I was just thinking…

 

I was just thinking and I remember when I was very young sitting on a small stool beside the fireplace jamb listening to my grandmother telling stories about her grandfather; he must have been a young man in about the year 1800. He was pressed from a dance hall in Preston (navy press gangs used to wander around the ports pressing any likely young men into the royal navy) and they were in the navy for the rest of their useful lives. He must have been in many foreign places. He told her they used to catch monkeys by putting sugar in a small barrel leaving the bunghole open. The monkeys would slip their hands through the bunghole, grab a handful of sugar but couldn't pull the full fist out because the hole was too small, then they shot them. They probably did that because the monkeys were mischievous.

He must also have been in the naval battles in the Napoleonic War. He told her about Frenchmen being in the sea, trying to climb aboard the British ship (they had probably sunk a French ship) and saying ‘We cut their bloody hands off'. Those were the days of wooden ships and iron men. They had to be tough to survive. There were many more stories, which I have forgotten. All this led me to think how interesting it would have been if he had kept a diary or written something about his times (he probably would not have been able to write). Something from the ordinary sailors point of the view which would have been unique.

All this again led me to think what will our grandchildren and their grandchildren think about our times?