<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 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 <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> April 2009 This month: portable soup, the +two+ battles of Copenhagen, a rather grisly Georgian pastime - and Salty Sayings back by popular demand! Plus more great contests... 1 DISPATCHES 2 ASK JULIAN 3 FEATURE 4 SALTY SAYINGS 5 CONTESTS 6 SCRAN 'N PROG 7 SHIPMATES AHOY 8 GEORGIAN PASTIMES ==================== 1 DISPATCHES + Come and meet Julian! TREACHERY signing Julian will be at Waterstones bookstore, Plymouth, on Saturday May 16 from noon to two, signing copies of the just-released paperback of TREACHERY. The book is included in Waterstones 3 for 2 offers so why not stock up with a couple of extras? A great gift for Father's Day in June... Waterstone's, 65 New George St, Plymouth, Devon, PL1 1RJ Contact: 01752 256 699 Saturday May 16, 12 noon - 2pm. --- Kydd in Kingsbridge Join Julian at a special evening on May 19 at Kingsbridge Library, Devon, hosted by Friends of the Library. Julian will talk about his writing career and bring along some of his special collection of historical sea artefacts. Kingsbridge Library, Ilbert Road, Kingsbridge, Devon, TQ7 1EB. Refreshments will be served. Tickets ?5. Contact: 01548 852 315 Tuesday, May 19, 7:30pm The latest Author Events for Julian are always listed on the website. + Credit card payment facility Following requests from a number of Shipmates, we're starting to implement a system whereby Collectors Sets and First Editions etc. can be purchased via the website using a credit card. At the moment it's just for the few remaining copies of the 2008 Collectors Sets that we have but shortly we hope to roll this out to other items on the SHOP page on the website. Payment via Paypal will be available as an option. + Crossing the bar Jenny BEM Generations of sailors who visited Hong Kong will mourn the death of Jenny. She was a much-loved living legend who, for all the colony's constant change, remained the same incomparable institution for over half a century. She was born in a sampan in Causeway Bay in 1917. Her mother, Jenny One, according to a Royal Navy Certificate of Service "provided serviceable sampans for the general use of the Royal Navy, obtained sand, and was useful for changing money". Behind her perpetual great gold-toothed grin Jenny complained; "I velly chocker. All time work in sampan. No learn to lead or lite." But what she lacked in education she made up more than a hundredfold with her immense and impressive experience in ship husbandry, her unfailing thoroughness and apparently inexhaustible energy, her unquestionable loyalty and integrity, her infectious enthusiasm and her innate cheerfulness. From 1928 until 1997, when the colony became a Special Administrative Region of China and the Royal Navy moved out, Jenny and her team of tireless girls, who at one time numbered nearly three dozen, unofficially served the Royal and Commonwealth Navies in Hong Kong by cleaning and painting their ships, attending their buoy jumpers, and, dressed in their best, waiting with grace and charm upon their guests at cocktail parties. Captains and Executive Officers would find fresh flowers in their cabins and newspapers delivered daily. For all of this she steadfastly refused ever to take any payment. Instead, she and her Side Party earned their keep by accepting any item of scrap which could be found on board and selling soft drinks to the ships' companies. Most treasured of all Jenny's many distinctions was the British Empire Medal awarded her in the Hong Kong Civilian List of the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1980 and with which she, formally named Mrs. Ng Muk Kah, was invested by the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose. In later years Hong Kong was no longer visited by the great fleets of battleships and cruisers which gave Jenny and her Side Party their livelihood and she found it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Yet she stayed fit and always willing to undertake any work available. To the end of the Royal Navy's presence in Hong Kong there could be seen in the shadow of the towering Prince of Wales building within the naval base, a small round figure in traditional baggy black trousers and high-collared smock, with a long pigtail and eternal smile who, regardless of time. remained it seemed for ever - just Jenny. Jenny died peacefully in Hong Kong on Wednesday 18th February 2009. She was 92 years old. + Free tickets! Are you 25 this year - or celebrating a 25th wedding anniversary in 2009? The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent, will present you with a free 12-month ticket to this fascinating maritime attraction if you can show you fit into one of these two categories. ==================== 2 ASK JULIAN Harvey Halvorsen in Australia asks a question about an ancient method of navigation: "Can you tell me whether 'ded' reckoning or 'dead' reckoning is the correct spelling - and what is the origin of the term?" Julian says: "Admiral Smyth, the classic source for nautical terms, gives a useful definition of dead reckoning (spelled with an 'a') as 'the estimation of a