Three AoS stories from the BBC

[anteros_lmc]

BBC news seem to have recruited an AoS fangirl/boy to their online editorial team. There have been no less than three AoS related news items this week!

The wreck that revealed the Mary Rose

On Monday there was an article about the loss of HMS Royal George and how the wreck led to the discovery of the remains of the Mary Rose. The first rate Royal George, 100, Captain Henry Cromwell, sank off Spithead in 1872 while she was heeled over to unblock a lower deck pump. The tragedy resulted in the loss of over a thousand lives including hundreds of women and children who were visiting the seamen in port. The Royal George was also the flagship of Vice Admiral Kempenfelt who perished after becoming trapped in his cabin as the ship heeled and sank. It was during attempts to salvage the Royal George in 1834 that cannons from the Mary Rose were founds and the site of the earlier wreck located.



Prison ship records from 19th Century published

Then later in the week the website re-posted an article from 2010 on the records of 19th century prison hulks being made available through the National Archives ancestry.co.uk portal. The article includes brief snippets on the lives and fates of various prisoners and adds that the Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books 1802-1849 include character reports on prisoners written by the gaoler.



Franklin expedition: Will we ever know what happened?

And finally today there is a feature in the News Magazine about Parks Canada's latest unsuccessful attempts to locate the remains of the Franklin expedition and the lost ships Erebus and Terror.

The broad and punishing size of the search area dwarfs the high-tech equipment and meticulous research used by the Parks Canada team, and the other explorers before them.

The fate of the ships inspired artwork, music and literature, including this sketch by Owen Stanley
"Both of the ships were caught in the ice for two years but slowly drifting south in a very large body of water," says Marc-Andre Bernier, chief of underwater archaeology services at Parks Canada.

That could mean that the ships are hundreds of miles apart. "For us, it's just as important to know where they're not," he says, so that future searches can start fresh.

Comments

[vsee.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the update. The story about the Franklin expedition is also really relevant to Due South fans, since an interest in and a search for the fate of the Franklin expedition is part of the show.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome indeed! Glad this was of interest. I've never seen Due South interesting that the fate of Franklin features, is that a long running theme?

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

there are so many =- thousands literally proabably of untold stories in those prison records alone ...

thanks for posting these.

editing just to say have been browsing hulk registers from those ships - one of them was a ship called Retribution by the way -

and found the a prisoner whom I knew- or at least strongly hoped - would be there who wsa the focus of an earlier investigative project which culminated in my co writing and co appearing in a show aboout a particular descendent of his in Edinburgh ( no = not at the fringe of the fringe even though ir was fun - )

so thank you for reviving a happy memory
character comments were certainly normal in land based gaols at this time so it is presumably am extension of that.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

How about that?! Fascinating!

One of these days I would be very curious to get my hands on the Transport Board records for some of the POWs I've been reading about like Boys, O'Brien, Whitehurst, Hewson and Jackson.

[vsee.livejournal.com]

OK, it's hard to explain Due South to someone who hasn't ever seen it, because no matter the approach I take, I can't do it justice. Due South was a family friendly comedy and it often took a very silly approach to things. Some people tried to dignify it with labels like "magical realism" but mostly it was just somewhere between silly and totally absurd. But the show also had a big heart and centered on a buddy-cop show thing that won over many slashers for many years. There were actually two almost separate runs of the show, with the same main character, but with two different close male friends to the lead, and both of them have been slashed with him, as well as with each other. I was much more a fan of the second half of the show.

Due South is supposed to be a kind of fish out of water comedy about a Mountie who has to move to Chicago for a few years. He works part time at the Canadian Consulate, but then he also works as a consultant with the Chicago police. A lot of the admittedly dorky humor on the show is centered around silly jokes about the differences between Canadians and Americans. So every ridiculous stereotype of Canada is thrown out there at one time or another, and every little thing that smacks of Canadian pride or nationalism. And it's done with varying levels of irony, I guess. The main character, Fraser, walks around in some or all of a Mountie uniform for four seasons, in the city of Chicago. He is followed around by a white half-wolf named Diefenbaker. He's incredibly polite and obsessed with rules and procedure. On the surface the show was nothing but silly gimmicks, but many people, including me found the characters to have depth and subversive charm, once you started poking at them. Also, the chemistry was just too great to ignore. The universe was great fun and the fandom was one of the best places I've ever been...creative and tremendously fun and supportive for many years.

OK, so to explain the Franklin Expedition connection, I kind of have to spoil a bit of the end of the show. As you might imagine, at the end of the show, the problems that kept Fraser out of Canada for four years are finally getting resolved, and he's trying to decide how to go back to Canada (and if you ask a slasher of my inclinations, IF he even wants to go back). Because of course, even though his heart is still really into going back to the far northwest/arctic where he grew up, he has built a really nice life in Chicago. He's reunited with BOTH of his partners, and has a lot of reasons to stay, but it's clear that he has to make the decision to leave.

His second partner (who is madly in love with him, IMO) doesn't want him to go, and follows him up to Canada and ends up through ridiculous misadventure, trekking around with him. During this adventure, he asks if when they survive this if they can go on a real, planned adventure together. What they eventually chose is to try to track down the Franklin Expedition, which I think is just another check box on the list of Stereotypical Canadian Obsessions. But it becomes a BIG thing, because this is his partner's desperate attempt to hold on to him and stay in his life. So the Franklin adventure becomes a focal point in slash. At the very end of the show, we are shown the two of them outfitted for an arctic expedition heading off into the sunrise together, the best slashy ending I've ever seen.

[vsee.livejournal.com]

Sorry, this didn't thread back to the correct comment. LJ hiccup, I guess.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Ooh thanks for taking the time to introduce your fandom to me :) Greatly appreciated! I'm not much of a tv watcher but I have googled and I can certainly see the slashy potential and it sounds like it has a great fandom. And what an ending! Wow!

What they eventually chose is to try to track down the Franklin Expedition, which I think is just another check box on the list of Stereotypical Canadian Obsessions.
The fate of the Franklin Expedition still surfaces here in the UK from time to time so I can appreciate the Canadian obsession. Also in Scotland, and Orkney in particular, there has been an ongoing campaign to recognise the really contribution of John Rae to arctic exploration and have him formally credited with discovering the North West Passage.