Thank you!
So did everyone have a good Christmas then? Hope you all ate too much and got spoiled rotten by Santa! Thank you so much for all the lovely cards, gifts and Christmas wishes. I have a whole shelf full of cards from fangirls here! :)
Santa also brought me lots of nautical goodies including Cordingly's Billy Ruffian, which I've wanted to read for ages; a book on Dominic Serres, father of J.T Serres and war artist to the Navy, 1719-1793 and an enormous tome called Seamanship in the Age of Sail: An account of shiphandling of the sailing man-of-war 1600 - 1860, based on contemporary sources. Three hundred pages of sailing instructions for the man-of-war with chapters on theoretical principals of ship handling; making and shortening sail at sea; tacking, wearing and boxhauling; lowering and hoisting boats; etc. etc. plus an index in several languages :) The book also includes loads of line drawn illustrations and contemporary plates, and best of all there are lists of commands included for each maneuver. So if you've always had a burning desire to know the exact sequence of commands for reefing topsails I can now tell you! Okay, I won't, but I could :D I should probably apologise in advance in case I become an insufferable know-it-all arm chair sailor. However I can assure you that if you actually put me anywhere near a real sailing ship I would no doubt do a fine imitation of Horatio being seasick at anchor at Spithead ;) Of course I will also now be able to have Horatio and Archie yelling no doubt inappropriate sailing commands at every available opportunity. See forthcoming fic ;) Oh, and talking of Horatio and Archie, esmerelda_t got me a book on English Furniture Styles 1500 - 1830 so next time the boys are on shore leave I can ensure they are in a historically accurate bed ;)
However I fear Navyboys will not be best pleased with me when they discover that I also got a pirate for Christmas from partner and daughter, "because mummy likes sailors".
They tried to get me a sailor but couldn't find one so they bought me a dinky little pirate instead complete with sword, sea chest, chart, quill, rum and the most precious little sextant. Isn't he cute?! Just don't tell the Admiral ;)
ETA Huge thanks also to mylodon for passing on her copy of Shifting Sands via nodbear and esmerelda_t. I watched it on Christmas Eve and it made me laugh and squee in equal measure. As a film it, erm, leaves a little to be desired but baby Bamber is positively adorable. Suffice to say that I went to bed on Christmas Eve with a very big smile on my face! Santa was very good to me indeed :)
Santa also brought me lots of nautical goodies including Cordingly's Billy Ruffian, which I've wanted to read for ages; a book on Dominic Serres, father of J.T Serres and war artist to the Navy, 1719-1793 and an enormous tome called Seamanship in the Age of Sail: An account of shiphandling of the sailing man-of-war 1600 - 1860, based on contemporary sources. Three hundred pages of sailing instructions for the man-of-war with chapters on theoretical principals of ship handling; making and shortening sail at sea; tacking, wearing and boxhauling; lowering and hoisting boats; etc. etc. plus an index in several languages :) The book also includes loads of line drawn illustrations and contemporary plates, and best of all there are lists of commands included for each maneuver. So if you've always had a burning desire to know the exact sequence of commands for reefing topsails I can now tell you! Okay, I won't, but I could :D I should probably apologise in advance in case I become an insufferable know-it-all arm chair sailor. However I can assure you that if you actually put me anywhere near a real sailing ship I would no doubt do a fine imitation of Horatio being seasick at anchor at Spithead ;) Of course I will also now be able to have Horatio and Archie yelling no doubt inappropriate sailing commands at every available opportunity. See forthcoming fic ;) Oh, and talking of Horatio and Archie, esmerelda_t got me a book on English Furniture Styles 1500 - 1830 so next time the boys are on shore leave I can ensure they are in a historically accurate bed ;)
However I fear Navyboys will not be best pleased with me when they discover that I also got a pirate for Christmas from partner and daughter, "because mummy likes sailors".
They tried to get me a sailor but couldn't find one so they bought me a dinky little pirate instead complete with sword, sea chest, chart, quill, rum and the most precious little sextant. Isn't he cute?! Just don't tell the Admiral ;)
ETA Huge thanks also to mylodon for passing on her copy of Shifting Sands via nodbear and esmerelda_t. I watched it on Christmas Eve and it made me laugh and squee in equal measure. As a film it, erm, leaves a little to be desired but baby Bamber is positively adorable. Suffice to say that I went to bed on Christmas Eve with a very big smile on my face! Santa was very good to me indeed :)