hippocrafty

[hippocrafty]

So I was blessed/cursed by the gods of prophecy in my dream last night. Woke up with "*Black Sails* is at least one D&D campaign" on my lips.

[hippocrafty]

#this! #i'm not tasmanian, i'm a mainlander, but i still cheered when he went in the icehole #i wish some of my state's governors got eaten by monsterbears and/or thrown in iceholes #looking at you john forrest #and septimus roe #iceholes for all of them!

something i NEED more international terror fans to be aware of is how fucking wild it is to watch the terror as a Tasmanian. [if you dont recall, John Franklin was a former governed of tasmania, and he is NOT remembered fondly.]

imagine my friends and I’s surprise when we find out the show we are watching features OUR FORMER GOVERNER whom EVERYONE HATES not only as a prominent character but also as someone who dies horribly. they never really talk about how he dies in school, only mention he went mission to the arctic and never came back.

being a Tasmanian terror fan feels fucking insane we have public parks named after this chucklefuck. I walk past his birdshit covered statue almost every day. My mother was conceived on those grounds [premaritally]. my mates and I have all gotten sloshed & stoned there. Just earlier tonight i was holding in puke next to his stupid fucking monument. people will put dish soap in the fountain there to make it bubble and foam and overflow like crazy as a prank. youd go there to skip school.

We’ve all got such a long, complicated history with this historical figure and his shadow is still prominent over the land we live on today. and we watch a show and hes just THERE. When he died we all cheered

[hippocrafty]

Today's Ellies are the eldest of the able seamen:

This one's Abraham Seeley, a 34 year old AB on Erebus.

Here's George Williams, he was 35 and on Erebus.

This is David Leys, who at 37 is the eldest of the ABs on Terror.

Here is Thomas Work, who at 41 is the eldest of the ABs on Erebus.

I also managed to get mixed up and somehow forgot these two:

This is William Aitken, he was a marine private on Terror (and at 37, the eldest of them), who went home on the Barretto Junior before the expedition went into the passage, and thus, survived. So Terror did have 7 marines, same as Erebus, but one of them didn't go into the passage (I was wrong before).

This is John Brown, an AB from Terror who also went home on Barretto Junior. His age wasn't listed on the books.

By my calculations, I've now made an elephant that represents all the crewmembers of HMS Terror & HMS Erebus, 1845. I'm actually remaking them a second time, so that I can make 'crew photos' of the representative elephants for the respective crews, so this isn't the end of the ellie project yet. I'm up to William Johnson, a stoker on Terror, so far (as I'm doing the officers & named positions first, then the marines, then the ABs, then all the Erebites).

I still love every single one of them

[hippocrafty]

Today's Ellies are some more of the 'senior' among the ABs on HMS Terror & HMS Erebus (in 1845) - though not the eldest, they will be next.

Here's Alexander Berry, a 32 year old AB on Terror.

Joseph (or Josephus) Geater, a 32 year old AB on Erebus.

William Wentzall, a 33 year old AB from Terror -- he's the one (on the show) who is told his "nails are a terror" by Cpt Fitzjames when he moves to Erebus, so I gave him black toes on his front legs. Definitely old enough to know better than to have overlong or dirty nails!

Here's William Orren, a 34 year old AB from Erebus. He's among the first (in the show) to die when he falls from the rigging when Erebus hits an iceberg under the water. I think it's fitting that he's among the elders of the ABs, as Mr Collins (who's younger, at 27 but more senior as the 2nd Master) sends him up there in the first place to teach another AB his knots - his "Beckett Bends".

Abraham Seeley is also a 34 year old on Erebus but I'm putting him with the next batch.

[hippocrafty]

Can be really hard to maintain the motivation to take the vitamins. But not these ones. These ones I take for my friends Francis Crozier & Thomas Blanky. I never forget these ones.

[hippocrafty]

Today's Ellies are the 29 and 30 year olds (in 1845) from HMS Terror & HMS Erebus.

