Writers and Warships

Two of my favourite writers are Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy.  I traded Julian a visit to their houses for a trip to the Historic Dockyards in Portsmouth.  Two days, 3 ships, 2 museums and a boat-shed later, I think Julian got the better part of the deal.

Austen’s house is located in Chawton, Hampshire.

We saw the desk where she wrote most of her novels, beginning with Pride and Prejudice.  It’s located in what would have been the dining room.  Jane insisted that the squeaky floorboard just outside the door should not be fixed because it gave her enough time to hide her papers whenever someone approached.

A letter from Jane’s niece described finding her sitting in her bedroom, in front of this window, which overlooks the back garden, a few weeks before she died.

Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in this Dorset cottage, located near Dorchester.  He lived here until he was 34 years old when he left to marry his first wife, Emma.

At the desk in his bedroom, he wrote my favourite of his novels, Far from the Madding Crowd, which was published in 1874.

On to Portsmouth, which is a pretty cool place.  It’s still an active port.  We saw a ferry from the Isle of Wight appearing to stuff itself between two modern buildings along the esplanade.

And a Royal Navy battleship leaving port with the officers standing to attention on deck.

The historic dockyard area is immense.  We started with the HMS Warrior, which was the world’s first ironclad ship, built in 1860.

Next we toured the HMS Victory, which was the ship that Nelson commanded when he defeated the French navy at Trafalgar in 1805.

We saw the guns on the main deck,

the officer’s dining room

and Nelson’s cabin

The spot on the upper deck where Nelson was fatally wounded by sniper fire is marked with a plaque.

He was taken below deck so his injury wouldn’t discourage the men.  He died on the lowest deck, in the infirmary. He did indeed say, “Hardy, kiss me” (not ‘kismet’).  Regency society being less homophobic than our own, his close friend Captain Hardy did kiss him, once on each cheek.

The next day we toured the museum built around the Mary Rose, which was the largest warship in the navy of King Henry VIII.

In 1545, the French navy attempted to invade England at Portsmouth.  The English were outnumbered, but sandbars made Portsmouth Harbour difficult to navigate.  Once navigational aids were removed from the Harbour, the French navy was stymied.  After several days of stalemate, the English navy, led by the Mary Rose, sailed out to meet the French navy.  Almost immediately, she sank off the Isle of Wight.  It’s believed that she had fired a broadside volley from one side and was turning to fire from the other side when a gust of wind caught her and rolled her onto the side that had just fired.  The gun-ports were still open, so she took on water and quickly sank.  It’s also believed that she was top-heavy, having two or three more decks above the gun decks than other warships.

Fortunately, we all know how the battle turned out.

The wreck was discovered in 1971 and raised in 1982.  Much of the ship and its contents were preserved because they had sunk into the sand on the bottom of Portsmouth Harbour.  The museum that has been built around her holds all the decks on one half of the ship.

Almost 20,000 Tudor-age artefacts, as well as many skeletons, were recovered from the ship.  The ship sank so quickly that most of the men were at their work stations when they died.  Modern forensic techniques were used to reconstruct the faces of the men, and their belongings are displayed to show what tools, clothes and personal items were associated with their professions.

It is an absolutely fascinating museum.  Unfortunately, I don’t have photographs because the museum is light- and temperature-controlled for preservation purposes.

Our final stop was the Boat Building Shed.  By this time I was really tired of all things nautical.  But I did admire the speedboat commandeered by Bond in From Russia with Love.