|
Someone in CD psoted a link to this thread in The Hobbit thread, so forgive the necromancy. I am currently reading (well, listening to) The Commodore. I love this series.Molybdenum posted:Question from (I think) The Ionian Mission regarding gunpowder... This is from forever ago, but I just found this thread. I'm a reenactor of the American War of Independence, and we had ship's biscuit once. I had forgotten I'd left it in my pocket, and was worried when I remembered that the ants and bug may have infested my clothing. Not a single bug touched that hard piece of wooden biscuit. silly posted:Six Frigates is amazing. One of the best works of military history I've ever read. This is true. I loved this book, it was really great. Anyway, as far as historical fiction goes, I'm surprised no one mentioned Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, which is another buddy series with two great dudes during the Napoleonic age (but riflemen instead of sailors).
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2013 20:47
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 07:38 |
|
|
Well sure, I've never read anything as good as O'Brien, I was just surprised it never came up in the thread.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2013 21:29
|
|
|
Double-posting, but last night I was going through the pockets of my reenacting clothes, and I found something of interest to the thread: That's the ship's biscuit I was talking about earlier. It's from October, good as new!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2013 20:42
|
|
|
Just finished The Yellow Admiral, on to The Hundred Days!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2013 13:15
|
|
|
I just finished The Hundred Days. It was really bizarre how Diana died "offscreen", and aside from the flippant explanation by two characters who mean nothing, you never hear about it again. Even Stephen barely cares. It was like the actress quit the show or something. EDIT: I should state that I'm aware it does affect Stephen, but it doesn't last very long.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2013 02:43
|
|
|
It does, but it still felt to me, as the reader, like there was very little impact. Even moreso the death of Bonden. Looking forward to the last novel, though.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2013 14:01
|
|
|
I just finished the whole series last week. It ends at a pretty good spot (not counting 21 here) that only has ONE unresolved question, and I think it's pretty obvious what the answer to that question was intended to be: Yes.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2013 21:15
|
|
|
I'm a big fan of Sharpe, although I wish the audiobooks were all read by William Gaminara. The ones read by other people kind of suck.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2013 13:21
|
|
|
|
|
#
¿
Aug 20, 2013 19:03
|
|
|
Yeah I thought Crowe was perfect casting. Having read the books after seeing the film, I didn't mind Bettany, but definitely not what he should look like. I always took Stephen's ribbing of Jack as him being skinny, and a philosophy from a physician's standard that everyone should be as emaciated as he was.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 26, 2013 18:17
|
|
|
I don't disagree with that at all. I guess it's more that I picture Maturin from the book as being more Catalonian, whereas Bettany is obviously more Irish.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 26, 2013 20:07
|
|
|
Buttonhead posted:One bit of casting I wasn't crazy about in the movie was Billy Boyd as Barrett Bonden. I'd always pictured Bonden as a big, burly guy, and not a Hobbit. Yeah, same here. Killick was perfect, though.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 27, 2013 12:35
|
|
|
Luigi Thirty posted:I very much enjoyed Master and Commander but didn't care for the Jane Austen adventures of Jack Aubrey in the second book. Now I'm up to Jack debauching Stephen's sloth in the third book. I love O'Brian's style and humor. The Patrick Tull versions are the standard by which all other audiobooks ought to be judged.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 28, 2013 22:20
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah that guy has kinda vanished. I worry about him sometimes =(. He probably went to sea. I'm sure he'll be back....
|
|
#
¿
Sep 19, 2013 14:41
|
|
|
CarterUSM posted:Rereading "The Fortune of War". I live near Boston, and have seen the Connie many times, so I know exactly what you mean.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 21, 2013 20:55
|
|
|
I do American War of Independence reenacting, and while it's on land and not at sea, I have a personal anecdote that helps with this, too. We were at a weekend event, and it had rained all morning. Then the sun came out and it was humid as all hell. No wind, so the air was just wet and thick. We had a street battle, and after the first two volleys from either side, all I could see of the enemy were their shoes and the occasional flash of light. The powder smoke was so thick, it was like being in a stinky, sulfuric cloud. And that was during the day. At night it would've been worse.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 3, 2013 04:01
|
|
|
High Warlord Zog posted:Has anyone written Napoleonic era sailing or, for that matter, land based adventures from the perspective of the French? The sailing aspect I feel wouldn't be terribly exciting, given what happened to French navy. There's a Sharpe novel where Richard Sharpe meets his French equivalent (and a French version of Harper) that I was hoping would spawn a parallel series, but it hasn't.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2014 11:20
|
|
|
Octy posted:Didn't the French navy do okay in the early years of the war? It could read like a tragedy, after all. Not particularly. I mean it's the British Navy, they don't sing about ruling the waves for no reason.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2014 23:34
|
|
|
If it were to be a privateer or frigate captain, the US would be better, especially with all the various wars we were involved in at sea (Tunisia, War of 1812, &c.). But I also love Old Ironsides so I may be biased. E: Although that might be harder to fictionalize since the fleet was so small. I suppose it could be a sailor rather than officer as protagonist.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2014 00:13
|
|
|
I thought that ship was a privateer? I'd have to go re-read it though, it's been a while.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2014 12:08
|
|
|
If they got moldy, they weren't done correctly. I had one I git in October that I ate the following May.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 14, 2014 01:53
|
|
|
Nettle Soup posted:God drat I'm gonna know a lot about  Also, I definitely recommend getting the companion book here.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 8, 2014 18:02
|
|
|
Even the Sharpe novels have a Cochrane analog (in S. America no less).
