Temeraire; or, Napoleonic-era naval ranks and weapons

[wellinghall]

Warning: may contain spoilers (but probably only small ones)

My thoughts on these subjects, in slightly more detail; but I'm writing from memory here, and I'll need to check the book to confirm some of this.

On rank, Naomi Novik seems to have made two mistakes. The first is having no rank between Lieutenant and post-Captain. Now, I do not think that the modern naval rank structure (with, I think, Lieutenant-Commander and Commander) necessarily applied two hundred years ago. However, I did think that not every (ship) captain necessarily had the exalted rank of (post) captain.

On weapons, she has her dragon-borne "men at arms" armed with rifles. Rifles were *very* new in those days, and I wonder if such new technology would have been adopted by the air force so quickly. Secondly, rifles then were very slow to load and fire; even if some were armed with rifles, it would make sense to also have some armed with the quicker, if less accurate, muskets.

Of course, there's nothing to say that her fictional world is just like the Real World, with added dragons; but these points do have the feel fo mistakes, rather than deliberate changes.

Comments from those better-versed in such matters would be welcome!

And while talking about the book - the blurb is so horrible as to make us suspect that it was written from an earlier draft of the book.

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all this great information, asklepia. The book is Temeraire, a first novel by Naomi Novik. Napoleonic era naval warfare with dragons. Usefully reviewed (at least, the first third of it) by pellegrina recently.

The other rank issue I picked up, but failed to comment on above, was that she seems to imply that ensigns were lower-ranking than midshipmen.

[asklepia.livejournal.com]

Navy + dragons sounds interesting... I'll see if I can find a copy.

I don't think that Ensign was ever a Royal Navy rank. It is used in the USN as the lowest commissioned rank, between Midshipman and Lieutenant (Junior Grade) (which is Sublieutenant in RN/RAN), so if she is writing from a US background she's still wrong. It's even more wrong when you consider that Midshipmen in the USN are not commissioned officers, they are considered officer cadets. Midshipmen in the RAN are commissioned officers, even though their rank is equivalent to Officer Cadet in the Army and RAAF, and I guess the same would apply to the RN.

Ensign was formerly used in the British Army as the lowest commissioned rank but I believe it was replaced by 2nd Lieutenant (though I could be wrong).

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Yep! Ensign's never been used except by the Army. It's never been an RN rank:

Midshipman: lollipop as it now looks (or napoleonic period style collar braid to button on white, but on a modern jacket collar ...)
Sub-Lieutenant: One ring. Lieutenant: Two rings.
Lieutenant-Commander: Two and a half rings.
Commander: Three rings and obe line of gold leaves on cap brim.

(And don't forget the pronunciation is still 18thC "Leftenant")

[asklepia.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that the middies originally had three gold buttons on the jacket sleeve (supposedly to stop them wiping their noses on it, hence "snotties"). The buttons are now on the Chief Petty Officer jacket.

In Australia only the Army and Air Force ranks are pronounced "leff-tenant". The Navy types tend to say "l'tenant" (where the apostrophe stands for that unstressed shwah syllable usually represented by an upside-sown e).