Thanks for that link. Makes me admire P.O. even more.
I agree that the Patrick O’Brian are a somewhat difficult read, but once you get through the first two books (speaking for myself) got used it and was very rewarded by the the amazing stories.
The Hornblower series is a very good straight action/adventure, but I just love the epic drama, wit and detail characterizations of the Aubery/Maturin books.
I’ve never read the Sharpe series of novels, but I LOVED the miniseries staring Boromir …ah…I mean Sean Bean …as Richard Sharpe. (Although there’s several I have not seen yet).
As the for visiting the HMS Victory in (your) Portsmouth, YES!! I did that in the min 90s, I it was one of my most memorable experiences of my life.
I had been on a business trip to Europe (my first and only time I’ve even been to Europe) and I took 4 extra days as vacation days and visited a number of place in England, and a “pilgrimage” to visit the Victory was my top priority. I took tons of photos. Such a beautiful ship. And what an amazing piece of History.
Not forgetting that Horatio Hornblower was played by Jamie Bamber…
Actually, our Apollo played Kennedy. Horatio was played by Ioan Gruffudd, that Welsh hottie with the chiseled cheekbones. Philip Glenister (Life on Mars, Ashes 2 Ashes) and Paul McGann (Doctor no. 8) also made appearances in the show.
I admit I kept shouting internally “Charlize Theron wasn’t in Wild Things!” at my iPod. Audra, you might be thinking of 2 Days in the Valley. That was sort of her breakout role, where she spent most of the movie slinking around on a hotel bed in a grey catsuit. It’s a less than impressive heist film. I still think doing a guest spot on Arrested Development right after her Oscar win for playing a serial killer was frakkin’ genius. And I really enjoyed her role in the crew in The Italian Job.
The ending of the original Italian Job is almost as infuriating as the ending of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I keep trying to convince myself that things will work out against all logic and they’ll walk away with the money/gold/antique guns.
One of the things I find amazing at Portsmouth is that the three ships on display show the history and evolution of the age of sail pretty much from start to finish.
Built in 1509, the Mary Rose was Henry the Eighths flagship and a very early sailing war vessel. In fact it was one of the first ships set up to fire a broadside, so this is from the era where the whole concept of ships of the line started. When you look at it you can clearly see the beginings of how those ships would develop in the future. (Sadly this is currently closed till 2012 as they are doing restoration work and buliding a new museum)
The Victory is of course one of the most powerful ships of the line from the height of British naval power (in fact you can argue that Trafalgar is the azimuth of that). This is the concept perfected and in its purest form. When you couple that with the story of Nelson, this is a really important piece of British history.
Then you have HMS Warrior, which was one of the first ever Iron clad ships built in 1860. You can still see all the principles from Victory and the Mary Rose, it has sails, broadside gun decks and the general layout is a variation on the same theme. But it also has steam engines driving propellers, breech loading artillery and you can begin to see the format of what was to come appearing. When built it was far and away the most powerful ship of its time, but it was completely obsolete within a few years. It also started a Naval arms race that would culminate in the great battleships of world war one and only end when air power came along. As I walk round that ship I really feel I can see the turning of an age right there, as wood and sail gives way to metal and steam. I can’t think of anywhere else that you can see the industrial revolution so clearly, with old and new side by side.
Anyway, enough of my historical ramblings, if you can get there this is a fantastic day out. I’ve been I think four times now and still love it, and I’m now looking forward to my boys getting just a little bit older so I can take them there as well.
You should make it out to Baltimore. The Inner Harbor has a bunch of ships, from the U.S.S. Constellation (the last purely sail US Navy ship) to the Coast Guard cutter Taney (last surviving ship of Pearl Harbor.)
Here’s the Constellation, a gorgeous ship-rigged sloop-of-war (Aubrey would have felt quite at home):
Well they’re not exactly naval ships but Peoria will be seeing the Nina and Pinta replicas arrive at our riverfront next month. Woot! Looking forward to going to see them.
Let’s not forget “Old Ironsides” The U.S.S. Constitution in Boston.
If memory serves, there’s a great scene in the Aubrey/Maturin books where Capt. Aubrey and Dr. Maturin were prisoners aboard the Constitution while it fought and defeated the H.M.S. Java.
The American frigates of the time were amazing ships. They had the benefit of a lot of old-growth forests, and they put it to good use. The Constitution got the nickname Old Ironsides because the timber would resist cannons, but the same was pretty much true for its sisters. It allowed America to project an insane amount of power with a very few ships. British captains at the time of the 1812 war were instructed not to engage them unless they had at least a two to one advantage.
Should we spin this off into an Age of Sail thread?
A replica of Ming dynasty (1400s) merchant ship privately funded by a Taiwanese guy, sailed across the pacific to the Bay Area and Hawaii was sunk just a day away from returning to Taiwan after being rammed by an Liberian oil tanker…
Though look at that Hawaiian Voyaging wa’a kaulua (probably the , it’s almost as big as the merchant ship. Wonder if there are working replicas of ancient Chinese warships out there.
Chinese junks (unfortunate transliteration, that) were amazing ships. Extremely watertight, excepting the occasional use of forced labor and unexpected hurricanes…
Oh yeah. Awesome ships, the American frigates.
And one other thing about the Constitution that many historians overlook; it carried a squadron of six F-16 Fighting Falcon fighterjets, enabling it to defend itself against even the very large British Ships of the Line.
This photo hangs in my office. It’s from the an event where the Constitution sailed to Marblehead, Mass in the mid 90s (I think?). I was there when the fighters few overhead
Oh, wow, what a beaut! btw, since so many of you are boat experts, is there a particular reason why most ships and boats have female names? Is it simply because most captains are male (and females are objects in the olden days, blah blah blah)? Or is there more to it?
I work at an art gallery, so yay on Sean’s rant about people buying art for reasons that have nothing to do with what they think of the piece - it’s either because it’s an investment, or it’s a status symbol “see I am cultured; look, I own lots of expensive artworks that mean absolutely nothing to me!”. The sad fact is that maybe 75% of our clients are like that, and without them, our gallery would have been out of business ages ago (as would a number of local artist who we show). So, it is terrible and not so terrible that some people buy art as commodity. Instead, I hold out a teeny tiny bit of hope that even though they didn’t buy it for the right reasons, perhaps one day they’d stare at it, and think, wow.
And, eek, yay, I’m excited for the Black Ops challenge!
I think it’s because at sea you’re pretty much dependent on your ship to carry you through. Much like as an infant, you’re dependent upon your mother. Thus, Ship=Female.
the result of trans-pacific worthy sail-ship meets Champion Press, an Liberian oil tanker, just 30 miles from returning to a Taiwanese harbor.
The Princess Taiping was returning to Taiwan after a 10 months trip to America and back. When the crew of Princess Taiping saw the Champion Press, they hailed them over radio and the oil tanker told them to stay at the tanker’s starboard side. The lesson here is when a Liberian oil tanker tells you to stay at their starboard side, you might want to do the opposite, because instead they just rammed straight into Princess Taiping’s mid section, snapping the sail ship in half. The American crewman William Cook Thomas suffered fractures to wrist neck and head.
By the way, Traditional Junks are built without nails, Princess Taiping was an exact replica.
