Monthly Archives: May 2009
Music for Overnight
Cornishmen from Port Issac perform a sea shanty.
Filed under Age of Sail, Music for Overnight
HMS Bonne Citoyenne vs. La Furieuse
On June 18, 1809 HMS Inflexible (64) and HMS Bonne Citoyenne (20) departed Spithead for Quebec escorting a convoy of merchantmen. Bonne Citoyenne was a sloop which had been taken from the French by HMS Phaeton in 1796. She carried … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Drumbeat
Drumbeat is the second of the Nicholas Ramage novels by Dudley Pope. It picks up where Ramage left off, with Nicholas Ramage commanding the cutter HMS Kathleen and en route to Gibraltar from Corsica. It ends with the Battle of … Continue reading
Filed under Age of Sail, Lord Ramage Novels, Naval Fiction
The Boarding Pike
While our modern sensibilities cause us to look askance at primitive weapons, like boarding pikes, they were incredibly effective weapons. One has to consider that under the best of circumstances the reliability of flintlock firearms was problematic. When used at … Continue reading
Filed under Age of Sail, Naval Weapons
HMS Speedy vs El Gamo
A quick perusal of this blog will show that I’ve shied away from writing much on major figures of the Age of Sail. While I have biographical entries on lesser known figures, like Sir Henry Duncan and Midshipman Flinders, there … Continue reading
Music for Saturday Night
The Dubliners [natürlich] and Paddy’s Gone to France.
Filed under Age of Sail, Music for Overnight
Devil To Pay
Devil To Pay is the second nove, chronologically, but the first in order of publication, in the Richard Delancey series by C. Northcote Parkinson. Parkinson is best known for his work in the field of public administration and is credited … Continue reading
Filed under Age of Sail, Richard Delancey Novels
The Richard Delancey Novels
Having found myself temporarily deprived of Dewey Lambdin’s Alan Lewrie novels and totally dissatisfied with Julian Stockwin’s Thomas Kydd novels (despite the slamming cover art by Geoff Hunt) I’ve been searching for other naval fiction to use as a focal … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
St. Peter Port, Guernsey
As we’ll be serializing C. Northcote Parkinson’s Richard Delancey novels over the next weeks it seems appropriate to start with Delancey’s hometown. St. Peter Port, shown here with Castle Cornet in the right midground, is the capital of Guernsey. During … Continue reading
Filed under Age of Sail, Naval Fiction, Richard Delancey Novels
HMS Quebec vs Surveillante
On occasion combat at sea during the Age of Sail could be a display of sailhandling virtuosity, or a tour de force of surprise, which caused the enemy to strike with little bloodshed. More often than not, however, ship to … Continue reading
