====================================== S T O P - P R E S S THE FIRST CHAPTER OF ARTEMIS, THE SECOND VOLUME IN THE KYDD SERIES, WILL BE PUBLISHED ON THE OFFICIAL JULIAN STOCKWIN WEBSITE NEXT MONTH. FOR DETAILS OF HOW TO WIN A SIGNED ADVANCE COPY OF ARTEMIS SEE THE COMPETITION LATER IN THIS NEWSLETTER. ====================================== "THE BOSUN'S CHRONICLE" --- emailed to Shipmates around the world the first week of each month --- VOL.1, ISSUE 5, SEPTEMBER 2001 Avast there - and welcome aboard from the bosun of the Thomas Kydd Shipmates' Network! 1) DECKLOG 2) HANDS TO MUSTER 3) NAUTICAL WEBSITE OF THE MONTH 4) THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 5) ON THE STOCKS 6) SIGNALS FROM FOREIGN PARTS 7) DAYS OUT 8) REPORTS ==================== 1) DECKLOG --- events and activities --- Earlier in the year Julian and his wife Kathy joined "The Earl of Pembroke" on one of her voyages across the Irish Sea. As promised in an earlier newsletter, Julian speaks about the experience for the "Chronicle". +Bosun. Tell us about the "Earl". +Julian. She is a full-rigged eighteenth century barque, complete with the distinctive single fore topsail of Kydd's day. With a gross registered tonnage of 175 and a crew of 15, she can set about 10,000 square feet of sail. She is much in demand for film work ('Longitude', 'Treasure Island','A Respectable Trade' - to name a few). +Bosun. Was there anything that surprised you during the voyage? +Julian. Yes - the sea was almost completely deserted. At the time I was at sea, the approaches to Liverpool were alive with shipping. This is partly because the same amount of cargo goes in fewer but much larger ships - some great container vessels are over 100,000 tons. Today, two ships passing is a matter for comment and raised binoculars! +Bosun. How important was this trip for you as a sea writer? +Julian. The tiny, insignificant details of an experience are always the ones to slip past the consciousness to convince the reader. And the only way to get these is to renew one's first-hand acquaintance - a very pleasurable duty! +Bosun. What can a landlubber gain from sailing in a Tall Ship? +Julian. Top of the list - the best and closest form of introduction to the sea. A square-rigged ship cannot brutally shoulder the waves aside as a steamship does, she has to woo the winds and waves into taking her where she wants to go. This means the sailor has to draw near to these ageless natural forces and really understand and relate to them. +Bosun. What one thing stands out in your memory after this voyage? +Julian. The heave of a deck in a seaway. This is visceral, it tells you the vessel is alive and willing, and in an outward bound ship is very exciting - the first thing that tells you that you are on the way to foreign shores ... DETAILS OF SQUARE SHIPS' SAILING PROGRAMMES 01726 70241 ==================== 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 Matthias Jendis, M.A. who is currently putting the finishing touches to the German translation of KYDD for Ullstein Maritim. Matthias is a superb choice for the task. Not only does he have impeccable professional qualifications (he translated four of the O'Brian novels and also has recently finished a new translation of Moby Dick) but he himself has seen sea service. He was chief radio operator in a German minesweeper in the Baltic. During a summer exercise in British waters he remembers a furious force 9 storm - and crawling into the channel north of the Isle of Wight to weather it there. +Bosun. What do you see as the greatest challenges for a translator working in the historical nautical fiction genre? +Matthias. There are two. First, it is to convey a little of the different atmosphere a language set in the Jane Austen era creates, to give the text a patina that is unobtrusive, yet slightly palpable. The second is to master, at least in some degree, the nautical terminology that is a natural part of life aboard a man-of-war in the age of sail. An additional problem presented by KYDD is the talk of the sailor before the mast. +Bosun. Can you tell us some of the special resources you might use? +Matthias. I work from Gottingen, a town with strong links to Great Britain - the university was founded by a king from the House of Hanover, one of the Georges. The excellent university library holds almost all the titles I need, including dictionaries of nautical terms going back to 1794! Julian has also introduced me to a number of his nautical and academic contacts, who have been very helpful. +Bosun. Do you have a specific routine for working on a project like this? +Matthias. Every translator has his or her own way of approaching a text. With KYDD I have found it useful to compile several lists of terms from the major "problem areas" - especially fo'c'sle and nautical terminology. They can be researched