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06 June 2007

Research trip to Portsmouth

I'm in the middle of writing my Master's thesis, and had to take a little research trip to Portsmouth.

I love Portsmouth. It's on the sea, and it has a long association with the Royal Navy. Sure, it's a bit of a rough port, but I love it. I love the contrast to London. And, I love the way that my research contacts have been so warm and generous with their time. I could not write my thesis without them.

Here's the bow of the 18th century ship, the Victory. It's amazing. Like all the preserved ships in Portsmouth. The craftsmanship that went into these ships is just amazing. It's like the best, well-built wooden house you ever stepped foot in.

Walking around Portsmouth is fun, too. I love the different figureheads that are placed hither and thither-----on the actual ships, or not.

I happened to be in Portsmouth on the day that they were celebrating the 111th birthday of Henry Allingham, a WW1 veteran who enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service in 1915. He really looked in fine shape. Which should be an inspiration to all of us.

There was quite the to-do, as there should be. He and his family were to have lunch aboard Nelson's ship, the HMS Victory. Now how nice is that? But that was not to happen until the fly-by (or flypast as they called it)----which, of course, I was expecting to resemble the only real fly-by I've ever seen: at the half-time of the Army-Air Force football game at the Academy in Colorado Springs (near where my family lives).

Now that's a fly-by. Jets in formation. Old planes. New planes. A Stealth bomber. A B-52. You know, all those great icons of the American military.

(Cut me some slack, and please don't send me hate mail. I am not pro-war. I am pro-history. I know war is bad, so very bad, but hey, I'm a graduate of the Department of War Studies at Kings College, and I am also writing my Master's thesis on the Royal Navy, so forgive me if I'm a little interested in war. There are worse things to be interested in.)

At this big birthday party, it was interesting to see the Royal Marine band come marching out. Their uniforms looked very similar to their American counterparts. Except, I saw something so very not politically correct. It was hilarious. Check out the base drummer, with the TIGER skin draped across his back. It's great. And I imagine that it's only a matter of time before the stupid PETA people get involved and have that tiger skin banished. Which would be a shame, I think, because obviously it has some sort of significance. I do wonder what it could be.

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