====================================== S T O P - P R E S S A special 4-part competition to win a complete signed set of all the English language editions of KYDD starts this month. ====================================== "THE BOSUN'S CHRONICLE" --- emailed to Shipmates around the world the first week of each month --- VOL. 2, ISSUE 2, FEBRUARY 2002 Avast there - and welcome aboard from the bosun of the Thomas Kydd Shipmates' Network! Do you have any suggestions for new features for the newsletter? 1) DECKLOG 2) HANDS TO MUSTER 3) NAUTICAL WEBSITE OF THE MONTH 4) ANATOMY OF THE SHIP 5) ON THE STOCKS 6) SIGNALS FROM FOREIGN PARTS 7) DAYS OUT 8) REPORTS ==================== 1) DECKLOG --- events and activities --- FOR THE DIARY Essex Book Festival, March 28. Julian has been invited to speak at the Essex Book Festival next month. Full details of author events scheduled to date on the official website . American readers of the Thomas Kydd series will have the opportunity to meet Julian during an 8-city author tour of the U.S. later this year: Annapolis, Boston, Groton (CT), Madison (CT), Mystic (CT), New York, Philadelphia and Sag Harbor. Dates and details in future newsletters. The American paperback version of KYDD is published in June to coincide with Scribner's launch of ARTEMIS in hardcover. Last month Julian and Kathy travelled extensively in Italy on location research. The Bosun caught up with Julian on his return. +Bosun. First of all, can you give us a heads-up on the rest of the series following the very successful launch of KYDD last year? +Julian. There will be a new book each year. ARTEMIS is launched in April this year, followed by SEAFLOWER next year (set in the Caribbean and which I am finalising at the moment). The fourth book in the series is tentatively titled MUTINY. +Bosun. What was the main purpose of your visit to Italy? +Julian. MUTINY will find Kydd in the Mediterranean. I've already visited Gibraltar and this trip was to spend time in Italy, particularly Venice and Naples. I don't want to give away too much of the plot but Kydd will certainly encounter some unusual challenges during his voyages there. The book will also feature the great mutiny at the Nore. +Bosun. Which was the most interesting place you visited this time? +Julian. It has to be Venice, the city in a lagoon. I was enchanted with its beauty - and the dark, suggestive mystery of the canals at night. +Bosun. What has changed most, do you think, from what Thomas Kydd would have seen when he sailed in the Mediterranean waters? +Julian. The trappings of modern life, of course, make things look superficially different today. However, the sheer exuberance of the Mediterranean culture, the rich historical heritage, the colours of the sun on the seascape - all this is a huge contrast to the ordered 18th century very English world Kydd grew up in. +Bosun. Are there any unusual Mediterranean sea craft that we may see in future books? +Julian. I was fascinated by models of the Xebec, a lateen-sailed vessel used by Barbary pirates. It could be armed with 14 guns and 6 culverins for action at close range and oars made it mobile in the absence of wind. ===================== 2) HANDS TO MUSTER --- Behind KYDD is a great team; each month "The Bosun's Chronicle" goes behind the scenes to talk to one of the Shipmates who have been involved in some aspect of the book --- This month we feature Geoff Annis, the reader for Magna Sound's unabridged audiobook of KYDD (to be released in July, ISBN 185903 5388). Geoff is an English and Drama teacher, with Equity membership as a professional actor. He says recording audio books is a real pleasure: "You can be an actor, voice-over and storyteller all at the same time!" +Bosun. Do you have a particular "listener" in mind when you are working? Do you visualise the action? +Geoff. I do have a sense of an "audience" listening, watching me "live" perhaps. And I certainly visualise the action. This helps enormously and happens automatically as I get into the book. +Bosun. When you are doing a recording with multiple characters, like KYDD, how do you remember the vocal characteristics of each character? +Geoff. I practice the voices at home beforehand, making a list with the descriptors of each voice and where necessary mark the text to remind me "who's who". KYDD was a challenge in that many of the characters are nameless voices, some with some sort of accent which is implied rather than stated. I felt I had to differentiate in pace, pitch, age, accent and style wherever possible. For instance, Claggett seemed a typical old "seadog" so I went for a slow pace, and a deeper voice. Doud seemed