lie where i land, let my bones turn to sand

i was born on the lake and i don't want to leave it

[frozenpinesmotel]

waterline strut

[landsccape]

[ltwilliammowett]

Art Deco Bakelite bracelet with an engraving of a ship, early 20th century

[ltwilliammowett]

I came across this remarkable piece of research: an analysis of a very ordinary letter from a mother to her son, a simple sailor who was due to be hanged for sodomy. Seth Stein LeJacq has taken on the task and, in this article, has explored a fascinating and also very sadly– chapter in the history of homosexuality.

Content warning: Sexual violence and rape; sexual abuse of minors; state violence against queer people.

“o what happiness it wood be for me to see you once more”: A Mother’s Letter, a Royal Navy Sodomy Hanging, and the Tragic in Queer History

Content warning: Sexual violence and rape; sexual abuse of minors; state violence against queer people. Late in 1800, Britain’s Royal Navy h

[fantomecorsaire]

It should be noticed this is relevant as a piece of Black history, as George Hynes was a Black sailor. Mister LeJacq does not speculate on Mister Hynes's background in this short article, and indeed the original court records may offer more insight into his employ, sailing history, descent. You can find more of Mister LeJacq's work here, wherein he has also archived other cases of queer identity amongst sailors. He has a broad understanding of British colonialism and approaches archival work from a standpoint sympathetic to its victims. To highlight the article itself:

*This letter has haunted me as I’ve researched the British navy’s war against sex between males in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. [...] I know I’m also not alone in having nightmares about what I’ve found in the archives.

We need to do a better job in discussing the effects of studying distressing history and preparing researchers for these sorts of sources. And we need to do better in supporting the many people who work with traumatic archives [...] This goes beyond self-care and informal peer aid. Only meaningful structural reform can ensure adequate support for so many of the people who do this work.

In the early nineteenth century, the navy may have been the most brutal of all British state institutions in punishing sex between males. It put hundreds of sailors on trial, mostly poor and working-class men and boys. [...] More than 70 percent suffered some form of conviction. The most common sentences were corporal and capital: public flogging for non-penetrative acts; hanging for penetration. [...]

The letter has nothing to do with the events at issue in the trial. Thomas introduced it not to fight the charges against him, but instead to plead for mercy. [...]

Hubbard attempted something that did sometimes succeed: he pointed to his family and their dependence on him. This is where his mother’s letter entered the proceedings. Thomas asked that it be read in court as evidence that he had relations, family that “must starve” without his support. He hoped to rouse the sympathy of the officers who would decide his fate.

He failed.

[...] It is a tragedy that so little survives documenting the queer past; that so much of what does survive deals with violence and abuse; that whatever really happened in all these cases, there is no question that many of the people involved suffered terribly, and that their stories are now lost to us."

[lucybellwood]

A watercolor commission from a few years back featuring some requested Decemberists lyrics!

[haridraws]

wip drawing

[michaelmoonsbookshop]

The Song of the English by Rudyard Kipling 

Illustration by W Heath Robinson

[michaelmoonsbookshop]

[Sold]

[yeoldenews]

Advertising peaked in 1752.

(source: Aris's Birmingham Gazette, August 3, 1752.)

[the-golden-vanity]

ROU Capitán Miranda, former hydrographic survey vessel and current sail-training staysail schooner of the Uruguayan Navy. The paintings on the sails and other decorative items aboard are by prominent twentieth-century Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró, the father of plane crash survivor Carlos Páez Rodríguez.

Photos ©️ @the-golden-vanity

[pinkblanc]

[ltwilliammowett]

The 'Medusa', 32 guns, sailing from the Downs, August 1801, by Mark Myers (1945-)

[methodical-coffee]

Remy Charlip & Jerry Joyner.

[gh0stienj0yer]

i need to get off tumblr i’m at the aquarium admiring the fish and my brain goes “posts that make you want to get in the water” what are you talking about. these are live fish in the room with you. what post.

[gh0stienj0yer]

posts that make you want to get in the water

[ltwilliammowett]

The Bloedvlag

I’m working quite a lot with Dutch ships at the moment and I always noticed a small but not exactly invisible detail in the paintings (Strictly speaking even very prominently above the stern ) : the blood red flag.

Battle at Elseneur in the Sound between the Dutch and Swedish fleets, 8 November 1658, by Peter van de Velde, around 1670 (detail below)

After some research I only got the Nazi flag from the second world war, well not really what I was looking for but then I found it - it is the so called Bloedvlag- the blood flag.

Another special work is the painting by Jan Molenaar (1682) in which the Edam shipbuilder Jacob Mathijsz Oosterlingh is proudly portrayed alongside 92 ships, built by him and his family, and here we can see the bloedvlag on the left.

This flag has been hoisted since the beginning of the 17th century during the Eighty Years War on Dutch ships as a signal for certain tactical actions.  It is uncertain that the red color was used because of its visibility, or because it is related to the color of the blood as a sign of a fierce battle. Originally, the blood flag was a red flag depicting an arm armed with a sword, but it can vary.

This type of depiction was also used on other flags but was particularly popular with the Barbary pirates.

This flag was used until the Second World War where it was hoisted as a sign for the opening of the fire, only in the Second World War it became black.

The Amelia Engaging English Ships, 1652-53 by Jan van Leyden, 1652

[ltwilliammowett]

Hamburger Richfische

These silverfish are designed as charming perfume containers. They are stuffed with cotton wool or fabric and filled with perfume or scented water.

Altonaer Museum, Hamburg, photo by Thomas Schwarz

The object is a fish-shaped pomander, which was widely used in Hamburg, Germany during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was worn on the person, particularly by wealthy merchants and other individuals of high social standing. Whenever the wearer’s nose was bothered by an odour, the pomander could be opened directly at the head and the scent inhaled.

[fishthingdaily]

Today’s fish thing is this fish brooch!

[rslashrats]

i feel so bad for this fish because imagine being it and you just exist in the ocean and some weird terrestrial creature decides to give you a name that makes it sound like you committed medical malpractice