#gunroom

[dedsecsworld]

[mavenbuilt]

Tinkering to find that perfect trigger weight, cleaning every inch of your favorite hunting rifle - whatever you do to make your firearm it’s best, we all have a space that fits the bill. Got a work space that you’re proud of? We’d love to see it - tag #mavenbuilt and we’ll share our favs. #mavenbuilt #mavenoptics #mavencustom #gunroom #gearroom https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn27GnpvwdI/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[lurking-latinist]

The Gunroom of the Surprise also has... quite a lot of fanfic. Although they do not call it fanfic

[acheronist]

'armitage signed his wedding certificate with an x implying he didn't know how to read' okay so you're telling me that you think it's fully impossible that armitage was old friends with a guy who was clever and literate enough to write his diary backwards, and this same old friend had a lot of freetime because the foretop was fucking frozen solid so there wasn't a ton of His Job to be doing anyways, and at no point in those long arctic winters with fuckall to do, the secret code writing bestie never bothered to teach thomas ANYTHING to do with literacy....???

[stoportotouch]

i don't know why but it is really funny to me to refer to specifically armitage by the fullest version of his name and title. he is eternally Gunroom Steward Thomas Armitage in my internal monologue.

[dravenscroft]

I know people have said it before but I really think we need to call Hickey out for his terrible marine husbandry :(

Okay, you want a big scary dog, but did you put any thought into it before you got him? Marines are a working breed, they have very specialised needs.

First of all they're pack animals, and frankly the pack he provided for Tozer was the equivalent of one of those tiny fishbowls with the rainbow gravel. Like you can't just acquire one other marine (a runt, at that) and a marine-adjacent breed like Armitage (it is NOT the same thing! Common misconception! Gunroom stewards generally have more in common with the steward side of their breeding) and call that an adequate pack. Not to mention how incredibly irresponsible it is keeping a teacup breed like Hodgson with marine and marine-adjacent breeds, he was ASKING for trouble.

I'll give him SOME credit, he was giving Tozer adequate enrichment by letting him go around with a gun, but marines require really consistent training or they'll tear your sofa to pieces, and there was NONE of that to be seen, he didn't even get a clicker. No wonder Tozer was getting stressed out and experiencing separation anxiety!

And then to top it all off, he thinks the solution to Tozer getting a bit unruly is to just chain him up? Typical band-aid solution to a poorly socialised, neglected marine. This is why no one should take on these breeds without proper experience.

A marine is for life, not just for mutiny.

I'm not letting Billy get out of this without taking responsibility, either. 'Oh my husband wanted a big dog' SAY NO.

[ltwilliammowett]

Memorial Brooch to Rear Admiral McKerlie, Died 12th Septr 1848. Aged 74 years, 1848

Rear Admiral John McKerlie (1774-1848) entered the Royal Navy as a volunteer in April 1794 having been at sea in the Atlantic and Baltic merchant service from a young age. Rated Able Seaman, he was sent from the receiving ship Royal William to join the elite frigate force based at Falmouth that cruised the Channel countering the activities of French commerce raiders. McKerlie was assigned to the frigate Arethusa (38) commanded by one of the most successful frigate captains of the day, Captain Sir Edward Pellew. 

In early 1795 McKerlie followed Pellew into the 44-gun heavy frigate Indefatigable with the rate of Quarter-Gunner. Owing to a sound Scottish education and his knowledge of the sea McKerlie was soon acting as Indefatigable’s schoolmaster instructing the other eighteen ‘young gentleman’ of the gunroom in the specifics of their profession, having himself been appointed a midshipman.  Throughout 1795 and 1796 he participated in the capture of the numerous French prizes which brought further fame and glory to Sir Edward Pellew. It was however early the next year that Indefatigable fought what is generally regarded as one of the boldest frigate actions of the French Revolutionary War.

On the dark and stormy night of 13 January 1797 the French 74 Droits de l’Homme was sighted off the Brittany coast. Pellew, recognizing that he was heavily outclassed, saw that the waves prevented his opponent from opening the lower gun ports and that the severe weather had caused the loss of the enemy’s topmasts. Seizing the initiative, Indefatigable closed followed by the frigate Amazon and raked the French ship of the line at every opportunity. The enemy replied with 4,000 canon balls over the next few hours until finally driven in to Audierne Bay irreparably damaged by British gunfire and the unabated gale. The sight of distant breakers however threatened the destruction of all three ships. Indefatigable, though with masts damaged and with four feet of water in her hold, alone just had time to alter course and escape.

