terror,paranoia,hilarity and calculated madness on the way to the transit of Venus- tone in chapters 456

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Here's an account of a French Transit of Venus expedition that set sail shortly before the Seahorse expedition. Lots of similarities, in terms of being undergunned and over-cargoed: 

By and large, things did not go as well for the French expeditions.
Alexandre-Gui Pingre left Paris on November 17, 1760, for his
destination of the island of Rodrigues, viewing his forthcoming voyage
with foreboding. This despite another remarkable novelty of the times.
Although Britain and France were locked in bitter battle, the Academie
Royale des Sciences had appealed directly to British authorities to grant
Pingre a laissez-passer, a letter instructing all British naval and military
personnel "not to molest his person or Effects upon any account, but to
suffer him to proceed without delay or Interruption." This was indeed
granted, although since sea battles tended to exchange gunfire first and
civilities later, if at all, Pingre's misgivings were not misplaced.
The transit party sailed on the Comte d'Argenson, a warship that found
itself with less than half its normal complement of guns in order to
extend its cargo capacity to that needed for the expedition. (There had
been a heated dockside argument over the baggage, Pingre arguing
furiously that seven or eight hundred pounds was not too much for an
astronomer!) To the horror of all on board, a group of five British
warships was sighted only one day out from port. To allow full play of
its remaining guns, the ship's crew tore down the temporary cabins that
had been erected for Pingre's companions, the latter and their
belongings being flung unceremoniously into Pingre's cabin for the
time being. Fortunately, though, a combination of suitable winds, the
long winter night, and the captain's skills allowed the Comte to slip
away unmolested, and everyone settled down to the remaining four
months of their voyage. 

ttp://www.mdlpp.org/pdf/library/SeahorseMdTransitofVenus.pdf (posted previously)



-----Original Message-----

From: Monte Davis 

Subject: Re: terror,paranoia,hilarity and calculated madness on the way to the transit of Venus- tone in chapters 456


A bell rang when I read this Pynchon passage in 1997: I was sure I'd read somewhere, long before, about Napoleon himself using the French captain's words, or very similar phrasing, w/r/t letting some expedition pass, returning some naturalist's specimen collection that had been captured, or the like. But I've never tracked it down, nor did it turn up in the 1997 or 2001 group readings here. (Nor do I know of any answer to your question about how the French captain would have known of M&D's presence, other than Pynchonian conspiracism about the the higher levels of Them, e.g. IG Farben,  Shell, GE et al. carrying on despite the distraction of WWII.)
FWIW: In 1813, when Great Britain was at war with Napoleon's France, English scientist Humphry Davy traveled freely on the Continent and in Paris collected a prize and medal funded by Napoleon for the best work on galvanism. (While not common, such interactions were not unknown in other fields of scholarship as well as science.) Davy remarked to an associate: "But if the two countries or governments are at war, the men of science are not. That would, indeed be a civil war of the worst description: we should rather, through the instrumentality of the men of science soften the asperities of national hostility." Quoted in Gavin de Beer, The Sciences Were Never at War (1960).  


On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 11:10 AM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
Which brings up the question of why the l'Grand turned away. Was it really, as Smith (filtered through Cherrycoke) reported, "France is not at war with the sciences?" If so, how did they eventually figure out, mid-attack, that this was a scientific expedition? Was Smith able to get the letters of passage over to the other captain? Kind of seems there should have been some identifying marker - a sail with a sun and two crossed telescopes instead of the skull and bones? - to prevent attacks before they started.
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l