<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 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. 8, ISSUE 5, JUNE 2007 --------------------------------------------------------- + S T O P P R E S S + Reviewers wanted If you'd like a chance to win an advance review copy of KYDD: THE ADMIRAL'S DAUGHTER, Julian's eighth book, tell us, in no more than 150 words, which three characters from the series (other than Kydd and Renzi) you would most like to share a tot and a yarn with - and why. The senders of the ten most apt and original entries will receive a proof copy of the book, and will be asked to write a short review which we will share with Shipmates. Deadline: June 25. Please include your full postal address. < Bosun@julianstockwin.com > --------------------------------------------------------- Among our featured readers this month are a Californian stuntman; a tall ship crew member from New Zealand; and a Salvation Army captain in Shetland. Plus - great nautical prizes, including a limited edition print and two Family Tickets to Australia's leading maritime museum. 1 DISPATCHES 2 ALL I ASK IS A TALLSHIP... 3 IN THE MOVIES 4 ARTISTIC INSPIRATION 5 SALTY SAYINGS 6 CONTESTS 7 FAR-FLUNG KYDD 8 HMS "SOUTHAMPTON" CALLING ==================== 1 DISPATCHES + History up in flames Just last month we mentioned the opening of the "Cutty Sark" conservation exhibition. Julian was devastated on hearing of the fire aboard the ship on May 21. However, despite extensive damage to her deck timbers, it is believed that this champion of the seas can still be saved for posterity. It will take a significant amount of money, though, to get the restoration back on track. Donations may be made via www.justgiving.com/cuttysarkfire - and you can also leave a personal message of support there. + Maritime Heroes With Julian's Down Under connections, it was inevitable that he would be following the progress of Ken Gourlay's yacht "Spirit Silver Edition". Ken is now the first Tasmanian to have sailed solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world. www.spiritsoloquest.com And in England, a yachting legend wins another place in the record books. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who lives not all that far from Julian, successfully completed the Velux 5 Oceans. At 67, he was the oldest competitor in the gruelling race. www.robinknox-johnston.co.uk We salute them both! + I now declare... Julian will officially open the Exeter Book Fair on Sunday June 24. He will also be on hand during the morning to meet readers and sign copies of his books. + Iconic flag This month, 213 years ago, the Glorious First of June was the first major naval clash between the British and French during the Revolutionary Wars; it was celebrated as a great victory for the British. Britain's Culture Minister David Lammy has placed a temporary export ban on the actual Union flag flown by the victorious Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Howe, at the conflict. This flag is the only surviving complete example of its kind. It is not known whether the flag was made in a Royal Dockyard before the ship set sail or whether it was made in haste by men on board during the three-day running battle to replace one already damaged by combat. It measures nearly 20 feet long and about 12 feet wide and is made of loosely woven hand sewn wool bunting with a line hoist. + In good company... From a review of COMMAND in The Western Morning News newspaper: "Probably Stockwin's best so far. It places his hero right up there alongside C S Forester's Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey." + Kydds to the winners Congratulations to all the valiant sailors who competed in the Melbourne-Osaka Race. Shipmate Bill Payne presented the winning team, Jock and Hamish MacAdie, with a signed copy of TENACIOUS and COMMAND, on behalf of BLISS, the sailboat school he runs in Japan, along with Julian's best wishes. www.osakacup.com + Everyone loves a sailor... Roger Partridge, who won a copy of "Send a Gunboat" in a recent Chronicle contest told us: "I was particularly interested to read that many of the Victorian gunboats had names which were later used on the Algerine class minesweepers in WW2 - including one in which I served in the 1950s - HMS 'Coquette'. It was always good to come home on leave and chat up the girls with the French for 'flirt' on your cap-tally!" + Costly storm! Reading Dick Sleight's question last month about breakages at sea during bad weather, Jenifer Faulkner brought to mind her great uncle's experiences in the sloop HMS "Condor", which sailed a century after Kydd. Her uncle was passing through the Straits of Magellan in the summer of 1901, en route from England to the naval base at Esquimalt, Vancouver Island, when he encountered a particularly severe storm. He wrote: "We pitched the first day and rolled the second without cessation and the monotony of it was calculated to wear one out, body and soul. The force of the wind reached a maximum of 10 and we rolled 20-30 degrees for 24 hours, occasionally touching 33 and 34 degrees. Our best pitch brought the foreyard down to the level of the horizon, as seen from the poop." So much gear in the wardroom was broken that the officers had to buy new mess traps at not inconsiderable cost from the storeship in Coquimbo. ==================== 2 ALL I ASK IS A TALL SHIP... A growing number of Shipmates are experiencing the majesty of tall ships at first hand. This month we hear from New Zealander Angus Gilbertson about his ten-day voyage in "Endeavour". Next month, Michael Wonio talks about his work at "Elissa", and Rick Wehmeyer has promised to share highlights from his recent voyage aboard "Tenacious" in a future issue. HM Bark "Endeavour", built in Fremantle in 1988-1993 by Australian shipwrights using Australian timbers, is recognised as one of the best, most accurate historical replicas in the world. She is open for visitors within the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) complex in Darling Harbour, Sydney, and regularly undertakes sea voyages. www.anmm.