====================================== S T O P - P R E S S ++ Win a Review Copy of MUTINY ++ ====================================== "THE BOSUN'S CHRONICLE" --- emailed to Shipmates around the world --- VOL.3, ISSUE 6, June 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) SHIPMATE REVIEWER CONTEST 8) NEW ON THE WEB =================== 1) SPOTLIGHT --- publishing happenings, news & views, shipmates ahoy! --- +US LAUNCH OF SEAFLOWER This month Scribner, Julian's American publisher, launches SEAFLOWER in the U.S. ISBN 0-7432-1462-5 simultaneously with the publication of their paperback edition of ARTEMIS ISBN 0-7432-1461-7. Scribner plan a special national advertising and promotion campaign. +SHIPMATE SURVEY RESULTS Many thanks to all of you who responded to the questionnaire. The elements of Julian's writing that most appealed were the excitement and freshness, the attention to detail - plus the sheer enjoyableness of his storytelling. Many of you expressed a genuine frustration at the wait between episodes! You visit his website several times a month, and read the newsletter from cover to cover! What many of you told us was you particularly enjoy the Ask Julian feature, the Salty Sayings and the contests in the newsletter. So - we'll have a Bumper Issue once a year with more of all your favourite departments - and special bonus contests. One question several of you asked - why don't we produce the newsletter in a form such as HTML, like some others? The simple answer to this is that by sending it out in the current format there is a guarantee of a virus-free newsletter! There were excellent suggestions about additions to the website (everyone seemed happy with the content of "The Bosun's Chronicle"!). We are planning to regularly post new material on the website. You can take a look now The Shipmate first out of the hat for the special thank-you gift from Julian was Peter Barraclough, who receives a specially-mounted eighteenth century musket ball. +UK PUBLISHER'S JULIAN STOCKWIN AUTHOR PAGE You can read Julian's reflections on visiting the Caribbean for SEAFLOWER research - and also see a nice shot of his feet... http://authorpages.hoddersystems.com/newJulianStockwin +SHIPMATES AHOY ! - SENIOR SHIPMATE At 85, Raymond Gambling of West Sussex in England, may have the honour of being the oldest Shipmate. Raymond, an avid reader, recently wrote to Julian saying how much he had enjoyed ARTEMIS. Raymond is from an old Chichester family - father, grandfather and predecessors all were master craftsmen, saddlers and harness makers. The business ceased after the First World War and Raymond took up a career in the army. He also worked as an Italian interpreter. Reading ARTEMIS (which his wife chose for him when he asked her to pick up a good book), Raymond says gave him a vivid window on life at sea at the end of the eighteenth century. He recalls his maternal grandmother, who was born in the naval town of Gosport in 1848, telling him as a small boy of the exploits of her father and uncles in the Royal Navy in Kydd's day. Family legend has it that there was "something between" her and a James Silvester, who was a sailor. However she did not marry him, becoming the wife of a local shopkeeper instead. Silvester was on his way to "greater things", being subsequently awarded 300 pounds for outstanding improvements to the Breeches Buoy. [A canvas seat in the form of breeches hung from a life buoy running on a hawser and used to haul persons from a shipwrecked vessel to the shore.] ===================== 2) ASK JULIAN --- a forum for Shipmates questions --- Alan Wildgrube of Bloomington, MN, asks: "How were the large cannon (18-32 pounders) made? Were they simply cast or were they also machined somehow?" Julian replies: "They were both cast and machined. Gunfounding was a very skilled, time-consuming and expensive process - and there were never enough guns. To complicate matters, French and British guns had different calibres, so captured guns were of no use to the victor! The Verbruggen family of Denmark established a gun foundry in Woolwich, England, which came to be regarded as the best in the world by 1780. By this time improved techniques had lessened the risks of the weapon bursting when fired. The gunfounding process started with a full size pattern of hardwood filled with sand. A disposable bore made of brass was placed in the centre, and then the whole was filled with molten iron and the 'gun tube' produced. Using a water-powered machine specifically designed for the process, a series of cutting heads were deployed until the desired bore diameter was achieved. Areas that could not be reached were hand finished with chisels, files and abrasives. It was very essential to get a true bore. The allowable 'windage', the gap in bore for a cannonball to roll down the muzzle was 2/10 inch for a 32-pounder. The finished cannon was vast - just short of 3 tons without carriage and sea tackle. When complete, the cannon was 'proofed' with a test fire with a larger than normal charge. If the gun passed, it was issued for service. Bronze guns (erroneously called 'brass' cannon) were stronger, lighter, did not rust, and could be polished to a high gleam, but they were extremely expensive. With improvements in casting and the quality of iron, they fell out of favour in Kydd's day and the typical navy gun of his time was made of iron. It is interesting to note that Count Rumford, observing the extreme heat generated by the boring process, developed theories of heat and energy that laid the basis for the modern science of thermodynamics." If you have a question you'd like Julian to answer, just email Please put ASK JULIAN in the subject line. There's a signed set of postcards of the Kydd books for each published question. ==================== 3) RECOMMENDED READING --- books, magazines and journals about the sea --- "Nelson's Navy" by Brian Lavery The Ships, Men and Organisation, 1793-1815 Lavery is a leading authority on the sailing fighting ship and this work, written in over ten years ago (and reprinted many