Being Sabbath day, a church was rigged out and divine service performed on board the Caesar
for the first time since I had belonged to her. The Rev. Mr. Jones, the chaplain, preached an excellent sermon. The ship's crew were very devout and attentive. The rear-admiral was on his knees at prayer time; but it was funny enough to see our captain, how fidgety he was: he neither sat nor stood, and was as unsteady as a weathercock. Some of our nods thought that a man could not be a good seaman without swearing, but the admiral let them know the contrary. In the afternoon we saw some chasse-marees stealing along shore, and sent the boats of the squadron after them; they captured two, one laden with rye and the other with sardinian, a fish like dried herrings. The whole was shared out to the squadron and the vessels broken up for firewood, as their condemnation in England would have cost more than they were worth.
~ William Richardson, gunner aboard HMS
Caesar off the coast of France, February 19, 1809
Header: HMS Artemis
by Geoff Hunt
5 comments:
I am really enjoying the time and effort you take with this blog!
LOve coming here!
Pirate Girl
Not all ships in the Navy had a Chaplain when I was in; the larger ones, of course, especially the carrier. On Sundays, the Chaplain from the carrier would fly from ship to ship to conduct services (of course, this would be done by helicopter). Sailors being notorious for turning a phrase, this Sunday special flight became known as the "Holy Helo".... Of course, this always conjured up images of Adam West and Burt Ward (to me, anyway) :-) Happy Sunday!
Pirate Girl: Thank you! I'm so pleased you enjoy my labor of love here at Triple P. Come back soon, and often.
Wally: Great story as always. What different times we live in from a mere 200 years ago, and yet a sailor is always a sailor :)
Aw, thanky for the kind comments, Pauline :-) And, like Mimi mentioned, we sure enjoy yer labour of love - thank you for your efforts!
Ahoy Pauline! Love the painting too!
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