This Card Image Gallery is updated with the latest card images from Kaladesh Remastered, releasing November 12, 2020.

We're introducing some exciting Magic the Gathering Starter Bundles, perfect for the TCG newcomer or a gift for a friend! These starter kits are customisable to fit the Commander format, and you get everything you need to get started - and then some! Choose from: ✅1 Commander Deck ✅1 set of 100 MTG Sleeves ✅1 life pad ✅1 deck box You can also add: ✨34mm D20 ✨Life Token ✨Playmat With Christmas coming up, you can prepare your friends and family to join you every Commander night! Ch

Menace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.) Whenever Halgor, Commander of Flame attacks, create a 2/2 red Dragon creature token with flying. Whenever a Dragon enters the battlefield under your control, Halgor, Commander of Flame deals 1 damage to any target.

About this item READY-TO-PLAY COMMANDER DECK FOR NEWCOMERS AND FANS: Join friends in epic battles! This Magic: The Gathering Starter Commander Deck, Grave Danger (Blue-Black), is ready to play straight out of the box INTRO TO MAGIC’S MOST POPULAR FORMAT: Commander is a multiplayer way to play Magic! Learn how to play with your own deck, easy-to-follow rules, strategy tips, and reference card 100 CARD BLUE-BLACK DECK: With the Grave Danger deck, ally with the human wizards and siblings Gisa and Geralf and overwhelm foes with a multiplying army of zombies FOIL-ETCHED LEGENDARY CREATURE CARD: Includes 1 legendary creature card with gorgeous art and a foil-etched treatment. This card serves as your "commander" with unique abilities that make plays even more powerful INCLUDES ACCESSORIES AND DECK BOX: Also comes with 10 two-sided tokens, a deck box for storage, and punchout counters to keep track of creature buffs FUN GIFT FOR TEENS AND ADULTS: This compact travel game is great for bringing to a Magic: The Gathering game night or local game store event. Collectible card games also make cool gifts for ages 13+ LOOK FOR MORE STARTER COMMANDER DECKS: Other MTG Commander decks in this series include First Flight, Draconic Destruction, Chaos Incarnate, and Token Triumph. (Sold separately. Subject to availability.)

I made this Commander box for my Vampire tribal deck. Will fit 105 sleeved cards easy, with space for you dice, tokens or whatever. Lid fits tight so it wont just fall off in transportation. I set it up with 3 spots for the large D20 spindowns to track commander damage but you can use anything you want really. The pegs help to align the cross once you ready to glue it on. There is also a version of the lid without holes in case you dont want the cross or want to glue anything else on there.

#Legendary #Creature — #Human #Ranger ( #OutlawsofThunderJunction ) This spell costs (1) less to cast for each land card in your graveyard. Whenever Yuma, Proud Protector enters the battlefield or attacks, you may sacrifice a land. If you do, draw a card. Whenever a Desert card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, create a 4/2 green Plant Warrior creature token with reach. 004 #Mythic #mtg #magicthegathering #mtgcommunity #mtgaddicts #mtgcommander #magic #edh #mtgcards #mtglife #tcg #mtgedh #mtgart #wizardsofthecoast #wotc #mtgdaily #mtgcard #mtgcollection #mtgarena #commander #magicthegatheringcards #mtgmodern #mtgaddict #mtgstandard #mtgalter #mtgfoil #mtglegacy #mtgpimp #mtgalters #oldschoolmtg #cardgame

