A second handwritten letter from Edward Little I’ve found at TNA, this one is from October 28th 1834
TNA ADM 1/4866
It reads :
N°9 St Michaels Terrace Stoke
Devonport October 28th 1834
Sir,
Having been informed that Captain Chesney of the Royal Artillery is about to processed on an Expedition to the Euphrates, and that two passed Mates are to be employed under that officer, I take the earliest opportunity of offering my humble services on the occasion trusting, that an abscence of eight years on foreign service may entitle me to favourable consideration
In June 1826 I joined His Majesty’s Ship Forte Captain J. Coghlan, where I remained untill that ship left the west coast to South America for England. I then joined successively His Majesty’s Ships Sapphire, Alert and Dublin, and was paid off from the last named ship on 1st October last,
In June 1832, I passed my examination for Seamanship
To Captain the Hon'ble
George Elliott RN
&&&
Admiraltyand
and on my arrival in England I also passed at the Royal Naval College Lord James Townshend, my last Captain is now in London, to whom, as well as my other Captain’s I can with safety refer for character and general fitness, I have the honor to be,
Sir, your most obedient
Very humble servant
E Little late Mate
of the Dublin
In the corner :
? November
As there
? have no(thing ?) to say
& and the expe(dition?) he alludes to
(Thanks to everyone on Discord who helped me with that last part, please feel free to add your own transcription as it’s quite hard to read)
But this confirm several things to us : his adress being 9 Michael’s Terrace, Stoke Devonport, which I have already found some mentions of it being the family’s adress at the time (before any census)
And it also confirm to us that the Edward in the description book really is the same one, as we can link his Lieutenant service record to the one from the description book, before his promotion
We also now know that he passed his examination for Seamanship in 1832 while on board the Dublin, and passed his Lieutenant examination at the Royal Naval College in 1834 (Portsmouth)
But based on his service record, Edward did not join the Euphrates Expedition, as his next appointment after leaving the Dublin on Oct 2 1834, was on the Royale Adelaide, Sept 5 1835, still as Mate
His first appointment as Lieutenant would be in Dec 1837, on HMS Donegal
James Fitzjames actually took part in the Euphrates Expedition as Mate, which he joined on October 25th 1834, here is @jamesfitzjamesdotcom’s post about it
I feel like in the rush of “throw out etiquette who cares what fork you use or who gets introduced first” we actually lost a lot of social scripts that the younger generations are floundering without.
A lot of tough situations where we now feel like we “don’t know what to do or say” had social scripts just a couple of generations ago and they might have been canned phrases or robotic actions but they could still be meant sincerely and unfortunately we haven’t replaced them with any more sincere or easier new script.
a lot of people are giving examples in the notes of things they just find annoying like not using headphones in public, but OP is talking about actual literal scripts of things to say in awkward situations
if you have a date or two with someone and you don’t see a relationship developing? most millennials / gen Zers just end up ghosting. but a social script that might have been taught and rehearsed in the past could be:
“I really appreciated getting dinner with you the other night and I enjoyed your company, but I’m afraid I didn’t feel a spark. I wish you the best, and hope you find that special someone!”
like it sounds kind of trite but it was at least something to say and it can still be meant with kind sincerity. it also communicates in 2 sentences that you don’t want to see them romantically again, but there aren’t any hard feelings about that. that’s it!!! that’s all it takes!!!
Another example is that at parties a lot of people talk about how awkward it is to mingle or talk to people they dont know. But at old timey parties that was traditionally the HOST’S job, and there was a specific scripted way of doing it that eased the process! The host would bring you in, introduce you and maybe even a little bit about you like what you did for a living, and then guide you to a group you could talk to. They didn’t just let you in the door and then ditch you to fend for yourself in a sea of strangers. That would be unthinkable and no one would be surprised if a get-together like that wound up being awkward.
I still do the party-host thing and yall can, too! (Thanks Mad Men for teaching me a lot of outmoded social scripts… no really tho)
Remember things about your friends! Ask people about their weekends, hobbies, holidays, studies, and jobs! Listen for the concerns people have and what they are working on! Draw connections between one person and another to get the ball rolling. “Oh, Maura, you just got your first cat! You should talk to Felix, he used to work at a rescue. Felix, please tell Maura all the new-cat-guardian pointers.”
“Bill, Sheila, Xan, this is my friend Kale. Kale is really into Star Trek, Bill you and them should talk about it!”
Orrr whatever! After you make the introduction and draw the connection you just float on into the next interaction with someone else at the function. Just listen, care about your friends, get our of your own head, and think of how you can bring other people together and you will feel 100% less awkward.
hi i am so excited about this post because i have posted this exact thing MANY times on here, often in the specific context of how formal etiquette is so useful for autistic people especially, but also for everyone. even if you come off a little bit formal, which you will sometimes, having Old School Manners (or just knowing what they are) for various common scenarios is like having a magic ticket that will just sail you through all kinds of social iinteractions, gatekeeping, social weirdness, and as is pointed out in the above posts about introducing people to each other, can make you into a really valuable and helpful person for an entire gathering or group of people.
i also want to point out that knowing what the polite thing to do in all situations makes you a lot more effective at being rude and obnoxious when the situation calls for it, which is also a valuable and necessary adult skill
I approve of powerscaling discourse only in utterly senseless contexts. I don’t give a shit about which shōnen protagonists could beat up which other shōnen protagonists, but I will 100% read your five thousand word essay exploring the subtle nuances of establishing a tiered ranking of the Smurfs.
“Could Batman beat Captain America” trite, tedious, bullshit. “Could Deadpool beat Roger Rabbit” now you have my attention.
