Anteros

(I'm just about getting in under the wire here...)

Sir Edward is here to serenade you on your birthday. I hope you'll be as impressed with his fine rendition of "Happy Birthday" as Lieutenant Eccleston is!

♩♩♬ Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear nodbear, Happy Birthday to you! ♪ ♫

Some time ago marine_lapwing asked if she could arrange for some of my fics to be translated into Russian for Fandom Kombat. At the time I was rather astonished that anyone would want to go to the bother of translating anything I'd written, but I was more than happy to donate some fics.

I'd forgotten all about this until earlier this evening when I got a very unexpected message from Ms Lapwing with links to the translations and the Fandom Kombat forum, along with some lovely, lovely comments from the Russian fans. So I'd just like to say huge thanks to marine_lapwing, shepet, the translators and betas who took the time to make these stories available to Russian readers. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Hornblower fans are just the best!

I can only apologise for my own woeful language skills, but Google translate tells me that the appropriate thing to say is

Большое спасибо!

Posting Duchess and the Devil screencaps over at following_sea reminded me of something else I've been meaning to post for ages. I've always been curious about Pellew's reaction to Hornblower's captivity and escape, and the utterly improbable reappearance of Archie several years after he'd presumably been given up for dead. How would he have responded to their absence and return? Alas the series gives us very little indication.

Several of the Indefatigable's historical midshipmen did actually get captured by the French while crewing prizes, though mercifully all where swiftly exchanged or managed to escape and return to their ship. We can only imagine what Pellew must have felt on learning that they had been captured, but one of their fellow midshipmen, Nicholas Pateshall, lamented their fate in a letter to his brother:

The most valuable of our prizes which I mentioned in my last was retaken by a French privateer within 5 miles of Falmouth in which I lost a worthy messmate and two other midshipmen.

There is one letter from Pellew however, written in direct response to a former prisoner of war, Donat Henchy O'Brien. O'Brien was captured while serving as a master's mate aboard the Hussar frigate, which was wrecked off the Saints in 1803, while carrying despatches from Pellew. Thus began five years of imprisonment at Charlemont, Verdun and the notorious citadelle of Bitche. O'Brien was not a man to be contained though, he managed to escape, or in his own words “went on the tramp”, three times and during his second failed solitary attempt survived a gruelling month on the run along the banks of the Rhine in the depth of winter. O’Brian finally got away with three companions after descending the ramparts of Bitche and walking half the length of Europe from Lorraine to Trieste. After the war, O'Brian wrote an account of his experiences called My Adventures During The Late War: An account of his shipwreck, captivity, and escape from France, after undergoing a series of sufferings which lasted for nearly five years. Following publication, O'Brien sent a copy of his narrative to Pellew who responded with the following letter.

London, 14th May, 1825
My Dear Sir

I found on my table, on my return home, your kind note and your Narrative. I feel very much obliged to you for both, but particularly for the latter, which I shall preserve well bound, that my grandchildren may read and admire your manly and unconquerable spirit,—your indefatigable zeal and perseverance; giving a noble example to their young minds of what a British officer can do for the honour of his country and his own.

Accept my sincere and cordial thanks, and believe me, my very sincere good wishes will ever attend you.

I have the honour to be,
      My dear Sir,

Most faithfully and much yours,
Exmouth.

I love the fact that Pellew refers to O'Brian's "indefatigable zeal" and I like to think that he would have responded to Archie's attempts to escape in similar terms.

Title: The Fortunate Few
Author: Anteros
Characters: Archie Kennedy, Horatio Hornblower
Rating: G
Notes: This was inspired by nodbear's "The Day Before" challenge fic To be an Indefatigable. This time it's written from Horatio and Archie's perspective.

( The contingent for the Arethusa had left the previous day and those for the Indefatigable were to leave the following morning. )

Title: Paid in Full
Author: Anteros
Characters: Hornblower, Pellew, Kennedy
Rating: G
Notes: Just a bit of gap filling towards the end of The Duchess and the Devil. Hornblower's perspective on his improbable return and subsequent departure from the Indefatigable. More to follow.

( Hornblower faced the captain with a sinking feeling )

Title: Lord Exmouth's Commission: Remembrance, 1817
Author: Anteros
Characters: John Thomas Serres, Lord Exmouth, (Archie Kennedy).
Rating: R
Notes: John completes Lord Exmouth's commission.

( Remembrance, 1817 )

Title: Lord Exmouth's Commission: HMS Indefatigable, Channel Fleet, Brest Roads, 1798
Author: Anteros
Characters: John Thomas Serres, Sir Edward Pellew, John Thompson, Joseph Emidy, Archie Kennedy, Horatio Hornblower
Rating: R
Notes: Part two of five, which tells of JT Serres time aboard the Indefatigable and Sir Edward Pellew's "promotion" to the ship of the lineImpetueux, 74.

( HMS Indefatigable, Channel Fleet, Brest Roads, 1798 )

So, nodbear and I set out to write a problem page for Navy Boys. Think of the opportunities for smut and innuendo!! Bad move. Neither of us read glossy mags and the smut fairies deserted us in disgust. The resulting problem pages appears to be more appropriate for a gentleman's magazine than for Navy Boys. *hangs head in shame* Still, we hope the editor will bear with us....

(With profuse apologies to William Shakespeare, John Donne, Herman Melville, CS Forester, Sir Edward Pellew, Captain Philemon Pownoll and poor old Corporal Robinson who really was disrated from the Indefatigable's muster books in 1797.)

( Uncle Philemon's Mailbag )