So, I’ve read the whole Hornblower series by C.S. Forester and I’ve started reading the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian.
One thing that struck me about these series is the different ways the authors portrayed the service. The biggest thing that stuck out to me is Forester, on several occasions, made it sound as though a woman on board a navy vessel was practically unheard of. Having one in a passenger-type capacity was rare enough, and a woman that was part of the crew in at least tertiary aspect, unthinkable.
O’Brian on the other hand makes nothing of it. The gunner may have his wife aboard for the whole journey. She helps look after the powder boys and washes clothing. No biggie.
Which one is more historically accurate? And is one more historically accurate across all aspects than the other, or are both good at some aspects and bad at others?
It was against regulations for a woman to be on board ship in the Napoleonic War era Royal Navy. However, it wasn’t uncommon for warrant officers to bring their wives and kids onboard. The captain is God onboard his ship, afterall.
Forester researched his stuff meticulously (he writes about reading all those issues of the Naval Gazette, for instance, and he wrote a history of the WAr of 1812), but I’ve learned recently that he was apparently willing to stretch points for the sake of the story. His writing about marine salvage and underwater explosives in Hornblower and the Atropos, for instance, seems to be ahead of its time.
As for women on board the ships while at sea, I don’t know what the facts are, but haven’t heard of it before, even in the works of other sea story-writers (aside from O’Brian). Whaler captains certainly sometimes brought their wives along, and I suspect merchantmen might have.
They imported an engineer from the East India Company who was an underwater salvage expert. He had working for him some Indian divers able to make very deep dives; they used explosives contained in kegs to blow up bits of the wreck. The explosives were set off by “flying fuses” - that is, fuses contained in the sealed kegs that were waterproofed after they were lit and sealed - adding a certian element of nasty danger to using them.
His expertise was a major plot point because:
He gets shot in a duel and appears likely to die - yet he’s the only guy in the area who (a) speaks the language of the divers, and (b) knows how to conduct salvage operations
I have no idea whether this portrayal is accurate for the time or not …
We had a discussion not that long ago on this Board about underwater explosives and the like, so I looked up early attempts at underwater salvage. Unless the guys Forester described were lone geniuses, there was nothing like that going on during the Napoleonic wars – it all came a bit later.
Based on absolutely nothing more than the fact that I’ve met a fair variety of people before, I just kind of assumed that there were some Hornblower-type captains, who were rigidly by the book and to whom the idea of a woman on board was shocking in the extreme; and also some Aubrey-type captains, who were a lot more easygoing and were willing to smile and wink at the occasional bit of rule-breaking.
Also, this made-for-TV Hornblower series is outstanding. The first four of this eight-disc collection are particularly good. And $24.95 for the whole shebang is an excellent price.
I didn’t know about this! Thank’ee! I just went out and sent off for a copy of these – OTRCAT says there are 52 episodes? – and I’ll post a review in due course.
Hard a lee and watch for squalls! (Be that a mermaid?)
The book I referenced in a previous thread by Dr. Nicholas Rodger, which is pretty definitive, makes it clear there were women aboard — not in great numbers, and not as sailors — as wives of captains and men, and as unofficial helpers.
Even at Trafalgar.
Oh yes, I have that series. Despite the changes they made, I like it a lot. They left the pineapple scene in after all. You can never forget the pineapple scene. I’m terrible at imagining what other people’s characters look like so my mental image of young Hornblower and Bush is defined by the actors from that series.
I’d always wondered how Forester learned everything he did and I suppose reading the actual Gazette would do it, wouldn’t it? I think I’ll actually be looking into the book Claverhouse links to. Then I can make my own determination on the matter.
I don’t know the answer to your question, but as another data point, the Jane Austin books have officers delivering each others’ wives to the duty station where their fellow officers are currently staying. As a friendly service to the spouses.
