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AON

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Interestingly, Shag Rock is now a popular diving site:

 

Dive Site: Shag Rock

Location: Mountbatten, Plymouth Sound

Description: Reef

Depth: 16 metres (50 feet)

Visibility: 25 metres (82 feet)

Rating: ****

This reef can be reached by RIB from Fort Bovisand. The dive was done at the end of May with fantastic vis in gin clear water. The stony seabed is a mixture of green and purple pebbles with perfect seaweed gullies that could be straight from a fish tank. Marine life includes dogfish, rays, wrasse and crabs.

Jenny Pickles, BSAC Dive Leader

 

 

Be sure to sign up for an epic Nelson/Trafalgar project if you would like to see it made into a TV series  http://trafalgar.tv

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Could they possibly be attempting to confuse the enemy... in this case the Americans.

There are three stories.  Ignore the short middle one.

The true story is ... well, both of them.

It appears the Admiral couldn't make up his mind, plus, this story appeared in a British India paper, so by the time they printed it, it was old news.

Madras Courier - August 1813.JPG

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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War of 1812 (1812 - 1815) between the USA and Great Britain fought in North America and the North Atlantic.

Here is a report from Lake Erie - 1813

Public Ledger - Dec 1813.JPG

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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We will never see such a sight again - 1813

Sun (London) - Sept 1813.JPG

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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We will never see such a sight again - 1813

Star (London) - Feb 1813.JPG

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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and... what an idiot.. 1813

Star (London) - Mar 1813.JPG

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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The number of sailors that could not swim was absolutely amazing. - 1814

Did he not hold on to the horse (safety lines)?

 

Public Ledger - April 1814.JPG

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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Until extremely recently most seamen couldn't swim.  In the days of sail the ability to swim was considered by some seamen to be a disadvantage as there was very little chance of being picked up if you fell overbouard and it was thought that if you couldn't swim you'd drown quicker and get it over with.

 

The storekeeper on my first ship was a Pommie seaman who couldn't swim a stoke.  He said that as he had been torpedoed and sunk three times during the Battle of the Atlantic and survived he couldn't see the point!  One of his favourite sayings was, "I went to sea to go on it, not to be in the b****y stuff"!

 

John

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I hear a new verse in my head to 'What do you so with a drunken sailor?'

 

When I took my PL course the first thing they made us do a 6 AM was jump off the jetty, be it high or low tide, didn't matter.  And I can attest to the fact that looking down was worse than looking up (for me).  Then they made sure we could tread water for a minimum of 30 minutes.  And they didn't care that the water was damn cold or that the boats officer had a photo of a 15 foot shark they'd caught off that jetty hanging on his wall.  Then they taught us to make a flotation device from our trousers to buy us more time.  

 

Of course that only counts in a day and age where ships can turn on a dime in most weather conditions, otherwise I suppose, you are fish food.  I've read enough 200 year old publications now to know swim or not, your chances back then were from not good to really. really bad..

Edited by AON

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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Oh, what to do with all this surplus stuff?  - 1814

Caledonian Mercury - Jan 1815.JPG

Edited by AON

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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And this is one mans story of what happened...  - 1815

Chester Courant - August 1815 (1).JPG

Chester Courant - August 1815 (2).JPG

Chester Courant - August 1815 (3).JPG

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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LASHES THROUGH THE FLEET: A form of punishment in the old days of the British Navy for the more serious crimes committed on board. It could be awarded only by sentence of a court martial. The man undergoing sentence was placed in a boat in which a ship's grating had been lashed upright across the thwarts, and rowed alongside each ship lying in harbour. While bound to the grating he was given twelve strokes with a cat-o'-nine-tails by a boatswain's mate of the ship off which the boat was lying. After each infliction of a dozen strokes a blanket was thrown across his back while he was being rowed to the next ship, and it was usually necessary to ‘comb the cat’. A naval doctor was always in attendance in the boat to make certain that the man undergoing punishment was fit to receive further instalments of his sentence as he came alongside each ship. In each ship visited the crew were mustered on deck and in the rigging to witness the punishment, drums on board beating out the ‘Rogue's March’ as the boat approached.

Hampshire Chronicle - May 1815.JPG

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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The war with the USA end a mere twelve days later on the 18th - post dated 6 Feb 1815

Hampshire Chronicle - Feb 1815.JPG

Edited by AON

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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Thank goodness he didn't decide to go down with the ship  - 1815

Hampshire Chronicle - April 1815.JPG

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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and... wars are over. So do what ever you want, the Admiralty needs a break  - 1815

Northampton Mercury - Sept 1815.JPG

Edited by AON

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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and time moved on... progress in 1815 with steam boats

Salisbury + Winchester Journal - Jan 1815.JPG

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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Well, no one bothered to draw, hang and quarter me over the fox story.... so, before I disappear for a few days due to another eye injection, I will leave you with this story of a 'leader of men' going out on his terms - August 1815, France, after Napoleon surrendered.

Statesman (London) - Aug 1815.JPG

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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  • 2 weeks later...

To all that have been enjoying these posts, I have run out of papers to review.  I hope others might add to this topic and keep it going.

 

After about 3 years of working on this project, I have completed my collection of posts pertaining to the first HMS Bellerophon, her crew, the builder, and her time as a convict hulk (re-named Captivity).  156 pages, 520 items, 84 different papers from 1731 to 1836.  Through calls at various ports, weather, court martials, the Haitian Revolution, battles (Retreat of Cornwallis, Trafalgar, Nile), providing protection off Newfoundland (where I am certain my ancestors saw her), the capture of Napoleon, escape of convicts, attempted murder of the captain, including the builders marriage, bankruptcy and death.  Even the false reference to an earlier bomb ketch.

 

Give me any date and I can tell you what she was doing!

 

It was quite a ride for me and will become book 2 of 3 accompanying my build.

Now it needs to be reviewed and corrections made.

Alan O'Neill
"only dead fish go with the flow"   :dancetl6:

Ongoing Build (31 Dec 2013) - HMS BELLEROPHON (1786), POF scratch build, scale 1:64, 74 gun 3rd rate Man of War, Arrogant Class

Member of the Model Shipwrights of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (2016), and the Nautical Research Guild (since 2014)

Associate member of the Nautical Research and Model Ship Society (2021)

Offshore member of The Society of Model Shipwrights (2021)

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1 hour ago, AON said:

To all that have been enjoying these posts, I have run out of papers to review.  I hope others might add to this topic and keep it going.

It has been an entertaining show and I am sure others have enjoyed it as much as I have. 

Add to the topic? I would never assume anything I stumble across is 'news' to you so … tell us what you are still looking for. 

Thanks, 

Bruce

🌻

STAY SAFE

 

A model shipwright and an amateur historian are heads & tails of the same coin

current builds:

HMS Berwick 1775, 1/192 scratchbuild; a Slade 74 in the Navy Board style

Mediator sloop, 1/48 - an 18th century transport scratchbuild 

French longboat - CAF - 1/48, on hold

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It has been an interesting ride, Alan.  I'm slowly reading your volume 1 and am looking forward to volume 2.  There's a lot of insight to the times in those articles.

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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