Category: Research

Posts in which we talk about research

Titanic Anniversary

Updated on February 11, 2013 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

When I was about 8, I happened to catch the movie A Night To Remember on TV, and I was totally hooked on the story of the Titanic! I ran out to the library and started reading everything I could about the tragedy. And April 14-15, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking. Here are just a few interesting little facts I found about the ship:

–The ship struck the iceberg at about 11:40 pm on April 14, and took about 2 hours and 40 minutes to sink (15 minutes to get to its resting place on the bottom of the ocean). There were no binoculars in the crow’s nest lookout, so time from sighting to impact was about 30 seconds

–Most passengers had to share bathrooms (the only rooms with private bathrooms were the two uber-expensive promenade suites in 1st class), but in 3rd class there were only 2 bathtubs for 700 people

–There were 9 dogs aboard–two survived (a Pom and a Peke)

–Though there were 4 funnels, only 3 were functional; the fourth was only for aesthetics

–The ship was approximately the same height and length as Tower Bridge

–The price of a ticket (in 1912 prices); 1st–$4350, 2nd–$1750, 3rd–$30

–There were 20 lifeboats, 14 with a capacity of 65, 2 with a capacity of 40, and 4 collapsibles that could hold 47. If the boats had all been launched to capacity (which almost none were), they would have held 1178 of the 2201 aboard. As it was 711 were rescued. (Luckily the ship had not sold out to its full capacity of 3547). This seems shockingly inadequate to us today, but it actually exceeded Board of Trade requirements. The thinking was a) they needed the deck space for passengers to stroll around, b) even the ship sank, it wouldn’t be very fast thanks to the watertight compartments and the boats would only be for ferrying passengers to rescuing ships.

–The first film version of the disaster was made about a month later, starring actress and survivor Dorothy Gibson. For her star turn in Saved From The Titanic, she wore the actual gown she was rescued in, but the prints were destroyed in a fire a few years later.

–It’s long been thought the last song the orchestra played was “Nearer My God To Thee,” but survivor Harold Bride stated that it was “Autumn”

–There were lots of famous names and robber baron types aboard, but two canceled their trips at the last minute–JP Morgan and Milton Hershey

–If you want to own some Titanic stuff for yourself (and have room for stuff like a deck chair, a part of the bulkhead, and a cherub from the staircase), there is an auction of Titanic items tomorrow in Richmond, Virginia

–I love these menus from last night on the ship (a local college is having a Titanic dinner this weekend–maybe someplace near you is as well)

Are you interested in the story of the Titanic? What are some of your favorite things about the disaster, or the whole Edwardian era??

And on a whole different note, be sure and enter my contest to win a copy of my may release, The Taming of the Rogue! It will be going on until the end of today…

From the Cutty Sark to ereaders

Updated on February 11, 2013 by Janet Mullany

This month the Cutty Sark in Greenwich will be opened to the public once more. The 1869 ship has been in dry dock in Greenwich for over 60 years but a disastrous fire in 2007 closed it for repairs and a facelift. Go here and check out amazing pics of the new display and the collection of restored figureheads beneath. We’ve been talking this week about the Titanic and even a merchant ship like the Cutty Sark was a huge structure–the wonderful new display shows the extent of the ship underwater. I wish I could be there on 26th.

I also wanted to follow up on Carolyn’s post yesterday about the TBR pile. I don’t have one. But I do have a TBR collection on my Kindle, as well as many books that I got a page into and archived. I suppose it’s what happens when you lurk mostly around the free or $3.99 or less than pile. (Pile? See, we don’t even have the language for ereading.) I think I’ve bought maybe four or so ebooks that I adore and will read again. But after buying the Kindle and using it almost exclusively for my commute reading and sometimes my bedtime reading since last summer, I’m now yearning for real books. I want that experience of looking over the cover and the back cover blurb and feeling the heft of a real book in my hands. I want to go lurk around the library. I really, really miss the library. I want to go to a bookstore for something other than expensive coffee or birthday cards or a quick fondle of the new releases. (And I received a couple of B&N gift cards as late xmas/birthday presents so soon I’ll be able to do that.)

