<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 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 8, September 2007 In this issue - Shipmate William DeVaney and his love for the Arctic; details of a special memorabilia item, The KYDD Tankard - plus the chance to win a Geoff Hunt limited edition print from his "Speed Under Sail" series... Avast, Shipmates and anchors aweigh! 1 DISPATCHES 2 FEATURE 3 FAR FLUNG KYDD 4 SALTY SAYINGS 5 CONTESTS 6 ASK JULIAN 7 THE KYDD TANKARD OFFER 8 FOCUS ON... 9 HMS "SOUTHAMPTON" CALLING ==================== 1 DISPATCHES + Unsung hero Shipmate Lindsay Brighouse, from Lake Rotoiti, New Zealand, after reading of the voyage of HMS "Southampton" in Patagonia in last month's issue, emailed us about the remarkable voyages of the Royal Navy brig-sloop "Beagle" (the same ship-type as "Teazer"!) in 1829-31; and their three horrendous winters carrying out surveys there. "In my opinion Captain Robert Fitzroy must surely be one of the greatest unsung heroes. As well as being a foremost chart-maker, he was the originator of early weather forecasting and the second governor general of New Zealand in very turbulent times. Fitzroy suffered from manic depression, and his story is told in a remarkable book by Harry Thompson called 'This Thing of Darkness'." + More advance praise for THE ADMIRAL'S DAUGHTER... > "From the opening lines to the final denouement, the pace and content of this book left me breathless with tension, sad, and pleasantly full in equal measure. The historical minutiae is fascinating. In quick form, the power behind the people is laid out as an intricate backdrop to the main adventure. Kydd has grown in stature and depth, the naivety is dispelled, but the core of him remains throughout." - Rosemary Fitzgerald > "A ripping yarn, yet full of fascinating detail..." - Dave Lane > "Stockwin weaves a rollicking tale through high society and smuggling skulduggery. But like the British weather, never take anything for granted, things can change in an instant and this yarn doesn't disappoint - there is a twist in its tail..." - Terry Hoyle > "This book is a strong candidate for Stockwin's best yet. THE ADMIRAL'S DAUGHTER continues the career of Thomas Kydd into new waters, where he may find himself out of his depth. Stockwin's prose delights with its authentic characters, voice and setting." - M Burton Hopkins + Author event Julian is giving a talk at the Appledore Book Festival in North Devon, October 3. www.appledorebookfestival.co.uk + Memorable pursuit Following our item on the Royal Navy's role in suppression of the slave trade, managing director of Art Marine Julian Thomas has offered a limited edition print of Geoff Hunt's "HMS Fantome in Pursuit of a Slaver" as a contest prize this month. This dramatic work illustrates one of the most desperate actions of the campaign. "AM... observed a strange Sail bearing ENE. Made Sail in Chase of a Brigantine..." So begins the logbook account of a memorable pursuit by the brig "Fantome", commanded by Captain Butterfield on anti- slavery patrol. After a 24-hour chase "Fantome" caught the runaway and discovered her to be the Portuguese slaver "Josephina" which had already outrun four other men-o'-war, and was carrying 290 slaves. A lieutenant and eight men were put on board to conduct the prize to Sierra Leone, where the slaves could be freed. Disease took a dreadful toll of the West Africa Squadron; in one year about 25% of the officers and men died. This was about 15 times higher than the Navy had ever lost in wartime in any year. If you would like a chance to win this superb print, see CONTESTS. + Centenary celebrations Happy 100th to the Ward Library in Peel, Isle of Man, which was opened on 26 September 1907. Lying in the Irish Sea between England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, The Isle of Man is a self-governing kingdom, just 33 miles long and 13 miles wide. It has a long and proud sea tradition and much folklore, such as magic knots that were tied and untied in a special way for luck, associated with its fishing history. One famous Manxman with a special link to the Age of Sail was of course Captain Quilliam, who was with Nelson at Trafalgar. The Ward Library will be hosting special events to mark their milestone. The library has a number of overseas connections - its benefactor was a successful Canadian businessman, James Kewley Ward, who was born on the site where the library now stands. Two Peel ladies who emigrated to Ohio, Anne and Flo Crellin, subsequently gave thousands of books to the library. Julian was delighted to donate a pair of signed Kydd hardbacks to librarian Carol Horton for prizes in one of the competitions she is holding in conjunction with the centenary. + Farewell to the Press Gang? It has been reported that UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's raft of constitutional reforms will include the final abolition of the Crown's right to press men for the Royal Navy. ==================== 2 FEATURE "A huge pile of a building..." - James Lind, the father of nautical medicine, on seeing the plans for the Royal Hospital Haslar. In ARTEMIS, as Kydd's victorious ship passes through the close entrance of Portsmouth harbour, "as many wounded and sick sailors [from Haslar naval hospital] that were able to had hobbled to the water's edge..." Prior to the building of this hospital, medical care for