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Post by ekaton on Mar 23, 2014 17:10:54 GMT
I am working on a story about a Royal Navy ship in the beginning of the war to contain the French Revolution and I have a question about a ceremony of taking ship by the new captain - how was it conducted when the new captain arrived for his new ship for the first time? I mean I guess that the commanding officer had reported to the new commander but how was he introduced to his crew and were all hands aboard in a special manner? The ship is a sixth-rate frigate if that is of any importance and the year is 1793 (february).
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Post by QueueMistressMags on Mar 23, 2014 19:15:40 GMT
Welcome, ekaton. I moved this to a more appropriate forum for discussion of the history of the Royal Navy. I'm not sure myself of the procedure, but we have some historians around who can no doubt point you to some sources.
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Post by ekaton on Mar 23, 2014 19:57:44 GMT
Thank you. I have some books about naval warfare in this period but none explain it more than just mentioning its existance.
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Post by Sharpiefan on Mar 23, 2014 21:05:15 GMT
The Captain would gather all the crew who were aboard the ship and read his commission - his appointment to command that ship - aloud to them. It was called 'reading himself in' and only from that moment could he be considered to have taken command of the ship.
There's a good example of it in the novel Command by Julian Stockwin.
SF
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Post by QueueMistressMags on Mar 24, 2014 6:14:56 GMT
That's my understanding of it, too--I didn't want to say for sure as I wasn't sure and didn't have a source to point to.
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