@flagbridge / flagbridge.tumblr.com
I redownloaded the tumblr app for whatever reason so I’m just here to once again remind you that Raoul de Chagny is deserving of so much more than the fandom gives him thank you.
Yup that’s why I’m writing a whole Raoul Navy prequel. Leroux gives us so much and folks in these streets just ignore it.
The École Navale (La Baille) Class of 1881 (Promotion 1877) on board the Borda II in port Brest, 1878. Possibly Raoul de Chagny's class.
Source: Archives of the École Navale
Aft: at or towards the stern or after part of a ship, the opposite of bow.
Aloft: overhead, or above.
Athwart: across.
Bank: a rising ground in the sea, differing from a shoal, because not rocky but composed of sand, mud or gravel.
Becalmed: to halt through lack of wind.
Bow: the foremost end or part of a ship, the opposite of stern.
Bowsprit: a large mast or piece of timber which stands out from the bow of a ship.
Burthen: the older term used to express a ship's tonnage or carrying capacity. It was based on the number of tuns of wine that a ship could carry in her holds, the total number giving her burthen.
Chase, to: to pursue a vessel in wartime with the aim of capturing, acquiring information from her, or destroying.
Colours: the name by which the national flag flown by a ship at sea is known, used to determine nationality.
Dead reckoning: a system of navigation where the position of a ship is calculated without the use of any astronomical observation whatever.
Fair wind: a wind favourable to the direction a ship is sailing.
Fathom: a measure of six feet, used to divide the lead (or sounding) lines in measuring the depth of water; and to calculate in the length of cables, rigging, etc.
Fore: the forward part.
Hail, to: to call to another ship.
Helm: the instrument by which the ship is steered, and includes both the wheel and the tiller, as one general term.
Jib: a triangular sail set by sailing ships on the boom which runs out from the bowsprit.
Jury-mast: a temporary makeshift mast erected to replace a mast that has been disabled or carried away.
Jury-rudder: a makeshift arrangement to give a ship the ability to to steer when she has lost her rudder.
Keel: the lowest and principal timber of a wooden ship - the single strongest member of the ship's frame.
Knot: the nautical measure of speed, one knot being a speed of one nautical mile (6,080 feet) per hour. As a measure of speed the term is always knots, and never knots an hour.
Landfall: the discovery of the land.
Land-locked: sheltered all round by the land, so that there is no view of the sea.
Lead: an instrument for discovering the depth of water, attached to a lead-line, which is marked at certain distances to measure the fathoms.
Lee: the side of a ship, promontory, or other object away from the wind; that side sheltered from the wind. It is the opposite side to windward.
Lee shore: a coastline on to which the wind blows directly - consequently it can be dangerous as the wind tends to force the sailing ship down on it.
Leeward: with the wind; towards the point to which the wind blows.
Letter of Marque: a commission issued in Britain by the Lord High Admiral or Commissioners of the Admiralty authorizing the commander of a privately owned ship to cruise in search of enemy merchant vessels. The letter of marque described the ship, her owners and officers, the amount of surety which had been deposited and stressed the necessity of having all prize vessels or goods seized condemned and valued at a Vice Admiralty Court for the payment of 'prize money'.
Lie-to: to prevent a vessel from making progress through the water - achieved by reducing sail in a gale. The objective is to keep the vessel in such a position, with the wind on the bow, as to ensure that heavy seas do not break aboard.
The Line (or 'Crossing the Line') Sailing across the Equator. Nautical tradition where seamen celebrate the crossing of the equator by dressing up and acting out a visit by King Neptune. Those who have not previously crossed the line are summoned to the court of Neptune for trial, followed by a ritual ducking (in a bathing tub of seawater) and sometimes lathered and roughly shaved.
Mainsail: the principal sail of a sailing vessel.
Mizzen (or mizen): the name for the third, aftermost, mast of a square-rigged sailing ship or of a three-masted schooner.
Muster: to assemble the crew of a ship on deck and call through the list of names to establish who is present and accounted for.
Muster-book: the book kept on board a vessel in which was entered the names of all men serving in the ship, with the dates of their entry and final discharge from the crew. It was the basis on which victuals were issued and payment made for services performed on board.
Pintle: a vertical metal pin attached to the leading edge of the rudder; it is fitted into the metal ring or 'gudgeon' bolted to the sternpost of a vessel. This provides the means for hinging the rudder on the sternpost and allows a rudder to be swung or turned as desired (by use of the tiller); where necessary (ie. when the rudder needs to be removed or repaired) the pintles can be unshipped quickly and the rudder detached.
Port: the left-hand side of a vessel as seen from the stern; also a harbour or haven.