sailors in the Gosport area was very basic. The lucky ones received attention at the privately-run Fortune Hospital at Lees Lane, others were attended to in ale houses or aboard ship. Building began on Haslar hospital in 1746 and the first patients were admitted in 1753, although work continued for another nine years. It was to become the largest brick building in Europe. When it first opened, some compared it to a prison. There were overcrowded buildings, discharged patients taking up home in the attics and reports of drunkenness and theft among patients and staff. Conditions improved when a Navy captain, William Yeo, was appointed as the hospital's first governor in 1795. Thereafter the management of the hospital was primarily by naval officer rather than by doctors until the early twentieth century. Although the hospital dealt with a wide range of ailments, it developed a special reputation for its humane care of "lunatic" patients. In the first decades of the 1800s, many patients who died in Haslar were laid to rest in the grounds. Indeed, in the paddock to the southwest, tens of thousands of servicemen are believed to have been buried there. In 1965, the word "Naval" was added to the name, but this was removed in 1966 when the hospital became a tri- service institution. Now, Royal Hospital Haslar, the last military hospital in the UK, is winding down, and will finally close its doors in 2009. ==================== 3 FAR FLUNG KYDD > From the upper reaches of the Amazon, to wild and isolated areas of the Scottish isles, we know that Kydd books make it to some pretty remote places. Julian obviously has a special connection to - and deep love for - the sea, and this appreciation of one of the most elemental forces of Nature is an aspect of his books that draws readers such as William DeVaney who was raised as a bush Alaskan in the twilight of her days as a territory. William, a true man of the sea, first put his hands to the wheel of a 32 foot wooden limit seiner when he was seven, and wore through his first storm with his father at age eight. Now working as a marine historical artist, William returns as often as he can to the frozen North, which his wife calls "his monastery". Some of William's feelings about the Arctic he says are captured in two pieces of music - Mozart's violin concerto no. 3 ("when the ice is tranquil, and the Arctic sky has on her makeup") and Grieg's pianco concerto in A minor, for its stirring evocation of "the majestic vastness of this powerful expanse". He goes on: "There is truth in every breath of the rhythm in the land there. She knows who and what she is, and as the sea, cares not a whit for our concerns. She will go on being exactly what she has always been, with and without us. And we can grow with the comfort of those stark realities or ignore them and be crushed and forgotten by them. In the eternal scheme of things the only real difference it will ever make will be when we finally face ourselves. Then we will learn who and what we really are. The choice is ours to make. And it's that very freedom that is the lure of the Arctic." William says of the Kydd books: "Julian tells you enough to paint the visual picture, while allowing you to see for yourself where you are at and what you are doing. To me that shows respect for the intelligence and feelings of his readers and takes the book from a thriller to a classic. I have his works on the shelves of my office for anyone to see and that is not something I will do for an ordinary writer." --- Will Kydd see Arctic service sometime? Julian says it's definitely planned for a future book... [You can see a picture of William DeVaney in the Shipmate's Album on the website.] ==================== 4 SALTY SAYINGS > Know the ropes Today, this phrase refers to someone who has skill and experience in his job. Its origins are definitely salty. Aboard ship in Kydd's day, rope was put to hundreds of uses, supporting yards and masts, and in hoisting, lowering and trimming the sails, to name just a few. Running aloft as well as fore and aft, ropes were secured at the end to a belaying pin on rails along the length of each side of the ship. Interestingly, most ropes were called "lines" by seamen - only a small number were called ropes, including the bolt rope, the boat rope and the man rope. In "Victory" there is over 26 miles of hemp used for the standing and running rigging. It took years of experience to understand the function of, and be able to locate and control, the multitude of ropes aboard ship. This skill was considered so important that discharge papers were once marked "knows the ropes", thus constituting an honourable discharge. ==================== 5 CONTESTS Deadline: September 25. Entries to Bosun@Julianstockwin.com. Please include your full postal address. For a chance to go into the hat to win the Geoff Hunt print - which two rival tea clippers has Geoff depicted in his third work in this series? September's Lucky Dip question is - who is the commanding officer of HMS "Southampton"? Congratulations to last month's winners: Bryan Logan won the lucky dip for August (an audio CD of Julian talking about his work) for correctly identifying The Horse and Groom as the inn in which Kydd was press-ganged; a paperback of "The War for all the Oceans" went to Per Anderson and Alan Cohen for naming "Trafalgar: the Biography of the Battle", the book by Roy Adkins