History questions not worth their own thread III

[Azale]

I meant common titles used to describe China, Japan, and Korea during the same periods.

Pretty sure this is a no-go. Probably a good thing too, I can't think of any East Asia encompassing moniker that would actually be useful Unification, disintegration, cultural upheavals, most of those didn't coincide between TWO of those much less all three.

 

[Louis XXIV]

The same could be said for much of the west, but it's still done.

 

[Lord Baal]

The same could be said for much of the west, but it's still done.

Yes, but mostly by European and Euro-centric historians, and the terms are rapidly falling out of favour. You'd be very hard-pressed to find an Asia-centric historian with the same sort of mind-set that came up with the concept of "ages" in European historiography (specifically, Whiggish mindsets).

 

[Ajidica]

This is more of a technical question rather then historical, but here it goes:

I've been doing some reading on the British Arctic expeditions, and I've consistantly read that the ships were equipped with several years worth of supplies and that spending a year stuck in ice was common. How exactly could you fit a year's worth of supplies, let alone three years, into a rather small ship (frigates, modified bomb ketches)?

 

[Linkman226]

The amount of food absolutely necessary to sustain human life for a mere year is surprisingly low. So you pack calorie dense, nutrient dense substances (the latter is semi-optional if absolutely necessary). And the more you sleep, which seems like a good survival tactic if you're stuck in the arctic for a year, bored out of your mind.

Of course this is just what seems like common sense without actually doing any research.

 

[say1988]

They would also supplement stored rations with fish and game caught during the voyage (i.e. fish, whales, carribou) when it was available making their stores go that much farther.

 

[LightSpectra]

Being a sailor in the 19th century is probably the worst occupation ever. You get bragging rights, but aside from that, you're trapped in a tiny, freezing area with nothing to eat but beans, unspiced fish and liquor, and with nothing to do but make homoerotic jokes with your other crewmen, and intentionally screw off to get lashed.

 

[Linkman226]

I would disagree that making homoerotic jokes was common and that it is boring.

 

[Ajidica]

Being a sailor in the 19th century is probably the worst occupation ever. You get bragging rights, but aside from that, you're trapped in a tiny, freezing area with nothing to eat but beans, unspiced fish and liquor, and with nothing to do but make homoerotic jokes with your other crewmen, and intentionally screw off to get lashed.

Who said it was confined just to jokes?

 

[Lord Baal]

There's also rum. That's got to be a bit of a boredom-killer.

 

[civ_king]

There's also rum. That's got to be a bit of a boredom-killer.

Best idea ever, lets cram a bunch of men in a confined space for a long time with little to do and give them booze.

 

[LightSpectra]

There's also rum. That's got to be a bit of a boredom-killer.

Rum on an isolated ship can only lead to two things: the lash, and several things that would make one prefer the lash sober.

 

[say1988]

There would be plenty of gambling to do. Lots of dice and probably some card games as well.

 

[ParkCungHee]

There's always punching each other.

 

[Lord Baal]

Then there's the sodomy. Good old sodomy.

 

[LightSpectra]

I'm guessing everybody here has already heard the apocryphal Churchill quote, then:

"Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash."

 

[Ajidica]

I heard it as "Rum, Buggery, and the Lash", but yeah. That quote.

 

[Lord Baal]

I'm guessing everybody here has already heard the apocryphal Churchill quote, then:

"Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash."

Wouldn't it be safer to assume that we just know what those naval types are like?

 

[Hornblower]

I've spent many long months away at sea and we all used to joke about that oft misused quote of "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash." Having said that you would be surprised at what you can come up with to entertain yourself. Rediscovering the lost art of conversation rates highly as does coming up with new and inventive ways to gamble.
Apparently Churchills misused assertion about the Navy has long since been proven to be grossly inflated. I've seen the figures from the 1780's to the 1830's regarding corporal punishment at sea and it seems to have been used quite sparingly. Some will argue with me no doubt but the lash was not a common punishment in the Royal Navy of any era. Withholding the grog rations on the other hand...

 

[Linkman226]

How big WAS the Chola empire?