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. 3I nearly backed out, but luckily, the course 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 