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2014 21:54
|
|
|
A Sea of Words is a reference book, but I read it through anyway because I am crazy. Also your rule is strange.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 15, 2014 23:52
|
|
|
I would definitely read at least one of the books before watching the film, just so you understand that the casting is drat near perfect for every character EXCEPT Maturin. We've discussed it earlier in the thread, and certainly Paul Bettany is a fine actor, but I always pictured Maturin more Catalonian than Irish.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2014 12:26
|
|
|
I think his acting is spot on. It's just the look.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2014 12:55
|
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:Ah that would make sense; doesn't shallower (and wider) mean less stable on heavy seas? So it would be more likely to broach or capsize. No wonder a professional sailor would dislike them. They're also slab-sided!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 10, 2014 15:36
|
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:Okay I'll bite, what does that mean? No tumblehome so more unstable still? http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slab-sided posted:having flat sides; also : being tall or long and lank They use it all the time in the books, also. Interestingly the dictionary claims 1817 is the first time it's known to have been used, which I think makes it an anachronism in the books.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 10, 2014 15:55
|
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:Okay, so that's cleared up. Any other answers to my questions on the last page? From Wikipedia: In marine navigation, starboard bearings are 'green' and port bearings are 'red'. Thus, in ship navigation, a target directly off the starboard side would be 'Green090' or 'G090'.[6] This method is only used for a relative bearing. A navigator on watch does not always have a corrected compass available with which to give an accurate bearing. If available, the bearing might not be numerate. Therefore, every forty-five degrees of direction from north on the compass was divided into four 'points'. Thus, 32 points of 11.25° each makes a circle of 360°. An object at 022.5° relative would be 'two points off the starboard bow', an object at 101.25° relative would be 'one point abaft the starboard beam' and an object at 213.75° relative would be 'three points on the port quarter'. This method is only used for a relative bearing. And also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knee_%28construction%29
|
|
#
¿
Nov 10, 2014 16:06
|
|
|
There's a game out called Naval Action that's about this very era (even has the Surprise). I've made a thread for it. I thought I heard about it in this very thread, but I couldn't find the post.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 23, 2014 02:17
|
|
|
AlphaDog posted:I've been playing Sails of Glory on the tabletop and it's pretty neat. I love Sails of Glory. Need to buy some more ships, though....
|
|
#
¿
Nov 23, 2014 14:02
|
|
|
The French actually had quite a lot of success in the East Indies.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2014 18:58
|
|
|
Including a very major death, which we've discussed already in this thread.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2014 19:36
|
|
|
Yeah, I agree, but it is definitely jarring when we're so used to other media spending lots of time on those types of events. E: I'm reading a biography on Pellew right now, and he was in the Indies, away from his wife and children, for 5 years. Any news he got was 5 months delayed, and obviously wouldn't be super detailed. So from that perspective, O'Brian does a very good job of making the reader feel like they're at sea.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2014 20:28
|
|
|
I had to replay that part on the audiobook because I'd actually missed it.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2014 20:32
|
|
|
"Did you hear what I said? Did you get it? It was funny, right?"
|
|
#
¿
Dec 22, 2014 14:47
|
|
|
There's an entire O'Brian wiki, apparently: http://patrickobrian.wikia.com/wiki/HMS_Sophie
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2014 20:48
|
|
|
I had a Jack Aubrey pun moment just yesterday, and to keep in line with our current discussion, I'm going to retell my joke here. I just finished reading a book about Edward Pellew, and at the end is his amazing victory at Algiers. Among the ships he commanded were some Dutch volunteers, including the Dutch frigate Amstel. So I asked me wife (after explaining some terminology), if they turned Amstel in to a razee, would it be Amstel Light?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2014 14:54
|
|
|
Amstel was a 44-gun frigate, I don't think she was single-decked. I can't really find any info on her, and anyway, the joke still stands.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2014 15:48
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 07:38 |
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:In the end, what we can learn from this is that lite beer is terrible, has poor sea-keeping qualities and no place for cannons. There. Joke saved!
|
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2014 16:47
|
|