Timeline
January 16, 1798
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté
Rear-Admiral of the Blue, currently in London recovering from the loss of an arm.
[quote]was promised the 80-gun HMS Foudroyant. As she was not yet ready for sea, Nelson was instead given command of the 74-gun HMS Vanguard, to which he appointed Edward Berry as his flag captain... Nelson and the Vanguard were to be despatched to Cadiz to reinforce the fleet. On 28 March 1798, Nelson hoisted his flag and sailed to join Earl St Vincent. St Vincent sent him on to Gibraltar with a small force to reconnoitre French activities.[/quote] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Nelson,_1st_Viscount_Nelson
Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Marquess of Maranhão, GCB, ODM
Lieutenant Cochrane - HMS Barfleur
[quote]There, in 1795, he was appointed acting lieutenant . The following year he was commissioned in the rank of lieutenant on 27 May 1796, after passing the examination. After several transfers in America and a return home, he found himself as 8th Lieutenant on Lord Keith's flagship HMS Barfleur in the Mediterranean Sea in 1798.[/quote] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cochrane,_10th_Earl_of_Dundonald
John "Jack" Aubrey, Rear-Admiral of the Red
Lieutenant Aubrey - HMS Foundroyant
[quote]While second lieutenant aboard HMS Foudroyant (1798), Aubrey was the leader of the prize crew for the Généreux when she was captured by Nelson's fleet in 1800.[/quote] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Aubrey
Horatio Hornblower, Lord Hornblower, Admiral of the Fleet
Midshipman Hornblower - HMS Indefatigable
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Hornblower
Richard Bolitho
Commodore Richard Bolitho - HMS Lysander
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bolitho_novels
Napoleon Bonaparte, military and political leader of France and Emperor of the French as Napoleon I
General Bonaparte - Paris
Having completed the Treaty of Campo Formio, and had not yet gone to conquer Egypt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The water butts. They aren't little toy things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_units_of_wine_casks#Chart
A gallon (U.S.) of fresh water weighs 8.25 lbs, a butt of water weighs 1039.5 lbs plus the weight of the oak barrel.
Our bottom tier would be full of those butts.
The crew drinks 209 gallons a day, plus the water used for steeping the salt off the meat, the water used in the Sickbay to make the medicines and to clean the wounds of the injured, and the etc... Say 250 gallons a day.
1 butt= 105 Imperial gallons (we are in the days and country of the Imperial measurements) so we drink 2 1/2 butts of water a day. We have to carry at least 80 butts to equal 40 tons of water and that would make it 30 days of water.
Even empty those large wooden barrels were heavy and ungainly (no carrying handles)
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1008/1000969388_7913acb7f6.jpg
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------