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#gun salutes
ltwilliammowett · 1 year
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Expensive signals
During the 17th century the giving of salutes by warships became so excessive and wasted so much gunpowder that it placed a real financial burden on the England of Charles II. Ridiculous as it may seem the gunners resorted to their weapons every time every time anyone went ashore, and if it should be a lady the sailors would fire 7 guns and play a tune on the drums. In 1675 a merchant ship in the Thames failed to give an adequate salute to a man o'war, whereupon the warship fired a shot at her to make her stop and apologize. On this occasion, the gunner went aboard and fined the merchant captain six schillings and six pence for the cost of the powder.
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British Man o'war with other shipping at anchor, by John Thomas Serres (1759–1825) (x)
The matter of wasting powder was raised in the House of Commons. Apparently East Indianmen meeting English warships in the Channel had to salute with 7 guns, while the man o'war replied with 5. At Plymouth Castle each man o'war saluted with 9 guns, the castle replied with the same and then the warship fired 3 more to express its thanks. And so it went on.
An English Captain named Holden, invited to dinner on one of the ships he was escorting to Tangier, was given a 5 gun salute when he left her, to which he replied with 3, apparently on the basis that between Englishmen the vote of thanks required two guns less. But with foreigners the English insisted on having a reply to a salute with the same number of guns. When one Venetian ship saluted an English vessel with 11 guns, she was snubbed with a reply of just 5. On the King's birthday every ship in the fleet - and there were hundreds, large and small - fired 13 guns. When one British admiral entered Malta the Knights of St. Johns gave him a 45 gun salute, lasting two hours. Every English ship then replied with 21.
On the St. George's Day, after the King's health had been drunk, every ship in the fleet fired 25 rounds. And if a ship's captain should die his gunners might fire anything between 40 and 100 rounds. It was an expensive folly which imposed an unnecessary burden on the fragile economy of the Stuart state- but it must have been fun. Unfortunately, this fun was curtailed in the course of the 18th century.
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sforzesco · 8 months
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something. about. the horror of being sent on an impossible (death) quest and obligations and hospitality politics. the trauma of not having a home, and then the trauma of being in a house that becomes actively hostile to you, one that would swallow you whole and spit out your bones if you step out of line. all of this is conditional, your existence continues to be something men want gone.
it's about going back as far as I can with the perseus narrative because there's always a version of a myth that exists behind the one that survives. the missing pieces are clearly defined, but the oldest recorded version of it isn't there! and there's probably something older before that!! but it's doomed to forever be an unfilled space, clearly defined by an outline of something that was there and continues to be there in it's absence.
and love. it's also about love. even when you had nothing, you had love.
on the opposite side of the spectrum, this is Not About Ovid Or Roman-Renaissance Reception, Depictions And Discourses On The Perseus Narrative.
edit: to add to the above, while it's not about Ovid, because I'm specifically trying to peel things back to the oldest version of this story, Ovid is fine. alterations on the Perseus myth that give more attention Medusa predate Ovid by several centuries. this comic is also not about those, either! there are many versions of this story from the ancient world. there is not one singular True or Better version, they're all saying something.
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Perseus, Daniel Ogden
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Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation, edited & translated by Stephen M Trzaskoma, R. Scott Smith, Stephen Brunet
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velkavelkavelka · 6 months
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Silly gijinka doodle based off an absolutely awful gun image. Be nice to her, it's not her fault she looks like that :(
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The heavens opened for today's gun salute! ☔️
Watch the HAC Regiment fire a 62-round gun salute at the Tower of London for His Majesty The King's Birthday. 👑🎉
14 November 2023
The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is the oldest regiment in the British Army with a long history of tradition and excellence.
HAC soldiers take great pride in their ability to switch quickly and seamlessly between serving their country on operations and performing ceremonial duties in the City of London.
The HAC is the Army Reserve’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Regiment.
It exists to support the Regular Army on operations.
We work closely and train with our two paired regiments — 5th Regiment Royal Artillery and 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery.
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roomavtic · 8 months
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But imagine...
Maverick is sitting alone at the bar, looking blankly at "Hemlock", murmuring to himself, with zero energy...:
"I need the need..."
"The need for speed," is completed by a whisper, an unexpected one, with the same zero energy; Maverick lifts his eyes, only to see Iceman.
Maverick can't decide on which one to be more surprised...: the fact that they were literally able to exchange whispers, or the fact that he found Ice, with eyes full of water, yet smiling bitterly.
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dykecostanza · 5 months
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taking this off my airbnb fridge with the solemnity of a ww2 veteran folding a flag
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thekenobee · 9 months
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~Stephen Maturin
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chaosinstigator · 2 years
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Bradley calling Jake sweetheart is something that can be so personal
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LMAO
Stephen's acute gaydar and classical learning vs. Jack's notable lack of either of those things but knowledge of astronomy: fight
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chiropteracupola · 5 months
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thinkin about the imaginary timeline where antonia sharpe and fanny and charlotte aubrey are friends again...