Privateer: a privately owned vessel armed with guns which operated in time of war against the trading vessels of an enemy nation. Each privateer was given a a 'letter of marque' which was regarded as a commission to seize any enemy shipping as a 'prize'. The name 'privateer' has come to refer to both the ship and the men who sailed in her.
Prize: name used to describe an enemy vessel captured at sea by a ship of war or a privateer; also used to describe a contraband cargo taken from a merchant ship. A 'prize court' would then determine the validity of capture of ships and goods and authorize their disposal. 'Prize' in British naval history always acted as considerable incentive to recruitment with many men tempted to join the navy in anticipation of quick riches.
Prize Court: Captured ships were to be brought before prize courts where it was decided whether the vessel was legal prize; if so, the whole value was divided among the owners and the crew of the ship.
Prize Money: the net proceeds of the sale of enemy shipping and property captured at sea - these proceeds were distributed to the captors on a sliding scale from highest rank to lowest seaman.
Road or Roadstead: a stretch of sheltered water near land where ships may ride at anchor in all but very heavy weather; often rendered as 'roads', and does not refer to the streets of a particular port city but rather its anchorage, as in 'St Helens Roads', the designated anchorage for shipping located between St. Helens (Isle of Wight) and Portsmouth, or 'Funchal Roads' at the island of Madeira. (see Elizabeth Macquarie's 1809 Journal).
Quarter: (1)the direction from which the wind was blowing, particularly if it looked like remaining there for some time; (2)the two after parts of the ship - strictly speaking a ship's port or starbord quarter was a bearing 45° from the stern.
Ship: from the Old English scip, the generic name for sea-going vessels (as opposed to boats). Originally ships were personified as masculine but by the sixteenth century almost universally expressed as as feminine.
Shoal: a bank or reef, an area of shallow water dangerous to navigation. Sounding: the of operation of determioning the depth of the sea, and the quality of the ground, by means of a lead and line, sunk from the ship to the bottom, where some of the sediment or sand adheres to the tallow in the hollow base of the lead.
Sound: (1) to try the depth of the water; (2) a deep bay.
Sounding: ascertaining the depth of the sea by means of a lead and line, sunk from a ship to the bottom.
Soundings: those parts of the ocean not far from the shore where the depth is about 80 to 100 fathoms.
Spar: a general term for any wooden support used in the rigging of a ship - includes all masts, yards, booms, gaffs etc.
Squall: a sudden gust of wind of considerable strength.
Starboard: the right-hand side of a vessel as seen from the stern.
Stern: after-part of a ship or boat.
Tack: the nautical manouevre of bringing a sailing vessel on to another bearing by bringing the wind round the bow; during this manouevre the vessel is said to be 'coming about'.
Tide of Flood: the flow of the tidal stream as it rises from the ending of the period of slack water at low tide to the start of the period of slack water at high tide; its period is approximately six hours.
Trade Winds: steady regular winds that blow in a belt approximately 30 N. and 30 S of the equator. In the North Atlantic the trades blow consistently all year round, from the north-east; in the South Atlantic they blow from the south-east, converging just north of the equator. The meeting of the trade winds just north of the equator created the infamous 'doldrums', where sailing ships could be becalmed for days or weeks waiting for a wind to carry them back into the trades.They were known as trade winds because of their regularity, thereby assisting sailing vessels in reaching their markets to carry out trade.
Under way: the description of a ship as soon as she begins to move under canvas power after her anchor has been raised from the bottom; also written as 'under weigh.'
Voyage: a journey by sea. It usually includes the outward and homeward trips, which are called passages.
Watch: (1) one of the seven divisions of the nautical day; (2) one of two divisions of the seamen forming the ship's company.
Wear: the nautical manouevre of bringing a sailing vessel on to another tack by bringing the wind around the stern.
Weather: in a nautical sense (rather than a meteorological) this is the phrase used by seamen to describe anything that lies to windward. Consequently, a coastline that lies to windward of a ship is a weather shore; the side of a ship that faces the wind when it is under way is said to be the weather side a ship, etc.
Weigh: to haul up.
Weigh anchor: the raising of the anchor so that the ship is no longer secured to the sea or river bottom.
Windward: the weather side, or that direction from which the wind blows. It is the opposite side to leeward.
Yard: (1) a large wooden spar crossing the masts of a sailing ship horizontally or diagonally, from which a sail is set. (2) a shortened form of the word 'dockyard, in which vessels are built or repaired.
Crossing the Line appears to be an Anglophone tradition as I haven’t seen any mention yet in some of the French stuff I’m researching.
Proud and trusty shellback here.
Do you see my vision.
I love when the internet produces a meme that is made precisely for me, a Navy Officer with Phantom Brainrot.