ship's place without any observation of the heavenly bodies; it is discovered from the distance she has run by the log, and the courses steered by the compass, then rectifying these data by the usual allowance for current, leeway, etc. according to the ship's known trim.' Before the development of the marine chronometer dead reckoning was the primary method of determining longitude available to mariners such as Columbus on their great voyages. The term dates from the seventeenth century. Dead reckoning still has a role today - modern inertial navigation systems are based on it. There is considerable disagreement about the derivation of 'dead reckoning', some people maintain it comes from 'deduced reckoning', and therefore should be spelled 'ded reckoning' but there is little solid evidence to back this up, and in my Navy days it was always referred to as 'dead reckoning', as it is today. One suggestion for the origin of the term is that it is because dead reckoning is navigation without stellar navigation; with stellar navigation you are working 'live', using the movement of the stars and the planets - with just logs, compasses etc. you are working 'dead'. Perhaps the best solution is to use the modern convention of calling it by its initials - DR..." Do you have a question for Julian? Emails to Please put "Ask Julian" in the subject line. ==================== 3 FEATURE The battles of Copenhagen We often hear of "the Battle of Copenhagen", but in fact there were two conflicts named after this Danish capital, both of which have remained controversial to this day. The first Battle of Copenhagen was fought on 2 April 1801. It was the second of Nelson's three great victories - the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar - and was his hardest fought major battle. It was also the only one in which he did not suffer injury. The main cause of the battle was the formation of an "Armed Neutrality of the North" by the Baltic states and a consequent embargo on British ships. At the time the Baltic was a vital source of trade and maritime supplies for Britain. Under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker a special fleet was formed, with Nelson as second in command. At first Parker attempted to negotiate a settlement, during which time the Danes strengthened their defences. These included a line of old warships and floating batteries in the main channel off Copenhagen. Nelson prepared for the battle with his usual meticulous care, planning to attack the Danish line from the south, where it was not so strong. However the Danes would not give in easily and responded with determined resistance. Three of Nelson's squadron of 12 ships went aground on shoals. At this stage, Parker, watching from a distance, hoisted the signal to discontinue the engagement. This is when Nelson famously said, "You know Foley, I have only one eye - I have a right to be blind sometimes!" He then put his telescope to his blind right eye and said "I really do not see the signal." The fighting continued for about another hour then Nelson took a most unusual course. Sensing a temporary lull he dashed off a hurried note addressed to Crown Prince Fredrick which he had carried ashore by Captain Thesiger (who spoke Danish) in an open boat flying a flag of truce. The note threatened to burn the prizes he had taken if the Danes did not agree to an immediate ceasefire. It read:- "To the Brothers of the Englishmen, the Danes: Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson has been commanded to spare Denmark, when she no longer resists. The line of defence which covered her shores has struck to the British flag: but if firing is continued on the part of Denmark, he must set on fire all the prizes he has taken, without having the power of saving the men who have so nobly defended them. The brave Danes are the brothers, and never should be the enemies, of the English. Dated on board His Britannic Majesty's ship Elephant, Copenhagen Roads, 2 April 1801. Nelson and Bronte, Vice-Admiral, under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker." The offer was taken up and the battle ended about 3 pm. The message has generated controversy over the years but Nelson always insisted that humanity had been his first object. --- The Second Battle of Copenhagen occurred between 16 August and 5 September 1807, by which time of course Nelson had died. By mid 1807 Napoleon had a free hand in Central Europe and the Baltic was in effect an enemy-controlled lake for Britain. There was a real prospect of the fleet of neutral Denmark falling under French control. In mid-August, in a combined operation, British troops commanded by Wellesley (soon to become the Duke of Wellington) were landed ashore and proceeded to surround Copenhagen. Artillery and Congreve rocket batteries were set up around the city. To seaward, a powerful fleet of line of battle ships and others took up their stations. When the Danes refused to surrender a violent bombardment of the city began. Around 2000 civilians were killed in four days and huge devastation was caused to the city. The Danes sued for peace and agreed to give up their navy and naval stores to England. To this day, the second Battle of Copenhagen