Nascent Engineer

HIPPO BIRD DAY, TWO EWES!

It's been a while since I posted to this thread, and again I can only plead the work load at school, plus a bit of drama in the social life. I have a boyfriend! Whoo-hoo! He drives a dump truck and believe it or not, his name is George! Anyway, regarding the dimensionality of Bolitho vs. Hornblower, my thoughts are the opposite of Mr. Arbour's. I found Hornblower's stiffness and remove to be a real stumbling block to getting to know him as a real character. i know that Forester wanted us to think of Hornblower as a man so insecure he needed to gird himself round with formality and distance, yet with a soft center. Unfortunately, for me at least, that soft center never got to full flower in any of the novels. On the other hand, we know almost too much about Bolitho and how he feels. Kent puts it all right out there. There have been times when reading Kent's books where I've wept at the emotions the characters are going through.

I just want to say that reading one or two chapters each night after all my college course work and reading is finished has become a sort of reward I give myself. I have followed George Granger's career through his appointment to post captain and HMS Belvidera, and this has to be one of the best, if not THE best erotic series ever. I mean this sincerely. I think one of the reasons is because you have developed Granger's character so perfectly, and matured him into the kind of officer we all wish we had the chance to be. I actually LIKE him! In the same way I like Richard Bolitho in Kent's series.

Have any signal books of the period been reprinted? I know that "Captain repair on board immediately" would have been a code of two or three flags rather than spelled out. Does anyone know how large the signal flags were? My great-grandfather was aboard USS Lexington when she was attacked and sank in WWII, and he thinks her signal flags were about six feet square.

Because of the demands of college and my tutoring job, I've only just started reading HMS Belvidera. As a chemical engineering major I was curious when Mark had Granger send for some hydrochloric acid for cleaning purposes. I don't mean to sound pedantic but I think during the time this story is set we were still using the old alchemic names for chemicals. What we use today are know as systemic names. Back then hydrochloric acid would probably have been called "Spirits of Salt" or "Acidum Salis." It might also have been called Muriatic Acid, but my professor thinks Spirits of Salt would have been more common, especially to someone like Granger who was not a chemist. From what I've been able to read, the British retained the alchemic names of chemicals and medicinal compounds up until at least World War One.

I think Mark's stories compare very favorably as well. I'm a college freshman, and don't have a great deal of time to read fiction other than what might be course material. My grandfather is the big naval fiction fan in our family, and I borrow books from his library. He too has the Hornblower books, and all the Kent and O'Brian novels. He also has a short series of books by Parkinson which I haven't read yet. The other close relationship you mention might be Bolitho's long-serving coxswain John Allday. Allday doubles as Bolitho's conscience and sounding board. Bolitho had several officer friends with whom he was very close, and who died in action in the course of the wars. Of course his greatest friend was Thomas Herrick, whose closeness he lost over the Lady Somerville affaire. i've often wondedred what sexual adventures bolitho's nephew might have had in the midshipmans' berth when he came aboard at fourteen. I've done a bit of boating and sailing on the Chesapeake Bay and so I understood most of the nautical terms in the novels before I began reading them. I found a book in grandad's library called The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships which cleared up all the questions I had. Hey, thanks for the reply! Skip

I really enjoy Mr. Arbour's period naval gay fiction and was wondering if any readers have read the Richard Bolitho novels of Alexander Kent? I have, and every so often I got a very strong feeling that more was implied than was actually written. That feeling was especially present while reading Band of Brothers, set when Bolitho was a midshipman. I got similar feelings with some of O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin series. Anyone else noticed this?