This is probably a YART but having almost finished Master and Commander by Patrick O' Brian and being entirely bewildered and bemused by the sailing terminology, what's the best way to understand what's actually happening? It took me a 150 pages or so to understand that larboard is what we nowadays call port. Someone told me to treat it like modern poetry ie just appreciate the form and rhythm, but I likes to understand me poetry! A good visual encyclopaedia like the Dorling Kindersley one is great but only gets me half way there.
jj
I know we've discussed this before and someone found a good lexicon, but I can't find the thread. Anyone?
I betcha Dr Bill will know.
Meanwhile, we were recently disappointed by the DK Visual Dictionary. It doesn't list typewriter.
What's a typewriter?
Oh, go wind your watch!
There are quite a few glossaries of naval termss.
Here's just one:
http://www.coconutinfo.com/sailingthedream/glossary.html Looks like I goofed somehow, but copy and paste
Here's a llink to Patrick O'Brian Resources:
http://www.io.com/gibbonsb/pob/
Thanks Dr Bill, that should set jj on his way! Wish I could find that earlier thread though.
Here's a book I found very useful. It contains many terms from the days of sail. Published in 1954 it may be out of print. Library of Congress Card No. 72-77971 Weathervane Books. "The Mariner's Dictionary" by Gershom Bradford.
If anything else has befuddled you send me a PM and I will be happy to look and see if it's in my copy.
At Easter I went to Hartlepool in Yorkshire. There is a group of people there who clubbed together and acquired the hulk of the Trincomalee, a fifth-rate, 46-gun frigate which was launched in 1817, a couple of years after the end of Napoleonic War hostilities.
She is in a floating dock in the old harbour at Hartlepool.
The Trinc has been restored by the group to her original glory, down to the masts and rigging. She never saw battle, and while she was used for a while for survey work on the east coast of America, she spent most of her life used for sundry depot and headquarters-type duties at various English naval facilities.
The Trinc is the oldest English naval vessel still afloat. She has lasted so well because she was built from teak rather than oak, and her bottom is still in very good condition. The group has done an ace job of restoring her, down to the cannon and carronades. The class was originally designed to carry 38 guns, but experience taught the Navy to over-gun their frigates, and the extra cannon and carronades were installed on the maindeck while she was being built.
The Trinc has her own website. It's worth a look. Just google for "Trincomalee".
"Aubrey" was captain of a similar frigate in HMS Surprise, but was quickly promoted out of that kind of ship. Most captains of the period languished in the fifth-rate class for their entire careers, a fifth-rate being, from memory, the smallest ship which could be reasonably commanded by a post-captain. Along with sloops and schooners, the fifth-rates were the workhorses of the Navy - smaller and more agile than the sexier 74s and infinitely less ponderous than the line-of-battle ships such as the Victory, but important and impressive enough to be used for the odd tad of gunboat diplomacy.
Obviously no one man could have had the range of experiences that Aubrey had, and much of his career is clearly allegorical. O'Brian was, however, as faithful to actual occurrences as he could be. His knowledge of the ships of the time was encyclopaedic and I don't think he was ever caught out in his usage of terms.
I found this list of books for background reading on an "O'Brian" website some time ago. I hope they're worthwhile:
The Autobiography of a Seaman by Admiral Lord Cochrane (Lyons Press)
Captain James Cook by Richard Hough (W. W. Norton)
Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain by Robert Harvey (Carroll and Graf)
Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian: 1809-1922 by James Tertius de Kay (W. W. Norton)
Eyewitness: Pirate by Eyewitness Guides (Dorling Kindersley)
The Illustrated Companion to Nelson's Navy by Nicholas Blake (Stackpole Books)
The Journals of Captain Cook by James Cook (Penguin)
Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail by Bernard Ireland (W. W. Norton)
Napoleon and His Collaborators by Isser Woloch (W. W. Norton)
Nelson's Navy by Brian Lavery (Naval Institute Press)
Nelson's Navy by David Davies (Stackpole Books)
The Oxford Book of Ships and the Sea (Oxford University Press)
The Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press)
The Prize of All the Oceans by Glyn Williams (Penguin)
The Safeguard of the Sea by N. A. M. Roger (W. W. Norton)
Seamanship in the Age of Sail by John Harland (Naval Institute Press)
Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections: Man-of-War by Stephen Biesty (Dorling Kindersley)
Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by David Cordingly (Harvest Books)
The Visual Dictionary of Ships and Sailing by Eyewitness Guides (Dorling Kindersley)
The Wooden World by N. A. M. Rodger (W. W. Norton)
Thank y'all for that, I'll try a few of those. Dr Bill's is too modern for ships of the 1810s, I fear.
jj
In reply to:
Dr Bill's is too modern for ships of the 1810s, I fear.
I first read this without the "is", and was all set to reply with "just barely". 
I've got a brother who is SO lazy his self-winding watch doesn't!
I've heard from a couple of sources that those Patrick O'Brian books are really great but I've never read one. What did you think of it?
I used to think CS Forrester was the best there could be at this type of tale. But then there was Patrick O'Brian. And I think he improved from book to book, although due to time constraints I haven't read the last few. But I will.
In reply to:
because she was built from teak rather than oak, and her bottom is still in very good condition
Is it too late for me to request teak?
Is it too late for me to request teak?
you're probably just not getting enough rubbing with the proper oils...
Must say that I was a tad disappointed by the first of these books -didn't make me rush out and buy all 18 of them, or however many there are. Nothing I could put my finger on, perhaps just that the story line was a bit weak...but I can well see how lots of people would really enjoy them
jj
I believe he improved as he went on, so it might be worth persevering. Or not.
Many excellent books start "slow." My rule is to give the author a chance. So I read 100 pages.
If he/she hasn't hooked me by then - back it goes on the shelf.