For Pellew the action was a triumph, Lord Spencer at the Admiralty acknowledging that for two frigates to destroy a ship of the line was ‘an exploit which has not I believe ever before graced our naval Annals’. For McKerlie the action was a trauma, costing him his right arm and a severe wound to the thigh. McKerlie's sacrifice was deeply felt Sir Edward Pellew whom he followed to his subsequent command, the mutinous ship of the line Impetueux. While serving aboard the Impetueux, McKerlie participated in numerous boat actions during the Quiberon expedition in 1800, and was present during the planning of a proposed attack on Belleisle. Marshall’s Royal Naval Biography relates how McKerlie ‘…not having heard how he was to be employed, went up to Sir Edward, interrupted him in a conversation with Major-General Maitland, and asking what part he was to act in the event of a debarkation taking place? The answer was “McKerlie you have lost one hand already, and if you loose the other you will not have anything to wipe your backside with; you will remain on board with the first lieutenant and fight the ship as she is to engage an 8-gun battery.”’

The loss of an arm did little to impede McKerlie’s career. He was regarded as a talented surveyor and draftsman, working at onetime with the celebrated civil engineer Thomas Telford. He was also considered a first class shot. He received his lieutenant’s commission in 1804 and served in H.M.S. Spartiate at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. He was present in the capture of Flushing and the Walcheren expedition, and commanded a squadron of ships stationed off Heligoland; oversaw the defence and retreat from Cuxhaven; and was responsible for destroying enemy shipping on the Braak. 

Unable to get a command after 1813, McKerlie returned to his native Galloway where he married, Harriet, daughter of James Stewart of Cairnsmuir, had one daughter, Lillias (1821-1915), to either or both of whom the present brooch no doubt belonged. In a post service career McKerlie served as a local magistrate and operated commercial vessels from the port of Garlieston. After almost twenty years ashore, he made an unlikely returned to the Royal Navy as captain of the experimental frigate Vernon between 1834 and 1837. He was awarded a Pension for Wounds on 8 May 1816.

Despite the ever growing kudos that was accorded to Trafalgar veterans in the early  Victorian age, it is perhaps with greater pride that Admiral McKerlie recalled his service under Pellew (or Lord Exmouth, as he became); and in 1847 was one of only eight surviving veterans who had lived long enough to apply for the Naval General Service Medal with a clasp for the Droits de L’Homme engagement.  The following year, in 1848, he died at Corvisel House, Newton Stewart, at the age of seventy-three.

[panda-writes-kpop]

Hiiii hope your having a wonderful day. I enjoy reading your scenarios especially dreamcatcher and aespa. Which made me wonder if I can request aespa as your pirate GF :o

Pirate! Aespa as Your Girlfriend

a/n: Thank you for the lovely message, anon! I'm so glad you love my aespa and dreamcatcher stuff 🫶 and of course you can, dear! Hopefully, you enjoy this! Obligatory tag of @foolish-sparrow ❤️ can't write about pirates without acknowledging the Pirate AU queen! Please check out all of her stuff because it's all so amazing 🫶🫶 also I tried something new with the banners, so let me know if you like it or not!

tw: it's in order of how the girls are introduced in the Pirate AU fic universe (no, I have not forgotten about Giselle or Ningning I will be getting back to them plz have patience with me 🫠) instead of age order, booze and drunken activities, violence, pirating and other forms of stealing

♡ Masterlist ♡

Winter ~ The Captain

she's always busy as the Captain of the Red-Haired Pirates, either trying to corral her crew (mostly Karina and Giselle) or find the next place or ship to plunder.

but for you? she has all of the time in the world.

You're very famously known as her soft spot on the crew, and people will use it to their advantage.

Of course she knows this, but if you're going to continue to kiss her and whisper sweet nothings in her ear... she'll let the shenanigans slide, for now.

Winter likes to show you off, whether by letting you commit the finishing blow on an opponent or giving you a chance to show off your own unique set of skills

Most of the time you spend together is at night when you're out at sea.

She'll be busy looking over the a map or checking some coordinates when you wrap your arms around her waist

a rare smile appears on her face as you state out at the open ocean together.

"Where are we going, my lovely Captain?"

"As long as you're by my side, wherever the seas take us, my dear."

Karina ~ The Marksman

the loser (affectionate) marksman by day, the greasy (slightly drunk) flirt by night finds herself changing her ways as you two enter a serious relationship.

