Salty Sayings... 1 DISPATCHES 2 SHIPMATES AHOY! 3 FEATURE 4 SALTY SAYINGS 5 CONTESTS 6 ASK JULIAN 7 FROM THE MISCELLANY 8 NEW ON THE WEB ==================== 1 DISPATCHES + Crossing the bar Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and the last known survivor of the Battle of Jutland passed away peacefully on 18 July. On 6 June he had celebrated his 113th birthday with a party held by the Royal Navy at HMS "President" in London. + Fastnet fast approaching... This famous offshore yachting race begins Sunday August 9. It takes place every two years over a course of 608 miles. The race starts off Cowes on the Isle of Wight in England, rounds the Fastnet Rock off the south-west coast of Ireland and then finishes at Plymouth in the South of England after passing south of the Isles of Scilly. + INVASION You can take a look at the stunning cover for INVASION on the website, and also whet your appetite with chapter one... For those first edition collectors among you, if you'd like to reserve a copy of the 2009 Collectors Set, email Admin@JulianStockwin.com, or you can pre-pay using the credit card facility on the website. The Collectors set is strictly limited in number, so don't delay to avoid disappointment. + Book-signing 15 August Falmouth Week in Cornwall is a celebration of the sea and classic boats. Julian will be taking part in the festivities at an author signing for the Kydd titles and his Maritime Miscellany at Falmouth Bookseller, 21 Church St, Falmouth, TR11 3EG. Contact: 01326 312873. Saturday 15 August, 2 pm. + Historic ships Thank you for all your nominations after our item in last month's newsletter. We'll feature a selection of these in the coming months. + Morris-Mercury Archive Shipmate Ron Morris wrote "The Indomitable Beatie", a fascinating account of the training ship "Mercury" and the iron rule there of Beatrice Fry. Now Ron has donated the extensive research material upon which he based his book to the Royal Dockyard Library at Chatham Historic Dockyard. The library is open to the public Monday - Wednesday; bookings to view the Morris-Mercury Archive can be made either by calling John Chambers 01634 823800 or emailing him + Stockwin and the Sea Pack A special goody bag of Stockwin memorabilia, including postcards, bookmarks, information sheets - and an exclusive Royal Navy Ensign desk set. There is a nominal charge of GBP6.00 which includes postage anywhere in the world. + TREACHERY update * The Hodder & Stoughton paperback of TREACHERY is launched this month in Australia. * The large print version of the book has just been published by Magna (978 0750530835). * The audiobook, published by BBC Audiobooks and superbly read by Christian Rodska, is also out now. + Knots on display The Solent branch of the International Guild of Knot Tyers will be demonstrating their skills aboard HMS "Victory" at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard every Thursday this month. ==================== 2 SHIPMATES AHOY! Among the many shipmates who contacted Julian recently was Canadian octogenarian Mewburn Wood:- "Having read all of the Kydd series published I wish to thank you for providing me with a great deal of enjoyment. I come from a seafaring family and have ancestral portraits dating back to the 18th century. I retired from the Royal Navy in the late 1950s having joined as a cadet in 1939. For most of the time, apart from a spell in 'Resolution' and 'Shropshire' as a midshipman, I was a submariner, returning to general service in the far East as navigator in the sloop 'Alacrity'. In 1947 I joined the Chinese Maritime Customs and took over command of a former Bangor minesweeper carrying out anti-piracy patrols and apprehending smugglers. After a fairly adventurous period I transferred to the Lighthouse service taking on the responsibility of assisting in the restoration of aids to navigation from Hainan Island in the south to Taku Bar in the north and some inland waters, including the Yangtse and also Taiwan. My command was a converted boom defence vessel. Unfortunately the advance of Mao Tse Tung in 1950 put an end to this period. I returned to the UK, rejoining the RN in the early 1950's and took over command of a newly constructed anti-magnetic minesweeper, HMS 'Chillingham'. After leaving the RN I spent some time with Vickers undergoing engineering training before taking up a job as CEO of a Canadian subsidiary. Later I formed my own company specialising in remedial measures for contaminated sites and marine oil spills. Now, having reached the grand old age of 88, I am enjoying life in good health and indulge in writing letters to the local and national papers with occasional comments broadcast on local and national television stations." ==================== 3 FEATURE - Sea trades The Shipwright When Julian first went to sea he trained as a shipwright (affectionately known as a "chippie"), an ancient and honourable name for a shipbuilder. The "wright" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for worker and lives on today in other forms, too, as in wrought iron. Despite the honour of their craft shipwrights long had a reputation for pilfering. (Scraps of timber cut away in the process of shaping timbers, 'chips' however were regarded as lawful perks but many went much further than this...) Kipling's poem "King Henry VII and the Shipwrights" tells of the monarch coming in disguise to see if his shipwrights working on his warship "Mary of the Tower" were cheating him. He found them stripping the ship of vast amounts of timber, even to the extent of heaving the main mast overboard and sawing it up into planks which they carted away. One shipwright, Robert Brygandyne was so incensed that he threw one of the perpetrators over the side into the mud. Henry was delighted to find an honest shipwright and made Brygandyne his Clerke of Shippes. In England the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights dates to around 1605. Their motto is "Within the Ark, Safe for Ever" and their livery shows two shipwrights, one carrying a broad-axe, the other a caulking hammer. Formerly a trade association, it now devotes itself to charitable causes. When Peter the Great visited England in the late seventeenth century he had the use of a fine house adjacent to Deptford royal shipyard. He loved to watch shipwrights at work and would often pick up tools and work alongside them himself. In 1793 at the age of 19 Mary Lacy donned a pair of men's breeches, adopted the name of William Chandler and went to sea. During a spell ashore when she was 23 she applied to be a shipwright's apprentice in Portsmouth dockyard. This involved a seven-year training that required skills in mechanical drawing, writing