About this item 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘂𝗺 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆：Premium mtg card deck box has two-layer construction, the outer layer that is plasticized water-resistant PU leather material, and the inner layer has a soft microfiber material to protect the cards inside. This box is better than the basic boxes made of single-sheet PVC-type material. Made from archival-safe, acid-free non-PVC material, the ZLCA Card Deck Box is the perfect way to store your cards. 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆：Compared with the traditional plastic card box, the durable leather card deck box gets an upgrade, and offers more room for your cards. Specially designed for Commander EDH players, but also for all regular decks with extra cards or tokens. Designed to hold 100+ double-sleeved cards or 120+ single-sleeved cards. If you don’t sleeve cards and use this for non-premium cards/games, this will hold over 200 cards. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗲𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻：Tight stitching and 8 powerful magnets keep the card deck case secure during transport. Even when fully loaded and turned upside down, the card holder case stays tightly closed at all times, no need to worry about losing your precious cards. The stitching is clean and all corners look great and are glued well. 𝗨-𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻：The box features a double-sided, wide-mouth U-shaped design. Even if the box is full of cards, you will be able to easily remove them all at once. The just-right design allows you to put and take cards with ease and without hindrance. 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝘀：Our game card box holds your double-sleeved, KMC inners, Dragon Shield outers, and commander deck perfectly. Also compatible with Magic The Gathering MTG, YuGiOh!, and Cardfight!! Vanguard, Duel Masters, etc, a variety of TCG/CCG/LCG & other collectible cards. We highly, recommend giving these a try. › See more product details

In Kalimambo, players are amateur explorers in Africa, excited about the discovery of a new species, one of whose members – dubbed "Kali" by the explorers – playfully runs amongst the group as it crosses the savannah. Unbeknownst to the group, Kali's rhinoceros friend Mambo is eager to bump the group along to keep it moving, possibly pushing an explorer or two into the dung heaps that dot the land. Can you avoid getting a faceful of feces and being bumped by Mambo? To set up the game, one player places Mambo on a space on the track that circles the game board, then all of the explorer tokens placed in random order in front of it, then Kali placed at the head of the line. Place the dung heaps along the movement track with some space between them. Each player takes a set of movement cards that match the color of her explorer. Each player secretly chooses a movement card, then they reveal these cards simultaneously; someone also reveals the top movement card from Kali's deck. Whichever player has played the highest card moves her explorer token to the first unoccupied space in front of the group, then the player with the next highest card moves her token, and so on. If two or more players reveal the same number, only the one farthest back in the group moves; all other such explorers remain where they started the round. (Kali moves like an explorer. If you play a zero or are at the front of the group when you are supposed to move, you don't move.) If a player's token lands on a dung heap, she scores three penalty points. If Kali lands in the dung, the player(s) who played the lowest number that round take the penalty instead of Kali. Whenever Kali or an explorer token leave the space immediately in front of Mambo, the rhino charges, moving until it rams into the token in back of the line and giving that player as many penalty points as the number of spaces Mambo ran. If Mambo rams Kali, then as with the Kali/dung interaction, the player(s) who played the lowest number take the penalty points instead of Kali. Remove those played movement cards from the game. After twelve rounds – that is, after the final cards have been played and resolved, the game ends and the player with the fewest points wins.

