<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 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 <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> November/December 2008 It's our bumper issue! There's some very special prizes, our annual quiz, Julian's pick of the latest maritime books for your Christmas shopping list - and we meet a chief petty officer from HMS Teazer! 1 DISPATCHES 2 QUIZ 3 FEATURE 4 BOOKSHELF 5 CONTESTS 6 ASK JULIAN 7 A LIVING TEAZER 8 QUIZ ANSWERS ==================== 1 DISPATCHES + Coming in 2009... Julian has been commissioned by Ebury Press, the largest general non-fiction publisher in the UK to work on an exciting new work that celebrates the Golden Age of Sail. The book, "Stockwin's Maritime Miscellany", will be published mid next year. We will be offering Shipmates a premium edition featuring a special signed & numbered book-plate and a burgundy leather bookmark. The premium edition will be strictly limited in availability so if you'd like to reserve your copy now, email Admin@Julianstockwin.com with "Miscellany" in the subject line and your full postal details. The Premium Edition will be priced at GBP14.99, plus p&p. + Step back in time! Australian Shipmates are in for a treat on Saturday 15 November. There's to be a special evening aboard the 18th century tall ship, Cook's "Endeavour", hailed as one of the most accurate replicas in the world. Bookings 02 9298 3655 + Royal viewing HRH Princess Anne officially opened Devon's newest Library on October 2 and took time out of her busy schedule to inspect John Thompson's model of "Teazer", on special loan to the Ivybridge Library. + New futures for special ships Plans are afoot for HMS "Unicorn", a Leda class frigate, currently moored at Victoria Dock, Dundee, to be moved to a new site on the redeveloped river front of the city. "Unicorn" was built years after Napoleon was exiled to St Helena and languished 'in ordinary' for decades. She made just one sea voyage when she was towed north to the Tay in 1873. She never fought a war and never fired a gun in anger but she is probably the only Georgian man- o'-war to take the surrender of a U-boat! It was on May 14, 1945, a week after war in Europe had actually ended. German commander Karl Jobst has lost contact with his base and was unaware that hostilities were over. The British, no doubt somewhat stretched at the time, accepted his surrender and his Nazi dirk is on display on board "Unicorn" to this day. Despite her lack of service history, "Unicorn" is a unique survivor from the brief transitional period between the traditional wooden sailing ship and the revolutionary iron steamship. --- Shipmates know Julian's heart is in the age of sail but he does applaud +all+ efforts to keep Britain's remarkable maritime heritage alive. Until recently SS "Robin", one of only three Grade 1 Core Collection ships in London, was bound for the breakers. Now, a ?2 million restoration project is under way to secure the future of the world's last remaining steam coaster. + Nelson bust To commemorate the anniversary of Nelson's birthday, a new bust of the great hero was unveiled last month. Fittingly, it has pride of place in the wardroom of HMS Nelson in Portsmouth. + "Spirit of Mystery" Australia-bound On October 20 intrepid British sailor Pete Goss set sail from Newlyn Harbour in Cornwall for Melbourne in a 36- foot Cornish fishing lugger, a replica of a boat which carried seven Cornish fishermen there in 1854. We wish Pete and his three-man crew fair winds! + TREACHERY praise Thank you for all your emails about TREACHERY. Many echoed the thoughts of Alan Rootes :- "I devoured the book in two days. The plot rises and falls in violence, serenity and mystery. I found it magnificent, and equal to, if not surpassing the wonderful works of the late Patrick O'Brian. I am on tenterhooks for the next Kydd adventure!" And American readers enjoying THE PRIVATEER'S REVENGE (the US title for the book) were of a similar mind to Ross Brown:- "Julian Stockwin delivers a thoroughly researched and wonderfully exciting page turner. I have admired all nine Kydd books to date for their historical accuracy and the author's complete command of the Royal Navy in the time of the wars against Napoleon Bonaparte. The book is rich in detail, adventure and imagination. Julian is truly the present day heir to the reputations of O'Brian and Forester." + INTUTE Julian was recently asked to write a special feature for this prestigious research/education database http://www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/limelight/HistoricalFiction.html> + All at sea Kathy and Julian were invited by the Navy Board to a VIP Sea Day at Plymouth on October 22. The day was action- packed... Julian takes up the story, "We were assigned to HMS 'Gloucester', a destroyer of 4000 tons, about as big as a WWII light cruiser and crammed with weaponry and hi-tech equipment. It was a fantastic feeling to be outward bound again! We toured the ship from stem to stern and then we were ready for the fun! Having won the open sea the 'enemy' struck and we in for a white-knuckle experience on the upper deck as part of a squadron of destroyers doing evasion manoeuvres at 30 knots or more. It was wise to grab hold of whatever was to hand as the ship went over to 30 or 40 degrees, performing seemingly impossible turning circles as the enemy lunged. Fighter jets screamed and roared down at not much less than mast height. Then, with Eddystone Light abeam to starboard it was time to hit back. With Navy-issue earplugs in, our forward 4.5 inch gun opened up, pounding all the senses and leaving us breathless. What a day!" ==================== 2 QUIZ It's become somewhat of a tradition to have a quiz in the bumper issue. This one focuses on the characters in the books. From these clues, can you identify them? There's no prize for this quiz, but do award yourself a large tot if you score more than 8 correct! Answers at the end of the newsletter. 