is argued about. Some see it as a successful surgical strike, others maintain it was the first terror attack on a civilian population (perhaps a little unfair, given the historical record of antiquity). Whatever one's viewpoint, it did prevent the Danish fleet falling into Napoleon's hands... ================= 4 SALTY SAYINGS - back by popular demand! Many words and phrases in common use today can be traced back to the language of seafarers. The richness of the English language owes a great deal to Jack Tar... + Go without a hitch If a project or task has been brought to a successful conclusion without the need for intervention, we say it has gone without a hitch. A hitch for the sailor is a species of knot by which one rope is connected to another, or to some object. + Sound someone out If a person is sounded out by another the object is to determine what he or she thinks of a certain matter, to obtain an opinion, often to solicit approval or cooperation. At sea, "to sound" is to find out the depth's of water available beneath a ship's keel. In the days of sail this was done using a lead line. ==================== 5 CONTESTS email: + Wapping Group of Artists Cards Courtesy of Seafarer Books we have a set of six delightful nautical cards to give away. They are from the book "The Wapping Group of Artists: Sixty Years of Painting on the Thames". Just email us (by April 25) the name of the artist who painted "Boatyards, Rotherhithe". + Mystery sea prize To go into the hat for a chance to win another mystery sea prize, list the names of all the Kydd titles published to date. Deadline: April 25. + Ten chances to win two Stockwin titles! To mark the publication of +two+ special books by Julian this year - STOCKWIN'S MARTIIME MISCELLANY in July and book ten in the Kydd series, INVASION, in October, we have ten of each of these titles to give away to ten lucky winners! This is how it works - just email the Bosun with the name of your favourite Kydd title and the name of the publisher of STOCKWIN'S MARITIME MISCELLANY, plus your full postal details. You can enter as many times as you like between now and the end of June, when the contest closes. We'll then draw ten names from the hat and the lucky winners will each receive a copy of the two books on publication - STOCKWIN'S MARITIME MISCELLANY in early July and INVASION in early October. Congratulations to last month's contest winners - Mike Embleton wins a copy of "Forget Me Not"; MUTINY is in the post to Royston East. ==================== 6 SCRAN 'N PROG - a look at some of victuals familiar to Tom Kydd, at sea and ashore. The terms "scran" and "prog" are sea slang for food on the lower deck and quarterdeck, respectively. + Portable soup In the 1750s, the Royal Navy began providing an allowance of portable soup; it was believed to promote the health of seamen, especially those weakened by scurvy and other diseases. It was issued to ships embarking on long voyages at the allowance of 50 pounds per hundred men. Portable soup was said to have been invented by a Mrs Dubois. Together with a Mr Cookworthy of Plymouth she was given a contract to manufacture it for the navy in 1756. By 1793 they were making 891 cwt annually. A piece that went around the world with Captain Cook is preserved in the National Maritime Museum! Portable soup found favour in the New World, too. Lewis and Clark carried portable soup with them on their 1804-1806 expedition into the territory of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. They purchased 193 pounds of it from Francois Baillet, a cook in Philadelphia. Portable soup was made from boiling meat, offal and vegetables until the mixture formed a thick paste, which was then dried and cut into cakes. The Georgian cookery writer Hannah Glasse in the best-selling "The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Simple", 1796 edition, gives a recipe for Portable Soup which involves two large legs of beef, about 50 pounds weight each, 9 gallons of water, anchovies, mace, cloves, pepper, onions, thyme, the hard crust of a loaf of bread - boiled for 9 hours, strained, boiled again until it is like a stiff glue, then dried in the sun until it is quite hard. A piece the size of a large walnut should then be dissolved in a pint of water, when required. She suggests serving it plain, or poured over bread or rice or barley. It can also be used as the basis for gravy. By 1815, however, with the publication of Navy physician Gilbert Blane's "On the Comparative Health of the British Navy from 1779 to 1814", which dismissed portable soup as "insufficiently hearty, solid or abundant for the purpose of recruiting health" opinion shifted in favour of bottled meats, a process invented in France in 1806. ==================== 7 SHIPMATES AHOY! Shipmate Chris Richards lives in Wales. He started sailing when he was nine but did not have his own yacht until 1991 when "Sparkle" came into his life. She is a Hunter 272 Bilge keel and Chris says:" I have always looked back to the day I bought 'Sparkle' and remember just how much pleasure she has given me over the years, and I know I will continue to do so until I am too old to sail her, or I die in the process, she has been a magnificent boat, easy