Random Naval News

[anteros_lmc]

From the web this week...

HMS Victory Restoration

As part of the restoration of HMS Victory Portsmouth Historic Dockyard has posted some fascinating time lapse footage of the ship's mast and yards being removed. They posted this one of the mizzen top mast being removed this week but there are several others including fascinating and dizzying footage of the fore topsail yard being removed, from above! Also this one of the top gallant and topsail yard removal is really quite beautiful.

You can see all the videos on the Historic Dockyards youtube channel here.

The Joy of Jackspeak

Meanwhile over on BBC Radio 4 the Today Programme featured an article on jackspeak, or naval slang. The appropriately named Captain Jolly, a former Surgeon Captain in the Royal Navy, has published a book, Jackspeak: A Guide to British Naval Slang & Usage, which features 4000 examples, collected over 40 years of service. Most of the examples mentioned in the Today Programme article are modern but there are one or two that show their age.

Naval Leadership in the Age of Sail (1750 -1840)

Anyone in Portsmouth at the beginning of December? If so the National Museum of the Royal Navy, along with a range of eminent international sponsors, including the La Sorbonne et Musée national de la Marine and The Gunroom, HMS Surprise, are running a two day conference on Naval Leadership in the Age of Sail (1750 -1840). I'm not entirely sure of the exact date NMRN says 2nd / 3rd December and The Gunroom says 3rd / 4th. Blurb as follows:

From the mid-18th century, the Atlantic Empires engaged in a global struggle which saw the decline of the Spanish Navy, the affect of revolution upon the French Navy, and the rise to hegemony of the British Navy.

The international directors and national organisers of the current programme propose to investigate naval leadership in 1750-1840, during the transition from the Old Regime to the Liberal State in Europe, in a context of changing human values in the years between the ages of Enlightenment and of Liberalism, and the concomitant change from gentlemen's war to total war and wars of annihilation in modern times.

The aim of the conference series is to compare and draw lessons from a study of distinguished leaders in naval politics, administration, and the command of fleets in the period 1750 to 1840, leading to analysis of the immutable traits of leadership which can be inculcated in rising leaders in all fields of endeavour for today and tomorrow.

A full programme is available here here.

Naval Redundancies

And in the real world, more than 1,000 Royal Navy personnel were made redundant as part of a first round of military job cuts. In a BBC interview Prof Michael Clarke, Royal United Services Institute, commented that the public expects the military and the navy to be there, but it never wants to pay for them. Plus ça change....

Comments

[vespican.livejournal.com]

Oh, such interesting stuff here. The sort of stuff that I'm interested in. Hope that the book on Jackspeak will be available in the US. I think there are a couple of similar volumes out and available through the USS Constitution Museum.
From some of the examples listed, I think some of the slang crosses between the RN and the USN. And it does change over time. Much of what I remember from my career was different from the time my Dad served. It may also be related to the areas in which one works. I was in naval aviation, while dad was in landing craft as a mechanic.
Dave

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Glad you found this interesting!

I think some of the slang crosses between the RN and the USN
I would expect there to be quite a lot of cross over but it would be interesting to know where they matcha and where they differ.

Much of what I remember from my career was different from the time my Dad served.
You should write down what you can remember! Particularly if you can also remember phrases used by your dad. It's so easy for language like this to get lost because people assume it's of little importance. Write it down while you can :)