<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> T H E B O S U N ' S C H R O N I C L E The official Ezine of the Thomas Kydd Shipmates' network <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> VOL. 7, ISSUE 6, July 2006 Avast, Shipmates and anchors aweigh! 1 DISPATCHES 2 NELSON'S CAPTAINS 3 FEATURE 4 SALTY SAYINGS 5 CONTESTS 6 ASK JULIAN 7 SCRAN 'N PROG 8 NEW ON THE WEB ==================== 1 DISPATCHES + Hayakawa update This month sees the launch of the Japanese edition of QUARTERDECK, published by Hayakawa. Translator Ms Yoko Ohmori reports she will start work on the translation of TENACIOUS shortly. + New Nelson gallery at Greenwich After a six-month break following the closure of the "Nelson and Napoleon" exhibition the National Maritime Museum opens the "Nelson's Navy" gallery. It focuses on the Royal Navy in the period 1793-1815. Key objects among the 250 or so on display include Nelson's seal used to sign the ceasefire proposed to the Danes at the Battle of Copenhagen, the first letter written by Nelson using his left hand after losing his right arm at Santa Cruz, and a log book of the "Temeraire" written by a midshipman at Trafalgar. + What readers are saying Each month Julian receives many emails about the Kydd books. Here's three recent ones:- > Hilary Spilsbury is a senior lecturer at the university of Huddersfield in west Yorkshire. Hilary reads naval fiction as a light relief from her academic work. She told Julian: "Every day I travel for four hours by train and I am really grateful to you for giving me the ability to set sail and pass the time so enjoyably." > Evangelos Evlogidis served eleven years in the Merchant Navy and says many of his fondest memories are centred around the years he spent at sea. He wanted Julian to know: "No matter how much I read there was something lacking, until I discovered Kydd! The movement of a ship in heavy weather, the friendships made and the overall feeling of freedom and adventure of life at sea - you bring them all so vividly back." > Fred Jamison of Melbourne, Australia, echoes Evangelos's comments: "You do real justice to a sailor's life and some things never change. I spent ten years in the US Navy - one of the things I remember most is sitting on the flight deck of the USS "Biddle" watching the sun set in the Caribbean. You have also done a great job in reminding me of the bond one has with his first ship." Why not share your thoughts, too? We'll send a special sea memento to every one we publish over the next few months. Julian@JulianStockwin.com + Collector's Edition of COMMAND Our allocation is nearly gone! Reserve your copy now to avoid disappointment. Admin@JulianStockwin.com + Unabridged audiobook of COMMAND BBC Audiobooks has bought rights for the unabridged audiobook of COMMAND. The reading will be by Christian Rodska. Publication date is yet to be announced. ===================== 2 NELSON'S CAPTAINS Continuing our look at six of the great men who were so fundamental in securing Britain's glorious victory at Trafalgar Henry Digby - a daring and lucky officer Henry Digby was born in Bath in 1770 into a long-established naval family. He went to sea at the age of thirteen as a captain's servant. Having both an adventurous and courageous attitude, and good family connections, he rose fairly quickly through the ranks. In 1795, now a second lieutenant, he led a daring rescue party to save the crew of a blazing vessel off Spithead, a particularly dangerous mission as the loaded guns on board were exploding. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to commander, ironically to a sloop-rigged fireship. The next year he achieved the rank of post captain and was given command of a frigate. This saw the start of a period where he made a number of famous and valuable captures. It became his practice, rather than waiting for his prizes to be officially judged as such by an Admiralty court, to sell them on his own authority and immediately distribute the proceeds among his crew in the usual proportions. Had the courts decided they were not lawful prizes he would have been obliged to compensate the owners out of his own pocket, but in each case his decision was upheld - and he was never short of volunteers to sail under him. In 1799 Digby's frigate "Alcmene" and two others captured two Spanish frigates loaded with treasure - there was so much booty that it took a convoy of sixty-three wagons to transport it from Plymouth to London. The share for the ordinary seamen of "Alcmene" was GBP 182, equivalent to twelve year's wages! At Trafalgar, Digby was in command of the 64-gun ship "Africa". Despite huge damage to his ship he, along with "Conqueror", took on the Spanish flagship "Santissima Trinidad". With rigging and sails hanging over the sides, and the fighting ceased, it appeared that the "Santissima Trinidad" had struck her