younger. +Bosun. Did you have a favourite minor character? +Geoff. I especially liked Bowyer, Kydd's close friend aboard ship who dies tragically and unexpectedly. He comes across as real, warm and human - a man who has lived a life. +Bosun. What were the most difficult aspects of the recording? +Geoff. These are, I think, the same for any audio book - namely sustaining a consistent standard and focus over a number of days, being able to handle a variety of characters and voices and being as accurate as possible. Concentration and self- discipline are vital. I always, for example, try to keep to a sensible diet during recording week. One is sitting for long periods of time and the mike is very sensitive to dietary indulgence! +Bosun. How long did the audio book take to record? +Geoff. About four and a half days. There's no time for a "dry run", I prepare thoroughly at home, reading aloud etc. I know the producers and technical staff very well and we liaise beforehand over the general approach and difficult words etc. +Bosun. Would you have liked to have lived in the eighteenth century? +Geoff. From a literary/theatrical viewpoint, yes. To live in the age of Pope and Dr Johnson; to see actual first nights of Sheridan and to see great actors like David Garrick would be fascinating. Otherwise, probably not! Life was quite brutal and harsh for many people. NEXT MONTH: The Bosun catches up with the Head of Publicity at Hodder & Stoughton, Kerry Hood, to talk about her role in promoting the Thomas Kydd series. ==================== 3) NAUTICAL WEBSITE OF THE MONTH --- Every month Julian talks about a website with sea links --- HMS VICTORY, a virtual tour HMS Victory is the only remaining 18th century ship-of-the-line in the world. She is also the oldest serving warship still to be in commission, retaining her own Captain, officers and crew. Victory flies the flag of the Second Sea Lord, Commander in Chief Naval Home Command and is permanently based at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Portsmouth, England. This site shows Victory as she was when she fought her most famous battle, the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805, at which Nelson was mortally wounded. The virtual tour in full colour provides a fascinating insight into life on board. Among the many fascinating aspects that seamen like Thomas Kydd would be very familiar with are "Hands Aloft", "Life on the Lower Decks" and "Action - the Gun Deck". There is even a section on "The Heads" - a seaman wishing to make use of the toilets (really just a seat with a hole above the waves; officers did have some privacy) would go to the head (bow) of the ship. ==================== 4) THE ANATOMY OF THE SHIP --- The sailing ships of Kydd's day were the most complex machines on the planet at that time. --- MASTS AND YARDS. It was generally only for quite small ships such as cutters that a mast could be constructed from a single tree. Most ships had "made masts" - 5-7 timbers were shaped and fitted together and bound with iron hoops. A "ship rigged" vessel like "Duke William" had 3 masts (fore mast, main mast and mizzen). Each of these masts had three sections - lower mast, topmast and topgallant with a "top" or platform at each section, from which up to 20 men moved out to work the sails. The size of the masts was awesome - measured from the waterline a main mast could rise over 200 feet, with a diameter of four feet! The masts supported horizontal spars called yards to carry the sails. Yards could extend out to the length of several modern double decker buses end to end. Total weight of the complete set of masts, yards and booms in a line-of-battle ship reached over 88 tons. Various types of wood were used - oak, elm, fir, pine and beech. A seaman who become a "topman" had great skill and dexterity, often working aloft in appalling weather conditions as the ship rolled through a terrifying arc. To this day, lower deck seamen trying to gain promotion to officer are called "upper yardmen". ==================== 5) ON THE STOCKS --- News of upcoming books, foreign translations, audio versions, other products --- The UK company Art Contact is producing special limited edition prints of Geoff Hunt's original paintings commissioned for the covers of the books of the Thomas Kydd series. A special discount will be available to Shipmates. Details in March newsletter. ==================== 6) SIGNALS FROM FOREIGN PARTS --- We welcome news and views from Shipmates around the world --- Shipmates come from all countries, all walks of life. This month's shipmates are David Sparrow, Robert Squarebriggs and Ken Kelley. David Sparrow was born