Le nouveau vaisseau-école qui prit le nom de Borda, comme celui qu'il remplaçait, était le Valmy, majestueux trois ponts de cent vingt canons, œuvre de M. Leroux, lancé à Brest le 25 septembre 1847, et bordé peu après d'un soufflage pour lui donner plus de stabilité.
Translation: The new training ship which took the name Borda, like the one it replaced, was the Valmy, majestic three decks of one hundred and twenty cannons, work of M. Leroux, launched at Brest on September 25, 1847, and lined shortly after with a ((soufflage--this appears to be a technical term and I'm trying to find the correct one)) to give it more stability.
Let me explain. The Borda is mentioned in Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera as where Raoul de Chagny attended the naval academy. It is somewhat of a specific detail. Turns out, it's not so random. I found this while doing research on the École Navale for another project. I wondered if there was any relation between the M. Leroux who built the ship and Gaston Leroux.
Yeah.
It's his grandfather.
Musings on writing the Vicomte (Ensigne) de Chagny
(Painting by Constance Marie Le Charpentier is from 1807; Raoul never would have worn this uniform but ... the attitude)
As All Vows is coming to an end, I first want to thank everyone for reading and for commenting and sharing your thoughts along the way. One of the most frequent comments is how I've really brought Raoul to life and made him sympathetic. This is great, because it's my intent, and also my next big longfic is all Raoul POV! I'm writing that one offline, with the plan to publish when complete. I have some other projects to be announced soon that will be on AO3 in installments. So watch this space.
Bringing Raoul to life has been natural because to me, he is alive. That's because my Raoul is a composite character of real people.
Even though I cosplay Christine, and Christine is the main character in All Vows, Raoul has accidentally gotten the most of myself. Some of his descriptions of being at sea are taken straight out of my journals from Ensign Flag's first deployment. I have plans for my "Raoul Navy" project for him to write absolutely horrific poetry about Christine's blue eyes (it was my bad poetry about some Marine corps pilot I had a crush on when I was...24)He's a composite character of dozens of young officers I've served with over the years. I have literally lived and worked (and sometimes loved) these young men, and later on, now that I am An Old, I'm their boss, mentoring them and developing them into leaders (and reminding them that their wife has probably already told them three times about the "scheduling surprise their wife just told them about").
So in all, my Raoul is a tribute to the best of them, and I'm fortunate that I get to tell their story.
POTOMER DAY 27: HEADCANON-My Raoul is a Composite Character
From April 23 -June 11, I am posting 49 days of POTO content to mark the Omer, except on Shabbat. Masterlist of prior posts.
As some of you know, I love writing Raoul. My next projects after All Vows ends are mostly Raoul-centered, and I'm pretty deep in my research. I’ve tumbled absolutely headlong into researching La Baille (nickname for the French naval academy), and it’s amusing how across time and distance, so much of initial military training is unchanged. Even though I cosplay Christine, Raoul actually ends up being the character who I give most of my own life experience because I am, in fact, a Sailor. When I'm writing Raoul POV about being at sea, I sometimes use my own journal entries from past deployments when I was underway on the USS NEVERSAIL somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
I get a lot of questions about Raoul's uniform, so I'm sharing some of the above (hello talented artists, could we PLEASE get more Raoul Navy Phanart, I am BEGGING YOU)
This is exactly what Raoul's midshipman uniform would have looked like. As you can see from the photo from 1891, the uniform from that time and even a decade later is the same. Naval uniforms, especially dress uniforms change very infrequently. My dress uniform that I wear in 2024 is the same one that was designed by Mainbocher in 1941!
The term "élève-officier" translates literally to "student-officer", although most translate it as "officer candidate", which isn't inaccurate. They were then classified by year, so a first year student would be an élève-officier fourth class. However, the British and American term for a naval cadet is a "midshipman" which is often abbreviated to "mid". So "elof" is basically directly translated to "mid". However, there was an additional naval trainee rank, called "Aspirant". This was assigned to the naval cadets when they embarked for their tour du monde on actual warships. It's a unique rank that's basically a desgination that the individual is a senior at the academy--like a "Midshipman First Class", the term to describe seniors at the US Naval Academy.
2. British Sub-Lieutenant (equivalent of an Ensign in the US or French Navies), approximately 1860 (by Ann Mary Newton)
I couldn't find a good picture of a young/junior officer from this era in the French Navy but FUN FACT! The French Navy underwent a uniform shift in 1883. The officer uniform was largely unchanged, however, that short coat and triangular hat that we often associate with the end of the age of sail was phased out as a dress uniform. So it's possible that Raoul had a dress uniform very much like this around the time of Phantom of the Opera, but it was on its way out. The rank is accurate though! So if Raoul went to the opera in uniform in about 1881? This is what he would have looked like.