separately while the work progresses, which would then mainly focus on conveying the general atmosphere of the book. +Bosun. Is your own sea experience something you have drawn on? +Matthias. Yes. A knowledge of the general atmosphere on board ship certainly helps in my work. It is also amazing how many words and customs the fledgling German navy took over from the Royal Navy when it was expanded in the late nineteenth century. I'll give you an example. As a young recruit I was woken each morning by a mate shouting, "Reise, reise, aufstehn!" The German word "reise" is actually "rise" - one of the many English words surviving in the German navy. +Bosun. Finally, how would you sum up the task of translation of KYDD, compared to other sea novels you have worked on? +Matthias. Julian's "democratic" approach to life at sea, i.e. from below, taking the ordinary sailor's point of view - as opposed to the "aristocratic" quarter-deck view - has presented me with a few challenges, and certainly introduced me to a number of precise nautical terms and slang words I have never come across before in English novels, let alone tried to translate! However, I have thoroughly enjoyed the project and look forward to working with Julian again on future books. NEXT MONTH: SOME FASCINATING INSIGHTS INTO THE GLOBAL PUBLISHING MARKET. THE BOSUN TALKS TO VANESSA GALLOWAY, WHO MANAGES ALL HODDER & STOUGHTON'S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE BOOKS OVERSEAS SALES ACTIVITIES. ==================== 3) NAUTICAL WEBSITE OF THE MONTH --- Every month Julian talks about a website with sea links --- PORT. "Port" is an online catalogue of 2000 marine-related Internet resources. It is maintained by the National Maritime Museum and enables anyone with an interest in this area to search the Port database, browse by subject category and historical period, look for upcoming conferences and events for the maritime community - and a lot more besides. Taking the subject matter of "Napoleonic Wars", for example, 32 fascinating sites are suggested, ranging from prisoners of war in British hands, to the development of the square-rigged ship to a guide to doing historical maritime research online. Each site is described fully to enable users to assess quickly its origin, content and nature. Well worth a visit! ==================== 4) THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY --- Julian takes a look at an aspect of life at sea and ashore in the Great Age of Fighting Sail --- PRIZE MONEY. It was the Lottery of its time; and just as today, the odds of great wealth were very slim, but fortunes could be - and were - created on the strength of prize money. The origins of prize money lay in the "Cruisers and Convoys" Act of 1708 which gave practically all the money gained from the seizure of enemy vessels to the captors - "for the better and more effectual encouragement of the Sea Service". In some ways prize money was unfair - all ships within sight when the capture took place were entitled to equal shares. And the Admiral, under whose orders the ship sailed, was entitled to a share, even if he was nowhere in the vicinity. In Kydd's day the share-out of the prize money was: One eighth to each of these groups - Flag Officer; the Captains of Marines, Lieutenants, Masters, Surgeons; Lieutenants of Marines, Secretary to Flag Officer, Principal Warrant Officers, Chaplains; Midshipmen, Inferior Warrant Officers, Principal Warrant Officer's Mates, Marines Sergeants. Two eighths were shared to each of these groups - Captain/s; the rest. "The rest" included all the seamen on the fo'c'sle, many hundreds of men. Prize money could be very lucrative. The record was the capture of the treasure- carrying Spanish frigate Hermione in 1762. When the pay of a seaman was less than a shilling a day, the prize money in this instance to each seaman of œ485 (nearly 35 years' salary for a few hours' work in the afternoon!) could set them up for life - if they didn't spend the proceeds on too many "roaratorious" times ashore. This pales into insignificance, however, at what the two captains were awarded - œ65,000 each. And Sir Hyde Parker was reported to have realised œ200,000 when he was in command in the West Indies. It was usually only frigates that took prizes. Ships-of-the-line were too ponderous to be able to capture the smaller ships that carried treasure. However "gun money" and "head money" was paid on larger captures, which went some way to compensate. Sadly, Nelson did not fare well with prize money. This was not so much bad luck with his Captains as the irony that, largely due to his genius, Britain achieved mastery of the sea - and few enemy ships dared to sail. ==================== 5) ON THE STOCKS --- News of upcoming books, foreign translations and audio versions --- Unabridged audio rights for KYDD have been purchased by