Nelson & His World

Discussion on the life and times of Admiral Lord Nelson
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 Post subject: Welcome & question for Justin Reay
PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 12:02 pm 
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Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:11 pm
Posts: 1258
Location: England
Hello Justin, I just wanted to offer you a (personal and unofficial) welcome to the forum. I have enjoyed your articles in the Trafalgar Chronicle, and wondered whether you can give us any information on the publication of your book on the Admiralty?

Regards,
Tony


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 Post subject: Welcome and question fro Justin Reay
PostPosted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:28 pm 
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Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 9:42 am
Posts: 33
Location: Oxford
Tony, hi, thanks for the welcome. First, my abject apologies for seeming so churlish as not to reply until now. Since first signing on I have been largely away from my study with research, conferences, publishing a monograph in Spain, and teaching, and have only today logged on again to the N&hW site - mea culpa!

I'm glad you enjoyed my articles in Trafalgar Chronicle - I've taken a sabbatical for the forthcoming issue but the editors have accepted an article for next year on Sir Cloudesley Shovell. I have a two-part article on "Nelson's Spy" in the next Nelson Dispatches (November and February 2009), and an article on Thomas Cochrane in the SNR Mariner's Mirror due out in February 2009.

As to my book on the Admiralty, I am in final research for the closing chapter now and as soon as my desk is clear from writing my two new Oxford courses I plan to send the text for peer review, set the index and finalise illustrations before going to press in March. After advice from my publishers, the plan is now to publish as a "limited edition" to subscribers from May 2009.

I'll keep a weather eye on this site from now on and look forward to joining in the discussions.

Justin
in bright but chilly Oxford

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[color=#0000FF][b]Justin Reay FSA FRHistS
Naval and Maritime Art Historian[/b][/color]


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:13 am 
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Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:11 pm
Posts: 1258
Location: England
Hi Justin - Good to hear from Oxford - where I grew up.

Remember to let us know the subscription details for the book in due course. (Sounds expensive!?)

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Tony


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 Post subject: Re: More questions for Justin Reay
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:28 am 
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Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:17 pm
Posts: 217
Justin,

Your productivity and range put us to shame! Forgive my impatience, but which 'Thomas Cochrane' are you writing about? Tne Spanish monograph also looks fascinating. How does one get hold of that?

Brian


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 Post subject: Questions for Justin Reay
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:45 pm 
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Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 9:42 am
Posts: 33
Location: Oxford
Tony and Brian, thanks for your notes.
First, my Admiralty book, The Great Ship Ashore, should not be too expensive. The current dire situation with publishing anything but airport blockbusters means that relatively short-run books, especially with a fairly limited market, get no promotion from retailers and are soon remaindered and then pulped. The concept of "limited edition" subscription takes us back to the earlier form of publishing in Johnson's and Scott's day, and circumvents this problem. I am finalising now the costing of the book but it should be around £25.00 in hardback, limited to 2000 copies.

Secondly, the Thomas Cochrane I have written about for MM is Captain Thomas, Lord Cochrane, later 10th earl of Dundonald, not his younger and lesser cousin Captain Thomas John Cochrane. The article is a detailed analysis of Cochrane's stirring defence of Trinity castle at Rosas in 1808, the model for Hornblower's fictional activities and something too of Jack Aubrey, but first recorded in fiction by Frederick Marryat, Cochrane's ADC at Rosas, in Frank Mildmay.

My monograph The Royal Navy in the Bay of Roses 1808-1809 (a survey of RN actions in the area sans the Cochrane action) was published in English and Catalan in the commemorative volume El Setge de Rosas 1808: tres visions de Guerra del Frances three weeks ago. It is one of four papers, all translated into Catalan from English, French or Castellano; the other English-original paper deals with Cochrane at Rosas, written by my Oxford colleague Robin Pedler (a shorter paper than my own for MM and from a different perspective). Captain Michael Cochrane RN - who also lives in Oxford - was a guest at the conference.

I am not sure quite how to obtain copies of this multi-lingual edition outside Spain - the Catalan-only edition is now on general sale in Catalonia - but I will find out; I know there were quite a lot of copies printed.

Best
Justin

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[color=#0000FF][b]Justin Reay FSA FRHistS
Naval and Maritime Art Historian[/b][/color]


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 Post subject: Re: Questions for Justin Reay
PostPosted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:27 pm 
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Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:17 pm
Posts: 217
Thanks for the info Justin.

I look forward to the MM and am keen to read the accounts of the seige of the Trinidad and of Rosas you mention. Don't worry about the language: I speak Spanish and my next door neighbour is the unofficial Catalan Cultural Representative in London!

My spies tell me you were at Rosas last week for the commemoration. Any idea where the British/George III 18 pounder cannon still scattered along the esplanade facing the sea came from?

Brian


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 Post subject: Questions for Justin Reay
PostPosted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:16 pm 
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Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 9:42 am
Posts: 33
Location: Oxford
Brian, bon dia
I'll sort out some copies, including one for your Catalan neighbour. There may be a charge, but if so it will be minor.

I was in touch with the London office of the Catalan cultural attache two years ago and they were interested in the Siege commemoration, but with the change in regional and local government in Alt Emporda the original commemoration plans were shelved - the new Alcaldesa didn't want warships and nasty guns going bang.

Yes, I was at Rosas for the Siege commemoration on 8 November, along with Captain Michael Cochrane and Count Nikolai Tolstoy, Patrick O'Brian's stepson and biographer. They were the town's offical guests. I gave a talk during the conference and the commemorative book was launched then.

There are two British 18-pdr cannon at Rosas, by the sea-front at Placa de Catalunya, in good condiiton and mounted on very good replica carriages. They were found by fishermen in the fleet belonging to the family of my friend Salvador Guerra, the head of the Fundacio Historia i Natura de Roses, sometime in the 1950s I think.

Amongst the many wrecks in the Bay there are possibly two British ships, one of indeterminate date and the other is the Hindostan, which caught fire at sea and was beached a mile or so south of Rosas where it sank. Hindostan was a large armed store ship and the event is described in my article coming out in the Nelson Dispatch in a week or so. She was pierced for 50 guns, which must have included a battery of 18-pdrs on the lower-deck (assuming she was a two-decker), so it is very likely the guns at Rosas came from that wreck, although there is very little else known ashore from the Hindostan; there may be a "dig" on the site next season.

There is also a bower anchor on display further up the beach-front which could be British. William Hoste's Amphion fought a strong action in the bay in May 1808 (described in detail in my Setge de Roses paper) and had to cut her best bower to get off as the wind dropped.

Rosas was an important victualling station for the Navy, and visited by Nelson. The last RN visit on record was the western Med squadron in 1922 - over 20 warships and the Admiralty yacht. Those were the days!

Best from cold and damp Oxford wishing Trinity Castle was in the offing and a glass of good Perelada wine was in the glass.

Justin

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[color=#0000FF][b]Justin Reay FSA FRHistS
Naval and Maritime Art Historian[/b][/color]


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