Jamie's comments (member since Mar 04, 2008)

Jamie's comments from the Armchair Sailors group.

I liked the Temeraire books, too.

I very much enjoyed the novel English Passengers, set in 1857, where Manx smugglers headed for England are instead forced to carry English passengers to Tasmania.

I wanted to recommend this collection of sailor songs that was inspired by the Aubrey-Maturin novels.

After seeing the movie Master & Commander I went looking for a copy of Don't Forget Your Old Shipmate, the song they sang at the table, and found this terrific CD.

Here's the website, or you can find it on Amazon.
http://cdbaby.com/cd/jerrybryant1

Even in the excellent Master & Commander movie, Jack and Stephen argue over the punishment administered to a crewman for insubordination (12 lashes). The argument itself was faithful to the books - but not over something as commonplace as a whipping. It was the seriously cruel punishments (of other captains, not Jack) that Stephen objected to. Twelve strokes wasn't anything to get disturbed about.

I've seen several of the Hornblower TV episodes, and liked them pretty well despite the low-budget production. It's a lot like watching the Richard Sharpe TV series where the land battles are fought with an army of approximately 20 people and the dreaded French column always seems to be approaching from around a bend.

Btw, Hornblower is played by Ioan Griffudd, pronounced YO-an GRIFF-ith. I saw him recently playing the abolitionist William Wilberforce in the movie Amazing Grace, which was pretty good.