
Tales from Nelson's Navy (2013) - pepys
http://www.historyextra.com/article/premium/tales-nelsons-navy
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hyperbovine
I wonder if Patrick O'Brian read through this book. (I know he read many naval
dispatches in the course of his research.) It never ceases to amaze me how
completely he managed to inhabit this world in his fiction. His prose is
indistinguishable from every piece of primary source material I have ever read
regarding the British navy during the Napoleanic wars.

~~~
jimhefferon
Is it obvious that everyone here will know the reference?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series)
FWIW, best thing I ever read.

~~~
B1FF_PSUVM
Although perhaps lacking in realistic portions of "rum, sodomy and the lash"
(do I misremember an odd keelhauling in all the twenty plus books?), as
expectable from a polite gentleman.

~~~
douche
From my recollections (I read through the whole series about a year ago),
there was plenty of rum involved... If the amounts of alcohol that nearly
everyone was drinking at all times is accurate, they would be considered
complete, irredeemable alcoholics today.

Of course, Maturin is up there with Sherlock in the list of high-functioning
literary drug addicts.

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dfsegoat
My favorite, FWIW, is the 18th-century battle tweet:

'“I shall renew the action and try to distroy the rest if possible”.... Not
only does it say, “Look at what I have done” but also, “Look at what I am
doing”. This is not a proper battle report as much as an 18th-century battle
tweet.'

~~~
B1FF_PSUVM
> battle tweet

Stop the planet, history is now perfect.

(Bah, "42", _obviously_ he was making it up.)