The story thus far... The life of a Strategic Space Sheep Commander isn't easy, especially if that Commander is assigned to the Lambda Sector. Centuries of peace had lasted throughout Lambda, the various Sheep Systems have settled their remaining differences, and the sector has seen a golden age of prosperity and scientific advancement. With the era of scientific enlightenment came the creation of the Spatial Sheep Distortion Drive, supplanting the now-outdated Warp Drive. The ships outfitted with such operate both independently and synchronously with System bases to enable the crossing of vast distances in relatively short amounts of time. With this, the races of the Systems were brought even closer together. Commerce and cultural trade were at an all-time high, and families allowed their Sheeplings to roam free across the neighboring regions without fear. All was well in the galaxy – until the first messenger ship arrived from a force that has become known only as "Wolf". Its language was unintelligible, but its message was clear: complete and total annihilation of Sheepkind. Soon after, the first Wolf ships arrived, laying waste to the satellite planets of the Sheep Home Systems. Front-line galactic defense forces were able to stave off further destruction – but what is coming is far, far more terrifying than any threat faced in the galaxy's known history. All Systems have been placed under Red Alert, with the Strategic Sheep Command called together and a Flock Commander named. As members of Wolf have been spotted in Sheep Commanders' uniform, SSC has determined that the best way of insulating the individual Systems is by outlawing all usage of the Spatial Sheep Distortion drives. Inter-system access is granted only to the Elite "Shepherd" class ships, via a complex network of Hyperspace travel. A fleet of these specialized ships has been assigned to recover the Sheeplings and return them to their Home Systems while the Wolf invasion is repelled. You are a Sheep. You are a Defender in the Strategic Sheep Command. You have trained all of your career for this moment in history. You will issue Tactics to the Shepherd Fleet to direct the Rescue Mission. You know how to defeat Wolf – "Ewe's The Force..." Space Sheep! is a real-time, customizable, cooperative game – with possible traitor(s) in your midst – for 1-8 players. The Defenders want to get the Space Sheep tokens and Shepherd tokens back to their matching Systems before all the cards are gone and time has run out. (If playing with Infiltrators, thus making the game semi-cooperative, each player receives a secret allegiance card; each player knows only her own allegiance, leaving her to guess and decipher who else is on her team.) In Space Sheep!, on each player's turn, the player will play a card from her hand, allowing her to: Activate a System and take the action associated with it (moving the Space Sheep and Shepherds), Play a card to move a Shepherd clockwise, or Play any card face down to the Defense Mat. Additionally, a player may play a card matching the System occupied by the Wolf to attack (and knock the Wolf token on its side). In Space Sheep!, one player acts as the Supreme Flock Commander, managing the one-minute sand timer. If the sand runs out, Wolf attacks and players must discard cards from the Defense Mat, the deck, or their hands; if they can't, they lose the game. If the Wolf token has been knocked on its side, the Supreme Flock Commander may flip the sand timer before it runs out to avoid the Wolf attack, standing up the Wolf token and moving it to another System in the process. Players who are Infiltrators will, of course, be attempting to delay action, make poor moves, and subtly manipulate the other players into making poor choices of their own. At any time players may point at one another in an accusatory fashion. If more than half the players simultaneously point at one player, this player is out of the game. He then reveals his Allegiance and: If players have found an Infiltrator, shuffle the player's cards in hand and place them on the bottom of the deck. If players have found a Defender, place the player's cards in hand on the face-down discard pile. On the ousted player's turn, Wolf attacks. If the Defenders get all shepherds and space sheep to their matching systems, then they win the game. If the sand timer runs out and players can't discard enough cards – or if the number of Infiltrators matches the number of Defenders in the game – then the Infiltrators win. Players can customize Space Sheep! by varying the number of Systems in play (more Systems = more complexity), the number of tactic cards in the deck (fewer cards = greater difficulty), the strength of Wolf, the ratio of Infiltrators to Defenders, and the types of direction cards (more directions = greater variability).

What do pirates do when sailing the seas? The distances between harbors are long and there are only so many times the crew can try mutiny before it gets old. The captain is grumpy all the time and the ship needs constant management. So what do the crew do to keep up the spirits? Gamble with Round-o-Loot of course! Round-o-Loot is a fast, risk based card game, where cards are played fast and plays disrupted by selective hand management. Players try to play the most points they can while gathering cards to get combos to disrupt other player’s play. The deck consists of 61 cards: 5 different cards and the captain card. Most of the cards are point cards, and then there is the rum card. Cards are played one type at a time, and when possible, 3 or more cards can be played in conjunction with rum card to create combos to disrupt other player’s game. After dealing their hand cards, players play one type at a time. With careful card drawing and hand management, players can also collect 3 or more of the same card type, and when played with the rum card, players get a combo. These combos affect other players and gives the player an edge. The goal is to get the most points possible until someone draws the captain card. After someone draws the captain, the round ends immediately and points are calculated. The player with the most points win the round and gets a token card. Then cards are shuffled again and a new hand is dealt. When any player gets their 3rd token card, they win the game.