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=457 Angus takes up his story: I have been reading about tall ships since I was ten and did a little dinghy sailing in my youth. I actually found a link to "Endeavour" on Julian's website and put my name down for voyage crew. The trip was in three legs - Sydney to Hobart, Hobart to Devonport, Devonport to Sydney. I chose the last leg as it fitted in with my work commitments. Bosun: I believe you were reading COMMAND during the voyage? Angus: Yes, we covered a lot of the waters that Julian spoke about in the second half of the book. Sleeping in hammocks and working the ship the old fashioned way brought his writing to life even more. Bosun: Were there any particularly memorable moments? Angus: I was never frightened but my first trip to the main topgallant yard at about 120 feet was a huge buzz and a feeling of having "made it". Bosun: How was the weather? Angus: We were very lucky as it was kind to us as we were getting our sea legs and then the winds increased to 30 to 35 knots gusting 40 for a brilliant thrash up the coast of Australia - you really felt you were sailing! Bosun: Has this experience given you a different perspective on life? What would you say to someone asking whether he or she should sign up? Angus: I think it shows you how a bunch of strangers who have a common interest can have a marvellous time together learning new skills at any age. It was probably the best holiday I've ever had. "Endeavour" is a very happy ship, from captain down to crew. I would tell people if ever they have the opportunity to go they should leap at the chance. I might meet them there as I will be going back whenever I can! === There will be a special one-day seminar on the life and voyages of Captain Cook on Sunday, 10 June, at the ANMM. Bookings are essential. The seminar coincides with the publication of "Cook, the Discoverer", a facsimile limited edition printing of the rare 1787 book by Georg Forster, a German Naturalist. For a chance to win one of two Family Tickets to the ANMM, see CONTESTS. ==================== 3 IN THE MOVIES Tom Morga is a Californian stunt-man, who's can be seen in "Master and Commander" and "Pirates of the Caribbean". Having read all the O'Brian and Forester works, he's now enjoying the Kydd series. We asked Tom about his work. Bosun: How did you get started in the profession? Tom: When I was in college I worked as a smokejumper in Montana during my summer breaks. One day a film crew came to our jump centre and filmed an episode for a TV series about saving a wild buffalo herd from a forest fire. I was one of the jumpers they used on the show and thinking this kind of work could be an exciting career I decided I'd give it a try. I spent a couple of years training, doing live shows, getting basic stunt jobs in features - until gradually I became established. Bosun: Tell us about your work in "Master and Commander" Tom: This was my first historical movie in which the set was a ship, built as a square rigger from the age of sail. My days on the set often began early, around 6 am. We'd put on our wardrobe and then go to makeup and hair. I sometimes had to have splinter wounds in my back and neck created! Filming is very time consuming. Each shot takes quite a while to set up and light. There are usually several camera angles with multiple takes for each scene. Inevitably on any movie there's a good deal of down time between scenes. To spot me in the film I would probably have to be there to show you which body was flying by! Bosun: What was the most dangerous stunt you had to perform in that film? Tom: Probably being in the gun crew that took an 18 pounder through the gun port. I was on a side tackle when the broadside came through. In the story the guns on the French ship had greater range than ours. We were waiting to get close enough to be in range with our guns and knew we would have to take the enemy broadside before firing our own. Some would have to be sacrificed, and I was one! Bosun: Do you have a character from Julian's books you would like to portray some day? Tom: A good part for me might be Joe Bowyer. He introduces Kydd to the world of able seamen and ends up taking a fall from the topsail yard. Bosun: If a film was made based on the Kydd books is there one particular title you think would work best? Tom: Absolutely! The first one. It's so important to introduce the characters as the author intended. The background of any story is better understood if it's experienced rather than explained. Both Kydd's and Renzi's pasts would be hard to explain if you started the story following their beginnings on "Duke William". Besides, I would love to see the transition that Kydd goes through to become an able seaman before all his other adventures. Start at the beginning. You'll probably be guaranteeing a sequel, or six! ==================== 4 ARTISTIC INSPIRATION Regular readers of the Chronicle will know of Julian's admiration for the work of the marine artist John Chancellor. Sadly, Chancellor died in his prime, having only completed a relatively small portfolio of paintings. Chancellor lived in the Devon fishing village of Brixham and a number of his paintings are of the waters around the Devon and Cornish coasts. Among the most evocative of these are "Coasting", "Easterly Haze", "From Under Their Noses", "In Pursuit of Virginie" and "Taking Bude After a Blow". Chancellor's daughter Tessa Makepeace, who now sells his limited edition prints, recalls her father's meticulous attention to detail - studying logs and charts, taking to the air to get rock formations correct, even looking for mooring rings on local beaches to authenticate the paintings. While undertaking the preliminary work for KYDD: THE ADMIRAL'S DAUGHTER, Julian found himself