Radio War Nerd EP #511 — British Naval Mutinies of Late 1790s, Pt. 2: Spithead and Nore

Coming from the uk, these episode on the british empire are fantastic. The establishment do an excellent job on keeping this part of history undocumented. I'm just going through the old episodes with british empire tags. Any more are greatly appreciated.

You’re doing great! Keep it up! 👏

I don't know when the first modern industrial strike was (I seem to remember in Genesis the Hebrews held a sit-down strike when Pharoah raised the quota of bricks they had to make in a day without a pay increase), but I do know to 'strike' in its modern meaning of stopping work in protest comes from seafaring. You know the expression "to strike the sails"? Well, if you do that on a sailing ship it stops sailing. And that's what sailors did when they had had enough... It was the maritime equivalent of laying down your tools. When the expression spread land-based work places, the sails bit had to be dropped off of the expression...

That description of the Nore reminds me of the Mississippi south of New Orleans, which, prior to the creation of the Gulf Outlet Canal, was nearly impossible to navigate without expert pilots. New Orleans could send ships out to sea, but it was impossible to find the city from the Gulf. Something about river cities protected by a swampy labyrinth from the wider ocean.

It's stunning to me that there are still people who think chopping the heads off aristocrats is a bad idea or wrong, somehow. The English ones are especially disgusting. And ugly. And evil.

It was Churchill as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1926 who put Britain back on the gold standard and made the monied classes much richer. Not so good for international trade I would have imagined. Also, there was not a lot of gold at that time as the Americans had most of of it after WW1.

One of my early memories is of seeing a history in pictures type book which contained an image of John Byng standing on deck, blindfolded and holding a hankerchief at the end of his outstretched arm which upon dropping would signal the marines to fire. I later learned that he was executed for the loss of Minorca. This was a big deal apparently and he was rumoured to have been made a scapegoat. His sin was to have taken his squadron of ships to Gibralter for repair following the initial engagement rather than fighting to the death. Also, he was allowed to kneel on a cushion rather than standing but the picture I saw made the whole thing seem more noble.

These were incredible episodes!! More Age of Sail! More mutinies!

The rank stupidity of Elon dismantling one covert state apparatus after another is just a chef’s kiss. Just tearing out one flying buttress after another

Interesting to see the same delusions spring forth from the minds of out-of-touch elites, when they’re slapped in the face with the wet fish of reality

The vote to ban and passing around the cat o nine tales anecdote honestly seems like a high point of tory (and all the other parties, in contemporary times - nothing's changed) empathy. I cannot imagine a similar shock happening now. If you tried something equivalent today, they'd simply laugh harder. certainly the attempts to show the reality of the hundreds of thousands murdered via the bipartisan attempt to exterminate 'useless eaters' in the last few years has had that effect. a literal parallel with corporal punishment might be with the recent inquiries (it's cyclical, these inquiries never end; the purpose of the system is what it does, etc) into the mass abuse including corporal punishment of children in mental health institutions. the political response? to empower GPs to fast track those demographics for British MAID with no oversight, for profit.

My war nerdery started early from historical stories that my grandfather would tell me. His favorite story was the battle of Hastings, and in particular the fate of poor Harold, whom my grandfather would affectionately call “Harold Bung-eye”

About Pamela. I've heard you mock it many times. I've read Clarissa, which I consider to be perhaps the greatest novel from England of all time, combining as it does the energy from the Puritan Revolution of the 1640s, and this rock solid belief in the sanctity of the individual, which is one of the major themes of liberalism and English history. And the attempt by a wicked old libertine aristocrat to violate that sanctity. It is an extraordinary book. I'm wondering how Pamela compares. I know it's thought to be weaker, but is it still valuable to read? Or is just prep for Clarissa?

Great episode. Sorry this is a totally unrelated comment but if possible could you please do an episode dedicated to the Houthis? My understanding of them is cursory but that they have been a formidable anti-imperialist force who also do function as a government in humanistic ways; meanwhile everyone is discussing the American plans to bomb Yemen without discussing the “why would Republicans want to do that?”

🎶 left my home in Santiago//the heart of the city of Merida//served with my brothers and sisters oh//in the army of pancho villa🎶

A rare War Nerd blunder by John. Let us have a bit of respect for William and the Norman's crossing of the channel. 1. William assembled his army in Normandy and waited a full month before the conditions were right to make the crossing. Knowing what we know about medieval warfare, this requires absolute clarity and certainty as maintaining a medieval army was a ruinous expense and leaving one fallow for a full month on your own soil is the last thing you want to do. 2. When the crossing was finally attempted, it only took eight hours. 3. We know this because it is a matter of historical record that they boarded the ships and then waited until midnight to cross. This is partially tidal conditions but also because they wanted to arrive in England with the dawn so that they could see while they were landing. So Napoleon absolutely could have learned from the Norman's crossing! They nailed it!

Maybe the funding cuts made signal chat secure. They laid off whoever is suppose to do the internal spying on the app.

Because I hate everyone involved, the funniest outcome of Signalgate would be Jonah imprisoned under the Espionage Act (because he still published the chat) and everyone else being fired.

I see John is back on his Napoleon and the English Channel kick. Napoleon could not have invaded England without defeating the British Navy first and he couldn't do that because he fundamentally did not understand naval warfare and the French sailors and commanders were vastly inferior to the British. Even if, as John suggests, he had been able to slip past the British Navy, he would have been immediately cut off from all reinforcements and resupply. And the landing itself would likely not go smoothly as amphibious operations under fire during this period were essentially impossible.

Since you're going to Mexico, you should take a side trip to Cuba.

yoeman in a British military context refers to volunteer cavalry raised at county level. As the name may give an inacurate picture of their class character many in the ranks would have been farmers but the officers would have been uniformly drawn from the gentry. If that description sets off alarm bells your basically on the right track, they were mostly used in aid of the civil power (a charming British euphemism for butchering protestors). In Ireland their role was later taken over by the RIC.

Avast me hearties!