3. Graduating students and faculty of L'Ecole Navale on board the Borda, 1891
The uniforms were the same when Raoul would have graduated, and that is the Borda that is mentioned in the book. In my head this is Raoul's senior class photo (even though it's 10 years later), complete with a few guys who have no idea what's going on and aren't looking at the camera.
PotOmer Day 15: HEADCANON/Raoul Navy Uniform Musings
Between April 23 and June 11, I am posting 49 days of POTO content to mark the Omer, except on Shabbat. Previous days below the cut line.
Just feeling very Raoulcore today as I wrap up All Vows and start working on my next project.
The picture is Edward Heron-Allen who is 25 years old in these pictures (taken in 1886). In the top picture, the man to the right of the one with the red sash (looking at the paper) is wearing the uniform Raoul would have worn as an Ensign after graduating from the école navale.
French Naval uniforms changed in about 1871 and didn’t change again until about 1910 (with one very minor phase out of one item in 1883). This is not uncommon. For comparison, most of the U.S. Navy’s officer dress uniforms have not substantively changed in 80 years.
For Raoul’s tour de Monde, he would have been either on a relatively new ironclad (which were about to be obsolete anyway), or a slightly older one from the late 1850s-1860s nearing the end of its life. Which would be more interesting to read about?
Thank you wonderful humans for reading my longfic. My earlier post about Raoul's Navy background is very popular so buckle up for some more facts about the Vicomte de Chagny's military career.
The time when Raoul's Arctic deployment took place (early 1880s, 1883 in the fic) corresponds with the First International Polar Year. According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), "The First IPY, from 1881 to 1884, involved 11 nations and was the first coordinated international polar research activity ever undertaken, inspiring subsequent international research programs."
France was one of the 11 nations, and they maintained a research station north of the Arctic Circle in Bossekop, Norway (where there was a magnetic observatory). Basically, all the different nations competing in Arctic exploration during the 19th century was getting a whole lot of people killed, so by the late 19th Century, these nations decided to collaborate and share research--much of which we still use (especially charts) today--including to measure recession of Arctic Ice due to global warming. Imagine that!
Raoul's ship's mission was personnel recovery, but they most certainly would have been doing research, and they would have had a number of basic instruments on board to measure things like the temperature, air pressure, and the pull of the North Pole. You can still access all of this data today. Bless the US government researchers who compiled this website. I'm sure they're pleased to know it's being used to write fanfiction.
In the fic, Raoul is rescued by a hunting party of the Sápmi people, and they nurse him back to health. The Sápmi are an indigenous nomadic people who still live north of the Arctic Circle and herd reindeer today. They also have several of their own languages--hence Raoul and his hosts have to use very rudimentary Norwegian that they've both learned for the same purpose (trading) as a lingua franca.
The music his hosts, Ande and Marja sing is joik, a very unique form of Sápmi music that often has no words.
Here is an example:
While these missions were lengthy, missions in the 1880s and 1890s also started to see all or most of the crews come back, a far cry from missions (like the Franklin), where even now we still don't know what happened.
Our beloved Vicomte, Raoul de Chagny, is a young junior officer in the French Navy ("le Royale"), but this hardly gets much exploration. It's a detail that is often glossed over--I anticipate because Naval historians and Phans often do not have much Venn diagram overlap--until now. Let's just say my username is a Naval reference.
Note: the "Raoul Navy" is not my invention--our hilarious and wise "Phantom Dark Web" friends at Leroux Less Traveled (incl. @box5intern) came up with it, and I love it.
I've started digging into book Raoul and his Naval background and turns out we are missing out a whole lot about Raoul's character background if we don't dig into it. So I'm going to tell you what the book tells us and what that means. I'm going to give you the overall pieces up front, and then explain:
What we know about Raoul and the Navy (Here is the English):
"He was admirably assisted in this work first by his sisters and afterward by an old aunt, the widow of a naval officer, who lived at Brest and gave young Raoul a taste for the sea. The lad entered the Borda training-ship, finished his course with honors and quietly made his trip round the world. Thanks to powerful influence, he had just been appointed a member of the official expedition on board the Requin, which was to be sent to the Arctic Circle in search of the survivors of the D'Artois expedition, of whom nothing had been heard for three years. Meanwhile, he was enjoying a long furlough which would not be over for six months; and already the dowagers of the Faubourg Saint-Germain were pitying the handsome and apparently delicate stripling for the hard work in store for him."
We also learn in another paragraph that the de Chagnys had admiral in the family, so the Naval connection is likely a family business for second sons. Raoul is a second son, so a career as a military officer would have been a distinguished career for him.
Borda: First ship