absorbing the atmosphere of "Easterly Haze" as he researched a Torbay scene. Chancellor wrote of this particular painting: "Occasionally, while ships were peacefully at anchor in Torbay, Devon, the wind would come easterly and the scene would change dramatically. Even with a moderate breeze the lightering of stores would become difficult. Force 5 would find ships snatching and sheeting at their cables and it would no longer be prudent to remain. The brute force of getting anchors and making sail would follow and possibly a couple of hours of hard sailing to beat out of the bay. This painting illustrates such an occasion. It is early afternoon. The wind is easterly - a good force 6 - and the usual haze is evident. The vessels have got their anchors and are making sail. All have two reefs pulled up in their topsails and light canvas is not being set. Once round Start Point, however, the reef will be shaken out and possibly topgallants set." For a chance to win this print, see CONTESTS www.johnchancellor.co.uk ==================== 5 SALTY SAYINGS Batten down the hatches Today, if we batten down the hatches, we prepare ourselves as best we can in a dangerous situation. The origins of this phrase are definitely salty. Battening down the hatches is the process of securing the deck openings, or hatches, against the effects of bad weather.This is done by securing protective canvas over the hatch cover by means of battens, flat pieces of wood, which were firmly hammered into cleats. An open hatch could of course cause a disastrous ingress of water. ==================== 6 CONTESTS + "Easterly Haze" limited edition print If you'd like to enter the contest for this splendid prize, email the Bosun with the name of the artist's work which generated such an enthusiastic response that he was persuaded to swallow the anchor and paint full time. + Maritime Museum Tickets We have two Family Tickets to the Australian National Maritime Museum to give away. They include entry to the "Endeavour", as well as all the other maritime attractions! To go into the hat, let us know the date the "Endeavour" returned to Sydney after having completed 11 years of world voyaging. + Lucky Dip And our question for this month's lucky dip is - What Book Festival will Julian be appearing at in October? --- Congratulations to all last month's winners:- The two CDs of "All at Sea" went to Joe Pociask and Robert Twiss, who identified GU10 as Guernsey fishing boat registration. The lucky dip, a signed Kydd paperback of choice, went to David Capel, who named Stockholm tar as the preservative used on standing rigging in Kydd's day. + Deadline for entries:June 25. Don't forget to include your postal address. ==================== 7 FAR-FLUNG KYDD If you take a look at Julian's Album on the website you'll see a photograph of KYDD being read in the upper reaches of the Amazon! From your many emails and letters we know that Julian's books make it to some pretty remote places, and from time to time we'll highlight some of these, beginning with Shetland, a beautiful and wild group of Scottish islands close to Norway, where the population of around 22,000 people is greatly outnumbered by about 175,000 guillemots, 200,000 puffins - and over 333,000 sheep! In Shetland, Tom Richardson, a captain in the Salvation Army, works in the community bringing support and care to those most in need, including drug addicts, alcoholics and the lonely and vulnerable in society. Tom has a great respect for the sea and those who derive their livelihood from it. "Most of the fishermen I know, like Kydd, have a love affair with the sea. However they work long hours in some of the world's most dangerous seas." Tom recalls a particularly memorable storm recently. "We left Aberdeen Harbour bound for Lerwick, normally a 12 hour crossing - it took 23 hours! The storm raged all night and day, I have never seen such large waves and the boat was reduced to travelling at just a few knots as the motion was so bad." The Richardsons (Tom's wife Victoria is also a captain in the Salvation Army) have two boxer dogs. One, Benbow, named after the admiral, has developed a taste for Julian's books and has already devoured several chapters! A lifelong fan of sea tales, Tom says he sees himself in Thomas Kydd sometimes... ==================== 8 HMS "SOUTHAMPTON" CALLING Julian and Kathy had the pleasure of sailing aboard the Royal Navy's HMS "Southampton" from Plymouth to Portsmouth in early April. The Type 42 destroyer is now on an 8-month deployment, and will be sending the Chronicle monthly highlights of this voyage. Here's the first dispatch:- May 10. We arrived in Bridgetown, Barbado, to crystal clear seas and perfect blue skies. With an official reception being held for local dignitaries that night, the seamanship department swung into action and rigged a large awning over the fo'c'sle. Most of the rest of the ship's company were busy bringing on board stores that the chefs would need to feed 270 hungry sailors for the weeks ahead. This was a particularly arduous task, given the heat. By lunchtime, all the provisions were safely stored and the "Jimmy" piped liberty to all hands. Ashore, HMS Southampton's football team played a match against the Barbados Defence Force. With four Barbados internationals on their side they had somewhat of an advantage, but Southampton put up a valiant fight, and the game finished Barbados 3, Southampton 1. Over the next few days there were activities such as scuba diving in Carlisle Bay, golf, jet skiing and deep sea fishing. Part of the catch of over 100 pounds of Dolphin Fish and 3 King Fish was brought back on board and will be cooked at the next flight-deck barbie... But all good things must end, and it was back to sea for exercises and "Action Stations." We left on May 14, bound for South America. More next month. ================== Yours aye, THE BOSUN ++ Download back issues from the WebSite ++ www.JulianStockwin.com