This one is Robert Ferrier, a 29 year old Erebus AB.

Here is William Jerry, a 29 year old Terror AB.

This one is William Shanks, another 29 year old Terror AB.

And rounding out the 29 year old Terror ABs, here's James Walker.

Erebus had no 30 year old Able Seamen, though Terror had two.

This is Edwin Lawrence, who was 30 on Terror.

This is William Sinclair, the other Terror 30 year old AB.

[hippocrafty]

Extremely important & resonant, especially for us Australian Terror fans!

Here is a post for those terror confession blog submissions who don't know "where to start" with thinking about colonialism in this show.

We could definitely talk about "mutiny camp" and how there is a very distinctive split between classes when it comes to who joined the mutiny and who didn't. The mutineers are working/lower class, excluding George Hodgson, who was shown having relatively no choice being so lost and desperate he'd eat his own boot. But that was a distinctive step down in status for George, to join the mutineers. He relinquished power in order to survive. Those men who willingly signed up for mutiny were men who had not been given anything on a silver platter ever. They spent the entire expedition following officers who'd gone from a wealthy childhood to schooling designed to skip hard labor and install them as midshipman, mates, and lieutenants, stations above the common masses, basically a leg up given just because of what families they were born to. And then the working class men saw those "above" them make decisions that treated those men "below" as expendable. Being treated as expendable changes your perspective on things very drastically. It makes you wonder what the value is of a system who counts an expedition as a success even if you needlessly perish. (We will revisit this last point in a moment.)

I was thinking about how much fanfic uses mutineer camp (or simply Hickey) as an "cardboard cutout villain" for various AU/canon divergent scenarios (which is fine because we're all playing with these men like dolls) but how little uses Sir John (who in reality committed QUITE atrocious crimes against humanity) or the Admiralty (the men who Lady Jane and Sophia Cracroft are shown pleading to, who weigh the value of saving 130+ human lives against the value of the monetary cost of launching a search mission) or the officers of the ships who simply bought in to their positions of power.

Why do I want to see life so badly from a lieutenant's perspective- the guys who have cabins and privacy and get real meals every once in a while instead of rotten tins? Why not the characters closer to my own current socioeconomic position in society? Crammed in to hammocks together like sardines because their numbers are the important part? Am I reflecting Gibson's "you know who copulates in ships? rats" speech when I condemn the mutineers as evil and herald the officers as heroes? Perhaps like Hickey I want to dream of a life where I can be clean, fed, well-dressed, and pursue whom I love without the amount of struggle I face daily. Perhaps like Tommy Armitage I dream of a life where I have power and strength and get a modicum of respect from society which regularly steps all over me.

It's a razor-thin edge because the trap that Hickey discovered all too late is that the systems designed to kill you can't be forcibly wielded as a weapon to your advantage. He couldn't turn a colonialist attitude into a way to becoming King of the North himself. The system was always designed to kill him to further its goals of expansion, assimilation and consumption. (*He could hurt others with the weapon of colonialism, but the only version of success you can find in it is the success the empire tells you you should want. The system told him to be economically productive for the upper class and die in poverty when he could no longer physically handle that, and wanting more than that is wanting beyond his allotted station in life.)

The second half of the coin is that the officers are victims too- because the prestige is the carrot, it's not the actual truth. They are equally as expendable in the eyes of the empire. The empire doesn't care about a single man on that ship. You can die without a footnote in a history book, like the real Cornelius Hickey, or you can die championing the empire and doing your damndest to help it fulfil its insatiable hunger and dehumanize any opponents it has, like the real Fitzjames, but both men served it and are just as useful dead as alive. The little treats and bonuses, money and health and cleanliness and pardon from crimes, is enough to get people to fall in line and enforce a strict hierarchy under the often-false promise of happiness and protection. It's enough to get people to use violence against anyone who tries to buck the system (Hickey) or anyone who is in the way of resources for the system's growth (all native people of Nunavut). That's colonialism. It's an inherently inhuman and cruel system.