times), remains a classic. Beginning with a background on the wars with France and naval administration, Lavery covers the design and construction of ships, training and organisation of officers and men and life at sea. It is in the latter that Lavery excels in his description of a world far removed from the hardships and cruelty that is often attributed to life on the lower deck. ISBN 0 85177 521 7 ==================== 4) SALTY SAYINGS --- what today's English owes to Jack Tar --- A clean slate Today, if we say someone starts with a clean slate, the implication is of a fresh start, sometimes a cancellation or settlement of a debt. The origins of this phrase are definitely salty. In Kydd's day all the current orders at the conn were chalked up on a special slate by the quartermaster, as instructed by the officer of the watch. Then, variations in the course to steer, prevailing winds, the set of the sails and other vital information were noted or amended. The slate was kept in the binnacle box. The slate was wiped totally clean at the beginning of a new voyage or when the ship was safely at anchor in harbour. ================== 5) WHO'S WHO --- bio details of the characters in the series --- Wong We first meet Wong in chapter two of KYDD; he's the first Chinaman Tom Kydd has ever seen. Born second son of a minor mandarin to a favourite concubine, Ah Wong, real name Wong Hay Chee, seemed destined for a life of cultured ease in Kwangchow (Canton). However the accession of Emperor Chien Lung to the Dragon Throne was accompanied by social upheavals in distant provinces; his father was disgraced and committed suicide. His mother took the lively five-year-old into the safety of the countryside, but the dreary back-breaking labour broke her spirit and she died. Ah Wong was left to a childless rice farmer, where he endured his unhappy circumstances with uncomplaining stoicism. Unusually well-built, 'Little Buddha', as he was called, would impress his friends with his raw strength, and when a travelling circus passed through, he joined to become a strongman. After three years, bored with the same routines, Wong was easily tricked into shipping out in an opium trader to India. The clean and settled sea life appealed with its attractions of comradeship and adventure, and when the ship arrived to await the new-season crop, he had no hesitation in signing on in a homeward bound East Indiaman. Cast ashore on arrival in an uncaring London, he was easy meat for the press-gang at the outbreak of war, and quickly found himself with new messmates in the 98-gun "Duke William". Only later, in the crack frigate "Artemis", does Wong eventually return to Canton but he's tight-lipped about his past which puzzles his shipmates. ==================== 6) FEATURE Julian and the Sea Cadets In Julian's Album on the website is a very special photo of him as a young lad in his Sea Cadet uniform. It was taken in Coventry when he was about eleven. Of course in his day, there were no girls in the Cadets! This month Julian was delighted to be able to help out with a fund-raising event for the Sea Cadets and met up with Lt Cdr Noel Wheatley, who is in charge of London South East District. Noel told Julian of the special project to refurbish a multi-training centre, TS Griffin. Any Shipmates who would like to make a donation or visit one of the London units can email Noel at . The organisation, which has the longest continuous history of any British youth movement, has fascinating origins, dating back to the Crimean War, when sailors returning home from the campaign formed the "Naval Lads Brigade" to help orphans in the Kent seaport of Whitstable. From this, grew an organisation that today has 400 sea cadet units in the UK and around 16,000 cadets. The international Sea Cadet Association forges links with other countries around the world. As well as Julian, there are a number of famous ex-cadets: movie star Sean Connery, Deputy UK Prime Minister John Prescott, TV personality Rolf Harris, jazz legend Kenny Ball and the Archbishop of Canterbury. www.sea-cadets.org ==================== 7) CONTESTS Shipmate Reviewers Contest To enter, email the Bosun in no more than 50 words saying why you are looking forward to reading MUTINY, the fourth book in the Thomas Kydd series. Six winners will be selected by a special panel, comprising the Bosun and representatives from Julian's publishers. Each winner will be sent a signed Advance Proof copy of MUTINY and asked to write a short review to share with Shipmates. The advance copies of MUTINY are printed in very limited numbers, mainly for distribution to major booksellers, and are Collector's Items. Email: Bosun@JulianStockwin.com by June 25. Please put REVIEWER in the subject line. ==================== 8) NEW ON THE WEB In response to the feedback from Shipmates, there are a number of new features on the website, which we will add to each month: - CAST - character who's who inventory SETTING - SEA and SHORE, life in the eighteenth century SHIPS - Kydd's ships BATTLES - the great sea battles of the age BOOKCASE - favourite sea books, fiction and non-fiction POETRY - the sea and the men who go down to the sea in ships _____________ And, here's the promised recipe for Jerk Pork which Kydd and Renzi enjoy in SEAFLOWER: Fry 2 finely chopped onions in a little oil until soft. Add 2 fresh red chillies (deseeded and finely chopped), 1 clove crushed garlic, 1 inch piece grated ginger, 1 teaspooon dried thyme, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground allspice and cook for two minutes more. Stir in 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, juice of one large orange, grated rind and juice of one lime, 2 teaspoons brown sugar. Simmer until mixture forms a dark paste. Season with salt and black pepper and leave to cool. Rub this mixture over pork chops, cover and chill for at least six hours. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 190 C for about 25 minutes. ____________ ++ Back issues of the newsletter downloadable from the website =================== Yours aye, THE BOSUN