Bought this in Mauritius. Remembering my RAF experiences in Singapore I made a discounted offer but it seems haggling is no longer traditional when buying things in the Orient. The young lad looked worried and had to telephone his boss before my offer was accepted.Where he did show confidence was in wrapping up the thing (surely a degree-level task) enabling me to bring the package home without damage.
The model is HMS Superb, a British 74-gun third rate, which played a significant role during the Napoleonic wars. At Trafalgar Superb was so damaged by storms cables were passed round the hull to keep the vessel together. Nelson paid tribute to the commander: "My dear Keats, be assured I know and feel that the Superb does all which is possible for a ship to accomplish".
Another example of degree-level wrapping and an excellent example of the Navy’s ability to improvise.
2 comments:
Something in the murky dark recesses of memory makes me think that that Keats was a relative of the poet? Or perhaps I'm imagining that?
Son of the poet? It would have been a nice connection. But Capt. (later Admiral) Richard Goodwin Keats was born the son of the Rev. R. Keats, rector of Bideford, in 1757, while John ("the owl for all his feathers...") Keats was born in 1795. However the net is nothing if not symbiotic. In checking this I discovered that Keats' most successful naval action, Algeciras, is indirectly reported in one of the O'Brien novels (from which I got my pseudonym) with the co-hero, Jack Aubrey, observing it as a prisoner on a French man o'war. Thanks for that, Lucy.
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