#htd le vesconte

[orestes-hungry-and-pylades-sober]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Terror (TV 2018) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: John Irving & Henry T. D. Le Vesconte Characters: John Irving (1815-c.1848), Henry T. D. Le Vesconte Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, the 'comfort' part of that is debatable, Grief, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Religion Critical, drunk bonding, Strangers to Friends, we're doomed but at least we're doomed together, The Great Tumblr Terror Roleplay, jirv the holy ghost boy my absolute beloved Summary:

“Home,” John Irving muses, knowing that it’s not an answer to Le Vesconte’s question and not wanting to answer anyway. “It seems so far away, doesn't it? I... would like to think that God has placed these challenges in front of me to better my soul. But some deep, dark part of myself thinks that perhaps life is just cruel. Did I do something to lose my God's favour? Did I never have it to begin with? These are thoughts that I struggle with every day. My faith isn’t as strong as you’d think.”

-------------------

In which Irving and Dundy bond first over tea, then over gin, and finally over tears and shared grief.

@lieut-dundy-le-vesconte @lieutenantjirv

[moongazeonastarfillednight]

The Doctor Who Audio Dramas - 164 Terror of the Arctic part five

Last DWAD post I swear (I have to get this out of my head).

Just wanted to share the part with Le Vesconte incredible boss soloing with an axe 🥲 starts at around 2:00

[clove-pinks]

I'm in a Battle of Trafalgar mood today, and you know who was at the Battle of Trafalgar? CAPTAIN THOMAS DUNDAS of HMS Naiad, and his loyal lieutenant Henry Le Vesconte!

There are no pictures of Captain (later Admiral Sir Thomas) Dundas online that I'm aware of; you might find a misattributed picture labeled as him. But I do have a c. 1840s daguerreotype of Trafalgar veteran Henry Le Vesconte: the father of Henry Thomas Dundas Le Vesconte from the Franklin Expedition.

This is from the archives of Newfoundland and Labrador, which also has some letters from Captain Thomas Dundas with the Le Vesconte family files, including this one acknowledging his namesake:

Vengeur Spithead 8th August 1813

My Dear Sir,

I have to acknowledge having received both your letters, the first on my return to Portsmouth after leave of absence of fourteen days from the ship.

Permit me to congratulate you and Mrs. Levesconte on so pleasant an addition to the family as a Son and also permit me to express my obligation for the honor conferred on me by naming it Henry Thos. Dundas and I sincerely hope he may prove himself in due time a second Henry. I beg my best regards to all concerned and have taken the liberty to enclose this bit of paper which I beg you will have the goodness to present the Nurse for me.

I remain 

My Dear Sir

Your Sincere Friend 

Thos Dundas 

[clove-pinks]

Absolutely even 19th century people could get fed up with cross-writing—like Frederick Marryat, who complained of a correspondent in 1839: "Tell her that I hate crossed letters. It may be economy, as far as paper and postage are concerned, but my eyes are of more consequence to me."

James Fitzjames and Henry T.D. Le Vesconte: friends, shipmates, horrible cross-writers. 🤝🏻

I would like to transcribe more of Le Vesconte's First Opium War-era letters, but they look like this:

Cross-writing Hell

Behold the most annoying letter I have transcribed thus far. 8 cross-written sheets that are out of order. It was very helpful to see the originals, & I've now put the text in the correct order & transcribed all of the words. Fitzjames tells Aunt Louisa about the landing of King Otho at Napoli in February 1833.

Just know I had to go through this:

To give you this:

[pianodoesterror]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Terror (TV 2018) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Thomas Blanky/Henry T. D. Le Vesconte Characters: Thomas Blanky, Henry T. D. Le Vesconte Additional Tags: Colleagues with Benefits, Hand Jobs, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, rated M for attempts at a yorkshire accent, Oral Sex Summary:

Le Vesconte cleared his throat, fingers tapping on the edge of the trunk. “If you insist, we might toss for it?”

