Inspired by Dopers’ earlier threads about how good this series was, I started reading it.
Kee-riminy! I can’t put this stuff down! I’m on volume 6 and I’m trying to pace myself and make them last longer, but I can’t stop myself. Luckily, a couple of nearby used bookstores should be able to keep me supplied to the end of the series.
My question: Why were they constantly “holystoning” the decks, even when they were in the middle of the ocean? It’s not like dirt was getting tracked in.
No expert, but my understanding always was “Because it’s the Navy way”. A naval ship needs lots more men than a merchant ship, because it has to be ready to fight. However, fighting takes up very little time out of the average voyage, even in wartime. You need something for the men to do other than sit around plotting mutiny, so you have them work away at keeping things “ship-shape”. Kind of like in the peace-time army, with its refrain of “If you can’t move it, paint it”.
In the books O’Brian repeatedly jokes about how unnecessary most of the swabbing and holystoning is. It seems to be just a tradition, and it gets done before sunrise if I recall correctly.
Funny you should ask. I’m reading the thirteenth book right now (The Thirteen-Gun Salute,) and this point was addressed on a part of the book I just went through. Without spoiling the story, I’ll just say that they sailed for a while in a cold climate. The narration mentioned that because of the decks being constantly washed over by rain and waves, and with it being so cold, there was no need for the sweepers, since no dust was kicked up. Dust accumulates through the regular activity of a ship’s business. It seems the book says that it’s due in part to all the ropes moving around, but I guess another part is that having a couple hundred men in such close quarters are going to dirty up the premises pretty quickly. Jack Aubrey is a more old-fashioned and thus more taut captains, so he’s bigger on the daily sweeping than your other more modern captains (“modern” referring to the early nineteenth century, of course.)
Rube E. Tewesday also has a good point: these tasks are good to keep the men’s minds off of other topics, and to keep them out of trouble. Plus, Jack often muses on how much he likes routine, and routine does seem to suit a lot of the other men, as well—as is the “navy way.”
It’s all true. Boredom is a huge problem and the vast majority could neither read nor write. You keep them busy with makework and routine. It’s still pretty much a cornerstone of military life. Did I mention polishing brass?
Malacandra and I(Baker), have been writing a sea story, because we are both fans of the “wooden navy” genre. I’ve only got through four of the A?M books, but will soon start the fifth.
The above is a link to our story, which has had a couple other contributors as well. There was one minor glitch, but that’s over and done with. As always, such stories are open to other contributors, all we ask is that anyone who wants to help write should read the whole thing first, so there’s no porblems with continuity. Any questions, just email.
The only problem I have with the movie “Master and Commander:The Far Side of the World” is that I can’t read the books without seeing Russell Crowe’s face as Jack Aubrey. Not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just I like to create my own vision of what a character looks like.
I think one of my favorite scenes in the books so far as I have read them is one that takes place ashore, when Jack jumps through a window to escape his creditors.
He’s not looking like Russell Crowe to me, for some reason. I see him as a tall, fat, robust, red-faced guy.
“Old Sodom and Gomorrah’s sweet on Goldilocks”
I picture him as sort of a modified Crowe. Based on the movie’s Aubrey, but softer of face and, I don’t know, different. Maturin, on the other hand, looks NOTHING like Paul Bettany.
And he calls for Bonden and his barge’s crew to bring the stretchers and press the creditor’s goons!
Addictive, isn’t it, teela? I know. The last one I read was The Nutmeg of Consolation; I’ll be reading more when I have some time in the summer.
He actually pressed the tipstaff himself! That cracked me up. That, and the fact that Killick made him ride in the back of a hearse to his ship later on in “Post Captain”.
There were a couple of reasons for the cleaning- first off, the ropes and sails did shed crud (“shakings”), the tar in the deck seams probably got tracked around some. Probably though, it was just ritual. Stephen frequently mentions the “Judaic ritual of life at sea”, which gave me the impression that every day was almost exactly the same, barring enemy action or a blow.
For what it’s worth, I got the impression that the hands didn’t spend forever on it- the middle watch ended at about 4 a.m., and if they got it done before the sun was up, it probably was usually done in about an hour and a half or so.