first published in 2004. ==================== 6 ASK JULIAN A double helping this month Tom Lewis in New Mexico wants to know: "In TENACIOUS lieutenant Kydd does not return that sword surrendered to him by the French captain. What was the protocol at the time?" Julian replies: "I went to some lengths in QUARTERDECK to describe Lt Kydd arranging to buy a splendid naval sword in Gibraltar. An officer's sword was an important symbol of the difference between the fo'c'sle and the quarterdeck. When an enemy officer was captured he surrendered his sword. Whether or not this was returned to him was the choice of the officer who received it. It was not usually returned unless there had been conspicuous gallantry on the enemy's part. It if was not returned the sword became the property of the capturing officer." === And a number of Shipmates have asked Julian about "narrative seeds" in the series - does he, for example, introduce a character in one book knowing he/she will play a role in a future title? Julian replies: "As many of you know I used to be a computer systems designer, a role which necessitated a very logical style of working. Although writing is a very creative occupation I think you also need to be very disciplined with planning, especially with a series. When I first started the Kydd books I envisioned eleven books in total and to that end I flow-charted the progression of the story, and then divided it into eleven book-size chunks. Each chunk identified the plot, characters, location, ships etc. However the deeper I got into the research for this fascinating period the more I could see that eleven books were just not enough and so I have revised this number upwards, by another ten. This has not changed the structure of my original plan, but opportunities for expanding on certain events in the historical record has meant I have been able to slot more books in. As to characters, there are some that I know will be constants throughout the series, others will come in and out, and some will just have their five minutes of fame... I usually know when I create a character what category they will fit into, but sometimes a character will just take it on himself - or herself - to come back into Kydd's life." ==================== 6 THE KYDD TANKARD When Thomas Kydd first tastes rum in the old line-of- battle ship "Duke William", he pronounces it "a right true drop!" We have commissioned a special polished pewter Kydd Tankard, in Georgian style, which is now available for sale. [One pint capacity.] It is priced at GBP47.00 plus p&p. The tankard is engraved with a KYDD logo and the wording:- A right true drop! Duke William, 1793. The tankard is strictly limited to 150, and comes with a numbered certificate signed by Julian. Email admin@julianstockwin.com to order. ==================== 7 FOCUS ON ... Royal Society of Marine Artists The RSMA was founded in 1939 to represent and encourage the very best in contemporary marine painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking. Since then the RSMA has become recognised internationally as the foremost in its field. Bearing the letters "R.S.M.A" after your name is an honour accorded to only 49 artists currently. However lay membership is open to all (Julian has been a member for a number of years) with an interest in the sea. It includes an exclusive preview evening prior to the annual exhibition, free entry and prize draws. One of the lay members runs an outdoor painting group. This year's exhibition runs form 17-28 October at the Mall Galleries in London. www.rsma-web.co.uk =================== 8 HMS SOUTHAMPTON CALLING - the latest dispatch from an eight-month sea deployment of one of the Royal Navy's destroyers "We have now completed the first month on task in the South Atlantic. During this time we conducted frequent patrols round the Falkland Islands, meeting islanders in outlying settlements and operating with the Army and RAF detachments based in the region. The ship arrived in the islands on June 25 to commence the main part of our Atlantic Patrol Task (South) deployment. We berthed in Mare Harbour, the military port in the Falklands, which will be our operating base for the coming months. The Falklands consist of over 200 individual islands, ranging from those that are slightly larger than rocks, to the main land masses of East and West Falkland. During our patrols we have visited a number of settlements, including San Carlos, the site of the British landings 25 years ago, Port Howard, and the capital, Port Stanley. Winter in the South Atlantic is known for its extremes of weather, and the Falklands lying in the track of the cold Antarctic air stream often bears the brunt of it. We have sailed through 35 knot winds, along with high seas coupled with rain, hail and snow storms. We are currently in the port of Santos in Brazil, in a short maintenance period. Here, we hosted an official reception and the ship's football team played against a side from the Brazilian air force. On departure from Santos, we head back south again to the Falklands." =================== Yours aye, THE BOSUN Coming next month: Special Launch Issue! KYDD:THE ADMIRAL'S DAUGHTER, the eighth book, is out in October both in the UK and US. Julian takes us behind the lines and talks about what he particularly enjoyed during the researching and writing of this book. ++ Download back issues from the WebSite ++