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[Sherwood, Harrison]

From: Andrew >> It also >> suggests to me that Pynchon might have
learned his tarpaulin from >> other authors, who were either equally
unconcerned with exact details >> of period language or wrote of
slightly later times. &, as I seem to recall saying a couple of weeks
ago to resounding cheers and "welldone"s from all and sundry for the
ruthless thoroughness of my research (and how's that for dry sarcasm,
eh?), at least one source for the "tarpaulin" is Patrick O'Brian's
Aubrey/Maturin novels, and _A Sea of Words_, a lexicon of the nautical
terminology used by O'Brian. In Andrew's quote above, the latter case is
correct. O'Brian's attention to period detail is above reproach, quite
famously exhaustive, if not definitive. The A/M novels take place in the
Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.M&D evidence:1) O'Brian gets a tip
of the cocked hat from TRP in the form of Seaman Pat O'Brian, "the best
Yarn-Spinner in all the Fleets" (p. 54) Seaman O'Brian knows "all there
is to know and more 'pon the Topick of Euphroes, and Rigging even more
obscure."2) M&D p. 37: "'Twas small work to come up with us, get to
leeward,--from which the French like to engage..." A major plot point in
(I think it's) _Post-Captain_ depends on the French preferring the
lee-gage for attack. In fact, it is arguable that the Battle of
Trafalgar was won because the two British columns attacked from the
weather side, as was the British habit, and the French and Spanish did
not use the advantage of the wind to turn and flee when they had the
chance (the major advantage to possession of the lee-gage). This little
oversight virtually wiped the French and Spanish navies from the oceans
for the rest of time, and somebody or other Ruled the Waves from that
point forward.3) Jack Aubrey has addressed the RS on the Topick of
refinements of lunar navigation to determine longitude. ("[Capt. Smith
of the _Seahorse_ is] now silent upon his side of the Quarter-deck, now
bending late and dutifully over the lunar-distance forms. 'He wishes to
be taken as a man of Science,' opines the Rev'd upon first meeting the
Astronomers...")Harrison