Liner Notes for Sunken Treasure
Liner Notes for Sunken Treasure
This comes at the intersection of three ideas, and I never quite got them to fit neatly. No matter; these stories can be rough around the edges, leave dangling threads. In fact I’ve left some dangling to pick up later, maybe in the final story of this sequence (due December).
The first idea is period diving technology. The Standard Diving Dress, the all over suit with the classic helmet, along with air pumps (human-powered or steam, on a suitable vessel) allowed a diver to stay underwater for longer than they could hold their breath, and so spend any amount of time they wanted there. The helmet was invented around 1830; by the time of this story they were regularly used to inspect ships hulls, water facing foundations etc. Using one was not exactly routine – any trip below the water had an element of risk – still it is not quite the novelty made out here.
The Civil War, or rather the Civil Wars, or perhaps more generally, the Wars Of The Three Kingdoms make up the backdrop of the treasure hunt. This is all rather sketched in. Still, it’s worth noting that in many cases the Civil War in England was experienced as local feuds and raids, often local factions and groups choosing one side or another for flimsy reasons, then choosing whether to stay peaceably at home, attack neighbours of another persuasion, or answer the calls of the leaders and join their armies for a season. The logistics of the Royalists in particular led to companies of troops plundering the districts they were occupying, then returning home – either to restock and replenish, or to live off the spoils. That the Colston household fled their enemies into exile, then returned under the Restoration is something of a simplification. Almost immediately after Charles II returned new factions arose, seeking to exploit and take advantage of the new regime. No doubt the Colston family had their own twists and turns.
The final idea is research. As a dilettante scholar I am used to easily finding the simple information I need – for example secondary or tertiary sources on the War Of The Three Kingdoms are easily found online, amongst my own books, or in the library. Sometimes though things get more difficult. My efforts to learn what is actually in an 18th century Royal Naval Lieutenant’s Examination ran swiftly into the problem that it was taken orally before a board of Captains who determined what was needed – sometimes extremely idiosyncratically. I did, eventually, find a primer for candidates in a navigation manual (slightly out of the period). The point, such as it is, is that sometimes things you think should be readily available are not. They might be in some archive or private collection somewhere (surely someone will have written up their experience at the examination in detail). Or they may not having, all examples having met accidents since then! And even if they exist, finding one might be fine for me, writing not-historical age of sail fantasy stories; for someone wanting to learn what typical examinations might be would require as many descriptions as possible.
The point is this: if you want to do real research you need to find out if the information exists, locate it, gain access (sometimes easy, sometimes difficult, sometimes expensive) and then figure out what it actually is. Then, of course, the real work begins – putting it into context.
Fortunately I’m writing fiction, I don’t have to go to such lengths. I can stop whenever I want.
Whenever I want.
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