and arithmetic, as well as the ability to do hard physical labour. In 1770 Mary was awarded her professional certificate (under the name of William Chandler) and for a time worked in the dockyard as a qualified shipwright. However rheumatism exacerbated by hard labour in damp conditions brought an early end to her career and she applied for (interestingly, in her real name of Mary Lacy) and received a pension of GBP20 a year. She then met a Mr Slade whom she claimed she married (although there is no official record of this) and later Mary Lacy went on to become a successful property developer! Her autobiography "The Female Shipwright" was published in 1773 and reprinted in 2008 by the National Maritime Museum. The term shipwright was not used in the Royal Navy until 1918 when the rate of carpenter became warrant shipwright. Aboard HMS "Liverpool", a type 42 destroyer currently in service in the Royal Navy, the Hull Section of the Marine Engineering Department is headed up by a chief shipwright, with a team of five under him; his primary responsibility is for the integrity and preservation of the ship's hull and superstructure. And Julian's chuffed he's still called "Chippy". ==================== 4 SALTY SAYINGS The richness of today's English owes much to Jack Tar and the sea... On your beam ends: If we say that someone is on his beam ends today, he is facing ruin. At sea a ship is in imminent danger of sinking when she heels over so far that she may not be able to right herself. When her deck beams are almost perpendicular to the water's surface she is said to be on her beam ends. --- To tide over: Today, to tide something over describes the act of coming up with a temporary solution to a problem, often taking a monetary form. At sea tiding over is a complex sailing technique in restricted water to make forward movements into a strong headwind and is reliant on tidal movement of the water. Falconer in his Dictionary of the Marine defines it as "alternately sailing and anchoring, depending on the tide, in order to work a ship in or out of port." Thus tiding over meant making the best of it waiting for the next opportunity to make progress on the flowing tide. ==================== 5 CONTESTS For a chance to win our mega prize consisting of 10 items (including a hardback of INVASION, a hardback of STOCKWIN'S MARITIME MISCELLANY, a boxed eighteenth century sea artefact and a set of Trafalgar commemorative stamps) - in what month/year was "The Bosun's Chronicle" first published and how many unique issues have there been up to and including August 2009? This contest will run over the next two months and you can enter as many times as you like. Answers by September 25 to Bosun@JulianStockwin.com Please include your full postal address. First correct entry drawn on the day wins! --- Congratulations to Terry Maltman, who won a copy of Conway Maritime's new book "Britain's Historic Ships" in last month's contest. Terry's was the first entry drawn to correctly identify HMS "Warrior" as the earliest historic iron warship on display in Portsmouth. ==================== 6 ASK JULIAN John Kropp wanted to know about livestock on board in Kydd's day - who tended the animals, where they were kept, and what happened to them during battle. This is what Julian had to say: "To add variety to a diet of salted meat captains sometimes embarked live oxen, sheep, pigs, goats and poultry. On a ship-o'-the-line you could find up to 12 head of cattle and 30 sheep, as well as other types of livestock. They were looked after by landsmen, often agricultural workers down on their luck who had come to sea. The man who tended poultry was called 'Jemmy Ducks'. In some ships animals were kept in the area right forward known as the manger on the gun deck but generally they were in temporary pens. Chicken coops were even sometimes found in the ships boats! When clearing the decks for battle animals were either killed or thrown overboard, along with other things that might get in the way." --- Keith Randall was curious about the saying "on the beach". Julian responds: "In a nautical sense the beach is the shore, the coastline off which a ship is at anchor. Hence 'on the beach' means on the land, in civilian life. By extension it was used to mean ashore on half pay. When Samuel Pepys was secretary of the navy in the seventeenth century he introduced the half pay scheme. Before this, an officer was merely appointed to a ship and was paid off at the end of that commission and then ceased to be a naval officer. Pepys's scheme meant that once a man had a commission he remained available for service and was paid half pay as a retainer. If the officer took other employment, even on a temporary basis, he generally lost his half pay. For many officers in the Royal Navy long periods (sometimes many years) ashore on half pay was something they had to live with. Even Nelson spent nearly five years 'on the beach', during the years of relative peace between 1787 and early 1793. At the end of the Napoleonic wars more than three quarters of lieutenants found themselves on the beach. In the late 1830s the Admiralty promulgated a regulation that retained on the active list any captain who had commanded a warship between 1793 and 1815 at full, not half pay, even if they did not serve at sea. This effectively reduced the number of post captains seeking ships, opening the way for younger officers to move up the chain of command." [Kydd, of course knows all about being "on the beach" - in COMMAND he is forced to work as a master in the merchant service, taking a convict transport to Australia...] ==================== 7 FROM THE MISCELLANY... Julian's first non-fiction work, STOCKWIN'S MARITIME MISCELLANY: A Ditty Bag of Wonders from the Golden Age of Sail, was published by Ebury Press on July 2. Did you know that a woman's tears saved "Victory"? In 1831 when HMS "Victory" was listed for disposal and the First Sea Lord Thomas Hardy told his wife that he had just signed an order for this Lady Hardy burst into tear and sent him straight back to the Admiralty to rescind the order... The miscellany is full of hundreds of fascinating facts like this. You can take a peek at some of the book's pages on the website. =================== 8 NEW ON THE WEB We've added a special page on World Navies - take a look at the stunning aerial photo of aircraft carrier USS "John F Kennedy" berthing in the harbour at Malta. We welcome suggestions for additions to this page, especially your own naval pictures... =================== Coming next month: how the termite of the sea may save the planet; the Brodie stove, ASK JULIAN - and more... Yours aye, THE BOSUN ++ Download back issues from the WebSite ++