1. He sat at the tiller importantly, a beribboned hat picked out in gold paint incongruously smart against his thick-set, hairy body. 2. He was a short, well-kept gentleman in plain black and wearing a three-cornered hat of a past age. 3. There was something disquieting about this seaman. Only a little shorter than Kydd himself, he was powerfully built with hard, muscular arms and a deep tattooed chest. 4. In a lower-deck bellow that had not softened over the years he roared, "Aaaaall the hands!" 5. It happened very quickly... a choking squeal and a brief image of spurting blood, limbs and white bone. 6. His black-rimmed eyes were sunken but there was an iron control and ferocious purpose. "Get out of my way," he snapped crossly. 7. With a terrible intensity he bit off the words: "May the Good Lord have mercy on your soul, sir - for I shall not!" 8. But the last man to die caused "Artemis" the most grief. 9. "I'm the first lieutenant of this ship... and you're a parcel of landmen and therefore scum." 10. She was a sympathiser of the royalists and lived in a white house on the corner of the avenue du Quatorze Juillet in St Pontrieux. ==================== 3 DAVY JONES' LOCKER AND THE SEA WRITERS For sailors, Davy Jones was a spirit of the deep and his Locker was the bottom of the sea, a sort of catch-all for everything that went overboard - from rigging to men. It was said that "Davy Jones' Locker is where nothing is lost, 'cos you always know where it is!" Davy Jones and his Locker are regular escorts of all those who sail the bounding main. Julian, of course, mentions Davy Jones in the Kydd series. He is not alone. The infamous Davy Jones surfaces quite often in maritime literature. Here's three of the most well-known ones:- In "The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle", first published in 1751, Tobias Smollett described Davy Jones:- "I'll be damned if it was not Davy Jones himself. I know him by his saucer eyes, his three rows of teeth, and tail and the blue smoke that came out his nostrils. This same Davy Jones, according to the mythology of sailors, is the fiend that resides over all other evil spirits of the deep, and is often seen in various shapes, perching among the rigging on the eve of hurricanes, shipwrecks, and other disasters in which seafaring life is exposed, warning the devoted wretch of death and woe." The American writer Washington Irving in 1824: "He came, said he, in a storm, and he went in a storm; he came in the night, and he went in the night; he came nobody knows whence, and he has gone nobody knows where. For aught I know he has gone to sea once more... and may land to bother some people on the other side of the world; though it is a thousand pities, added he, if he has gone to Davy Jones's Locker." And in the classic, "Moby Dick": "There was young Nat Swaine, once the bravest boat- header out of all Nantucket...he got so frightened ... that he sheered away from the whales... in case he got stove and went to Davy Jones." ==================== 4 BOOKSHELF Of course the Kydd books make great Christmas gifts and are available in a range of formats - hardback, paperback, audiobook, large print and e-book. Full details are on the website. Julian has offered to personalise a limited number of his books on a first-come, first-served basis. If you would like your Christmas Kydd book gift to include a special message from Julian email with your request. All we ask is that you package the book well when you send it and pay return postage. We also have a small number of signed First Editions of some of the UK hardbacks still available. But you'll need to get in fast for these... Here's Julian's personal pick of the best sea books in the stores at the moment. + "Jack Tar" by Roy and Lesley Adkins. This husband and wife writing team have ferreted out fascinating first- hand accounts of life at sea in Nelson's navy, focusing on the common seaman. [see CONTESTS for our double-book Adkins giveaway] + "The Voyage of the Beagle" by James Taylor. Conway Maritime have come up with a real gem with this book. It's beautifully illustrated and immensely readable. + "The Frigate Surprise" by Brian Lavery and Geoff Hunt. The complete story of the famous fictional ship. + "The Mariner's Book of Days 2009" by Peter Spectre. Now in its 18th year, this is a nautical desk diary/calendar which is always entertaining and informative. + "The Pirate's Pocket Book" by Stuart Robertson. Told through vivid recollections of those who encountered the pirates personally. A great little stocking filler! ==================== 5 CONTESTS For this issue we have some really great book prizes, in both printed word and spoken word format. And you can also win a keyring unlike any other... Entries to Deadline: December 15 + All the KYDDS! McBooks Press, Julian's US publisher, has donated two complete sets of the Kydd trade paperbacks to date (plus THE PRIVATEER'S REVENGE in hardback). For a chance to win a set of the nine titles, in what year did McBooks publish its first book? + A pair of the Adkins To win a set of the two Adkins paperbacks, "Trafalgar" and "The Battle for the Oceans" - in what English town does this husband and wife writing team now live? + Great listening... And we have an unabridged audiobook of THE ADMIRAL'S DAUGHTER, once again superbly read by Christian Rodska. How many separate audio products of Julian's works are carried by the BBC Audiobook Collection? + A unique prize Donated by Living Teazer (see feature #7 below) CPO Vince Hart, it's a keyring featuring +his+ Teazer's ship crest. We'll throw in a copy of COMMAND, the book in which Kydd and Teazer first make each other's acquaintance. Congratulations to Martin Thornton who won a hardback of TENACIOUS in last month's contest for identifying this book as the one in which chaplain Peake appeared. ==================== 6 ASK JULIAN Julian was recently asked to intervene in a marital dispute, and as the wife won, the Shipmate concerned has asked to remain anonymous... This was the presenting problem: "Could you please settle a friendly (at the moment) discussion I am having with my wife about the depiction of flags and pennants in paintings of large scale sailing ships. With a ship running before the wind on full sail many are shown in contemporary paintings of the eighteenth/early nineteenth centuries with their flags and pennants facing towards the direction by the sails from which the wind is coming. My view is that this should not be possible and is artistic licence. My wife, however, say that this is possible under certain circumstances." Julian replied: "This has to be looked at on a case-by- case basis. Square-rigged ships +do+ sail into the wind, not directly, but within six points, or they couldn't make progress toward their destination if in the wind's eye, so flag directions are deceptive. If a picture is set from the land looking out to sea the winds experienced on the open sea are usually quite different to land winds. In my view only professional sea artists can be trusted - those like Nicholas Pocock, who was also a sea captain, and Geoff Hunt, an ocean sailor. Works by others may be pretty, but can have all kinds of egregious errors, the wind direction wrong being just one example. If the picture is painted correctly by far the most reliable indicator of wind direction are the wave crests (not the swell direction which can be quite at variance, making for interesting sea motion!). The best artist I have come across in this regard is John Chancellor, also a seaman, who would sit down and paint an empty sea until he was quite satisfied with the scene and patterning of cross currents and so on, then put in the ship on top." ==================== 7 A LIVING TEAZER Imagine Julian's delight when he had a conversation with a chief petty officer of HMS "Teazer"! No, Julian wasn't having a time-slip moment (which does happen, as his wife and friends can testify; a certain glazed look comes into his eyes...) - he was talking to Vince Hart, a salty mariner from the T-class destroyer that proudly bore that name. Vince and Julian met up to chat about Old Ships at the Teazer model display in the Ivybridge Library where Vince presented Julian with his Teazer cap tally. You can see a picture of Julian and Vince on the website in Shipmate's Album. =================== 8 QUIZ answers 1. He sat at the tiller importantly, a beribboned hat picked out in gold paint incongruously smart against his thick-set, hairy body. A. Yates, coxswain in Teazer's cutter in COMMAND. 2. He was a short, well-kept gentleman in plain black and wearing a three-cornered hat of a past age. Genially lined face. A. Bonnici, ship's master. 3. There was something disquieting about this seaman. Only a little shorter than Kydd himself, he was powerfully built with hard, muscular arms and a deep tattooed chest. A. Dobbie, the petty officer in QUARTERDECK who remembered Kydd's involvement at the Mutiny at the Nore. 4. In a lower deck bellow that had not softened over the years he roared "Aaaaall the hands!" A. Jabez Perrott, who became a strict boatswain in the naval school Kydd established for his family. 5. It happened very quickly... a choking squeal and a brief image of spurting blood, limbs and white bone. A. Marine Lieutenant Best, killed by a loose cannon. 6. His black-rimmed eyes were sunken but there was an iron control and ferocious purpose. "Get out of my way" he snapped crossly. A. Surgeon Pybus in the orlop, about to treat battle casualties. 7. With a terrible intensity he bit off the words: "May the Good Lord have mercy on your soul, sir - for I shall not!" A. Zachary Caird, master shipwright in English Harbour discovering Kydd and Suki in a compromising situation... 8. But the last man to die caused "Artemis" the most grief. A. Captain Powlett, who succumbed to fever. 9. "I'm the first lieutenant of this ship... and you're a parcel of landmen and therefore scum." A. Tyrell in "Duke william". 10. She was a sympathiser of the royalists and lived in a white house on the corner of the avenue du Quatorze Juillet in St pontrieux. A. Madame Dahouet. =================== And here's a fascinating item to just throw into casual conversation over the holidays - the ship that straddled two hemisphere, two seasons, two years and two centuries at the same moment! Impossible? No, it happened in the mid-Pacific on 30 December 1899 when the captain and navigator of SS "Warrimoo" carefully positioned the ship at the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line. At the stroke of midnight local time - + The port side of the ship was in the southern hemisphere in the middle of summer. + The starboard side was in the northern hemisphere in the middle of winter. + The date in the aft part of the ship was December 30, 1899. + The date in the forward part of the ship was 1 January 1900. So the ship was therefore not only in two different days, two different months, two different seasons and two different years but in two different centuries - all at the same time! === We're back in the New Year for the January issue. Meanwhile, if you have any comments or suggestions about the Chronicle or Julian's website we'd love to hear from you. Best wishes for the Holiday Season! Yours aye, THE BOSUN ++ Download back issues from the WebSite ++