If it all works out, tomorrow I will be helping reenact the 200th anniversary of one of the major battles of the War...
If it all works out, tomorrow I will be helping reenact the 200th anniversary of one of the major battles of the War of 1812. As a volunteer, not a pro, I will not be handling any black powder, or rudimentary lathes, but I know what I'll be thinking of if I get to pretend. We find out if we're Americans or Canadians/British when we get there. I hope it's not too hot out and I hope the parking isn't a complete pain.
This will cap off my Weeks of 1812, as the week prior to Detcon, I got to be a sailor on the US Niagara for a day on Lake Erie. That's the ship on which Oliver Hazard Perry won the Battle of Lake Erie. It was really hard, but a lot of fun, and I got picked as the volunteer who was offered the opportunity to steer her for a while. Yay!
The primary thing I learned from this, other than being a sailor was just as difficult and unpleasant as you probably thought it was, is that the movies are even more full of nonsense than you likely thought. The Niagara is a brig, so fairly small, and it would have been crewed by about 150 (we had about 50). Nevertheless, it takes a long time to tack or turn, and the spars and sails are freaking heavy, thanks. No way did even larger ships just merrily spin on a dime in magic movie battles and zip along at highway speeds. Lumbering is an adjective that comes to mind. Not that a large, skilled, experienced crew wouldn't move much, much faster than we could, but the full time crew and captain were very informative about the limits and capacity (and they are limited), as well as the details of the battle, which spun on a lot of luck.
Additionally, they all had to be deaf. Because they fired one half charge carronade without a projectile (kind of a shorter version of a cannon) as a demo for us. Prior to which they warned people to plug their ears and open their mouths. So loud, much smoke, very shock wave. Did I mention they must have been completely blinded by all the smoke (and possibly choked by it) during a battle? The ship originally had 18 carronades and 2 long guns, or what we probably call cannon.
I did take some pictures of and from the ship, so will post them at some point. And now, linky!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Niagara_(1813)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lundy's_Lane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lundy's_Lane
This will cap off my Weeks of 1812, as the week prior to Detcon, I got to be a sailor on the US Niagara for a day on Lake Erie. That's the ship on which Oliver Hazard Perry won the Battle of Lake Erie. It was really hard, but a lot of fun, and I got picked as the volunteer who was offered the opportunity to steer her for a while. Yay!
The primary thing I learned from this, other than being a sailor was just as difficult and unpleasant as you probably thought it was, is that the movies are even more full of nonsense than you likely thought. The Niagara is a brig, so fairly small, and it would have been crewed by about 150 (we had about 50). Nevertheless, it takes a long time to tack or turn, and the spars and sails are freaking heavy, thanks. No way did even larger ships just merrily spin on a dime in magic movie battles and zip along at highway speeds. Lumbering is an adjective that comes to mind. Not that a large, skilled, experienced crew wouldn't move much, much faster than we could, but the full time crew and captain were very informative about the limits and capacity (and they are limited), as well as the details of the battle, which spun on a lot of luck.
Additionally, they all had to be deaf. Because they fired one half charge carronade without a projectile (kind of a shorter version of a cannon) as a demo for us. Prior to which they warned people to plug their ears and open their mouths. So loud, much smoke, very shock wave. Did I mention they must have been completely blinded by all the smoke (and possibly choked by it) during a battle? The ship originally had 18 carronades and 2 long guns, or what we probably call cannon.
I did take some pictures of and from the ship, so will post them at some point. And now, linky!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Niagara_(1813)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lundy's_Lane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lundy's_Lane
Awesome! :-)
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