colours, the signal of surrender. Digby sent Lieutenant Smith with a party of seamen to take possession. In an example of the code of honour of naval engagements of that time, Smith was courteously received by the Spanish officers who informed him that they had not actually surrendered and had no intention of doing so. They went on to explain that they had merely paused in the fighting to supply more powder to the guns; Smith was courteously escorted back to his ship's boat and allowed to return to "Africa". Digby then continued back along the enemy line. At the end of the battle his butcher's bill was 18 men killed, seven officers and thirty-seven men wounded. "Africa" herself had been grievously injured in the battle, and had to be towed back to Gibraltar. In total over his career, Digby's prize money was said to be over GBP 110,000 (over six million sterling in today's money) making him one of the most successful naval officers of the Georgian navy. (A captain's salary was around GBP 200 per annum then.) Digby reached the rank of admiral before his death in 1842. ==================== 3 FEATURE World's first factory assembly line This year we commemorate the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel but we should also raise our glasses to his father, Marc Brunel - for it was he who gave us the first factory assembly line - and something that was of great importance to Britain's continuing naval dominance. A sailing man-o'-war in Kydd's day typically needed over 25 miles of rope, much of which was used to raise and lower the sails with the help of wooden pulley blocks. Blocks were also needed to work the great guns and for a variety of other functions throughout the ship - anchors and their associated gear, ship's boats and storing ship. In total, well over 1000 blocks were required for each ship. HMS "Victory" carried 768 blocks (the largest being 26 inches long) for her rigging and 628 for her guns. At the end of the eighteenth century blocks were all made by hand by a firm called Taylor Walker in Southampton. The Navy required over 100,000 of these each year. Marc Brunel approached Sir Samuel Bentham, the Inspector-General of Navy Works with a scheme for making blocks with a suite of special machines he had patented - and was given the go-ahead. Brunel now needed a skilled mechanic and he contacted Henry Maudslay. The story goes that Brunel was so impressed with the precision screw that Maudslay had displayed in the window of his premises in Wells Street, that he took in a drawing of one of the 26 machines that he had designed to have him make a small prototype. Brunel was anxious to keep his invention secret until he was sure he could trust Maudslay. A week later when Brunel went back to see the work he showed Maudslay a second drawing who immediately grasped what he had in mind and exclaimed, "Ah! Now I see what your are thinking of; you want machinery for making blocks!" Brunel and Maudslay collaborated on building models of the machines, some of which have been preserved in the Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Then they went ahead and built the full-size machinery and set up the world's first production line in the block-making house in Portsmouth. The block-machines were made entirely of metal; the final designs also had input from Bentham and Simon Goodrich, Mechanist to the Navy Board. As well as ensuring exceptionally accurate products, the process was far less labour intensive - ten men could achieve what formerly required 110. By about 1807, Brunel's block-making machines met the Royal Navy's entire requirements and some were still in operation when Julian was at sea! The machines attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their installation, ranging from Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar, to the Princess Victoria at the age of twelve, who was shown them as part of her education. During the course of the Napoleonic War there was a steady stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to see the machines for themselves. They were also described and illustrated in a number of contemporary encyclopaedias. They became such a popular tourist attraction that Brunel urged Bentham to erect a fence around the mill to keep visitors at bay. [Julian has a 250-year-old hand-made gun-tackle block in his collection of sea artefacts. www.JulianStockwin.com -> THE SEA -> SEA ARTEFACTS ] ==================== 4 SALTY SAYINGS Jury rig Today, if something is jury rigged it is assembled in a makeshift manner. The origins of this phrase are definitely salty. In sailing ships, a jury rig was a replacement mast and yards improvised after the loss of the original mast, in battle, or during a storm. The origin of the word "jury" may be the late Middle English word "iuwere", meaning help or aid, in turn borrowed from the Old French "ajurie". Ships