<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> O L L A - P O D R I D A News and views for fans of Julian Stockwin's historical fiction ++ always sent in plain text: guarantees no virus/malware on your computer ++ <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> September 2011 [Olla-podrida: an affectionate 18th C term for a colourful medley of items] 1 DISPATCHES 2 QUIZ 2 SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT 4 JOTTINGS FROM JULIAN 5 FRED WUNPOUND 6 CONTESTS 7 EDITOR'S CHOICE 8 MEN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD - YOUR VOTES 9 QUIZ ANSWERS ==================== 1 DISPATCHES + The story behind the Kydd tales + Merchant Navy Day The contribution of merchant navies during wartime must never be forgotten. In the UK over 30,000 men of the British Merchant Navy were lost between 1939-1945. We honour their memory on September 3, the anniversary of the first shipping casualty hours only after war was declared, the sinking of the Donaldson Line passenger ship, "Athenia", and the loss of 112 passengers and crew. For almost six years thereafter barely a day went by without the loss of merchant ships and their crews. These must be the true heroes that saved Britain. + Musings on maritime museums Thank you for all your emails on the subject. Keep 'em coming...Here's two from the mailbag: Roger Marsh recommends Sjohistoriska in Stockholm and the Museu Maritim in Barcelona And Kenneth Scott got quite a shock when he visited the Maritime Museum in Victoria, British Columbia and saw mounted on a wall the very half block model he had worked on a half century earlier while serving his apprenticeship at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England! + 3 for 2 offer at Waterstones! Still a few days left for the special promotion at Waterstones stores over the UK. Buy any two Kydd series paperbacks and get a third one absolutely free. Great for Christmas stockings! + "Titanic" On September 17, 1908 the order was given to proceed with the construction of two mammoth liners for the White Star line. One would be given the name "Titanic". A first class ticket on her maiden voyage cost the equivalent of up to GBP64,000 today. Test your knowledge of this iconic vessel in QUIZ. And in EDITOR'S CHOICE we have a review of a book by the grandson of one of those lost in the tragedy. + "And a Star to Steer Her By: Masterclass in the Maritime Novel" Julian has been invited to give a one-day masterclass on writing historical maritime fiction at the National Maritime Museum on November 24. The event will be held in the glorious seventeenth-century "Queens House" in the museum grounds. Tickets are priced at GBP125 and lunch is included. They will be on sale from the NMM Bookings Office from mid-September. The day will cover:- 1. The genre of the maritime novel 2. Importance of character 3. Finding a 'story' in history; the historical record and the needs of a novel 4. Research, including illustrative use of archival material 5. Editing 6. The business side of writing Julian's books will be available to purchase on the day. Early booking is recommended as places are strictly limited. + "An exciting and suspenseful historical" - "Publishers Weekly" on CONQUEST ==================== 2 TITANIC QUIZ 1. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew aboard how many survived? 2. Where was she built? 3. How big was her crew? 4. What was the name of her captain? 5. Where were the bodies recovered after the tragedy brought? 6. When was she christened? 7. How long did RMS "Carpathia" take to reach the scene? 8. Name the two sister ships of "Titanic". 9. Was this the world's deadliest maritime disaster? 10.When was the wreck discovered? --- (Answers at the end of the newsletter) ==================== 3 THE KYDD CLUB We're delighted to announce the formation of The Kydd Club. For a modest annual subscription you'll receive a Welcome Pack with: * A personalised Membership Certificate * A welcome card signed by Julian * An exclusive Kydd Club wristband * Postcards & Kydd series bookmark Kydd Club benefits include:- * Points for Purchases - rewards for buying from Stockwin to Go, redeemable against a selection of gifts * Regular Kydd Club bulletins with special offers and exclusive contests * Automatic entry into a draw to receive an early Review Copy of the next title * Priority for purchase of Limited Edition Kydd Collector's Sets --- And if you join now for calendar 2012, you'll get four free months' membership! Plus, as a thank-you for early joining, we'll hold a draw of all members at the end of September for a +very+ special prize, the Collectors Edition of VICTORY, no. 001. ==================== 4 JOTTINGS FROM JULIAN + Women at sea "I must offer my warm congratulations to Sarah West on her promotion to captaincy of HMS 'Portland', a Type 23 frigate, effective next April. Sarah, the first woman to achieve such a pinnacle in the RN, has previously commanded HMS 'Pembroke', HMS 'Ramsey' and HMS 