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Prick, Perique or Plug?
Posted on October 17, 2013 7 Comments
[To leave a comment go right to the end of the page and just enter it in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box] I first met Ken Yalden a few years ago. Ken is a keen member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. As we chatted he recalled I had mentioned a prick of tobacco […]
Ask BigJules: Officers’ Food
Posted on October 14, 2013 6 Comments
[To leave a comment go right to the end of the page and just enter it in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box] Dan Abernathy asks: ‘What did the officers eat in Kydd’s day? How was it different from the men?’ ‘Thanks for the question, Dan. Wardroom officers were entitled to the ordinary ships’ provisions provided […]
And a Happy Birthday to the Royal Australian Navy!
Posted on September 27, 2013 11 Comments
[To leave a comment go right to the end of the page and just enter it in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box] Next week an International Fleet Review is being held to commemorate the centenary of the first entry of the Royal Australian Navy’s fleet into Sydney. Prince Harry will attend the festivities on behalf […]
BookPick: The Transformation of British Naval Strategy
Posted on September 24, 2013 Leave a Comment
[To leave a comment go right to the end of the page and just enter it in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box] After the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy continued to be the major arm of British strategy in the war against Napoleon, yet as late as 1807 fleets were forced from their stations […]
SEAFLOWER and CARIBBEE
Posted on September 8, 2013 11 Comments
[To leave a comment go right to the end of the page and just enter it in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box] More than a decade ago, in SEAFLOWER, Thomas Kydd and Nicholas Renzi were in the Caribbean as sailors before the mast in an old line-of-battle ship. Now, in CARIBBEE, Kydd, a storied hero […]
‘Sink Me the Ship, Master Gunner!’
Posted on August 31, 2013 7 Comments
[To leave a comment go right to the end of the page and just enter it in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box] This day 422 years ago Sir Richard Grenville in the galleon Revenge, and separated from the rest of the English fleet off the Azores, began one of the most epic ‘last stands’ in […]
BookPick: The British Navy, Economy and Society in the Seven Years War
Posted on August 22, 2013 1 Comment
[To leave a comment go right to the end of the page and just enter it in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box] William Thompson, a former foreman cooper in the Victualling Board, wrote in a work published in 1761: ‘Seamen in the King’s Ships have made buttons for their Jacketts and Trowses [sic] with the […]
BookPick: Anatomy of the Ship
Posted on August 11, 2013 Leave a Comment
[To leave a comment go right to the end of the page and just enter it in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box] The ‘Anatomy of the Ship’ series was first published by Conway (an imprint of Anova Books) in hardback a few years back and I snatched up (and still regularly consult) all of the […]
Julian Stockwin 