carried a number of spare spars such as topmasts, but the lower masts, which could be over three feet in diameter, were too large to have spares onboard. Faced with the need to save their ship, sailors often came up with ingenious replacements. Although ships could perform reasonably well under jury rig, it was obviously weaker than the original and the captain would sail to the nearest friendly port as soon as practicable to get a replacement mast. === For ease of reference to this popular department we've compiled them together in a Salty Sayings section on the website. www.JulianStocwin.com -> SEA -> SALTY SAYINGS ==================== 5 CONTESTS + In April we launched a six-part contest for a very special prize in October to celebrate the launch of COMMAND. It consists of a Collector's Edition of COMMAND, a paperweight made of 200-year-old ship's timbers, "Clippers, Packets and Men of War" and "Sea Poems". Here's the fourth question: << In MUTINY of what material was the decking of "Trinity Yacht" made? >> See previous newsletters for earlier questions. You can either send in your entry each month, or wait until the sixth question is published and then submit them all together. The winner will be chosen at random from all contestants who have submitted six correct entries. Deadline: September 25. + Shipmate Reviewers We had a fantastic response to our Shipmate Reviewers contest and the judges were most impressed with the standard of the entries. One particularly original entry was in the form of a rap tribute to Kydd! "Rap was not around when Thomas was afloat But he will be the Captain of his very next boat The name of the book that we're dying to read Is COMMAND and I know it's gonna succeed... You're the number one man to write about the ship's motion Of your Main Man sailin' o'er the Southern Ocean." Congratulations to the ten winners - Pete Mills, David Pearson, Keith Kilbane, Bill Aves, Caroline Anson, Peter Wilson, Mike Naylor, Chris Teigeler, Jeanette Montgomery and James Bedogni. Each of them will receive an advance copy of the book and you can read their reviews next month. + And Chris Burdett wins a Family ticket to Chatham Historic Dockyard for correctly naming the most famous ship to have been built there as HMS "Victory". + Kydd memorabilia There are 12 signed postcards of COMMAND for the first dozen names out of the hat on July 25. Emails to the Bosun with your full postal address; please put "POSTCARD" in the subject line. ==================== 6 ASK JULIAN Jim Cannon from Georgia, USA, wondered: "What happened to Hobbes in ARTEMIS?" Hobbes was the acerbic and self-important scientist in ARTEMIS. He raises Captain Powlett's ire immediately as he demands passage in his ship: "My purpose, sir, is astronomical. It is essential for me to be at a point on the meridian diametrically in opposition to that of Greenwich on a date not far hence for a crucial observation, the nature of which need not concern you... Should you be the cause of my inability to discharge my duty to the Admiralty then I have no doubt that you may very well..." Julian replies: "I did not mention the fate of Hobbes in the book - but he did survive and went back to the Admiralty complaining bitterly of his time at sea... The data from the observations was preserved, but of course poor Evelyn, his fellow scientist, died at the hands of the natives. This raises an interesting point about characters in a series - as a writer I want to have the flexibility to bring back some old characters in future books so you will find that sometimes I leave things open, purposely." Do you have a question you would like Julian to answer? We'd love to hear from you! Please put ASK JULIAN in the subject line. ==================== 7 SCRAN 'N PROG - a taster of Georgian food and drink Posset When Kydd and Renzi return to Guildford in QUARTERDECK Tom's mother says, "Come inside an' take a posset - you must be frozen after y'r journey." Posset was a very ancient English drink, even in Kydd's day. Dating back to medieval times it is made from milk lightly curdled by adding an acid liquid such as wine, ale or citrus juice. Mrs Kydd took her recipe from her well-thumbed copy of her treasured Hannah Glasse's "The Art of Cookery", published in 1796 - "Heat a quart of milk to boiling point then add four crumbled Naples biscuits (a type of macaroon). Bring the liquid back to the boil once then take away from the heat and add grated nutmeg and sugar. Stir. Then add half a pint of sack (sherry), stirring continuously. Serve at once" Posset was believed to a sovereign remedy against the cold. =================== 8 NEW ON THE WEB www.JulianStockwin.com Click on NEW on the front page of the website to see a list of all the items that have been recently added to the website. =================== Yours aye, THE BOSUN ++ Download back issues from the WebSite ++