{"id":307,"date":"2011-09-01T15:48:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T22:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/blog\/?p=307"},"modified":"2012-05-18T13:17:39","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T20:17:39","slug":"a-video-worth-a-thousand-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/a-video-worth-a-thousand-words\/","title":{"rendered":"A video worth a thousand words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gun drill aboard the U.S.S. Constitution<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0on YouTube!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks to British\u00a0author Alaric Bond <\/a>for bringing to my attention this YouTube video of the firing of one of the cannons aboard the U.S.S. Constitution\u00a0<\/em>whose home port is the Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts.\u00a0 I had the opportunity to visit this historic frigate several years ago with my sister Bonnie but we did not at that time witness the firing of the guns.\u00a0 I’m finding YouTube offers a lot in the way of research for my historical novels!<\/p>\n

“TWO –\u00a0SIX –\u00a0HEAVE!”\u00a0<\/strong> The gun crew calls out to keep their hauling efforts in unison.<\/p>\n

Reminds of\u00a0my three weeks aboard\u00a0HM Bark Endeavour<\/a><\/em>\u00a0replica.\u00a0 We voyage crew were taught to haul sheets and halyards using those same words.\u00a0 (See my earlier post <\/a>about how my experiences aboard Endeavour<\/em> led to the publication of my frist novel, Star-Crossed<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 The Patricia MacPherson Nautical Adventure Series <\/em>isn’t about the Endeavour<\/em> or Captain Cook but it inspired\u00a0a historical fiction\u00a0series and provided me with needed details for a realistic setting.)<\/p>\n

We also witnessed the firing of the Endeavour’<\/em>s guns in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean\u00a0at the order of Captain Chris Blake.\u00a0 First, the bosun launched the Zodiac (a 20th-century anachronism) and placed a large biodegradable bit of\u00a0 floating rubbish some distance away off the larboard side of the ship.\u00a0 I recall the enemy\u00a0vessel even flew\u00a0skull and crossbones colors, hastily fashioned from a paperbag and a few strokes of black paint.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The\u00a0Endeavour’<\/em>s gun crew then fired at it\u00a0 using a process similar to the video.\u00a0 We onlookers\u00a0watched\u00a0the red wooden carriage leap back against its ropes as the spark ignited, the powder exploded and the 4 pound iron ball splashed\u00a0just short of the\u00a0cardboard enemy ship.\u00a0\u00a0 The smell of burnt black powder lingered as the gunner sponged the hot barrel.\u00a0Another shot sunk the bit of flotsam to the bottom of the ocean\u00a0and a collective cheer, a wild huzzah\u00a0rose up out of our\u00a0throats, unbidden.<\/p>\n

Days later we we sailed through the Alenuihaha Channel between Maui and the island of Hawaii, cruising\u00a0along the northwest coast\u00a0of the Big Island where the gun team fired a customary salute (without accompanying cannonball but which none-the-less must have startled the 20th-century guests lounging at the nearby Mauna Kea Beach Resort) as we sailors prepared to drop anchor off Kawaihae after nineteen days at sea.<\/p>\n

Such recreations bring history alive for the writer as well as the reader of history.\u00a0\u00a0 A good re-enactment is worth a thousand words!<\/p>\n

Read more about my historical fiction<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gun drill aboard the U.S.S. Constitution\u00a0\u00a0on YouTube!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks to British\u00a0author […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,104],"tags":[73,32,71,70],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-ships-and-boats","tag-18th-century-gun-drill","tag-hm-bark-endeavour","tag-old-ironsides","tag-uss-constitution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1119,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions\/1119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}