“A coin," Thomas grinned, "or somethin’ more festive?”

Or

when plans for Carnivale outfits clash, how will these two sailors decide who needs to go home and change.

for Tomfest!

[marryat92]

Here is an article not strictly on-topic for this blog—despite my Franklin expedition tag—but it links back to my humble @marryat92 address. Franklin researchers Logan Zachary and Alison Freebairn have not only put together a Franklin Expedition Guide to London, but in this most recent blog post, they have solved the riddle of where Captain McClintock's steam yacht Fox docked on her return from the Franklin search expedition that discovered the Victory Point Note and many other relics.

I am honoured to have contributed a small piece of the puzzle from the family archives of Franklin expedition Lieutenant Henry T.D. Le Vesconte. It turns out that the Le Vesconte family have a unique version of the stereoscopic pictures taken of the Fox, and this was able to reveal more information.

Lieutenant Le Vesconte famously posed for his daguerreotype portrait on board HMS Erebus in 1845 holding a book—which just so happens to be Frederick Marryat's Code of Signals.

[chernoblank]

I want Le Vesconte to say outrageous yet easily explainable things in the officer's mess, like alluding to tying up James to ravish him and everyone just marks a confused pause but oh no he actually meant the top mast rigging or something and only James knows what he meant and exactly when/where it happened and internally swears revenge but is also secretly delighted

[unquietgrave]

@catgirlhornblower  very kindly tagged me to post the last line of my current wip! 

- place order for green silk, 5. yards  (HTD. Le Vesconte waistcoat)

tagging @grimark @edwardashley @stolperzunge aaand also my beloved @rhaill (I know you were tagged already, but I am gently nudging you anyways)

[clove-pinks]

'H.M. Steam frigate FIREBRAND and the Experimental Squadron': c. 1844-1845 print (NMM).

Detail, with the sails unsurprisingly furled under full steam. Henry Thomas Dundas Le Vesconte referred to Firebrand as "this monster of a steam ship" in an undated 1844 letter to his sister Rose, when he briefly found himself aboard her before joining HMS Superb, also in the Experimental Squadron. Superb makes his official naval biography in O'Byrne (his last ship before joining HMS Erebus), and I believe this letter in the archives of Newfoundland and Labrador is the only proof he spent some time aboard Firebrand.

"ROSE" is written at top right, and Henry begins

My dear Sister, Mamma scolds me for not writing to all of you.  I hope my dear sisters will not attribute it to want of regard for them but first if I write to Papa I know that the letter will be read by all tho so often am I far removed not only from you but from all our friends that I have little to say which can interest nor in common. I have to thank you for some very kind letters while I was away from England, to which you will find I have returned not much improved in fortune but a good deal older yet I fear not much wiser. I am going again but I do not know exactly where. I have been of course anxious to be employed since my return for they sent me on shore on 4S a day.

He offers to sail "with a squadron of new vessels who were to have their respective qualities tested," and is sent to join Superb, but somehow ends up on Firebrand:

I found myself sent to Plyms. to join the Superb. On arriving there I was sent back to get men for her at Portsmouth and as soon as I got back again I was ordered to Plymouth to join the Firebrand steam ship of the first class. The vessel I had previously wished to go out in - this was done in a mistake Sir Wm. G who is good natured but blundering - having fancied that he had promised this appointment to me. I spent three days at Southampton and at [illegible] I might having remained as long as I dared do I left a childrens party at Mrs. Blanchards, I have heard Mamma speak of her, and came alone cold dispirited and miserable to this monster of a steam ship - where I now am.

(Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador)

[clove-pinks]

I wonder if known James Fenimore Cooper fan Henry T.D. Le Vesconte read Ned Myers, or, a Life Before the Mast??

I (stupid) only just learned that this is the inspiration for Lee Murdock's banger song:

[clove-pinks]

Inspired by @radiojamming sharing their photographs of Franklin Expedition signatures from the ships' muster books, I went through the digitised Le Vesconte Family Archives, held in the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador, and grabbed screen shots of Henry T.D. Le Vesconte's signatures from assorted letters.

