I am very disappointed with myself. I was nearly 30 minutes late for today’s Local History session. I had somehow managed to translate a 1400 start into a 1430 start (and as a result of being late, triggered a review of other sessions. I would also have been late for Exploring Art next week.
As it was, I turned up to a room with, I’d estimate, about 30 people in, and no spare chairs. I nearly backed out, but luckily, the group lead very kindly gave me their chair. Those plastic chairs are not the most comfortable, and I’m concerned that when I lean back, I can feel the chair remoulding itself, making it even worse, so I end up just sitting upright and not leaning back, which is what the chairs are probably designed to do.
Today’s Local History session would have been a bad one to miss. It was a presentation on Press Gangs. A topic that is particularly relevant to Gosport.
What I hadn’t appreciated was that Press Gangs operated under a warrant. They had a legal basis. I’d never considered that before. To me, a press gang was a gang of roughneck sailors who went out to club a few men over the head for them to wake up on board ship.
Even just that small part of the talk was quite enlightening.
I’m slightly frustrated. For various reasons, I am going to have to miss the next session of Local History, which is member research into Prison Hulks and the Prisoners of Rat Island. Looking for an unusual angle, I was potentially heading for a book review of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, featuring the character Magwitch, who was an escaped prisoner from a prison hulk. Interesting. I’d have liked to have done that.
Bills Posts 