The Devil's Scripture

dumping ground for historical and historical-fiction sketches and arts by @signalseven , as well as general research, articles and stuff i think is interesting, evocative, etc. foci tend to be within 1700s-1940s, mostly portraits. probably a lot of maritime and scientific themes, and old time radio.

[theamericanparlor]

[ltwilliammowett]

Mourning ring, late 18th or early 19th century

A depiction of Hope with her anchor looking after a now faded warship. A symbol that was often used to hope that the sailor would return home safe and sound.

As this is a mourning ring, the loved one never returned and Hope here is most likely the lady who lost her loved one to the sea.

[wesley-de-cornualles]

“I ’m on the sea! I ’m on the sea! I am where I would ever be; With the blue above, and the blue below, And silence wheresoe’er I go; If a storm should come and awake the deep, What matter? I shall ride and sleep.”

— Barry Cornwall, from “The Sea”

[smithsonianlibrariesarchives]

A stylized illustration of a ship using the sun (and magnets, according to the caption) to navigate from Jan van der Straet’s 1590 book Noua reperta.

Full text available here.

[marryat92]

"What machines we are on board of a man-of -war! We walk, talk, eat, drink, sleep, and get up, just like clock-work; we are wound up to go the twenty-four hours, and then wound up again; just like old Smallsole does the chronometers."

"Very true, Jack; but it does not appear to me, that, hitherto, you have kept very good time: you require a little more regulating," said Gascoigne.

"How can you expect any piece of machinery to go well, so damnably knocked about as a midshipman is?" replied our hero.

"Very true, Jack; but sometimes you don't keep any time, for you don't keep any watch."

— Frederick Marryat, Mr. Midshipman Easy

1881 edition of Mr. Midshipman Easy in the collection of the British Library.

[lawrenharrispaintings]

Icebergs, Smith Sound II, 1930, oil on board, 11.8 x 14.8 in. by Lawren Harris

[ltwilliammowett]

Aurora Borealis, by Frederic Edwin Church, 1865

[ltwilliammowett]

Narrative of an Expedition in H.M.S. Terror, by Captain George Back 1838 after his Arctic Expedition 1836-1837

[ltwilliammowett]

A Pair of Stafforshire porcelaine figures of Sir John Franklin and Lady Jane Franklin, 19th century, each 10in. (25.4cm) high

[inland-delta]

  Robert  Havell, Sir John  Ross, from a “Voyage of Discovery..enquiring into the possibility of a North-West Passage”, 1819

[ltwilliammowett]

Disruption of the Ice around Her Majesty's Ship Terror, Captain Back, July 1837, watercolour by George Smythe

[maxhaering]

Max Haering: Wreck of HMS Terror

HMS Terror was together with HMS Erebus part of an arctic expedition which ended in a disaster (last seen 1845, discovered 2016 near King William Island) ink drawing, ca. 54 x 54 cm, 2018/2021

[ltwilliammowett]

HMS Terror in the ice, drawn by Lieutenant Owen Stanley, who took part in Sir George Back’s Arctic expedition in 1836 and 1837 

[geritsel]

Frank Wilbert Stokes - Oil sketches from polar expeditions, 1886-1902

[nemfrog]

Arctic sun.  More Adventures. 1940.  Armstrong Sperry. 

Internet Archive

[nunagijavut]

Sorry I’ve been gone for a bit! The rain put me in a bit of a funk- disappointment over not having a thunderstorm and it either slowed my internet connection down or cut out service completely. But- it does mean that soon we’ll have absolutely wonderful blueberries.

[nemfrog]

The northern sun. Ballads of a Cheechako. 1917.

Internet Archive