Meet John Pickthorn

PICKTHORN.
Acasta Midshipman under Capt Beaver, c. 1806.

John Pickthorn is a native of Devonport, co. Devon.

This officer entered the Navy, 12 Oct. 1796, as Ordinary, on board the Alexander 74, Capts. Joseph Bullen, Alex. John Ball, and P. Ormsby; in which ship he came into frequent action with the enemy's gun-boats and batteries in the neighbourhood of Cadiz, and took part in the battle of the Nile, in the blockade of Malta, and in various operations along the coast of Italy. Quitting the Alexander in Sept. 1800, he was next, until April, 1802, employed on the Mediterranean and Home stations as Midshipman (a rating he had previously attained) in the Guillaume Tell 84, Capt. Thos. Elphinstone, flag-ship of Admiral Milbank, Alkmaar, Capt. Fred. Lewis Maitland, and Malta 84, Capt. Albemarle Bertie. In March, 1803, he returned to the latter ship, commanded at the time by Capt. Edw. Buller on the coast of Spain ; and, from July, 1804, until Oct. 1806, he served in the West Indies and Channel on board the Eagle and Kent 74's, and Ville de Paris 110, all flagships of Sir Edw. Thornbrough ; whom, in Feb. 1807, after having been for about three months attached to the Acasta 40, Capt. Philip Beaver, he again joined in the Royal Sovereign 100, on the Mediterranean station.

Source: A NAVAL BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY: COMPRISING THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF EVERY LIVING OFFICER IN HER MAJESTY'S NAVY, FROM THE RANK OF ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET TO THAT OF LIEUTENANT, INCLUSIVE. Compiled from Authentic and Family Documents. BY WILLIAM E. O'BYRNE, ESQ.
LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, PUBLISHER TO THE ADMIRALTY. 1849.

Seize the Fire, a Review

Seize The Fire- Heroism, Duty and the Battle of Trafalgar 

by Adam Nicolson

A short Review by Tony Gerard

In the preface Nicolson says of the book " It is an attempt to describe the mental landscape of the people who fought and commanded at one of the great battles in history and it asks, in particular, why and how the idea of the hero flowered here.'' If that had been on the back cover I'd have never bought the book. I'm not particularly interested in cultural psychology, I thought it was a book about the Battle of Trafalgar.

If you want a book about Trafalgar get " Nelson's Trafalgar" by Roy Atkins, it's excellent. 'Seize the Fire'  uses the battle as a backdrop and conveyance for the social attitudes it examines. It's not light, easy readin. I did read the book  and I learned some things. Nelson explains why the British Navy was the unstoppable juggernaut they were, and how the difference in psychology handicapped the French and Spanish navies before the first shot was fired. There is good information here about the difference in standard naval operation between the British and their opponents.  He also explains a change in attitudes, and what was acceptable behavior, in gentlemen (read officers) between the 18th and early 19th centuries. Just at the point I would become bored with excursions into cultural psychology Nicholson would bring be back around with some interesting period account. I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm not sure that this book has that much to  offer an Acasta doing a straight up "Jack Tar" only impression. I would recommend this book to our gentlemen types to give them some insight into the proper attitudes of the time and place.

More January 1813 Captures

17 January 1813: ship Lydia, from Rhode Island sailing to Norfolk taken by the Poictiers in company with Acasta and Maidstone; and, also in January: schooner Rhoda taken by the Poictiers and Acasta.

from: Bulletins of the campaign [compiled from the London gazette]. page 138

HOW TO MAKE A SMALL SHIP

Above is my original concept to create a flat, scaled down version of a tall ship for use in a signal flag demonstration. Below are the steps I went through to get to the finished product.

Painted the plywood with white primer and projected the ship artwork onto the board using an opaque projector, the cut all the pieces out and made sure the base pieces were primed as well.

You can see the pencil skecth of the ship on the flat cut out piece. Then I took the ship in, set it up on saw horses and painted it in the kitchen

Here's the ship nearly compled on one side.

Some close up shots of the details.

Painted the base to match the water. This shot also shows how the flat ship slides into the base. 

Here's the complete ship, fully rigged with signal halyards and flags!

Gunners Training

Today's post submitted by Acasta member Mark Thomas

This being my first article for the website and Acasta pages I ask that you bear with me as this is the first of a series over the next year. In July I was asked by Capt. Bob to do a Gunners training class for the FGW (Friends Goodwill) Sloop. I had offered my services at the sail training class several of us attended earlier in the year.

To go further I  feel a little background info on me is needed. I was introduced to reenacting at 12 years old, my parents were having a rough patch one of many and dad took me to a civil war event in Georgetown Ky. A year latter they were divorcing and I was looking for a unit to join as a way to escape my reality. I had a lot of trouble with this as most would not fool with a 13 year old I had many rejections. My mother used to sell junk at festivals and it was announced at Augusta Ky there would be reenactors as part of the festival I was determined to be in it.

I met a man who changed my life an old Korean war vet who had a cannon, his name was Tom Henson. He took me in without question and I was soon on his gun crew with the coolest job in the world I fired the cannon. That’s right the #4 man life had just took an upswing. I found I had a love for the big guns and never looked back though I did do a stint in horse artillery. My experience is now at 25 years of messing with cannons and I have never regretted it I have seen some awesome things like 50 firing at once and tradgety such as the accident at north college hill Ohio. It puts me in a good place to teach and pass on my knowledge.

