@andyfromwithin
Author, musician, actor and father currently doing MA Naval History. Love to talk about the Royal Navy in the Age of Sail and Exploration, and who was the best Mr. Darcy...Matthew Macfadyen, if you were wondering! 😉
Spent a very pleasant evening on Thursday touring the facilities at RNLI HQ in Poole. Very impressive. I worked there in 2005 and the place looks as fresh as it did 20 years ago.
The parallels are unavoidable: decide you're a military genius, ignore the advice of the experts in theatre, underestimate your enemy, issue conflicting orders, then blame the Admirals for the disasters that follow... 😉
My new piano composition is now up on my YouTube channel. A little different from my usual naval history posts, but I'd love it if you could check it out 😊
youtu.be/AOF49naRWQI
The timbers of the Swash Channel wreck, exposed by recent storms, have now been recovered by marine archaeologists from Bournemouth University. It's believed to be a Dutch merchant ship that ran aground in 1631.
www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/2587763...
#maritimehistory
And yes, I detest retrospective diagnosing. FitzRoy was bipolar, General Gordon was autistic...even Mr Darcy was "on the spectrum", for crying out loud!
Most authors I've read say F was deeply affected by his uncle's suicide, but in a letter on hearing the news he refers to Londonderry's family as separate to his own & says the loss to himself is patronage. He was a maternal uncle: F's mother died when he was 5 so one wonders how close they were.
The Gribbins explicitly state that while there's no evidence FitzRoy had mental health issues prior to the second Beagle voyage, his behaviour "in later life confirms that this must have been the case." There are so many bad arguments like that, I was hoping there's a fancy way of saying it.
Is there a name for when people argue, "because there's evidence FitzRoy was mentally ill years after the Beagle voyage, it must be the case that he was mentally ill BEFORE it as well"? Is that ex post facto? Appeal to probability? Retroactive? Or just a bad argument?
#navalhistory
#history
I had the same last week...thought I was double-S ("fs") but it was a p!
The recent storms have dug the timbers of a 17th Century Dutch merchant ship out of the seabed at Studland, Dorset. As it's fairly local, I'm trying to find a gap in my schedule to visit her.
#navalhistory
#maritimehistory
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
FitzRoy's passion came to the fore when he was appointment meteorologist aboard the hydrographic survey vessel HMS Beagle in 1826...Two years in and his captain, Pringle Stokes, had had enough. Gripped by depression, he shot himself - and FitzRoy, now a Lieutenant, was entrusted with command, aged just 23.
It bewilders me that respected maritime institutions can post such inaccuracies. Robert FitzRoy never set foot aboard HMS Beagle until appointed to command her in 1828, several months after Stokes died. He did not serve two years under Stokes as meteorologist! E-mail sent 😉
#navalhistory
#Darwin
I find that with FitzRoy, his handwriting changes depending on his mood. Without reading a word, you just need to glance at the page to know whether he's rested and content or stressed and annoyed.
I think it's: "I wish Mr Stuart saw the poor Portuguese recruits [??] who are actually destitute of covering of any kind & are dropping off by hundreds - upwards of 2000 out of four thousand are in the hospitals and the deaths amount to six or seven hundred in the last two months." FitzRoy is easy!
Yes, FitzRoy's handwriting is wonderfully legible. I was unfamiliar with the word ycleped, so looked it up. I imagine Stanbury was similarly unfamiliar with the word (it was used poetically to put on airs and graces, which is very typical of FitzRoy), but he could have reached for the dictionary.
One of FitzRoy's letters is transcribed by Stanbury as "troubled spirit and conscience." Reading it myself, he actually wrote "troubled spirit, ycleped conscience."
It turns out ycleped is a Middle English word meaning "named". Illustrates the importance of reading original sources.
#navalhistory
Visited the UK Hydrographic Office yesterday to read FitzRoy's letters to Beaufort. Definitely worth a visit if you're into surveying expeditions. The staff made me very welcome and dug out lots of extras, FitzRoy's original hand drawn chart of Galapagos being a highlight.
#navalhistory
Thanks. I once wrote a short story about the Battle of Attu. She said it was good, but that the US & Japan didn't fight in WWII because that was against Germany! To be fair, she was an English teacher so history's not her strong suit, but to be unaware of Pearl Harbor & Hiroshima is mind-blowing!
It's a book by a Christian author about irreducible complexity and intelligent design. She sent me one a few years ago that "proved" humans co-existed with dinosaurs.
Whereas my other aunt, yes, she sends me links to Substack...she is adamant the Covid vaccine is a WMD as it apparently kills cats 🤦
ME: My dissertation is about why Darwin was aboard the Beagle.
AUNT: So you're not questioning the theory of evolution then, which many scientists dispute?
ME: No, I'm doing Naval History...wait, what scientists?
AUNT: Let me send you the book I've been reading...
#navalhistory
Took me a while, but I finally got it! 😅
According to my dad, he actually said "kismet" 🤦
That's brilliant! I'm stealing that 😉
Loving the beard! 😅
ME: Nelson didn't wear an eye patch.
DAD: How do you know? Were you there?
ME: It doesn't appear in portraits, caricatures or statuary, nor is one mentioned in letters, diaries, newspapers, memoirs, ballads...
DAD: Were. You. There?
ME: No.
MY DAD: So you don't know.
ME: *Sigh*
#navalhistory
OTD in 1831, the weather was perfect for HMS Beagle to depart England and sail into history on her legendary second voyage. Unfortunately, much to Captain FitzRoy's chagrin, the crew were still drunk from the day before, so the opportunity was missed. The result? 134 lashes.
#navalhistory
Lethal Weapon too 😉
The FitzRoy letters are at Cambridge (Add.8853/1-52) & those from the Cambridge set/Darwin at the Darwin Correspondence Project online. Peacock asks Henslow to recommend a naturalist who "will be treated with every consideration" by FitzRoy; Henslow adds the word "companion" in his offer to Darwin.
To be fair, they're mostly historians of science rather than naval/maritime experts. Their focus is on how and when Darwin discovered evolution, so they rely on secondary sources and the same handful of letters to provide context for the Beagle expedition...the wrong context, as it happens!
In 1968, FitzRoy's biographer suggested he might have sought a scientist who could ALSP provide companionship. By 1975 this had snowballed into the idea Darwin was specifically invited to be FitzRoy's friend, with his scientific endeavours a means of keeping him occupied while FitzRoy was busy.
I also think they love the story. "Due to what happened to Stokes, FitzRoy brought an amateur scientist along as a friend, and by chance that led to the greatest discovery in the history of biology!" is better than "FitzRoy wanted a scientist aboard for what was, after all, a scientific expedition."