While none of them quite match the amount of swirls and flourishes that Le Vesconte used for his Very Special Muster Book Signature, I think it’s fascinating to see how his signature can vary over the years! It's also an open question of what, exactly, he is signing before his surname. Le Vesconte descendent William Wills partially transcribed a few letters, and he believed that his great-granduncle signed his name "T.D. Le Vesconte."

Personally, I think he's squeezing in an "HTD," which is the monogram on his wax seal that can be seen on quite a few of these scanned letters. (The H is unlike how he would write that letter normally, but I think he's trying to interweave it with the TD.)

From a letter to his father dated February 1, 1843—a typical cross-writing disaster. Did he only wrote "D" before "Le Vesconte"? Dundy truthers rejoice!

Your affectionate Son

[squiggle initials] Le Vesconte

From a letter to his father dated Bombay/HM Brig Clio Tuesday July 18 1843. You can see how much he loves a dramatic flourish with the T in Le Vesconte, and a loop or swirl on the final E.

Letter to his father dated [HMS] Calliope Rio Janeiro [sic] January 20 1839. It's a huge cross-written missive that just goes on and on and on; I think he forgot how to sign his own name at the end of this ordeal.

Letter to his father dated Clio off Nankin Aug. 15 1843. Noteworthy as he appears to sign his name "HTDLeV" at the margin of the page, after an abbreviated "Your affec. Son."

Finally, a letter addressed to his mother in this collection, dated HMS Erebus Woolwich April 16 1845. Very long cross on the T, and a flourish from the terminal E. It's signatures like this one that make me think he's signing all three of his first initials.

From a letter to his father, dated HMS Erebus May 2 1845. There is an HTD in there, right?? Anybody with me on this one??

From a letter to his mother dated May 15 Greenhithe [1845], with a short message for his older sister Rose at the end. A RARE "Henry"!! When he doesn't have a Le Vesconte to embellish, the Y in Henry will suffice.

Baby (23-year-old) Henry Le Vesconte's signature in a letter to father dated HMS Excellent Portsmouth Harbour Dec. 24 1836. I have transcribed this one, it's a great letter all around.

Your affec. Son HTDLeV. [?]

From a letter to his father dated Portsmouth October 17th 1844.

At the post image limit, I will close with "brother Henry" from a late 1844/early 1845 letter to his older sister Rose. He's obviously closer to her than to his other siblings (who may not have had much time to get to know him, since he was only 15 years old when he left home for good as a first class volunteer). Here's a rough transcription of this letter!

[pianodoesterror]

You said in the first Dundy ask about building a character from canon. Can I be nosy and ask you about how you did this?

Anon - I would like to apologise for taking what must be over a month to answer this. I will own up and say I meant to come back and answer when I had the brain power and then forgot about it. 100,000 apologies.

I do not thing I can speak with a deal of authority on building a character from the ground up. With fanfic you are taking characters someone else has built, and delving into what we are shown in the media/ exploring them in different situations.

That being said, the way I write Dundy is not wholly how Declan did him in the show. I have written a more serious, pragmatic, "rocking the boat" Dundy in some fics, but all in all he has (for me) rather turned into a very... personal? version of this character - as in I write him acc to the dude in my head lool.

I first did Dundy in my second ever Terror fic, and I had just finished reading JFJ's biography and listening to HMS Surprise (one of the master & commander series), which is why he came out Rather Georgian. Rather Loud lool. My friend enjoyed him, so I kept at him, because he became a lightness in what is a very grim canon (and even more grim real life) - and is surprisingly helpful in moving the plot forward. Dundy is for life, not just for announcing Banjo's and suddenly deciding democracy exists in the RN.

