Ganymedes
Ganymedes, or Ganymede as he is sometimes known, was the most beautiful of mortals, who was carried off to become the cup bearer of Zeus. A pot boy might thus humorously be known as a ganymede, and it was also a slang term for a homosexual.
Midshipmen
Midshipmen were young officers in the Royal Navy, normally aged between about twelve and their early twenties, although some were older. They were warrant officers, essentially in training to become commissioned officers, and were somewhat uneasily poised between being working officers and schoolboys. They were known as Young Gentlemen
and the British Public seems always to have had a soft spot for them. An amazing number of novels and stories have been written about the exploits of various fictional midshipmen, most of them titled Mr Midshipman X
, and I have to admit to having read a surprisingly large number of them in my time.
Pigs
Pigs are not small, pink, and cuddly. Pigs are very large, can move surprisingly fast if annoyed, smell like nothing else on the planet, and frequently behave in a bad tempered and alarming fashion. You would be very stupid to climb into a sow’s sty if you did not know her well. Pigs will also eat anything so, yes, that does include what was implied in ‘The Sheet Anchor’. However, some pigs are very nice, and will come and ask for their backs to be scratched in a friendly fashion. I know this, I am a peasant.
Royal Navy
Yes I am obsessed. No I am not ashamed of it. The British Navy was the best in the world for a very long time, and played a vital part in establishing Britain’s place in the world. And at some stage in their life everyone wanted to run away to sea. Didn’t they?
Sheet Anchor
The sheet anchor
was the largest anchor on a ship, used only in an emergency; hence it was also, proverbially, a seaman’s last hope. For some reason a lot of people seem to think that the title of this story is some sort of smutty joke. I can’t think why.
Ships
The following were genuine ships in the Royal Navy in 1812. They have their own histories and reputations, and I hope I have not implied any disrespect to them or the real men who served on them. I’m afraid I didn’t check if they actually could have been in Portsmouth in 1812, so a few of the Band of Brothers in ‘The Sheet Anchor’, might have had to have been on leave.
- Northumberland, 74 gun ship of the line.
- Hydra, 38 gun frigate.
- Diligente, 20 gun ship, one of the fastest in the fleet.
- Bellerophon, 74 gun ship of the line, the celebrated Billy Ruffian, one of the most famous ships in the navy, with a real fighting reputation. She distinguished herself on many occasions, including Trafalgar where she was the most damaged of any British ship.
Incidentally, as far as I know the navy was never daft enough to name a ship Ganymedes.
Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar, on 21st October 1805, was the turning point of the war between Great Britain and France. From then on British supremacy of the seas was more or less unchallenged. It is chiefly remembered today for the Death of Nelson and that signal, both of which just help show what a theatrical chap Nelson was.
Villeneuve
Admiral Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve, apart from having a ridiculously long name, was the French commander at Trafalgar (1805). After he lost the battle he was taken as a prisoner to England, but was soon released. He was found dead under suspicious circumstances in 1806. In an Inn at Rennes.