Source
r/AubreyMaturinSeries•
NealiG

Visualising the battle scenes?

Spoiler

(small spoiler if you haven't read HMS Surprise yet)

Hi, I'm loving the books, and only up to HMS Surprise.

I just read the fight between Admiral Linois and the Surprise supporting the Indiamen convoy... and the part later in which Jack relates the story to Canning and draws 'diagrams in oil of sesame on the table-top'.

I want to see those diagrams!

After three books, some googling, and relating the narrative to my own very limited sailing experience I am still having trouble picturing the action. I know this is part of it all.... and I am getting better at it (I'm on top of 'weather gauge' now!).

Any advice?

Has anyone made diagrams of the events?

(animations would be ideal!)

Does it just get easier?

I loved the part with Canning in that once Jack realises Canning has enough nous to understand what he's talking about he can easily explain every aspect of the engagement, every ship, every manoeuvre and reaction, even though he was in the middle of it all!

Posted Apr 25, 2022, 5:23 AM UTC

168
GiraffeThwockmorton•

You can try. As mentioned both in the notes in the link and in the Lubber's Hole podcast, the narrative, while exciting, doesn't exactly make sense. Bearings, wind direction, and sailing descriptions don't match.
POB, for all his evocative prose, was a lubber, and more like Stephen than Jack as a sailor.

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NealiGOP•

Ok yeah, that makes sense - it certainly had me in the action! ‘Suspension of disbelief’ for a great narrative!

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Theduckbytheoboe•

I found this analysis helpful:

https://web.mit.edu/hwebb/www/surprise.html

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NealiGOP•

Thanks so much! This is great! It helps a lot - I thought there must be something like this…

Do you think the author would mind if I animated some of it?

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Theduckbytheoboe•

I have no notion of it. But it seems like a damned odd thing to object to.

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TheMrBodo69•

It's been up since 1996. I wonder if the contacts are still with us?

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iancbradley•

The cannonade.net website has great mapping of the voyages and locations, but not necessarily at the level of each tack & broadside in the battles. The author still hangs out here, I think, as u/cannonade and he's truly a man of shining parts. He did mention (when interviewed for the Lubber's Hole) that he found some great resources about the battles in The Mauritius Command, but I can't remember what those resources would have been.

Dean King's book 'Harbors and High Seas' has some nice charts and diagrams as well.

Finally - I'm sure you know this - most of the battles, except for some of the cutting-out actions, are drawn directly from real life, and some in particular from the escapades of Thomas Cochrane. So if you can identify the names of the vessels and commanders involved, a little googling may well take you to descriptions of the actual battle drawn from logs and contemporary accounts.

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mudpilot•

I would love to be able to watch an animated depiction of the battles in the series. Even a real life actor moving model boats around on a navigation chart on a desk and describing the action would be interesting to me.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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