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ask-sebastian · 8 months
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croszukis · 25 days
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just realized i’m watching **** fans go through anticipatory grief
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Okay but handshakes are such a formal thing, you don’t really go out and do that on a day-to-day basis, you’re really only doing that when you’re introducing yourself in a formal situation, do Vulcans know that? Do they know that something they see as personal is seen as businesslike on earth?
Also, I want them to interact with more humans outside of Starfleet, mentally preparing themselves for handshakes, just to realize they are not actually that common
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the-dog-watch · 10 months
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The Thirteen-Gun Salute
me: i am fundamentally opposed to the british empire and all forms of colonialism and imperialism. history is a record of their atrocities.
my therapist: that's fair
me: but i love it when god's chosen captain jack aubrey is restored to the navy list and reclaims his sword so ere long he may draw it once more in the honorable defense of his country.
my therapist: who doesn't?
(once again, apologies to the OP)
Patrick O'Brian loves to repeat character-types throughout the Aubrey/Maturin series. For example, the  beautiful, fashionable lady spies who end up embroiled in Stephen’s intelligence work, characters  like Mrs. Wogan in Desolation Island or Mrs. Fielding in Treason's Harbour. Enjoyable in their way (personally I have a lot of fondness for Mrs. Fielding’s failed seduction in The Ionian Mission) but I never find myself that interested in them on their own, or at least not as interested in them as I am in the original; they’re all pale shades of Diana. They might be fancy and beautiful and high class but they lack her ineffable quality of being a messy bitch.
If Diana is the red-blooded progenitor of the Beautiful Lady Spy archetype, then Stephen is the progenitor of another recurring character type: the Bisexual Man with Mental Health problems, another iteration of which is Lord Clonfert from The Mauritius Command, who was the most interesting part of what I personally find to be the weakest, most insubstantial of the books. In Jo Walton’s reading guide, which I’ve been using a little bit, one of the commenters pointed out that the dipsomaniac doctor McAdams and Lord Clonfert are "dark reflections" of Stephen and Jack, an idea I find fascinating. Mirror universe Aubrey and Maturin...spooky!
But anyway, I bring this up because Andrew Wray is yet another iteration of the Bisexual Man with Mental Health Problems, certainly a more destructive and a much more functional antagonist than Clonfert ever was. I really liked the dissection scene; in her review Jo Walton said she found it so gruesome she almost "didn't want to know Stephen anymore;" no disrespect to her but some of us are built different. This is one of my favorite Stephen Maturin crazy ass moments of all time, up there with self-surgery in HMS Surprise and that time he stocked up on too many stimulants in Sweden and accidentally turned all the ship's rats into coke fiends.
But, sadly, overall the messy gay drama with Wray and Ledward (WHO THE FUCK EVEN WAS LEDWARD did we ever even see him speak????) was a little too understated, even for me. Obviously I didn't expect Stephen or Jack to get revenge on them in the traditional way, but something a little more definite than Jack getting pissy at a dinner after the fact could have done the trick, I think.
The dissatisfaction I feel with it is what brings me back to Clonfert; the actual plot of The Mauritius Command feels very remote and inert to me, and Clonfert is the most vivid part. Jack is so basically above him in all ways (or so Stephen describes it) that Clonfert completely destroys himself out of his neuroses and Jack is shielded by Stephen from ever even knowing about or being hurt by it. It was similarly anticlimactic but there was an element of tragedy and pathos to it, and Stephen’s shielding Jack from the disturbing truth has an echo in Stephen’s own inability to fully open up to Jack about Diana, Stephen's inability to open up about pretty much everything.
Thankfully, this book has way more going for it than The Mauritius Command. I like the rhythm and episodic nature of these latter books much more than TMC's rigid retelling of a historical naval campaign. Stephen re-living some of his revolutionary past with the United Irishmen, and re-living some of the divided loyalties poor James Dillon (may he rest in pieces) felt in the first novel was a welcome call back, the Kumai trip was generally wonderful, I was pretty happy about Jack's ultimate ambivalence about being reinstated in the Navy again, and I LOVE the Stephen Maturin Strikes It Rich storyline (more on that next time I think; I do think it's very funny that when it comes to money, neither Stephen nor Jack is 'the smart one.')
I got to really love the Diane, and this is the first time we’ve had a genuine shipwreck; as exciting as that was, it was genuinely heartbreaking to lose her. RIP Diane but I’m already well into the next book and in love with my new girl (Nutmeg of Consolation, you will always be famous. 😭)
Personal Ranking
The Far Side of the World (10) > HMS Surprise (3) > Desolation Island (5) > The Reverse of the Medal (11) > The Ionian Mission (8) > The Fortune of War (6) > Master & Commander (1) > The Surgeon’s Mate (7) > Treason's Harbour (9) > The Letter of Marque (12) > The Thirteen-Gun Salute (13) > Post Captain (2) > The Mauritius Command (4)
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corpiote · 9 months
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I have never reached 280 in collection events so even tho I'm really tempted to try 😪🤧 ik in my heart I'll just save the photo in my gallery
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thekenobee · 8 months
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Screaming
CRying
BEING RESTORED TO THE LIST
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