Navy Commander David Fravor, now retired, had led the F/A-18 Hornet squadron off the deck of the USS Nimitz on the afternoon of November 14, 2004. He described seeing the strange object as he approached. “There were no rotors, no rotor wash, or any visible flight control surfaces like wings,” he wrote in a statement to the House Oversight Committee. “Our altitude at this point was approximately 15,000 feet with the Tic Tac at about 12,000 feet. As we pulled nose onto the object at approximately half a mile with the object just left of our nose, it rapidly accelerated and disappeared right in front of our aircraft,” he continued. “This Tic Tac object…was far superior in performance to my brand-new F/A-18F and did not operate with any of the known aerodynamic principles that we expect for objects that fly in our atmosphere.” A radar operator on the USS Princeton, which was part of the Nimitz carrier group, later reported that he had detected several UAPs descending 80,000 feet in less than a second

On December 8, 2018, I was able to take part in a 24-hour, Distinguished Visitor (DV)/media embark aboard the US Navy aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). The Navy flew me to and from the ship in a Grumman C-2A Greyhound, and we made an arrested landing upon arrival and a catapult launch when we departed the next day. I was able to see much of the ship, and also spend many hours taking photos on their active flight deck. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget! The USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) is America's third Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. The ship's primary mission is to conduct sustained combat air operations. Partnered with the embarked Carrier Air Wing 2 (CVW 2), Vinson protects US interests around the world and other friendly military or merchant vessels, defends air and sea-lanes, provides humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and maintains a visible presence of American resolve any time, any place. A small group of four aviation photographers were invited to be part of a 24-hour overnight embark aboard the USS Carl Vinson to photograph Strike Fighter Squadron 147 (VFA-147) "Argonauts" and their Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II s working on obtaining their Carrier Qualification (CQ). VFA-147 is the Navy's first operational squadron with the F-35C, and the Navy is planning for VFA-147 and their F-35Cs first aircraft carrier deployment in 2021 aboard the USS Carl Vinson. Here is what the Commander, Joint Strike Fighter Wing (CJSFW) Public Affairs had to say about VFA-147 and their time embarked aboard the USS Carl Vinson. The “Argonauts” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 147 completed their carrier qualifications Dec. 12 aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), the final required component for Commander, Joint Strike Fighter Wing (CJSFW) to issue the squadron its safe-for-flight operations certification. This marks a major milestone for the U.S. Navy toward declaring Initial Operating Capability (IOC) this year

A day at sea, and a sailor falls in love.  A month at sea, a sailor wants to find love.  A year at sea and a sailor misses his love.  Without the technology of today, sailors of past generations couldn’t send a cute text saying, “I miss you”, and phone calls were certainly out of the question. So then what was the best way to show his lady back at home how he really felt? Valuables couldn’t be kept on board, they could potentially be stolen, or lost. Then came about an idea- a token- to remember times spent away at sea.  A concept believed to have blossomed originally on the island of Barbados, a Sailor’s Valentine is a collection of small shells, arranged in a heart, a compass, or some other pattern or phrase to express sentiment. Local Saint Augustinian Richard Marquis, known around the marina as Commander Rick, has made eight of these beautiful creations for his wife, Kathy.  Retired from the United States Navy, he found letting her know she was on his mind while serving at sea was the ultimate way to win her heart. The Sailor’s Valentine is thought to have originated between 1830-1890. They could be as small as 8 inches all they way up to 20 inches in size.  The valentines are typically expressed as an octagonal hinged box with a glass front, inside the box seashells are glued to a backing, which was typically newspaper.  In cases of the original antiques, the newspaper backing was found to be local Barbados papers, leading to the suspicion of the location of it’s origination. Antique valentines can still be bought today, and custom orders and newer creations are priced starting around $450.  A time consuming craft, creating a masterpiece like the ones featured is a surefire way to show someone you love them. For more information on Sailor’s Valentines visit www.nantucketsailorsvalentines.com By Sydney Zaruba

