Andrew Q Gordon

Seems as if the Royal Navy has two class of Captains those that are complete sods and those who get it. My guess is that Jervis knows everything going on in his 'universe' and if there was a way to tweak Mann and make O'hara happy, he was prepared to do it, especially since it gave him a way to 'reward' Granger for his 'fine work' on the court martial. Given Granger's penchance for action, I get the sense this R & R won't be so calm after all. His men just might hate him unless he finds them a nice bit of prize money.

Wow thanks for the shout out Mark, but to be honest, I really have to thank you for sharing your work with us/me. People say things like 'it's a gift' but when you consider how much a book like these would cost, and it is free - it is truly a gift. I review because I enjoy the work, like to leave snarky comments now and then and mostly just like to see your responses. They are entertaining all by themselves. Andy

For me I agree with much of what has been said - 1) Emphasis on helping new authors escape the 'blue hell' as someone called Peer Review. 2) Generally do not give rep points to chapters, but mostly because I don't have enough left over 3) Never given anyone a negative point for a chapter or story. - This to me is a terrible thing - someone who works hard to create a story then has the guts to post it does not deserve to told they stink or that it is terrible. There probably are exceptions to this but i haven't met that person yet. If I don't like I don't review or give comments. 4) I am not sure the rating systems are useful. As Dark said, most folks only give positive so most stories are 4 or 5. To me the best form of feed back is comments on the forum and reviews. I have been lack in this regard lately. BUT I find this and read counts are the most useful barometers of how good your story is. That's just me.

That was another easy read - the court martial and the Admiral's handling of the stupid captains was very interesting. I read it twice. If Jervis was anything like you write, he must have been an interesting person. Be good at what you do and he was fine with you, be stupid, lazy, arrogant and it was a tough go. Really fun stuff Mark.

I really enjoy chapters like this one - you really shine in them. This was engaging and entertaining. The play between the parties, the tension, the dumbfounded reversals. Seriously, just a marvelous chapter.

Good lord, George isn't the son of an Earl he's a bloody Queen - a size Queen. First Sommers, then Holmquist. It's a wonder anyone else can feel a thing. I must say that if the Navy was made up of Captains like Fellowes and Granger, then it is easy to see why the English Navy was so formidable. Sadly the Wilcox's of the Navy did their best to destroy things.

Eeek, when I asked earlier who was the worse enemy to have I had no idea Portland was going to be mad at Granger. Though he mellowed some, it's hard to image he doesn't have some small grudge against George. And if George truly loved Cavendish he'd leave him on shore. He seems to be a magnet for falling spars and splinters.

Now that is what I call shore leave, wife, lover, Prince, Captain - did I miss anyone? Seems to me that George has found himself a suitable, sizable replacement for Mr. Cavendish. All that aside, Captain Granger certainly doesn't seem shy about taking care of his men. Buying Gatling new uni's is like giving him a 50% raise. And it was done all at his suggestion and thought. He knew before he send for the lad who was paying for this new clothing. You do a good job of making us like George as much as his men do

Damn, George is quite the stud - three kiddies by age 20. AND he has the wherewith all to bugger half of London's nobility. Okay so here's a mistake/error I found - when you first introduced the Duke of Clarence in chapter four he was third in line for the throne, now he is second. Did I miss the death of his middle brother? Or maybe he just got a bit too full of himself and bumped up his f**k buddy to # 2 so as to feel a tad more special?

I'd have voted to Arial but it wasn't an option. Of the ones you offer, I think Georgia, Tahoma, Lucinda San Unicode, and Trebuchet MS were the best. This post was written in Arial so maybe that is why I like it better. Courier is horrible to look at to me. Times isn't much better though that is what I used to type with. I read somewhere that companies are encouraging employees to only use Times, Arial or Courier because it saves ink. Times is a smaller footprint than Arial. If you take something in Arial and then convert to Times you will see you save lines and sometimes pages.

Me too Lacey

Who's allowed to eat Oreos? If it doesn't come from the organic market - it is banned in our house - something about needing to get in the habit of eating right so we set the right example for the baby - But were I able to get my hands on an Oreo some where other than home - not that I would do that mind you I'd just eat it normal with sips of milk in between. Not a dunker, crusher, masher, licker, or twister, just an eater. Wow, I sound boring

Once more am late to the party but I am going to disagree with you a bit Mark, I think this one is better than the last one. (You said Master and Commander was your favorite.) I can't even imagine the time that went into researching all these stories. Not that I would know if things are accurate or not, but they sure seem true to life and since this is NOT a learned Treatise but rather a wonderful novel - it doesn't matter too much if things are 100% accurate. So aside from Nelson, which other Naval figures are true? The Wilcox clan? I think you alluded in a response that Jervis was real. What about Chatham? Spencer? Hood? Howe? Mann? Linzee? Hotham? I suspect many of them were real figures though I can't image you made them all true to life. One last question - do you have St. Vincent completely written before you started posting or are you writing/reviewing/editing as you go? I ask because HMS took more than a year to post so you didn't post a chapter a week, meaning there was no schedule for posting. Which suggests it wasn't done until after you started posting. Andy

