The Wardroom

[khasidi]

Hi!

 

I loved The Wardroom and now I'll probably go back and read The Gunroom. As a longtime fan of the Horatio Hornblower series and someone who would love to have the talent to write a good sea novel himself, I really appreciated this one. Well-written, good characters, and, as a bonus, a gay theme. (Personally, I am more interested in the overall romantic story than I am in reading lots of sex scenes.)

 

Also, as a sailor, I really love it when the technical details of sailing a square rigger are correct. This is one of the things that makes the Hornblower stories and Patrick O'Brian's books about Aubrey and Marurin so good. I thought you did pretty well on the details.

 

One nitpick—the "Gundeck" of a Frigate usually didn''t have any guns on it. In general, a frigate's guns were all on the upper deck the forecastle (fo'c'sle) and the qarterdeck. That is one of the things that distiguishes a Frigate from a Ship of the Line. The gundeck on a frigate was below the main deck but still above the waterline so it was very low-ceilinged. On larger vessels this deck had the second tier of guns, ergo the name gundeck. In one of the early chapters, you talk about the guns on the gundeck of the frigate, Aurore. It's an easy mistake to make!

 

Thanks for a great story,

 

Jake Sterling

[Mark Arbour]

Hi!

 

I loved The Wardroom and now I'll probably go back and read The Gunroom. As a longtime fan of the Horatio Hornblower series and someone who would love to have the talent to write a good sea novel himself, I really appreciated this one. Well-written, good characters, and, as a bonus, a gay theme. (Personally, I am more interested in the overall romantic story than I am in reading lots of sex scenes.)

 

Also, as a sailor, I really love it when the technical details of sailing a square rigger are correct. This is one of the things that makes the Hornblower stories and Patrick O'Brian's books about Aubrey and Marurin so good. I thought you did pretty well on the details.

 

One nitpick—the "Gundeck" of a Frigate usually didn''t have any guns on it. In general, a frigate's guns were all on the upper deck the forecastle (fo'c'sle) and the qarterdeck. That is one of the things that distiguishes a Frigate from a Ship of the Line. The gundeck on a frigate was below the main deck but still above the waterline so it was very low-ceilinged. On larger vessels this deck had the second tier of guns, ergo the name gundeck. In one of the early chapters, you talk about the guns on the gundeck of the frigate, Aurore. It's an easy mistake to make!

 

Thanks for a great story,

 

Jake Sterling

 

 

Actually, the term "gun deck" and "main deck" and "upper deck" are sometimes interchanged. If you look at the technical info for the HMS Unicorn, you'll note that they do this. The frigates of our era had an top deck consisting of the forecastle and the quarterdeck, linked by gangways which skirted the waist. The guns on those two decks were generally lighter (carronades, or smaller caliber long guns). The next deck below that was the gun/main/upper deck, where the main armament was. Here's a link to the deck plans of HMS Trincomalee.