Im sure it made several people nervous when it was announced that I would teach a class for the sloop, who can blame them here I am barely out of training and some of these guys have been sailing the sloop for a decade. I must admit this was intimidating so I brought back up, no not the Acastas as they were all busy. I took my Daughter Allie who wants to attend sail training this year. She was there to take photos and video for me as well as experience her first sail. Unfortunately the sail did not happen however the crew did treat her like family and she loved it. The class started off a little rocky with some push backs and some “well that’s the way we’ve always done its”. I expected this and was prepared backing up what I was teaching with stories of disaster and triumph. I probably put a good healthy fear into several of them which is a good thing in my opinion. I slowly won most of them over I believe. We soon went out to the Ship where I asked Tom to walk through the ship board operation of firing the cannon. As he was talking and not focusing on what was going on the rest of the class was quick to see his potentially disastrous mistakes in the gun drill. It was able to be used as a teaching moment to stress the point that the gun crew needs to focus on the gun first.

As the day drew to an end I decided to talk a bit about maintenance on the cannon I realized some improvements needed to be made in that area so while the crew practiced gun drill I decided to borescope the ships swivels. The one pictured above was actually in very bad shape and full of cracks and stress fractures not a good ending to the day. It had the potential to explode given the right conditions which being on the quarterdeck with all the ships officers this could turn into a very bad thing. As of this writing contracts are in the works to replace the swivels with a new set made form ordnance grade steel.

Shortly after leaving I felt I had made a pretty good impact on the students and staff as well. Within a couple weeks I was asked to become the Master Gunner for the ship, I humbly accepted. As of now there is a rework of the manual to teach the class underway as well as other improvements in the gunners department. I have been able to show a new way of making rounds for the cannon which has made a big difference in reducing misfires. New safety procedures are also in the works. 

All in all I call this one a successful expedition with many more to follow.

Humbly yours,

Mark Thomas

Master Gunner.

A letter from the Surgeon

This letter has be translated from the original French

Dear Brother,

     As we are in port, and I find myself with more leisure time than I had expected, I will take this time to write you of a most peculiar situation which has arisen.

    I thank the Almighty each day to have left behind the prison hulks and I pray for the poor wretches there formerly in my care. Here in the Acasta I have the charge of two assistants in addition to “loblolly boys”.  One, Reid, seems adequate if unimaginative. The other, Girard, was temporarily promoted to position of surgeon during the absence of an actual surgeon. Imagine my surprise to find, upon my arrival, that he was imprisoned having shot a Marine in a duel! You can well imagine my opinion of one who-having sent their days attempting to aleve human suffering, would willingly try to take another human life!

  Through some manipulation of the Captain he was returned to the ship to occupy his former position as one of my assistants. Upon his return I had another surprise. He is French! Well, not exactly truly French but Creole, and imbued with all the superstition and jocularity of those crude but honest folk.  He is, apparently, a favorite among many of the crew, who call him by his Christian name of Baptiste. You might expect that finding me a fellow Frenchman would incline me to his favor, but such is not the case.  Having been around him for a bit now I take less offense at this, as I think my greatest fault  with him is merely that I am not the Acasta’s former surgeon. This fellow, a Doctr Roberts, was apparently also favored among the crew, and it seems Girard was dog loyal to him. I have since learned this duel was less over a personal insult to Girard and more over an insult to the good Doctr Roberts. It seems the last word of Doctor is that his transport vessel has gone missing and this is also a source of anxiety for poor Girard.

I do believe that Doctor Roberts and I would have gotten on very well. It seems he was also a student of Natural History, with an interest as great as my own. Many of his collected specimens are still aboard. Girard has a proprietary curatorship over these, as he helped in the collection of most of them and plans to deliver them to Doctor Roberts in the future. The poor fellow will not entertain the notion that Roberts may already be lost. 

When discussing the collection of some particular specimen, Girard will sometimes become animated to the point he even forgets he dislikes me, which is almost entertaining. He has an excellent informal knowledge of Natural History, again infused with many simple superstitions, and good powers of observation. He can read both French and English and is actually attempting to learn Latin. I think he could be most useful in my own studies were I ever able to win him over.

Finding him possessed of those positive attributes I was then disappointed to learn he is an avid patron of the cockfighting pit! How can one so often involved with trying to heal suffering find entertainment in such contrived combat between two creatures, human or otherwise? Such is the inconsistency of Man!

One other small incident, and abord ship where there is no escaping one another, small injuries can quickly become large grievances. Early in our acquaintance Girard came upon me sitting reading. He quickly informed me that the chair I was in was, in some unspecified but very potentially dangerous way, broken and should not be used. The chair was perfectly fine, but I vacated it regardless. He said he would have the carpenter see to it and later put a line across it lest I forget and transgress again. I later asked one of the Loblollies of the chair. It seems it was the former throne of the good Doctor Roberts.

And now I find that I have become weary of my rendition. As always, I keep you and your family in my prayers as I trust you do me,

Your loving Brother,

Ducett

Further Investigation

Captain Sir Jas. Rehme, K.B.

His Majesty's Ship Acasta

St. Kitts, West Indies Station

Dear Sir,

I have the pleasure of delivering the good news that our surgeon reports Sargent Major Cockburn’s wound appears beyond the danger of sepsis and he is expected to make a full recovery. Should he have died I feel I would have had no option but to have hung your man Girard.

I have done some further investigation and found that several members of your crew were present at this dual, as you have no doubt already surmised.  A man named Apple- it is my understanding that he may be a petty officer- apparently served as Mr. Girard’s second. I have also learned that Mr. Girard rendered the good Sargent major medical aid after he had shot him. One can only speculate weather this was done through Christian charity or the sudden realization of his own dire situation.

I can return your man to you or keep him imprisoned as you see fit. There will need be some manner of official inquiry. Let me know your preference for the result of this official inquiry and we can make it so.

I await your response at your leisure.

I remain, your friend & humble servant,

Wm. Jas. Severn, Port Admiral

HMS Ganges, Pump Bay

Brimstone Hill, St. Kitts