Karina feels much more comfortable being her dorky, usual self when it's just the two of you alone, but as your relationship progresses, more and more people see a different side of her

if you aren't a marksman like her, she takes you to a local shooting range and teaches you everything you need to know

"You need to aim a little higher on the target, otherwise you won't do much more than give them a good scare."

"I'd love to focus my aim, Karina, but you're making my heart pound when you're this close to me."

Karina is well-known on her crew for her drunken antics, especially with the various people she meets during her travels

It all stops with you - either you're watching her to make sure she doesn't get absolutely wasted, or you're the one participating in her antics while you're both drunk.

If it's the first option, you're able to pull her away from the bar with lots of affectionate or promises of stronger booze on the ship (you just send her straight to bed, and she's too tired to argue)

If it's the latter, you two often find yourselves cleaning the decks in order to avoid Winter's wrath due to the shitstorm that you usually cause.

But hey, at least you have someone to cuddle with as you nurse your hangover away.

Giselle ~ The Arms Specialist/Mapmaker

Pulling double duty on the ship takes a toll on the amount of free time Giselle has, but when she has a free night, you can be sure that she's living it up, especially with you at her side.

You'll literally have her heart forever if you help her with her daily tasks, she's so stressed out with everything on her plate.

Depending on your specialties, you're either marking the map or helping with coordinates, or you're cleaning up gun powder and restocking the gunroom with newly pillaged supplies.

It works in Giselle's favor because she always can find a reason to talk with you when you're working on similar tasks.

"Do you need some help, darling?"

"I think I can handle myself, Giselle, but I don't mind the company."

After the ship has docked and the sun has disappeared from the sky, Giselle is finally free from most of her responsibilities.

She's dragging you to the nearest bar, either to hustle some of the crew at cards or to grab a few drinks.

You tell her that it's unfair to play cards against people you can't even sit straight, but you find that your concerns are silenced when a bottle of your favorite liquor is sitting at your side.

And if you're just grabbing drinks with her, she's sure to tell you how much she loves you (and all of the awesome pirating stories you missed out on before you started dating).

Ningning ~ The "Rogue" Mercenary

The quiet, withdrawn "misfit" in the crew isn't drawn to having a friendly relationship to many on the crew, except for you, of course.

She hasn't fully adjusted to the pirating life, considering that she joined the crew after being held captive by them, so she often is quietly looking over your shoulder to understand how to be more useful aboard the ship

"You can come closer, it's easier to learn how to tie a knot when you can see what I'm doing."

"I can see fine from where I'm at, but thank you for the offer."

You invite her to many of the crew's nighttime activities, and it's rare for her to accept, but when she does, you see her cracking a smile and occasionally laughing at everyone's antics.

Ningning likes spending time with you one-on-one, and that's when she confesses her feelings for you.

Literally no one knows that the two of you are together, except for a drunk Karina that saw the two of you embrace one night (and no one believes her, to this day).

She doesn't like to teach you her trade, she went through a lot of shit to get her skills, but she will show you how to fight if you aren't the greatest at it.

You'll just have to put your pride to the side because she will beat your ass, every time, without fail.

Plus, she can steal a kiss or two while she has you pinned to the ground. She lectures you about not being distracted with a smirk on her face, as if it isn't her fault.

[hacash]

Mutineers showdown time!

Propaganda

Solomon Tozer (Royal Marines) �� I just? have so many thoughts about the guy who clearly gave so much of a fuck about protecting his crewmates and yet indirectly kept causing their deaths?? Tozer is so much - literally cried at seeing Collins' soul destroyed, smart enough to face down Little, dumb enough to think his 'give me all the guns' plan would work, looks good in a red coat. What more could you want.

Thomas Armitage (Gunroom Steward) – Do you know how long it took me to realise that he isn't also Grantaire from the Les Mis film? A very long time. I've literally never seen Armitage in a shot where he doesn't look hilariously miserable; truly a sad damp boy.

(You can vote on the rest of the blorbo bracket here - reblog for a better sample size!)

[drconstellation]

On Furfur's Stag

I have been musing on Furfur's winged stag for a while, and even though its origin is from the Ars Goetica there was still something niggling at the back of my mind that I had to chase up.

You see, my first connection to the stag was "horns" and the old expression of describing someone as being "given horns" when they have been cuckolded, or cheated upon.

I first learned of this expression while reading the Aubrey-Maturin novels 20 years ago, another grand M/M fandom 'ship', (although a much more platonic one) in all senses of the word. I ducked back aboard the Gunroom of the HMS Surprise to check the references and the erudite members of this old list did not let me down.