And all of this can exist inside your head simultaneously as reading smut and PWP and lusting after hot men and writing silly fanfic. It's not mutually exclusive and doesn't cancel each other out. It's also cool to combine the ideas when those more complex ideas resonate with you. In fact, combining your weird passions and pervy interests with real world issues that resonate with you is a really really good way to make art!

[hippocrafty]

Not-elephant craft: the saga of my (89 year old) Nanna's fingerless gloves.

So first I made my Nanna a basic, utilitarian pair of fingerless mitts with blue sportweight crepe-constructed 100% wool yarn. I no longer have a photo of them but they were made from this:

From: https://www.bendigowoollenmills.com.au/classic-5-ply.

Must've been 10 years ago, or more. Last time I was down in my hometown, Nanna mentions she's lost one of her blue mitts -- I was honestly shocked (and touched) she still had them. So I gave her a single (I haven't knitted its partner yet) fingerless Pomatomus glove I'd made with hand-dyed purple fingering weight wool. It was this pattern:

https://sutherland-studios.com.au/pdfs/NereidFingerlessGloves.pdf

Then I find out, this time in my hometown, that Nanna's actually needing a partner for her single purple Pomo mitt, as the blue one has holes in it.

Luckily hometown has a nice yarn shop & hooked me up with some lovely Naturally Loyal 8ply in purple:

So, thank goodness, I was able to finish a pair of them in 2 days:

Nanna now has two matching purple Pomo mittens, and I'm so happy.

[hippocrafty]

Today's Elephants are the 25 - 28 year olds (in 1845) among the ABs on Terror and Erebus.

William Closson (whose name was spelled with the 'long s' in the muster books like this: Cloſson) is a 25 year old from Erebus.

This is John Hartnell (I posted him before as he's one of the men buried on Beachy Island) - he was on Erebus and was 25 years old.

John Morfin, was 25 and on Erebus (the real man was 25, anyway, though I'm not sure the character of Morfin in the show is intended to be 25 - his actor was born in 1974!).

Henry Lloyd, from Erebus, was 26 years old, and the only crewmember on Erebus known not to be born in the UK - he was born in Norway. Lots of crewmembers didn't have their birthplaces listed, though, so it's not clear if there were others, and of course, details about James Fitzjames's identity weren't known yet.

This one's George Thompson, who was a 27 year old crewmember on Erebus.

This one's Charles Coombs, who was 28 years old and on Erebus.

Here's Thomas Tadman, another 28 year old Erebite. He's brown in homage to poor Tad the confused reindeer from Parry's arctic expedition.

Here's John Handford, a 28 year old AB on Terror.

Charles Johnson, a 28 year old from Terror who was the only known expedition member born in what would come to be called Canada - in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Here's Magnus Manson, the last of the 28 year old ABs on Terror - I made him bigger than the other ellies in homage to his character on the show, so he's next to Dr Goodsir's ellie (yellow) in this picture.

[hippocrafty]

The needle's in Jirv because that's why he's Jirv - he was originally John Bridgens then I started using him as my pincushion (and now Bridgens is a bluey-silvery fox because it fits him better)

Progress on HMS Terror 1845 crew photograph (represented via small knitted elephants)

I'm remaking them so I can keep them since the originals are going to a friend. So far I have (clockwise from left): Cpt Francis Crozier; 1st Liet. Edward Little, 2nd Lieut. George Hodgson; 3rd Lieut. John Irving; Icemaster Thomas Blanky (he has a wooden leg like in the show); 1st Mate Frederick Hornby; 2nd Mate Robert Thomas; 2nd Master Gillies McBean (with a crown); Surgeon John Peddie; Assistant Surgeon Alexander McDonald.

[hippocrafty]

This batch of Ellies are the 24 year old Able Seamen from HMS Terror & Erebus, 1845.

