[lit-ideas] Re: YesMinisterology/Trafalgar
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:11:41 -0700
On Oct 19, 2010, at 1:26 PM, Judith Evans wrote:
>
> The BBC paragraph's a bit muddled, isn't it?
>
> Yes, David. 2 new aircraft carriers, one of which will be mothballed, no
> planes. (No planes in time.) It seems building the carriers is less expensive
> than cancelling them...
>
>
>
>
> Reminds me of the "Yes Minister" episode in which there was a hospital that
> ran very efficiently... because there were no patients.
>
>
> Dining with the Lord Mayor of London (as one does when one is as triffically
> important a person as one...is) I was once seated next to the admiral charged
> with building these two new carriers. When he heard that I live in the U.S.,
> he expressed what I can only call "carrier envy." He was sure that the
> British carriers would be first rate...when they were built...possibly by the
> French...but the bloomin' U.S. navy has ten of the things...and more in
> mothballs.
>
> If you run into him, do please say that I'd be happy to pop up to Bremerton,
> which is not so far to drive, and put his name on one of the ones that seems
> to be going spare. Who knows, they might throw in a couple of biplanes as a
> lagniappe?
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_the_United_States_Navy
>
> While in a naval vein, I might mention I've been enjoying David Howarth on
> Trafalgar, which has the great virtue of including in the account, views from
> Spanish and French decks. I learned that one of the Spanish ships, the
> "Rayo," was commanded by an Irishman, Henry Macdonnel. As an exercise, I
> compared Howarth's account of Macdonnel's role with one here:
> http://www.antrimhistory.net/content.php?cid=478
>
> You'll see, if you so wish, that the two accounts can't even agree on how to
> spell Macdonnel.
>
> Howarth says that Macdonnel had only just taken command of the ship when the
> fleet sallied out, and at the moment of battle he was in the process of
> discovering how old and rotten the vessel was. The answer? "Very." In
> Howard's account, there were two consequences to this discovery: "Rayo" was
> the only ship in the fight to leave without firing a shot and, just when it
> seemed the ship might survive, the entire rigging fell overboard. The ship
> then drove ashore in a storm and was wrecked.
>
>
> The web account has MacDonnell, not only firing during the fight, but then on
> the day after MacDonnell wants to rescue fellow countrymen, thus
> demonstrating "indomitable courage."
>
> A rare instance of two completely opposite interpretations of the same
> circumstance.
>
> David Ritchie,
> celebrating Arsenal's win,
> Portland, Oregon
>
>
>
>
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