'Penzance' and her tenures have included active service on Operation TELIC MCM (now Operation KIPION) in the Gulf. The WRNS (Wrens) went to sea as part of the complement of combatant ships for the first time in 1990, and were fully absorbed into the Royal Navy in 1994. Female mariners were not common in the age of sail but life at sea has never been a completely male preserve. Pirate lore tells of fearless women sea captains such as Grace O'Malley and Jane de Belleville. Some women even went to sea disguised as men: Hannah Snell enlisted in the marines and for over five years she managed to conceal her true sex. One of my favourite tales about women at sea is that of a lady aboard HMS 'Tremendous'- during the Glorious First of June in 1794 a Mrs Daniel McKenzie gave birth to a son in the bread room, giving him the wonderful name of Daniel Tremendous McKenzie! On the several recent occasions I have been guest of the Royal Navy at sea I have been honoured to meet many male and female crew members all doing a fantastic job. But I'm 'Old Navy' - there were +no+ women in the Service at sea in my day and I don't think any of us gave it much thought. The ladies in our lives were all ashore. It was just how things were. Don't get me wrong about the fairer sex in today's navy. This is how it should be; women are not only the fairer sex but they are capable of achieving the highest in all walks of life - but if you ask me just how this Old Salt would have felt taking orders from a woman at sea - the answer is I don't know... I welcome your comments." ==================== 5 FRED WUNPOUND Was he the world's most-travelled cat? Pressed into service in 1966 as ship's mascot, after a GBP1.00 payment to the Plymouth RSPCA, Fred Wunpound travelled the equivalent of ten times around the world aboard the 2800 ton survey ship HMS "Hecate". A great mouser, Fred Wunpound acquired a dossier of service documents showing his promotion from Junior Seacat to Ordinary Seacat to Leading Seacat and even qualified for a kit allowance. Fred sailed with "Hecate" for eight years, travelling a quarter of a million miles. Fond of roaming ashore when in port, somehow he always seemed to know when the ship was about to sail and would appear and scurry up the gangplank just in the nick of time. Then on one voyage from Plymouth to the Hebrides he didn't make his departure slot. Sailors have always been a superstitious race and believed things went wrong when a ship's cat missed their boat. Sure enough, disasters soon ensued on "Hecate" - the computer system broke down, an engine developed a fault, the washing machine packed up, the potato peeler in the galley broke down and another engine blew up. When the ship limped into port for repairs two sailors were sent post haste to Plymouth to find him. From then on, as a precaution, Fred was locked in the ship's library on the night before sailing. Fred held the "Blue Nose Certificate" for services in Icelandic waters. He also earned two good conduct medals - and one disgraceful conduct badge following an incident in Brixham fish market... Sadly, this redoubtable black and white feline sailor had to swallow the anchor in 1975 due to anti-rabies laws. He lived out the remainder of his life quietly in Taunton (25 miles from the sea) in Somerset and died in his sleep in 1976. [HMS "Hecate" was decommissioned in 1990.] ==================== 6 CONTESTS This contest runs in two parts over two issues. Here's the first question: 1. Which member of Nelson's band of brothers was appointed governor of Malta? The second question will appear next month. When you're ready with both answers email Deadline October 26. The prize, a bumper Stockwin Goodie bag filled with a fun "Boat in a Bottle Kit", maritime note-cards, a copy of STOCKWIN'S MARITIME MISCELLANY, a Kydd paperback of your choice - and some surprise items - will be awarded to the first correct entry drawn after closing day. --- Congratulations to last month's winners: - a copy of "HMS Warrior" is in the post to Roger Bentley and Stephen Masters wins a signed hardback of TENACIOUS. ==================== 7 EDITOR'S CHOICE "The Band Played On..." by Christopher Ward Hodder & Stoughton ISBN: 978 1 444 70794 6 Most books about "Titanic" end with the ship, vertical in the water, disappearing beneath the waves. This book takes up the story where the lives of the passengers end: with the aftermath. Written by the grandson of Jock Hume, a violinist in the band, it is a fascinating - and at times shocking - piece of historical detective work. --- Palm Oil and Small Chop by John Goble Whittles Publishing ISBN: 978-1849950114 From the unique perspective of service aboard merchant ships trading to the area, Goble provides a delightfully written viewpoint of the first 25 years of West African independence. The book is also the story of the final years of many of the British Merchant Navy's liner trades where fortunes largely depended upon imperial routes. The author served in ships of three very different shipping companies, two British and one Nigerian, and from this unusual breadth of experience, a fascinating story of ships, their crews, their cargoes and the peoples from Senegal to Angola is told. (Palm oil is the quintessence of West Africa. 