and brought up in Dorset, England. After working in Cambridge at the Plant Breeding Institute for a number of years, he took up an appointment at the University of Adelaide in South Australia in the field of plant genetics. David has a strong interest in genealogy and has traced his family back to the sixteenth century! He has always been a keen small boat sailor. Robert Squarebriggs is a 50 year old Canadian, raised on Prince Edward Island and now living in New Brunswick. He served in the navy as a sonar operator, following the tradition of his father who served in the war in convoy escorts. Connections with the sea are evident throughout the family history: Robert's great grandfather and his father were ship masters and ship builders and they migrated to Canada from England around 1825. Recently, Robert became a grandfather for the first time. Ken Kelley is a retired computer scientist living in Maryland. He writes that he has been interested in sailing ships since his father took him to visit the U.S.S. Constitution in Boston. Ken served as a junior officer in a destroyer after leaving college and looks back on his time at sea with real affection. Julian would love to hear from you. Contact ==================== 7) DAYS OUT --- Each month we visit somewhere around the world of special nautical interest --- ROSIA BAY, GIBRALTAR Rosia Bay lies on the southeast shoreline of Gibraltar and it was to here that HMS Victory was towed after the battle of Trafalgar with Admiral Nelson's body on board. Local legend has it that Nelson's body was taken ashore but historians think this unlikely. It is also probable that his body was pickled in brandy, not rum. Touchingly, wounded British seamen in the Naval Hospital discharged themselves in order to travel back to England with Nelson's remains. Rosia Bay was developed as a base for the Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Still standing are the Naval Victualling Yard and a number of buildings which were used to house dockyard officials such as the chief sailmaker and carpenter. To the south of Rosia Bay stands Parson's Lodge Battery. Batteries existed on this site in the eighteenth century and between 1867 and 1875 the new battery was built slightly above the eighteenth century ones. During the Second World War modern gun emplacements were added. =================== 8) REPORTS --- Advance reviews of ARTEMIS --- + Publishing News (U.K.) "Ex-Navy officer Stockwin's second novel is a rip-roaring yarn that confirms [his publisher's] faith in his ability to turn his vivid knowledge of 18th century seafaring into first-rate global adventure. Thomas Kydd, press-ganged into service as an ordinary seaman in the first novel, now wins promotion to petty officer and prefers his love of the sea to romance or his previous wig-maker's life on dry land. He is a prime example of manhood in the age of sail, immersed in the bloodlust of battle, exultation of victory, savage sights in Asia, comradeship below decks, the tumult above. His voyages on the frigate ARTEMIS read very well, with a final sting in the tale that will cause readers in the historical novel niche to be thirsting for the next in the series." + TallShips Books (U.S.) "Julian Stockwin's ARTEMIS takes Thomas Paine Kydd's adventures 'tween decks in Nelson's navy to new heights. Kydd and his "tie-mate" Nicholas Renzi, sail aboard the crack frigate ARTEMIS, commanded by 'Black Jack' Powlett. Soon after the pair arrive ARTEMIS defeats the sleek French frigate Citoyenne in a horrific barrage of broadsides and barbaric hand-to-hand fighting. ARTEMIS tows her battered prize into Portsmouth Harbour to a patriotic fervour that stretches across the English countryside... Stockwin's love of the sea and things naval is evident throughout, as is his sensitivity for the lot of the common seaman... Salt spray and the aroma of tarred rigging and powder fly off the pages, with readers likely to be clamouring for SEAFLOWER, the next title in Kydd's saga - even before they have turned the final page of ARTEMIS." ================== ++FEATURE COMPETITION++ Starting this month, and running for the next three months, is a competition to win a complete signed set of the English language editions of KYDD. Question One: What is the name of the rope used to haul up the anchor? Question two will appear in next month's newsletter, and the other two questions in the April and May newsletters. To enter the competition send your answers to all four questions to . Deadline: May 25. First correct entry drawn on May 30 wins! Yours aye, THE BOSUN ++ Back issues of the newsletter by request ++ (To unsubscribe this newsletter email )