the UK company Magna, whose authors include Jessica Blair and Tamara McKinley. The audio book comes out in July 2002; we'll report back later in the year with details of who the reader will be. To date, in addition to the British and American editions, rights for KYDD have been sold for Portuguese-language, Japanese and German editions; abridged and unabridged audio, large print and book club editions. ==================== 6) SIGNALS FROM FOREIGN PARTS --- We welcome news and views from Shipmates around the world --- Many Shipmates have emailed Julian saying how much they enjoyed reading KYDD. Among them were Bob Coldwell, Chris Teigeler and Larry Updegrove. Bob Coldwell is a science teacher in Brisbane, Australia. Originally from Hertfordshire in England, he emigrated in 1975. Bob says that he enjoys books that are well researched and was particularly impressed with the seaman's dialect in KYDD. Chris Teigeler from Belgium writes that he comes from a country without any naval tradition - but was born and raised in Antwerp, a town with a great seaport and had a grandfather who sailed around the Horn before the mast and later became a captain. Chris has enjoyed seafaring novels for over 40 years - and is now very happy to be able to add KYDD to his collection. Larry Updegrove is a physics/chemistry teacher in Perth, Western Australia. His interest in the sea stems from an 8-year stint in the U.S. Navy. He served in the fast attack submarine U.S.S. Dartner ss576 where he was a "plank owner" (an individual aboard a ship since she was commissioned). His most memorable moment was in 1957 when they reached the deepest depth on a controlled dive attained up to that time. Julian would love to hear from you. Contact ==================== 7) DAYS OUT --- Each month we visit somewhere around the world of special nautical interest --- THE LAST INVASION OF BRITAIN. Fishguard, in the Welsh county of Pembrokeshire, is the site of the last invasion of Britain. It occurred on February 22, 1797, an unseasonably hot Wednesday, and was intended to divert British troops away from Ireland where the French planned a major attack. Some 1400 French soldiers, led by Colonel William Tate, an American, landed on the rocky shores of Carreg Wastad, a few miles west of Fishguard. They pillaged farms and skirmished with local people. The Pembroke Yeomanry led by Lord Cawdor, marched overnight from Stackpole Court and the French surrendered on Goodwick sands on the third day. The French prisoners of war were held in Portsmouth in prison hulks, before eventually being returned to France. But it is not so much the men and their war games and politics who are remembered today. Rather it is the legend of the Welsh women, in their red cloaks and tall hats, from a distance looking like military reinforcements. One woman in particular is celebrated as the heroine of the event. Jemima Nicholas, a Fishguard cobbler, advanced on 12 Frenchmen with a pitch fork and captured them single-handedly. A magnificent embroidered tapestry commemorates the event. Similar in format to the Bayeux Tapestry, it is over 100 feet long and 20 inches deep. Over 40,000 hours' work were required to execute the finely detailed stitching. It is on display in St Mary's Church Hall, Fishguard. =================== 8) REPORTS --- what people are saying about KYDD --- Here are some of the highlights of recent reviews: + Chicago Tribune "KYDD introduces a naval hero with a future." + Amazon.com "Stockwin is no O'Brian - and I, for one, thank God for it! Where O'Brian is roundabout, Stockwin is direct. Where I want to shoot Jack Aubrey, I want to embrace Kydd. I am ready for the sequel NOW!" + Barnes&Noble.com "Hornblower and Aubrey/Maturin fans have a new torch bearer. This is a fine story. I cannot wait to see if Stockwin lives up to the promise the first book gave for the second and third." + Boston Globe "Building a naval adventure series from below decks is an intriguing concept, and with KYDD retired Royal Navy officer Julian Stockwin gives it a rousing debut." + TallShips Books "A delightful read. The future holds much for Julian Stockwin and Thomas Paine Kydd." These reviews, and others, are on the official Julian Stockwin website ================== *** C O M P E T I T I O N *** A CHANCE TO WIN AN ADVANCE PROOF COPY OF ARTEMIS, PERSONALLY SIGNED BY JULIAN Hodder & Stoughton have kindly agreed to make an advance proof copy of ARTEMIS, the second book in the Kydd series, available for the reader who, in the opinion of the Bosun, provides the most apt and original answer to the following question: "What one thing about KYDD, Julian's first book, did you most enjoy?" Answers (in not more than 25 words) by September 30 to: The Bosun The winning answer will be published in the newsletter in November. Yours aye THE BOSUN (To unsubscribe this newsletter email )