Russell Crowe was about as good of a bit of casting as anyone could really have expected- he really does look a lot like I imagined Aubrey as looking. Maturin on the other hand… well, I have a mental image of him, and can’t really come up with such an “ill-looking” actor.
One other cleaning thing: Sure, no dirt was being tracked in, but dust is made mostly of dead human skin cells. With a couple hundred men crammed into a few thousand square feet of living space, not taking showers regularly and doing sweaty heavy work… eww. I’d be holystoning the guys in the hammocks next to mine.
Since today was 4/20, insert holystoning/water bong joke here.
The tar is the main thing and sea salt build ups.
In a way you new readers are lucky, all the books are out there. When I started on them only 10 or so were out. I had to wait the two or three years in between. Agony I tell you, Agony.
I hear you, Mr. Goob. I endured the same agony when I got into Colleen McCollough’s Masters of Rome series.
I seem to recall from one of the A-M books that without regular maintenance of the decks - re-caulking and holystoning down - they’d tend to leak, which’d never be a good thing with all that water around.
I’m on a self-enforced break from the A-M books. Otherwise I’d overindulge - buy and read them all in a row. This way I’ll really enjoy the next one.
I think the answer has been given: when a ship has three times as many men as can comfortable fit crammed on board, only a more or less excessive preoccupation with cleanliness and routine will avoid squalor and chaos.
I admire your self-control. I own them all and have read each at least 3 times.
I seem to remember that Jack had one of the guns painted, so that it didn’t have to be constantly polished. But Killick kept working at the paint until it flaked off and he could polish the thing.
Killick is either obsessive-compulsive or has some strange metal-polishing fetish.
Both, I think, esp when it comes to the Capitain’s silver.
Regarding the movie, I’ll agree that Russell Crowe was a good choice for Captain Aubrey, considering the age he was when the movie was set. And the actor who played Maturin was just too good-looking and even-tempered. He was also too tall and not bald enough. Apart from that, I guess he did all right. (Am I sufficiently masking my disappointment?)
The movie itself was good. The last Aubrey/Maturin book I read before I saw the movie was The Far Side of the World, as it happened, and I remember thinking that it would make a good movie [spoiler]but I knew they couldn’t include the last part of the book in the movie. Not only would that part make the movie unmanageably long, it didn’t make for a terribly “Hollywood” ending. Regardless, I remember thinking that this story about a minority of English sailors stranded on an island with a majority of American sailors and the tension that mounted would make for a great movie all by itself.
It’s also interesting that the enemy in the movie was France, since the enemy in the book was the United States. But I guess that wouldn’t have played too well with the U.S. audiences, hm?[/spoiler]
But I do love this series. I picked up Master and Commander back in 2000, and I’ve been reading them one or two at a time ever since, except when I read H.M.S. Surprise, which I found so compelling that I had to move right on to The Mauritius Command and then Desolation Island, when I finally took a break. I always make sure I have the next book waiting for me on the shelf when I’m reading one of the books, just in case. (This time, though, I have fallen down on this practice. I’m halfway through The Thirteen-Gun Salute and I still don’t have the next one. Right after work I’m going to go pick it up, I swear…)
I’ve seen the unfinished manuscript of O’Brian’s twenty-first book in bookstores, simply titled 21. I have a feeling I should snatch it the next time I see it, since I’m not sure it’s going to be that easy to find forever, and I’m going to crave it when I’m finally done with the series.
Granted, I saw the movie before I started on the books, and that has probably influenced my opinions. But I feel that Russell Crowe filt the part quite well, particularly Aubrey’s boyish twinkle-in-the-eye and genial (but not too genial) rapport with the crew. For the life of me, I can hardly think of any bankable star working in movies today that could have played it better.
Paul Bettany, as others have pointed out, is physically wrong for Don Esteban. He’s too tall, too fair, too handsome, and too well dressed. These handicaps aside, however, I feel that he acted the part admirably, right down to the small details. I jumped in my seat in sympathetic agony when he withdrew the bullet during the surgery scene.
Actually, though, Maturin is the exception in the movie rather than the rule. Most of the named characters are spot on with their descriptions, particularly Killick, Mowett, and Old Joe Plaice.
Interestingly enough, I seem to be about the fourth or fifth person in this thread who is currently reading The Thirteen Gun Salute. Odd, that.