They pointed out that the tradition of giving 'horns' for cheating on one's partner came from the observing the mating practices of sheep and goats (hello, Job minisode again!) where rams do not tolerate a sexual rival and will fight to protect their females, whereas the billy-goat is a bit lazy in that regard and doesn't mind if another male mates with his nanny-goats. As such, the ram is held up as a Christian ideal, as it is seen as monogamous, but in reality it is just as polygamous as the goats! (If I find the meta on the goats in the Job minisode again I'll try to link back to it. Here it is!)

They also found this neat little video on the two-fingered "rabbit ears" people like to make in photos, and perhaps why you shouldn't be doing that (worth watching, the stag antlers make an appearance!)

I could be off track (I think was definitely off track thinking about the goddess Diana turning Actaeon into a stag and hunting him down, wrong mythology! That was why I had to do my homework) but it might be food for somebody else's thoughts.

[thekenobee]

I can't believe my eyes (nor your eyes)

I was about to type H&M but the autocorrect took me to HMSSURPRISE

It was rather a surprise, a pleasant one to be sure

[clove-pinks]

Detail from 'The Interior of a Midshipman's birth', 1821 print by George Humphry after Captain Frederick Marryat (British Museum).

The midshipmen ate in their own berth. Depending on the makeup of the group (age-range, family background, etc), conditions varied from civilised to the squalid. Where there was a responsible older midshipman he would be the most obvious mess caterer. The very young 'young gentlemen' (also known as 'squeakers') were put under the charge of the gunner, although the captain usually took responsibility for their money and expenses, doling out pocket-money as appropriate and writing to their fathers for more when necessary. Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood wrote to his friend Walter Spencer-Stanhope of his son, William, 'Your son's debts are not enormous yet—you cannot think how cheap salt water is, and there is nothing else to buy'. No-one seems to have reported what happened with older midshipmen, at the age between squeaking and financial responsibility; perhaps the captain delegated the task of mess caterer for these boys to one of the other officers.

— Janet Macdonald, Feeding Nelson’s Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era

Numerous sources speak of young midshipmen being in the care of the ship's gunner, for example Brian Lavery's book Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organisation, 1793 - 1815:

Traditionally these 'youngsters' were placed in the care of the gunner, and lived in the gunroom on a ship-of-the-line. 'In the Irresistible I again messed with the gunner, Mr Gallant, who took great care of me.' [Captain Boteler's Recollections] In 1805 the gunner was moved out of the gunroom, but it seems that the 'young gentleman' stayed there. On frigates, they probably berthed among the older midshipmen.

It seems paradoxical that the man responsible for the use and maintenance of deadly artillery was also expected to help care for young children, but he was. In his semi-autobiographical novels, Frederick Marryat's midshipmen can always be found in the gunroom, although they are mentored by various officers and older midshipmen.

'Mr B Mast-headed': an 1820 graphite and watercolour drawing of a mastheaded midshipman by Frederick Marryat (British Museum).

[lurking-latinist]

if you are here for aubreyad reasons please look at this list of Stephen Facts which I just found at the Gunroom:

it is (a) very funny and (b) making me feel more justified in my inability to reconstruct his childhood. WHEN did he live WHERE and with WHOM. I do not think you have actually decided this Mr O'Brian. I think you are just making stuff up. (Novelists. How dare they. /silly)

[fluttershywheresheshouldntbe]

With Gunroom Steward Thomas Armitage

[caleblandrybones]

hold on im thinking again about dave saying hickey probably tried to get close to armitage because he misunderstood what the gunroom was. that was so funny of him

[pliny-the-youngest]

Woe and agony, i let an ask sit in my inbox too long and now it's disappeared.

If you or a loved one asked me about the Gladman point skeleton and my Gibson truther mindset, this one's for you.

Most of my feelings about the skeleton not being Armitage come from the glenn stein article, which I'll try to link here also. As far as I know, the article is trustworthy, but if anyone knows otherwise lmk. (Cursed journals being behind paywalls)

Basically, his main points (also supported as a possibility by Cyriax and Jones, who I think were the original guys who posited that the skeleton is armitage) for it being Gibson is like entirely dependent on his service history with Peglar:

- longer and more recent service history on the Wanderer than Peglar and Armitage

- also would have had more chances to interact together (Gibson was an ord seaman at that point and would've had more opportunity to be hanging around w peglar on deck)

Also yeah, the clothing brush. I don't know what a gunroom steward might need that for.

I don't remember what the exact ask was, so I hope this is coherent enough.