Tuesday 12 March 1666/67

Up, and to the office, where all the morning, and my Lord Bruncker mighty quiet, and no words all day, which I wonder at, expecting that he would have fallen again upon the business of Carcasse, and the more for that here happened that Perkins, who was the greatest witness of all against him, was brought in by Sir W. Batten to prove that he did really belong to The Prince, but being examined was found rather a fool than anything, as not being able to give any account when he come in nor when he come out of her, more than that he was taken by the Dutch in her, but did agree in earnest to Sir W. Pen’s saying that she lay up all, the winter before at Lambeth. This I confess did make me begin to doubt the truth of his evidence, but not to doubt the faults of Carcasse, for he was condemned by, many other better evidences than his, besides the whole world’s report. At noon home, and there find Mr. Goodgroome, whose teaching of my wife only by singing over and over again to her, and letting her sing with him, not by herself, to correct her faults, I do not like at all, but was angry at it; but have this content, that I do think she will come to sing pretty well, and to trill in time, which pleases me well. He dined with us, and then to the office, when we had a sorry meeting to little purpose, and then broke up, and I to my office, and busy late to good purpose, and so home to supper and to bed. This day a poor seaman, almost starved for want of food, lay in our yard a-dying. I sent him half-a-crown, and we ordered his ticket to be paid.


16 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

[A News-Letter, addressed to Sir George Lane]
Written from: [Whitehall]
Date: 12 March 1667

Mentions the sudden death of Mr Bellenden, who had come to England, with credentials from the Queen Mother; the marriage of the Lady Essex Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, to Mr Griffin; and other domestic incidents.

Orders have been given for a vigorous prosecution of the works of fortification on the Coasts of England.

The purport of recent political advices from Italy, France, and the Peninsula is added.
'
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Orders have been given for a vigorous prosecution of the works of fortification on the Coasts of England."

Cf. 27 February: "the King and Duke of York being gone down to Sheerenesse this morning to lay out the design for a fortification there to the river Medway;" http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

3 March: "Great preparations there are to fortify Sheernesse and the yard at Portsmouth, and forces are drawing down to both those places, and elsewhere by the seaside; so that we have some fear of an invasion; and the Duke of York himself did declare his expectation of the enemy’s blocking us up here in the River, and therefore directed that we should send away all the ships that we have to fit out hence. " http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

A misunderstanding of "fail-safe?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail… Epimethean remark, sorry.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"This day a poor seaman..."

Humanity's a despicable species at times, especially to itself. Still, Sam's response was moving in its way, even if we long to see him bring this man before Parliament and King and demand he and his fellows be better treated.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"This day a poor seaman etc."

The anecdotal approach to social problems, still very much with us, as politicians exhort the use of private charity to solve problems that result from poor public policy, and try to justify their arguments by recounting stories of individuals rather than accounting for society at large.

cum salis grano  •  Link

Still horror stories abound.
Must serve [shot otherwise?], they do get their pay packet, but many that become dysfunctional during their service, get sloughed off with "its all in your mind, try and prove it is our [government] responsibility", good luck.
Man's inhumanity is tremendous, it is better today for the under sea-dog than it ever has been in the past, but still a big butt, room for improvement.

Mary  •  Link

"condemned by many other better evidences than this, besides the whole world's report."

Evidence is one thing, but "the whole world's report" is of dubious value.

Tony Eldridge  •  Link

TF, thanks for the link to Epimethius. I hope I wasn't the only one looking blankly at your previous comment.

Phoenix  •  Link

An aside:

"Perkins ... was found rather a fool than anything, as not being able to give any account when he come in nor when he come out of her, more than that he was taken by the Dutch in her, but did agree in earnest to Sir W. Pen’s saying that she lay up all, the winter before at Lambeth."

Why are ships 'she'? Where does tradition begin?
Perhaps this is how it ends.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/busine…

classicist  •  Link

'Where does this tradition begin?'
Ancient Greek ships ('naus, f., whence 'nausea') were certainly feminine nouns, and tended to have feminine names ('Demokratia', etc.)and use the feminine pronoun. Roman ships ('navis', whence 'navy') followed suit, as did most European languages. Can anyone take it back further?

Tamla  •  Link

Just been following the assignation of gender to ships thread.. you might be interested in this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gram…
It poses that the usage of 'she' in reference to ships is a figure of speech - rather than a relationship with the gender of the noun...

Antonym  •  Link

Typically, in French, ships names are grammatically masculine, being contracted from "Le bateau XXXX", so this is circumstance where it would have been correct to refer to "Le France".

Nix  •  Link

Perhaps the English usage is reinforced by an alliterative associaton of "she" with "ship"?

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"This I confess did make me begin to doubt the truth of his evidence,"

L&M: Perkins's evidence was discounted by the Privy Council later: PRO, PC 2/60 , p.110.

Louise Hudson  •  Link

Paul Chapin

"This day a poor seaman etc."

The anecdotal approach to social problems, still very much with us, as politicians exhort the use of private charity to solve problems that result from poor public policy, and try to justify their arguments by recounting stories of individuals rather than accounting for society at large.

Very astute obervation.
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Louise Hudson  •  Link

Paul Chapin

"This day a poor seaman etc."

“The anecdotal approach to social problems, still very much with us, as politicians exhort the use of private charity to solve problems that result from poor public policy, and try to justify their arguments by recounting stories of individuals rather than accounting for society at large.”

Very astute observation.
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

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