# I don't get this Futility Closet post. Anyone care to explain?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-futility-closet-post-anyone-care-to-explain/1010532>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 20, 2024, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-futility-closet-post-anyone-care-to-explain/1010532 "2024-11-20T22:18:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-futility-closet-post-anyone-care-to-explain/1010532/1 "2024-11-20T22:18:16Z")

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> **[Spirit - Futility Closet](https://www.futilitycloset.com/2024/11/19/spirit/)**
>
> In November 1795, Samuel Taylor Coleridge took a volume of Apuleius from the Bristol Library. In the borrowers’ register, in place of the date, he wrote, “9 Dutch ships taken, with 3000 troops Bravo.”

What is the joke or double meaning?

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**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2024, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-futility-closet-post-anyone-care-to-explain/1010532/2 "2024-11-21T02:16:59Z")

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Well in 1795 there were various naval conflicts going on among the British, Dutch and French. For example it might refer to the following (even though the exact number of ships is different and one might guess the particular conflict would be closer to November than January if he referred to it):

> **[Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_the_Dutch_fleet_at_Den_Helder)**
>
> The Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder on the night of 23 January 1795 presents a rare occurrence of an interaction between warships and cavalry, in which a French Revolutionary Hussar regiment came close to a Dutch fleet frozen at anchor in the Nieuwediep, just east of the town of Den Helder. After some of the Hussars had approached across the frozen Nieuwediep,\[Note 1\] the French cavalry negotiated that all 14 Dutch warships would remain at anchor. A capture of ships by horsemen The Fr...

Perhaps you should repost with a clearer title asking about those conflicts as undoubtedly there are probably posters here who know about the subject.