Tumgik
ltwilliammowett · 5 minutes
Text
Tumblr media
The Whelp of the 'Black Rover', by Bernard Finnigan Gribble (1872–1962)
6 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 13 hours
Text
Diving with an octopus! 😅🐙
999 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 13 hours
Video
66 | mess table & 32lbers – lower gundeck, HMS Victory
flickr
Mess table & 32pdr gun – lower gundeck, HMS Victory von Mark & Naomi Iliff
76 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 14 hours
Text
Tumblr media
U.S. Navy sailor resting on deck of USS Olympia, c. 1899. Photograph by Francis B. Johnston
He is "taking a caulk" which was Sailor slang since the 17th century for snatching what today would be called a power nap. Deck seams or caulks ran fore and aft, the same alignment sailors aspired to attain within their hammocks or upon some out-of-the- way deck. Had to be careful about that latter choice in hotter climates, however- softened pitch stained the well- known pattern of deck seams onto old Jack's clothes, proclaiming to all he'd been napping.
144 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 14 hours
Text
Tumblr media
Sea chest, 19th century
72 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 22 hours
Text
Tumblr media
Patch box, c. 1800
Oval patch box with a mirror inside the lid. The base and sides are enamelled royal blue. The lid has a blue border inscribed in gold 'Britannia rules the Waves'. In the centre, a ship in full sail is painted on a white background.
37 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 22 hours
Text
Tumblr media
This ship is the only wreck of a huge group of 45 wrecks, discovered off the Fourni archipelago near Samos, whose exposed wood has survived. It likely dates to the 18th or 19th century.
The first group were discovered in 2015. 22 wrecks dating from the 8th century BC to the 16th century AD had been found in just 13 days.
In a new diving campaign between 8 June and 2 July 2016, Greek and American scientists had investigated the seabed at Fourni to a depth of 65 metres. With the help of local fishermen and sponge divers from the island of Kalymnos, they found another 23 wrecks, covering a period from the Archaic era (700 to 480 BC) to the 19th century.
86 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 1 day
Photo
Tumblr media
Sea monsters, illuminated Persian manuscript, 13th century 
4K notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 1 day
Text
Tumblr media
Galatea & Sylph in company off Belle-Île, August 1796, by Derek G.M. Gardner (1914-2007)
87 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 1 day
Text
Tumblr media
A yacht approaches a storm front off Tasmania,2010 © Carlo Borlenghi (1956-)
212 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 2 days
Text
Tumblr media
Battle ship, by William Frederick Mitchell, about 1650
63 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 2 days
Text
Tumblr media
Sailing Ship at Sea, by Alfred Serenius Jensen, c.1910
89 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 2 days
Text
USS Constitution
Source
62 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 2 days
Text
Tumblr media
Boatswain's call said to have been used at the Battle of Trafalgar, c. 1805
It was formerly the property of James Martin who became 'Yeoman of sheets' in the 'Britannia' in 1803. He was appointed Boatswain's Mate in1804 and served at Trafalgar.
90 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 2 days
Text
On the account
A euphemism for piracy, on the account can be traced back to the early 17th century practice of letting merchant ship crewmen bring alone small amounts of goods to trade “on their own account” at the various ports the ship called at. Few sailors possessed the means to take advantage of the practice, however, and even those that could wer eventually forced to stop as cargo space reached a premium. Even after the custom had ceased, nautical humor kept the term alive as a reference to piracy.
303 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 2 days
Text
The Yellow Admiral
As we know, there are three colours for the admirals. Namely blue, white and red. The three ranks, Admiral, Vice Admiral and Rear Admiral, always share one colour. But now there was one more, and that was the Yellow Admiral, and that was not a rank to be proud of. It was a position every captain dreaded.
Namely, the Yellow Admiral was a post-captain who would be promoted to Rear Admiral upon retirement without ever having served in that rank.
The pressure to create “yellow admirals” arose after 1815, when the list of post captains was so long that the prospect of promotion was low. Under the promotion system in place at the time, any officer who had reached the rank of post captain was automatically promoted when his seniority brought him to the top of the list and a position on the flag list became available. To keep these lists moving, post captains whose seniority brought them to the top of the list were promoted to the rank of flag officer the following day and placed on the retired officers’ list so that they did not automatically fill up the list of rear admirals.
108 notes · View notes
ltwilliammowett · 2 days
Text
Dead cats don’t meow
This saying is attributed to Don Pedro Gilbert (1800-1835), who was former privateer in the service of the Colombian government. In early 1832, Gilbert began to raid American merchant ships off the east coast of Florida with his schooner, the Panda, since privateering was not paying him anything and he was now trying to do it illegally.
On 21 September 1832, off the coast of what is now Stuart, Florida, Gilbert chased then boarded the Mexican, an American brig bound from Salem to Rio de Janeiro carrying $20,000 in silver. Following the crew’s surrender, a crew member asked Gilbert what was to be done with their captives, to which the pirate captain reportedly remarked, “Dead cats don’t mew. You know what to do.”
Tumblr media
(x)
Locking the crew inside the forecastle, Gilbert’s crew ransacked the ship, looting the Mexican’s stores. Slashing the rigging and sails, the pirates filled the ship’s galley with combustibles and set the ship afire with the crew trapped inside. However, the crew managed to break out after an hour and eventually doused the fire, although they continued to let enough smoke billow until the pirates were out of sight. After six weeks at sea, the crew finally made it back to Salem, where they were able to report the incident.
Gilbert was eventually captured in West Africa two years later when his ship was sunk in a naval engagement with the British brig sloop HMS Curlew, commanded by Henry Dundas Trotter. Extradited to the United States, he was tried with three of his crew members in Boston, Massachusetts and executed on 11 June 1835.
125 notes · View notes