Samuel Crispe, from Terror

Robert Johns, from Ereb^s

William Mark, from Erebus

Francis Pocock, from Erebus. I wonder if he pronounced his name, as I would, Poke-ock, or perhaps another way - a suburb of my city is called Cockburn & people are resolute on saying it "Co-burn".

John Strickland, from Erebus.

John Bates, from Terror

William (or David, sources vary) Sims, from Terror.

[hippocrafty]

Progress on HMS Terror 1845 crew photograph (represented via small knitted elephants)

I'm remaking them so I can keep them since the originals are going to a friend. So far I have (clockwise from left): Cpt Francis Crozier; 1st Liet. Edward Little, 2nd Lieut. George Hodgson; 3rd Lieut. John Irving; Icemaster Thomas Blanky (he has a wooden leg like in the show); 1st Mate Frederick Hornby; 2nd Mate Robert Thomas; 2nd Master Gillies McBean (with a crown); Surgeon John Peddie; Assistant Surgeon Alexander McDonald.

[hippocrafty]

Today's ellies are my first group of ABs - the able seamen. They made up a big chunk of the crew, with Erebus having 20 of them and Terror having 19. They're in the crew lists in alphabetical order, but I wanted to do something different, to individualise them more. So I'm making them in age order.

This one's John Bailey, who at 21 in 1845 was the youngest member of the Terror crew besides the ship's boys, Mr Genge, the steward, who was also 21, and their sent-home sailmaker, Mr Elliot, who was 20.

This one's William Strong, a 22 year old (in 1845) on Terror. I think it's his birthday they're celebrating by cutting his hair in the show.

Here's Charles Best, a 23 year old on Erebus. He's the youngest AB (but the ship's boys and Charles de Voeux, as well as their sent-home armourer Thomas Burt) are younger than him.

Thomas Hartnell, on Erebus, was also 23.

George Cann, on Terror, was 23.

George Kinnaird was a 23 year old Terror AB.

Henry Sait, the last of the Terror 23 club. I made him white because I kept misreading & miswriting his name as SaLt. The document in the (UK) National Maritime Museum has a very clear dot above the i there, so I'm just silly.

In counting and listing my ellies, I figured out that I somehow forgot to make *both* of Terror's Mates - Mr Hornby, the first mate, and Mr Thomas, the second mate. So I fixed that too.

Frederick Hornby, Terror's first mate. He dies suddenly in the show on a walk back from Erebus and is remembered (by Blanky) as "a good mate - steady" and by Cpt Crozier as "light-on-his-feet". I really like the personal descriptions here from two people who would've worked very closely with him.

Here's Mr Robert Thomas, Terror's second Mate. His age isn't listed in the crew list (and wikipedia directs me to no other sources). Erebus's second mate, Charles de Voeux, was only 19 in 1845 so I wonder if Mr Thomas was also a young fella.

[hippocrafty]

Wait, they have Pickle night? But it's not because they pickled Nelson? I knew they put him in a cask of alcohol & that stories vary as to what alcohol it was...but Pickle Night, because the ship was HMS Pickle ? Amazing!

Terror Rewatch - episode 1, go for broke. This time what really caught my eye is this scene:

James Fitzjames is telling his chinese sniper story (again) and Edward Little pipes up with "like the shot that killed Nelson at Trafalgar".

We get Edward's face and Fitzjames's face but I would really like Franklin's face in this moment. I suspect Little doesn't know this (too young) or he knows vaguely about it but it hasn't sunk in: Cpt Sir John Franklin was *at* Trafalgar! He was on HMS Bellerophon and as a signals midshipman (he was 19 years old at the time) was who reported & relayed the famous "England expects every man to do his duty" signal. Bellerophon lost their Captain John Cooke to sniper fire that day, along with 27 others dead and 123 wounded, including Franklin's fellow middie, John Simmonds. It's not clear to me if Franklin watched his captain die (like Nelson, it wasn't instant) but it's almost certain he watched a lot of his close colleagues suffer and die that day.

