01. Master and Commander
Month: June 2010
02. Post Captain
03.25.1802 – 05.18.1803: The Peace of Amiens
The Aubreyad Press Gang has just begun its group read of Post Captain, and in honor of this momentous event there will be a spate of Post Captain related articles appearing over the next week or so! The […]
The History
The Great Guns: Weaponry in Aubrey’s Royal Navy
Until the time of cannons, warfare at sea utilized many of the same weapons that were used on land. Archers would stand on the deck and fire a storm of arrows at the opposing ship. […]
Just For Fun
Captain Bligh: A “Historical Villain Who Was Actually An Okay Guy”
When Cracked.com published a list of 6 Historical Villains Who Were Actually OK Guys, Captain Bligh came in at #2. I’m sharing because I love Cracked and the entry about him is both informative and hilarious. Also full […]
Events
The Bounty Adventure Pt. 6/6: Home Again
Text from Mutiny and Romance in the South Seas: A Companion to the Bounty Adventure by Sven Wahlroos. Bligh and his seventeen loyalists were safely inside Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Reading Bligh’s account of the open-boat voyage […]
01. Master and Commander
Master and Commander Discussion Questions Ch. 12
Upon first starting this website I also started something I called The Aubreyad Press Gang to do a group read of the series. We got through the first and second novels before the project fell […]
Actions and Skirmishes
10.20.1827 The End of the Age of Sail
If the Age of Sail has a specific expiration date, October 20th, 1827 is it. This is when the Battle of Navarino, the last battle ever to be fought entirely between sailing vessels, occurred. After […]
Life and Duties
A Contemporary Account of a Ship’s Cook
His knowledge extends not to half a dozen dishes; but he’s so pretty a fellow at what he undertakes, that the Bare Sight of his cookery gives you a Belly-full. He cooks by the hour […]
Life and Duties
A Closer Look at Rates of Pay in Aubrey’s Royal Navy
Life in the Royal Navy had an advantage over life on land, specifically that of steady pay at quite decent rates, perhaps higher than most occupations on the shore (though not higher than work in […]
06. The Fortune of War
Account of the Action Between HMS Macedonian and USS United States
“…Then United States, forty-four, and our Macedonian, thirty-eight, had a fight off the Azores, and Macedonian struck to the Americans. Two of our frigates and a sloop have struck to the Americans, and not one […]