Here are some images of Constructo's 1/60 scale H.M.S. Endeavour. From Wikipedia" HMS Endeavour, also known as HM Bark Endeavour, was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded on his first voyage of discovery, to Australia and New Zealand from 1769 to 1771. She was launched in 1764 as the collier Earl of Pembroke, and the Navy purchased her in 1768 for a scientific mission to the Pacific Ocean and to explore the seas for the surmised Terra Australis Incognita or "unknown southern land". The Navy renamed and commissioned her as His Majesty's Bark the Endeavour. She departed Plymouth in August 1768, rounded Cape Horn, and reached Tahiti in time to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun. She then set sail into the largely uncharted ocean to the south, stopping at the Pacific islands of Huahine, Borabora, and Raiatea to allow Cook to claim them for Great Britain. In September 1769, she anchored off New Zealand, the first European vessel to reach the islands since Abel Tasman's Heemskerck 127 years earlier. In April 1770, Endeavour became the first ship to reach the east coast of Australia, when Cook went ashore at what is now known as Botany Bay. Endeavour then sailed north along the Australian coast. She narrowly avoided disaster after running aground on the Great Barrier Reef, and Cook had to throw her guns overboard to lighten her. He then beached her on the mainland for seven weeks to permit rudimentary repairs to her hull. On 10 October 1770, she limped into port in Batavia (now named Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies for more substantial repairs, her crew sworn to secrecy about the lands they had discovered. She resumed her westward journey on 26 December, rounded the Cape of Good Hope on 13 March 1771, and reached the English port of Dover on 12 July, having been at sea for nearly three years. Largely forgotten after her epic voyage, Endeavour spent the next three years shipping Navy stores to the Falkland Islands. Renamed and sold into private hands in 1775, she briefly returned to naval service as a troop transport during the American Revolutionary War and was scuttled in a blockade of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island in 1778. Her wreck has not been precisely located, but relics, including six of her cannons and an anchor, are displayed at maritime museums worldwide. A replica of Endeavour was launched in 1994 and is berthed alongside the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney Harbour. The space shuttle Endeavour is named for the original ship. Endeavour features on the New Zealand fifty cent piece in recognition of its significant place in the nation's history. Endeavour was originally the merchant collier Earl of Pembroke, launched in June 1764 from the coal and whaling port of Whitby in North Yorkshire, and of a type known locally as the Whitby Cat. She was ship-rigged and sturdily built with a broad, flat bow, a square stern and a long box-like body with a deep hold. A flat-bottomed design made her well-suited to sailing in shallow waters and allowed her to be beached for loading and unloading of cargo and for basic repairs without requiring a dry dock. Her hull, internal floors and futtocks were built from traditional white oak, her keel and stern post from elm and her masts from pine and fir. Plans of the ship also show a double keelson to lock the keel, floors and frames in place. Some doubt exists about the height of her masts, as surviving diagrams of Endeavour depict the body of the vessel only, and not the mast plan. While her main and foremasts are accepted to be a standard 129 and 110 feet (39 and 34 m) respectively, an annotation on one surviving ship plan records the mizzen as "16 yards 29 inches" (15.4 m). If correct, this would produce an oddly truncated mast a full 9 feet (2.7 m) shorter than the standards of the day. Modern research suggests the annotation may be a transcription error and should read "19 yards 29 inches" (24.5 m), which would more closely conform with both the naval standards and the lengths of the other masts. The replica is built to this shorter measurement, as is the model in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. There is a differences between the height of the mizzen fore-and-aft spar in the contemporary painting by Luny (below) and its position on the replica in the photographs, compared to the height of the lowest spars on the fore and mainmasts. On 16 February 1768, the Royal Society petitioned King George III to finance a scientific expedition to the Pacific to study and observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the sun. Royal approval was granted for the expedition, and the Admiralty elected to combine the scientific voyage with a confidential mission to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated continent Terra Australis Incognita (or "unknown southern land"). The Royal Society suggested command be given to Scottish geographer Alexander Dalrymple, whose acceptance was conditional on a brevet commission as a captain in the Royal Navy. However, First Lord of the Admiralty Edward Hawke refused, going so far as to say he would rather cut off his right hand than give command of a Navy vessel to someone not educated as a seaman. In refusing Dalrymple's command, Hawke was influenced by previous insubordination aboard the sloop HMS Paramour in 1698, when naval officers had refused to take orders from civilian commander Dr. Edmond Halley. The impasse was broken when the Admiralty proposed James Cook, a naval officer with a background in mathematics and cartography. Acceptable to both parties, Cook was promoted to Lieutenant and named as commander of the expedition. Earl of Pembroke, later HMS Endeavour, leaving Whitby Harbour in 1768. By Thomas Luny, dated 1790. On 27 May 1768, Cook took command of the Earl of Pembroke, valued in March at £2,307. 5s. 6d. but ultimately purchased for £2,840. 10s. 11d. and assigned for use in the Society's expedition. She was refitted at Deptford on the River Thames for the sum of £2,294, almost the price of the ship itself. The hull was sheathed and caulked to protect against shipworm, and a third internal deck installed to provide cabins, a powder magazine and storerooms. The new cabins provided around 2 square metres (22 sq ft) of floorspace apiece and were allocated to Cook and the Royal Society representatives: naturalist Joseph Banks, Banks' assistants Daniel Solander and Herman Spöring, astronomer Charles Green, and artists Sydney Parkinson and Alexander Buchan. These cabins encircled the officer's mess. The Great Cabin at the rear of the deck was designed as a workroom for Cook and the Royal Society. On the rear lower deck, cabins facing on to the mate's mess were assigned to Lieutenants Zachary Hicks and John Gore, ship's surgeon William Monkhouse, the gunner Stephen Forwood, ship's master Robert Molyneux, and the captain's clerk Richard Orton. The adjoining open mess deck provided sleeping and living quarters for the marines and crew, and additional storage space. A longboat, pinnace and yawl were provided as ship's boats, though the longboat was rotten and had to be rebuilt and painted with white lead before it could be brought aboard. These were accompanied by two privately owned skiffs, one belonging to the boatswain John Gathrey, and the other to Banks. The ship was also equipped with a set of 28 ft (8.5 m) sweeps to allow her to be rowed forward if becalmed or demasted. The refitted vessel was commissioned as His Majesty's Bark the Endeavour, to distinguish her from the 14-gun sloop HMS Endeavour. On 21 July 1768, Endeavour sailed to Galleon's Reach to take on armaments to protect her against potentially hostile Pacific island natives. Ten 4-pounder cannons were brought aboard, six of which were mounted on the upper deck and the remainder stowed in the hold. Twelve swivel guns were also supplied, and fixed to posts along the quarterdeck, sides and bow. The ship departed for Plymouth on 30 July, for provisioning and to board her crew of 85, including 12 Royal Marines. Cook also ordered that twelve tons of pig iron be brought on board as sailing ballast.

