Read my post again, if you kindly would – I was saying there, that I had an erroneous tendency to regard Dr. Maturin as rather like Dr. Professor Etc. Etc. Cooper; and that I was aware that I was wronging Stephen by tending to see him thus. Please realise that I’m confessing my sin and registering contrition – not laughing in the face of my Father Confessor and telling him that I haven’t sinned at all !
I knew what they meant. And I gently gave them some background. But one has to be careful not to appear too much the maritime nerd, so I didn’t push the point too hard.
I recall reading a story (back when I was a mere youngster) which included a character of around 10 – let’s call him Miguel – who often skipped school in favor of going for a swim or hanging out on the wharves at the harbor (the setting was somewhere in the tropical regions of Latin America, probably early 20th century, but that’s a guess). One of the few days that our scrappy protagonist bothered to show up to school coincided with a field trip of sorts down into his favorite stomping ground. When a nearby ship’s bell chimes twice, the teacher asks the students if they know what time it is. The brightest girl in the class, the one who always makes Miguel feel ashamed of his ignorance in all subjects other than the sea, confidently answers two o’clock. Miguel falls about laughing until his sides ache, then explains to his mystified schoolmates that the watch system used aboard ships reckons time very differently than, say, a clock tower.
I was about five or six when I read this story, had never been within 100 miles of the sea, and, at the time, couldn’t read a normal clock. But it wasn’t until I first picked up Master and Commander (around 10 years after graduating from college) that I actually learned how the system worked.
Navy guy here, this made me spit beer out of my nose. Oh the hundreds of stories I’ve heard (or told) that start with the disclaimer that “this is a no shitter…”
The thing to do is to not do the Napoleonic Wars. The French navy saw far more action in the 17th and 18th centuries and with their emphasis on commerce raiding ( after Louis XIV largely withdrew from the guerre d’escadre for budgetary reasons ) and far flung possessions you could probably come up with all sorts of interesting tales.
Someone in the Aubrey-Maturin Facebook group just posted a link to a Ship’s Bells Android app: “This app rings or vibrates on the hour and half hour in a standard ship’s bells pattern.”
I think this will amuse me for a while before it gets annoying.
Then you can consign your phone to the briny deep. Just be sure to file the proper report with the Admiralty when you next make port.
One of my co-workers has been using that or a similar one for awhile. He loves it, ex-Navy-at-one-time-wannabe-careerist that he is. For me it moved from amusing to slightly annoying much more quickly :D.
How does it work for the dog watches?
They were only foreigners.
Exactly what Jack would say!!
BTW, I have a ship’s bells app on my iPhone. The one I have has a “mute” option, so mine is muted from 10PM to 6AM.
I don’t know, it doesn’t specify and I only installed it this morning. It has a nice little bell ring sound.
There’s an iphone app of the same name which has an option to choose between British and Standard, and I saw some comments that indicated that the British setting has dog watches.
Goldilocks and I agree on my things political.
Too bad O’brian died…what would become of Capt. Jack Aubrey? The Napoleonic Wars are over, and the Royal Navy has more officers than it needs. Would Jack resign his commission and become a merchant captain? Or become a polar explorer (like his contemporary, Sir John Franklin)?
I wonder if anyone will take over hte series…it could be interesting.
He had his flag. I don’t know if Admirals get put on half pay or not.
Do you know why they’re called dog watches?
Because they are cur-tailed.
Yup
Well, you have made your cake, and you must lie in it.
Wait…
You cannot count your cakes before they hatch.