Look, I don't like the fella, but I really wonder how painful a memory Trafalgar is for Cpt Franklin (I have heard sources suggest he joined the Discovery Service because he wanted to stay in the Navy but didn't want to fight/was a pacifist), and Ned Little just brings it up like it's nothing! For everyone else in this wardroom, Trafalgar is a glorious war-story for the Empire. For Franklin, it's the day he, as a dang 19 year old, watched *a lot* of people die, and it does seem to have affected his future life & choices (unfortunately, eschewing imperialism & all it stood for was not one he made). I'd've loved to see what Ciaran Hinds would bring to Franklin's face when Lieut Little makes that comment.

[hippocrafty]

#very essential knowledge!

Terror Rewatch - episode 1, go for broke. This time what really caught my eye is this scene:

James Fitzjames is telling his chinese sniper story (again) and Edward Little pipes up with "like the shot that killed Nelson at Trafalgar".

We get Edward's face and Fitzjames's face but I would really like Franklin's face in this moment. I suspect Little doesn't know this (too young) or he knows vaguely about it but it hasn't sunk in: Cpt Sir John Franklin was *at* Trafalgar! He was on HMS Bellerophon and as a signals midshipman (he was 19 years old at the time) was who reported & relayed the famous "England expects every man to do his duty" signal. Bellerophon lost their Captain John Cooke to sniper fire that day, along with 27 others dead and 123 wounded, including Franklin's fellow middie, John Simmonds. It's not clear to me if Franklin watched his captain die (like Nelson, it wasn't instant) but it's almost certain he watched a lot of his close colleagues suffer and die that day.

Look, I don't like the fella, but I really wonder how painful a memory Trafalgar is for Cpt Franklin (I have heard sources suggest he joined the Discovery Service because he wanted to stay in the Navy but didn't want to fight/was a pacifist), and Ned Little just brings it up like it's nothing! For everyone else in this wardroom, Trafalgar is a glorious war-story for the Empire. For Franklin, it's the day he, as a dang 19 year old, watched *a lot* of people die, and it does seem to have affected his future life & choices (unfortunately, eschewing imperialism & all it stood for was not one he made). I'd've loved to see what Ciaran Hinds would bring to Franklin's face when Lieut Little makes that comment.

[hippocrafty]

Terror Rewatch - episode 1, go for broke. This time what really caught my eye is this scene:

James Fitzjames is telling his chinese sniper story (again) and Edward Little pipes up with "like the shot that killed Nelson at Trafalgar".

We get Edward's face and Fitzjames's face but I would really like Franklin's face in this moment. I suspect Little doesn't know this (too young) or he knows vaguely about it but it hasn't sunk in: Cpt Sir John Franklin was *at* Trafalgar! He was on HMS Bellerophon and as a signals midshipman (he was 19 years old at the time) was who reported & relayed the famous "England expects every man to do his duty" signal. Bellerophon lost their Captain John Cooke to sniper fire that day, along with 27 others dead and 123 wounded, including Franklin's fellow middie, John Simmonds. It's not clear to me if Franklin watched his captain die (like Nelson, it wasn't instant) but it's almost certain he watched a lot of his close colleagues suffer and die that day.

Look, I don't like the fella, but I really wonder how painful a memory Trafalgar is for Cpt Franklin (I have heard sources suggest he joined the Discovery Service because he wanted to stay in the Navy but didn't want to fight/was a pacifist), and Ned Little just brings it up like it's nothing! For everyone else in this wardroom, Trafalgar is a glorious war-story for the Empire. For Franklin, it's the day he, as a dang 19 year old, watched *a lot* of people die, and it does seem to have affected his future life & choices (unfortunately, eschewing imperialism & all it stood for was not one he made). I'd've loved to see what Ciaran Hinds would bring to Franklin's face when Lieut Little makes that comment.