4th of July

Somebody did some good writing for the movie of Drums along the Mohawk. The widow's monologue in the movie isn't in the book, about all the times she'd seen the militia march off "to kill or be killed, and damn their eyes, loving it".

Though that was the French and Indian War. I'm a little off topic.

A cannon from the gift shop at Fort Schuyler in Rome, NY:
7vO7kSL.jpg
 
Cambertree said:
...
(The first book in the series is Master and Commander. Check out the movie, if you haven’t seen it.)
Click to expand...
Nice movie, problem is that the story has been reversed. True story is a French corsair named Surcouf took a much heavily armed English vessel (the Kent) with a much smaller crew (la Confiance). That was on 31 aug 1800.
English victories were always in line battles, but the French corsaires sunk more vessels ...
There's a period song to immortalize that. Sorry, the refrain is a bit hard toothed for the English crown!
To sum it with a trendy word, Master and commander is just a fake!
Confiance_Kent_fight.jpg
 
Jolipapa said:
Nice movie, problem is that the story has been reversed. True story is a French corsair named Surcouf took a much heavily armed English vessel (the Kent) with a much smaller crew (la Confiance). That was on 31 aug 1800.
English victories were always in line battles, but the French corsaires sunk more vessels ...
There's a period song to immortalize that. Sorry, the refrain is a bit hard toothed for the English crown!
To sum it with a trendy word, Master and commander is just a fake!
Confiance_Kent_fight.jpg
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link on Surcouf, and the further information, JP. What a fascinating story. Thanks for the wonderful song too. As I think I've mentioned to you before, I collect sea shanties.

Yes, the film adaptation of Master and Commander even takes broad liberties with Patrick O'Brian's original novels.

The movie lifts and compresses events from about five of the Aubrey-Maturin books. In the books, the ship that is presented in the movie as the French privateer Acheron is not French at all, but an American vessel, the USS Norfolk.

Apparently the change was quite a bone of contention between the director and the financiers of the movie, who insisted that having an American ship as the 'villain' of the piece, would be too 'morally confusing' for audiences!

Yes, French corsairs were very successful. Indeed, one of the clauses of the US Naval Act of 1794, which authorised the construction of the six frigates which would become the capital ships of the fledgling US Navy, stated that construction was to cease if peace was made with Algiers, whose pirates had been preying on American merchantmen.

It was only with some difficulty that Washington prompted Congress to authorise the completion of three of the frigates: USS Constitution, USS Constellation and USS United States.

Then after the French monarchy was abolished in 1792, and the American government stopped repaying their large debt to France, French privateers were authorised to seize US shipping. This is apparently what eventually forced the hand of Congress to pay for the completion of USS President, USS Congress and USS Chesapeake.

Fascinating times...
 
Last edited:
Cambertree said:
Thanks for the link on Surcouf, and the further information, JP. What a fascinating story. Thanks for the wonderful song too. As I think I've mentioned to you before, I collect sea shanties.

Yes, the film adaptation of Master and Commander even takes broad liberties with Patrick O'Brian's original novels.

The movie lifts and compresses events from about five of the Aubrey-Maturin books. In the books, the ship that is presented in the movie as the French privateer Acheron is not French at all, but an American vessel, the USS Norfolk.

Apparently the change was quite a bone of contention between the director and the financiers of the movie, who insisted that having an American ship as the 'villain' of the piece, would be too 'morally confusing' for audiences!

Yes, French corsairs were very successful. Indeed, one of the clauses of the US Naval Act of 1794, which authorised the construction of the six frigates which would become the capital ships of the fledgling US Navy, stated that construction was to cease if peace was made with Algiers, whose pirates had been preying on American merchantmen.

It was only with some difficulty that Washington prompted Congress to authorise the completion of three of the frigates: USS Constitution, USS Constellation and USS United States.

Then after the French monarchy was abolished in 1792, and the American government stopped repaying their large debt to France, French privateers were authorised to seize US shipping. This is apparently what eventually forced the hand of Congress to pay for the completion of USS President, USS Congress and USS Chesapeake.

Fascinating times...
Click to expand...
That was the Quasi-war.
French privateers would have been very happy to have large vessels like the Acheron! Did you hear of Garneray? His books are fascinating , he embarked with Surcouf, then became an official Navy painter. The Floating Prison is a frightening testimony of how war prisoneers were treated.
71-canon.jpg
More songs from sailors and fishers to Iceland and New Found Land (Terre Neuve):
 
Last edited:
Cambertree said:
Thanks for the link on Surcouf, and the further information, JP. What a fascinating story. Thanks for the wonderful song too. As I think I've mentioned to you before, I collect sea shanties.

Yes, the film adaptation of Master and Commander even takes broad liberties with Patrick O'Brian's original novels.

The movie lifts and compresses events from about five of the Aubrey-Maturin books. In the books, the ship that is presented in the movie as the French privateer Acheron is not French at all, but an American vessel, the USS Norfolk.

Apparently the change was quite a bone of contention between the director and the financiers of the movie, who insisted that having an American ship as the 'villain' of the piece, would be too 'morally confusing' for audiences!

Yes, French corsairs were very successful. Indeed, one of the clauses of the US Naval Act of 1794, which authorised the construction of the six frigates which would become the capital ships of the fledgling US Navy, stated that construction was to cease if peace was made with Algiers, whose pirates had been preying on American merchantmen.

It was only with some difficulty that Washington prompted Congress to authorise the completion of three of the frigates: USS Constitution, USS Constellation and USS United States.

Then after the French monarchy was abolished in 1792, and the American government stopped repaying their large debt to France, French privateers were authorised to seize US shipping. This is apparently what eventually forced the hand of Congress to pay for the completion of USS President, USS Congress and USS Chesapeake.

Fascinating times...
Click to expand...
Indeed! Thanks for the info, Chin.:thumbsup:


The only sea shanty I know:

Heave a pawl, oh heave away
Weigh hey, roll and go
The anchor's on board, the cables all stored
To be rollicking randy dandy Oh!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top