As I said, he is a mix of residual JFJ and O'Brien vibes. And also bits of all my closest friends, being he is usually occupies the best friend role. It has not been concious, I only noticed on looking back - I can't say this is from this friend, and that from another, as people are varied and personalities overlap. But I like to think of him as all the weird humour you share with your friends; all their work ethic and intelligence, their quirks and idiot moments and shit talking.

tl;dr he's all the best bits of the people I know, tacked onto the guy who ran a 2x capacity Erebus on his own (which most of my friends would excel at tbh), and who was checked out after FJ - his captain - died.

For building any character, or world, it is all about your experiences in life, the people you know, and what you surround yourself with. To paraphrase Sir Terry Pratchett - inspiration is a butterfly, and you have to make your mind the kind of garden it would want to visit.

[pianodoesterror]

Chapters: 3/3 Fandom: The Terror (TV 2018), The Terror - Dan Simmons Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Commander James Fitzjames/Lt Henry T. D. Le Vesconte, Captain Francis Crozier & Commander James Fitzjames Characters: Lt Henry T. D. Le Vesconte, Commander James Fitzjames, Captain Francis Crozier, Various Characters Additional Tags: Fix-It, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Canonical Character Death, Friendship, Established Relationship, Stress, Period Typical Attitudes, dundy suffers, Grief/Mourning, Intercrural Sex, Sexual Tension, Hand Jobs, Angst with a Happy Ending Series: Part 2 of by land or by sea Summary:

 Henry took comfort in the knowledge that Erebus was close, her masts sitting clear of the pressure ridges all about them. As soon as they reached her the damned sting of freezing cold across his cheeks would be banished, and his chest could see about not being crushed by the hauling harness that was pressing in to the week’s worth of a bruise that it had given him. It hurt like the blazes, but it hurt the men of his sledge party also, to the extent that they had stopped their singing of hauling songs or chatter, so Henry simply leaned into the hurt and kept on keeping on.

OR

Fitzconte no one asked for but I did it anyway, pt 2

[clove-pinks]

As resident dundyologist I have a question to ask if it's not to much trouble. Sunday as far as I am aware was born in Jersey so did he speak jèrriais at all?

Hello! I am always glad to field questions about Henry TD Le Vesconte, to the best of my abilities. I think there's an autocorrect mistake in your ask��do you mean Dundy, not Sunday? Henry TD Le Vesconte was born in Netherton, Devon and his mother was a local girl (so he would have spoken English natively, even if he was bilingual).

His father, Henry "no middle names" Le Vesconte, was baptised in Jersey (Société Jersiaise 1932 bulletin), and there is conflicting information on Ancestry.com and in the Le Vesconte family records in St. John's Newfoundland regarding his birth year and birth place. Even if he was born in Stoke Damerel, Devon (which I think is correct), he had deep Jersey roots.

I don't know if Henry Le Vesconte, father or son, could speak Jèrriais. Circumstantial evidence suggests they could both speak French. There is a letter from Henry TD Le Vesconte to his father dated 17 October 1844 in which he ponders "going for a month or two into France with my old friend Philip Helpman – now a commander" (a fellow Opium War vet, not a known relative of Franklin expedition clerk E.J.H. Helpman). Maybe HTD Le Vesconte was willing to spend months in France without being able to speak the language, certainly other English tourists did, but he had francophone family. An 1836 letter mentions his younger brother Philip spending time in France, and Henry adds, "he talks of going over again in the summer. I should not dislike the trip if they would ask me."

I could swear I came across another reference from HTD Le Vesconte in which he talks about visiting France/speaking French and just spent a dizzying amount of time trying to find it; but this still doesn't answer your question!

tl;dr: I don't know, sorry! All of his archived letters are in English, and I am unsure of his fluency in other languages.

[clove-pinks]

Good afternoon especially to the person who is trawling through all the Henry TD Le Vesconte content on all of my blogs.

Perhaps you would like to see an image of his wax seal, which reads HTD(!), from a letter addressed to his father in Percy, Newcastle District, Upper Canada.