to sail, easy to motor, will turn in her own length, and best of all she is a wonderful seagoing yacht that will always bring you home without any fuss." Tell us about your own "first boat" - we'd love to hear from you! Julian's first boat was "Galah", a Tamar class dinghy. You can see a picture in Julian's Album on the website. --- Robert Alexander from San Clemente California ("an old soldier but born and raised as a beach-side sailor") was introduced to Julian's books after complaining to his local bookseller that he had read all of Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey novels... RB, as he likes to be called, is a former US Army captain decorated seven times serving in Vietnam. After leaving the army he took up a career in real estate but a call from his former commander, now a three-star general, saw him back in the military, in Iraq as a civilian advisor on combat missions. "Vietnam was a dirty war, a tough one," he says, "but I was surrounded by heroes then. I got that again with Iraq - twice in one lifetime." + Model boats The Stockwins recently visited the Liskeard Model Society's annual exhibition. Julian was keen to see the work of Robin Burnham who exquisitely crafted a model naval gig and a whaler. Julian has very fond memories of sailing a whaler in Sydney Harbour during his own Service time. Such is Robin's attention to detail that he even makes his own rope! We're planning a page on the website about Robin and his work. --- And following our item last month on Shipmate word-grinders, we commend Roger Marsh who's turned his hand to a number of magazine pieces about ships and maritime history, among them a three-part article on vessel types beginning in the March-April edition of the highly-respected periodical "Ships in Scale". =================== 8 GEORGIAN PASTIMES A good day for a hanging... One of the less attractive aspects of the Georgian era was the popularity in many countries of exhibitions of human indignity. In London, Bethlam Royal Hospital, the psychiatric hospital popularly known as "Bedlam" was one of the sights of the city and the lewd antics of the unfortunate inmates could be viewed for twopence. But nothing pleased the public more than a good hanging. Until 1783 executions were carried out at Tyburn. A regular number of hanging days were set aside in the English judicial calendar each year, 8 a year in London. After sentencing, prisoners were sent back to the prison from whence they came to await the day of execution. Normally the condemned man was taken in a cart to Tyburn. Often the cart would stop at public houses along the way for ale and refreshment, and the prisoner could talk to friends and family. Some of the better class of criminals went by coach stopping at the Blue Boar in Holborn for burnt brandy, and were often dressed in their finest garments; the hangman was entitled to the clothes of the deceased. Lord Ferrers, condemned to death for murdering his steward in a fit of fury wore his wedding clothes to his execution, a white suit richly embroidered with silver. He was permitted to be conveyed to the scaffold in his own landau, drawn by six horses. A vast crowd gathered at the prospect of seeing a lord hanged! Jack Rann, "Sixteen String Jack", so-called because of the number of ribbons tied to his breeches to denote the number of times the highwayman had got away with his crimes, wore a silk brocade coat and was the hero of the hour. If the condemned died like a gentleman the crowd was satisfied. If they showed fear or spent too long at their prayers the onlookers grew restless. Seeing people put to death seemed to give pleasure to people of all classes. When James Maclean was taken to the gallows for having shot at Horace Walpole the fashionable booked seats at high prices in windows overlooking the processional route or in the stands erected near the gallows. Widow Proctor, the cow-keeper who owned the site erected a grandstand seating thousands. The hangman's rope used for famous executions, could command sixpence an inch as a souvenir. Hawkers sold descriptions and confessions, often more works of fiction than fact. From 1783 executions were carried out at a public gallows just outside Newgate prison. Between 1783 and 1902 a total of 1169 people were put to death at Newgate or nearby. Over 200 felonies were punishable by death in 1800; the principal crimes were arson, burglary, attempted burglary, coining, forgery, highway robbery, high treason, horse stealing, murder, rape, robbery, sheep stealing, sodomy, theft (including from letters, on the river and from dwelling houses), uttering (passing forgeries e.g. counterfeit notes and coins). There were 544 public hangings between January 1800 and May 1868. Newgate closed in 1902 and the Old Bailey, the current central criminal court was built on the site. =================== Coming next month: the caricaturist Rowlandson; "The Roast Beef of Old England" - and with HMS "Daring", the world's deadliest destroyer now on her sea trials before taking up active service, Julian looks back on his own time at sea when sailors slept in hammocks and life aboard was an all-male preserve... Yours aye, THE BOSUN ++ Download back issues from the WebSite ++