Yes, I’m feeling nostalgic for recycled tree products. Or am I? I think what I’m missing, still, is my local Borders and the community I experienced there, learning how to write and meeting other writers, signing, talking to strangers about books.

Now as you probably know, the life cycle of mass market paperbacks is incredibly wasteful, books periodically stripped of their covers to be returned and the pages shredded and recycled, while more are shipped to the retailers. If you read a lot, then an ereader makes more sense ecologically, but the manufacture and destruction of an ereader take a lot of energy. The Sierra Club has published an article on the environmental impact of real books vs. ereaders.

On the other hand the sentimentality about “real” books can be pretty silly as Paperwork Blog says:

When you ask people their opinions regarding e-readers vs. real books you find that there is a small section of society that can only be described as the Complete Collection of Literary Dickheads. They will talk about printed novels in an over-romanticised way and for some reason tend to focus on the physical act of turning the pages, the smell of books and how these can’t be replicated by digital versions. That may be true, but turning the pages of a novel isn’t an integral part of the story, it’s just something that you have to do.

Techfanatix has a nice, thoughtful piece about initial suspicion leading to enthusiasm leading to … indifference: “Did I mention that the experience isn’t half as fun as reading a real book?” I’m afraid that I too may be falling out of love with my Kindle.

I like this article from PureVision too:

There are just some things that I would not think twice about doing with a regular paperback that I would never do with a portable electronic device. Reading in the bath is example #1. Leaving it out whenever and wherever is #2. Reading in bed is a lot more uncomfortable and slightly ridiculous with a laptop or iPod. Not to mention some of the other uses that go beyond actually reading. What if I needed to start a fire in a worst-case survival situation and needed paper to get it going? What if I found a rare herb and wanted to preserve it by pressing it between pages of a book? What if I needed a makeshift doorjamb? The list goes on and I’m pretty sure in most of these scenarios, my $10 paperback would be more handy than an expensive e-reader.

So where do you stand on this issue? Are you with the Complete Collection of Literary Dickheads? Passionately involved with your ereader? Somewhere in between? Or looking to start an emergency fire?

Posted in Reading, Research | Tagged Cutty Sark, e-readers | 5 Replies

My Regency “friend” Harriet, Part II

Updated on February 11, 2013 by Elena Greene

Last week I blogged about the Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville and how I could relate to her feelings about the fashionable life versus family life. We’ve sometimes talked here about what we would ask Jane Austen if some time machine made it possible for us to meet. I think I’d be so intimidated that I would either clam up or start babbling like Miss Bates (and probably end up as a comic secondary character in her next work). Harriet feels more like someone I could drink tea and gossip with, though like Jane Austen, she could indulge in a bit of snark:

“It is said here that Mr. John Grefuhle is to marry Emily Rumbold. He is
immensely rich, good-looking and gentlemanlike, and quite English in his manner and language. I hope he will, for she is a good girl, I believe, and she has tried all Europe in vain for a husband.”

“Mr. Chichester has fallen deeply in love with Lady Harriet Butler, and it is supposed will propose at my ball. Edward Montagu whips up a little love and
despair upon the occasion, which will do none of them any harm.”

And here’s a character sketch I found intriguing. It feels like a spoof of our typical cynical Regency rake:

“I admire F. Lamb perhaps more than I like him. I think him uncommonly agreeable and clever, but he sees life in the most degrading light, and he simplifies the thing by thinking all men rogues and all women ——-. He looks old and world-beaten, but still handsome. He seems to enjoy being here, and sport, food
and sleep fill up his time. At any spare moment he reads ‘The Heart of Midlothian’, of which he says: ‘Why, if you wish for my opinion, I think it the worst novel I ever read.’”

What historical Regency personage would you like to chat with?

