Cauls, Mary Carleton and the Chatham Chest!
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In our household I’m the hoarder; not only physical artefacts from the past, numerous tins of assorted screws & wires, books & journals – but countless snippets and esoteric facts from the Golden Age of Sail. Over the years I’ve filed these away, adding to them when I started the Thomas Kydd series and began extensive research on the Georgian Navy. Someone once said that an author only uses 10% of the research he undertakes, but you never know which 10% that will be! So true! And this was the reason I wrote STOCKWIN’S MARITIME MISCELLANY. It gave me a way to share some of the fascinating facts and sea lore I’d tucked away.
So – cauls, Mary Carleton and the Chatham Chest! Just three of the hundreds of items in my little non-fiction title.
The Caul
My non-fiction tome
The thin membrane covering the heads of some new-born children was esteemed by Old Salts. They believed it would guard against drowning and shipwreck. One advertisement in a Georgian newspaper announced the sale of a caul ‘having been afloat with its late owner forty years, through the periods of a seaman’s life and he died at last in his bed, at his place of birth.’ Sailors paid handsomely for these talismans, often sewing them into their canvas trousers. (Back in ancient Rome lawyers also favoured the caul, taking it to guarantee they would be eloquent and successful in all their cases, but I digress…)
Mary Carleton
Port Royal, until it was swallowed by the sea, was ‘the richest and wickedest city in the world’. Some of its ladies of the night have gone down in history with names like No-Conscience Nan and Salt-Beef Peg but the most famous of all was one Mary Carleton. A contemporary wrote of her: ‘A stout frigate she was or else she never would have endured so many batteries and assaults… she was a common as a barber’s chair; no sooner was one out, but another was in.’
The Chatham Chest
The world’s first occupational pension. From 1590 all seamen in the Royal Navy made a contribution of six pence per month to support the Chatham Chest, which paid pensions to injured seamen. The assets of the fund were kept in an actual chest at Chatham dockyard, secured by five locks, which opened to five separate keys held by five different officers – an expedient intended to prevent misappropriation of the funds. The chest exists to this day and may be seen at the Chatham Historic Dockyard museum.
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Julian Stockwin 
Hi Mr Stockwin,
I have just read your first Kydd story and ordered the next three. As a student of CSForrister and a keen yachtsman I look forward to the investment of more Kydd. If, as Kydd promises,then the investment, like Hornblower, will be read at least three times. The main storyline remains but the detail and description are a renewed pleasure.
As a yachtsman living on the shores of Strangford Lough we are in the premiere yachting location in Britain ( my humble opinion) as we have the West Coast of Scotland under our lea. Ireland has a fantastic coast to cruise or race around and the Scilly Isles & S coast of England 40 odd hours away. My one trip (race) to the Azores in a 1909 gaff yawl took 13 days out & 14 home. The Baltic countries are slower to get to, 2 days min. thru the Caledonian Canal and 2-3 days later for landfall.
Anyway MrStockwin, I look forward to Kydd keeping me company during the winter fit out before I get back to sea.
Cheers & good Elf 👹
Hi , Jules .
Can I purchase a copy of your book ,” Maritime Miscellany ” .
I have been writing down all the little sayings from old sailing days in a little red book , with everything I think is interesting , but your book will have more .
My wifes dad was born with a caul over his face and he had it all his life and it was placed in his coffin when he died .
STOCKWIN’S MARITIME MISCELLANY is available at many online bookstores, as an ebook, or to order through high street stores. Or you can order from the Book Depository, which posts worldwide with free shipping http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stockwins-Maritime-Miscellany-Julian-Stockwin/9780091930660
I loved that article about Mary Carleton in Port Royal .. the most wicked city of its day. Yet, all of us who might have served as military police, or Shore Patrol, also have some colorful tales. I recall standing Shore Patrol on the mid-watch; 3 a.m., in the red light district of Lisbon, Portugal .. oh, yes, color!