This cracked me up: Doomsday prophet, followers ‘flabbergasted’ world didn’t end http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110523/ts_yblog_thelookout/doomsday-prophet-followers-flabbergasted-world-didnt-end Some of my favorite quotes: Camping's PR aide, Tom Evans, told the L.A. Times that the group is "disappointed" that 200 million true believers weren't lifted up to heaven on Saturday while everyone else suffered and eventually died as a series of earthquakes and famine destroyed the Earth. What good Christians they are - too bad everyone but us didn't suffer and die. Keith Bauer, a 38-year-old tractor trailer driver, took a road trip with his family to see the Grand Canyon before the world ended. "With maxed-out credit cards and a growing mountain of bills, he said, the rapture would have been a relief," the paper writes. Some might want to break it to this guy but he is REALLY stupid. Basically he was hoping for the end of the world and some how figured he'd be one of the chosen. Clearly he hadn't gotten an invite because if he had he'd known it was real. Then there is this wise chap: Robert Fitzpatrick, who spent $140,000 of his life savings to advertise the rapture in New York, said he was dumbfounded when life went on as usual Saturday. "I do not understand why ...," he told Reuters while awaiting the event in Times Square. "I do not understand why nothing has happened." And finally: "One man, his voice quavering, said he was still holding out hope that they were one day off. Another believer asserted that their prayers worked: God delayed judgment so that more people could be saved, but the end is 'imminent,'" she reported. Guess were not out of the woods yet.

Sucks to be Freddie, maybe a life at sea isn't in the cards for him, he keeps getting hurt. Now we shall see if Clifton, Lord Barnfield hs turned out to be more than the little shit he started out to be. So let's add this up - Clifton is back on board and doing well so the Marquess of Hartford is no long on the list of enemies, but Cavendish is minus a leg so that means the Duke of Portland will not be pleased. Hmmm wonder who is the worse enemy?

You are a cruel man,Mark. If you keep this up, Granger will never be able to attract other lovers, what if everyone of them is destined to be injured multple times in the course of duty.

The day when Granger's dick gets him in trouble seems to have arrived. By engaging in siesta with his' Spanish Twin' he has kept his ship there too long. Now let's see how he gets out of this situation.

Wow George knows how to pick em - cute, smart, well breed, blue blood - oh yeah big dick - Cavendish is your best 'dish' yet I think I called one of the other ships the HMS Randy - this must be the love boat - Robey/Roberts Granger/Cavendish Winkler/Jeffers. Has vision of Captain Stubing pacing the deck smiling at the happy couples

Nelson and Granger back together, it's like an 18th century batman and robin complete with the inferred buggery Hasn't Granger learned that whenever an opportunity seems to easy - Port. St. Louis, St. Martin and now Imperia that a French frigate or ship of the line is always lurking just around the bend?

One wonders if George enjoys doing that to arrogant little shits. One also wonders if Sir John was sending Clfton to Granger to see if his no flogging rule would hold up to someone like this. it seems that Jervis, being who and what he is would be better able to whip the boy into shape, but then he gave him to Granger anyway. Maybe he felt that he could make him into a decent officer - have to see. Interesting to see how deep Granger's feelings are for Freddie so quickly. And the level of jealousy is certainly there. Perhaps it's because With Travers originally he was so junior and he wasn't sleeping around and then with Calvert, Calvert wasn't sleeping around. Now with Freddie, he finds someone who is more his equal socially and there is something of a future after the navy with. Guess we have to wait for you to explain it.

If 18 was one of the more fun chapters, 19 was one of the more engaging ones. That one saw emotions all over the board. Seeing Travers like that and having George take charge and help repair the damage was a masterful chapter. One does wonder what George would do if he were to come face to face with Jardines. I don't suspect it would go well for the Major.

That was one of the more fun chapters in the series. Seeing Jervis dish up and spit out Captain Young was a fun read. The pacing, the timing everything worked so well. Sometimes when reading I forget I didn't have to pay for this novel - it is that good.

One less temptation to deal with now that Lennox will be on the admiral's staff. "Freddie' is probably quite pleased by that turn of events Sir John is almost as likeable as Lord Hood. They both seem to appreciate competence and dislike stupidity. Good qualities for a commander in chief. This looks to be an interesting tour of duty.

God I am so jealous. I want George's life LOL. A baron, a duke/prince/ a duke's son, my god the amount of blue blood alone is enough to make his glow.

I forgot to say this at the end of the last chapter but I do so love Caroline - - what a perfectly marvelous wife she is. My god Mark, this must be your wet dream come true - a secret society of incredibly hot, powerful gay men. And led by the Duke of Clarence they are incredibly powerful at that. So it would seem to me that Granger would have less trouble forgiving Kerry than Iggy, especially given who it was who hurt him. Poor Arthur, he brings in the love of his life and has to watch as Sir Phillip gets the privilege of being his mentor.