'Small chop' is the addition of ingredients that make it palatable for European taste.) ==================== 8 MEN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD Thank you for all your emails following "Julian's Jottings" last month. We can't print all your comments, but here's one from Terry Hoyle, who nominated Marconi... "Your piece about the origin of containers in shipping brought back memories of cargo handling before they were introduced, particularly loading sugar in Montego bay in a general cargo ship in the early '60s. The ship, in this case the Royal Mail vessel 'Escalante', usually anchored in the bay about a mile from the dock, where one-hundredweight (about 50kg) hessian sacks of raw sugar were unloaded from trucks onto the jetty by hand and sack-barrow, and then slid down planks into waiting wooden dumb lighters, where they were again distributed aboard by hand. Once full, the laden lighter was rowed out to the ship by two men using long sweeps, occasionally given a push by a small motor launch. If my memory serves those lighters were not much smaller than those often seen on the Thames at the time, the latter being about 24m x 6m, with a hold about 3 to 4m deep. Once alongside, the sacks were again manhandled into a cargo net and hoisted aboard using our derricks and electric winches (no cranes aboard in those days). After being lowered into the hold the individual sack mouth stitching was cut with a knife and each sack was then emptied and shaken out; the resulting pile of sugar was then shovelled into the wings of the hold, again all by hand. It used to take us three weeks in various little ports around Jamaica in those days to load 7,000 tons of sugar, and did we take advantage of that? Oh yes! I must say though that the 'Dr. No' jetty at Ocho Rios had been built by then and could load in bulk using conveyor belts but it was primarily used for exporting bauxite and thankfully for us at that time, only occasionally switched to raw sugar. I mention all of this because as the ship's Radio Officer I had no communication duties during that time. Apart from 'make-do & mend' the ship's radio station had to be shut-down whilst in any port in those days. As we carried twelve passengers who 'had to be entertained', my time during those periods was quite a holiday - and in the season, we might make two such trips a year taking general cargo out; buses, railway engines, spirits, toys, household goods, ball bearings, etc., and sugar back to the UK. The rest of the year we would wander down the west coast of South America, but that's another story. As one of 'his men' (as we were often called) this leads me up to Mr. Marconi, whose contribution to safety at sea, not to mention commerce, is well documented." --- Here's the list of your 20 most nominated men (with some connection to the sea) who changed the world. It's in no particular order as we feel we could not possibly rank such men! 1. Samuel Plimsoll 2. Robert Fitzroy 3. Donald McKay 4. John Harrison 5. Matthew Fontaine Maury 6. Admiral Hyman Rickover 7. Lord Horatio Nelson 8. Charles Parson 9. Captain James Cook 10.Juan Sebastian Elcano 11. Matthew Flinders 12. Marc Brunel 13. Guglielmo Marconi 14. John Smeaton 15. Pytheas 16. William Beebe 17. Prince Henry the Navigator 18. Ferdinand Magellan 19. Francis Drake 20. Frederick Marryat More on these incredible men in future issues! ==================== 9 ANSWERS Check your answers! Award yourself a tot if you got seven or more correct. 1. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew how many survived? A. Less than one third, 711. 2. Where was she built? A. Belfast, at the Harland and Wolff yard. 3. How big was her crew? A. She carried a crew of 885. 4. What was the name of her captain? A. Edward J. Smith. 5. Where were the recovered bodies brought? A. Halifax, Nova Scotia. 6. When was she christened? A. She was never christened; the White Star Line had a policy of not christening their vessels. 7. How long did RMS "Carpathia" take to reach the scene? A. Just under four hours. 8. Name the two sister ships of "Titanic". A. "Olympic" and "Britannic". 9. Was this the world's deadliest maritime disaster? A. No, the loss of "Wilhelm Gustloff" resulted in an estimated 9,400 people killed, the largest known loss of life occurring during a single ship sinking. 10.When was the wreck discovered? A. September 1985. --- Browse Julian's website at Connect with Julian on Facebook and Twitter at : --- Coming next month: another Royal Navy cat, Simon of HMS "Amethyst"; we talk to Geoff Hunt RSMA about his connection with "Mary Rose" - plus the second part in our contest for a bumper Stockwin goodie bag. ++ Download back issues from the WebSite ++