Elena

www.elenagreene.com

www.facebook.com/ElenaGreene

Posted in Regency, Research | Tagged countess granville, lady harriet cavendish | 2 Replies

Culloden Memories

Updated on February 10, 2013 by Diane Gaston

Today marks the 266th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden, the last pitched battle to be fought on British soil and the battle that ended the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.

In 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie gathered forces from Ireland, the Highlands and Lowlands to fight for the restoration of the English monarchy to the Stuarts. His forces, exhausted from a long march and short on rations met those of the Duke of Cumberland on the Culloden Moor on April 16, 1746. The battle was bloody and short, lasting only an hour. The Jacobite forces were decimated, the wounded slaughtered, and the survivors hunted down, imprisoned and executed. This harsh treatment of the enemy earned the Duke of Cumberland the name of “The Butcher.”

Bonnie Prince Charlie was pursued throughout Scotland with a price on his head of £30,000, but he managed to escape and make his way back to France. Subsequent to the battle, efforts were made to break up the clan system and highland dress was forbidden.

Ironically, it was a visit by George IV in 1822 that would restore a sense of Scottish identity and unify the Highlanders and Lowlanders in the common symbol of the kilt and tartan.

During the Regency there would still be a few people alive who endured the battle first-hand and others whose grandparents or parents were alive then. I wonder what the Regency era aristocracy knew of the battle. Did they think of it as we might WWII? What did the Scots think? Did they harbor resentment for what happened 60 years before?

I suspect for the Scots, emotions about the battle still ran high. A few years ago I mentioned to two friends of mine, both of Scottish descent and both writing Scottish Historicals, that my great great paternal grandmother was a Campbell. Well, this did not impress them at all. It turns out that the Campbells fought on the English side of the Battle of Culloden. My friends still considered them traitors.

What do you think Regency era Englishmen and Scots thought about each other and about the battle?

(Take a peek at my new bookcover and enter my website contest!)

Posted in Research | Tagged Culloden | 11 Replies

Empire Adrift

Updated on February 10, 2013 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Happy Tuesday, everyone! It’s been weird around here the last few days, what with ducking tornados (that luckily didn’t come too close to my town–it’s always exciting here in Oklahoma in the spring!), battling a cold, and writing. But I enjoyed the time to hole up at home with a new box of book bargains from the Edward r. Hamilton catalog.

One of the books I ordered this time was Patrick Wilcken’s Empire Adrift: The Portugese Court in Rio de Janeiro, 1808-1821, and I loved reading more about this strange tale. I knew almost nothing about what happened to Portugal during the Peninsula Wars–it always gets overshadowed by Spain, and I don’t know much about the history of that country in general. One review quote called this “A brilliant account of a bizarre yet momentous event.” In 1807, the Portugese prince regent Dom Joao (regent for his mad elderly mother Queen Maria), with the French closing in on his country and the British bossing him around, decided to just pack up his entire court and government and go to his colony in Brazil to rule from there. Over 10,000 people hurriedly climbed aboard a fleet amid chaos and confusion, and after a dangerous, stormy voyage emerged in the tropics. They stayed there for 13 years, in a weird attempted recreation of their life in Lisbon amid the jungle. In addition to trying to rule an enemy-occupied country from across the ocean, they also contended with a highly disfunctional royal family (Dom Joao and his ambitious Spanish wife, Dona Carlotta, had long been bitterly estranged, even though they had 9 bickering kids, and their quarrels only got worse in the New World).

I couldn’t help but imagine a story set amid characters like this! What would a European woman think of life in Brazil? How would she adjust? (the heir Dom Pedro’s bride, the Austrian archduchess Leopoldina, at first romanticized what life in the “innocent” new world would be like, but soon came to hate it, along with her husband, and long for her home). It was a fascinating story, one I enjoyed learning about.

What are some stories from history you were surprised to learn about? If you had lived in the Regency period would you have been brave enough to make a run for South America??

Posted in Regency, Research | Tagged Empire Adrift, Portugal | 3 Replies