ratfiish

hms indefatigable's no.1 fan ❤️‍🔥

[betterisbest]

[mightbesomebody]

Reading about Victorian-era amputations and saw this quote from Scottish chemist George Wilson describing getting his foot amputated:

"Of the agony it occasioned I will say nothing. Suffering so great as I underwent cannot be expressed in words, and fortunately cannot be recalled. The particular pangs are now forgotten, but the blank whirlwind of emotion, the horror of great darkness, and the sense of desertion by God and man, bordering close upon despair, which swept through my mind and overwhelms my heart, I can never forget, however gladly I would do so."

Anyway so completely unrelated but Thomas Blanky from The Terror.

[crankybeetle]

What if we kissed our favorite anxiety ridden lieutenant? what then?

[magneticrabbit]

[hms-ratfiish]

@blowing-my-horn

[magneticrabbit]

[deckhanddandy]

I finished Hornblower and the Hotspur. Huge spoilers inbound. Avert your eyes.

I am continually so intrigued by Hornblower's characterisation as this miserable wretch that is emotionally pulled hither and yon by his warring anxiety and depression, dual paralytic forces conquered only by his sense of duty as a Naval officer. He is so ashamed of these feelings that he stuffs them down behind an iron countenance that so far only Bush has proved capable of seeing behind. Hornblower is deeply prone to catastrophising, black moods, and self-criticism. A reader might anticipate the hero of eleven novels about the British Navy at the height of its power to be emblematic of the values of that institution; calm, stoic, and reserved. And yet Hornblower is lost in the sea of his own disordered thoughts that is not alleviated by any promotion he receives. Rather, a kind of impostor syndrome kicks in. He may have achieved all of the things that Horatio Hornblower has a achieved, but he has some Secret Innate Defect that renders him unworthy of any praise that anyone may want to give him. He lives in fear of his officers "discovering" his secret weakness. He has earned the high regard of his men, but can he keep it? does he deserve it?

This also echoes with his feelings towards Maria that I'll make another post about — there is a line early in Hotspur, "If Maria knew the truth about him she would turn away from him, her whole world shattered. The cruellest thing he could do would be to let her find him out; he must never do that." He allows himself to address the issue more succinctly with her because the issue with his fear of losing Maria is very clear and has a clearly identifiable source, his lack of romantic feelings for her. But we see again this harsh feeling of unworthiness rear its head in Hornblower.

My last point of interest goes back to Hornblower's general anxiety that he has decided to name as cowardice. When Grimes begs to be freed of the semaphore burning mission, when Hornblower is pacing the deck afterwards deciding what to do with the man, he eventually reaches the conclusion that his issue with Grimes lies not in the man's cowardice but in his voicing of it, in his action upon it. Hornblower cannot fault a man for being afraid but he certainly can for indulging such feelings to the point of acting as a coward. Regardless of the legal points of the matter, his moral issue with Grimes was the acting as a coward.

Then comes the bomb defuse scene. Half the officers of the Hotspur watch as Horatio extinguishes an explosive with his fingers, men rendered silent with horror at the event. Hornblower cannot understand their sense of awe at him. As he later describes, multiple times, his actions were those of a coward. He was afraid of the bomb and put it out. Yet to jump towards a lit explosive rather than away is rarely the act of a coward. He says he only extinguished it because he was at heart a coward, thus shaming himself for an action that saved a dozen lives. He chastises himself over and over throughout the book for the feelings of fear that grip him so many times; taking moral issue with his fears and anxieties that he calls cowardice. Grimes cannot be punished for feeling afraid. Hornblower can. Grimes cannot be punished for being a coward, only for acting as one — Hornblower can be punished for both.

Hornblower is a wonderful character with profound mental struggles that I find very familiar. How sad it was, and yet how true to life, to hear Hornblower wish that his future children do not inherit his temperament.

[minmos]

this reddit post isgoing to make me cry literally let's bask in the sun

[deckhanddandy]

Hornblower and the Hotspur

[deckhanddandy]

Rip Maria Mason falling in love and marrying a deeply repressed gay man in love with his first lieutenant. Sorry about all that

[girlnaviy]

there will be poems

[magneticrabbit]

[ltwilliammowett]

By the head- even keel - by the stern

When a ship lies still in the water, it is said to be ‘on an even keel’; however, if the bow dips into the water – that is, if the ship is leaning forwards – it is said to be ‘by the head’. If this happens at the stern, with the ship leaning backwards and the stern dipping into the water, it is said to be ‘by the stern’.

The Visual encyclopedia of nautical terms under sail, by Basil W. Bathe, 1978

[charlemane]

one of my favorite things in Master & Commander the book is there's a side character with a blatant huge gay crush on Jack and everyone else is like "does he know... he has to know... there's no way he doesn't know..." and then you get Jack's POV and it's extremely clear that this man is a remarkably smart dog who was bred to understand the world strictly in terms of Ships (fantastic) and Not Ships (?)

[emilybeemartin]

Napoleon doesn't stand a chance against one repressed wet man and one maladjusted dirt man

[emilybeemartin]

Napoleon doesn't stand a chance against one repressed wet man and one maladjusted dirt man

[emilybeemartin]

Napoleon doesn't stand a chance against one repressed wet man and one maladjusted dirt man

[deckhanddandy]

How the planning meeting for the semaphore-burning mission went in Hornblower and the Hotspur:

Bush: sir can I pleeeeeeeeease pleaseplease come with you on this life-threatening mission? 🥺🥺🥺

Hornblower: no babe I mean Mr. Bush, Lieutenant Côtard outranks you. And I need someone to stay with the ship and you’re the only goddamn person around here I trust

Bush, climbing up onto the quarterdeck: this ship is a FUCKING NIGHTMARE