The Lost Valor of Love The Transcendence Series Book 1 by E A Carter Genre: Historical Fantasy, SciFi "Claim me, and your every movement, every breath, every word will be written upon my heart, for eternity. You will be immortal yet." 'GRIPPING. WILL KEEP YOU READING THROUGH THE NIGHT.' KATHERINE STANSFIELD, AUTHOR OF FALLING CREATURES Growing up during the centuries-long conflict between the empires of Egypt and Hatti, the young princess Istara is taken hostage by the King of Hatti to secure the loyalty of her father, the King of Kadesh to the empire. Soon her new life in Hatti's glittering capital becomes all she knows. Bound in blood before the gods to Hatti's unwilling crown prince, Istara, now Hatti's queen-in-waiting, learns she will never be loved. But the drums of war beat again, and when the scheming plans of Hatti's king threaten the existence of all civilization, the gods give Istara a choice: to leave behind everything she knows to save mankind, or remain where she is, powerless, a token on the game board of kings. On the brink of one of the most brutal battles in history, she chooses to risk her life to deliver a message to the only man able to prevent the prophecy from becoming a reality—her mortal enemy, the Pharaoh Ramesses II. Wounded, cold and hungry, she wanders in the battle's horrific aftermath, and aids a powerful commander, who she learns protected her once, and has been bound to her ever since by a prophetic dream of his future. Despite his resistance, and Istara once more becoming a pawn of kings, they must confront an eternal love so powerful, not even kings, the gods, or death can keep them apart. The Lost Valor of Love is the first book of the Transcendence series. **Get it FREE Apr 9 – 13!!** Goodreads * Amazon Book Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl2PvQYgdh8&feature=emb_title The Call of Eternity The Transcendence Series Book 2 'AN EPIC STORY OF LOVE. POWERFUL AND COMPELLING.' KATHERINE STANSFIELD, AUTHOR OF THE MAGPIE TREE "I love you, even past the boundaries of eternity. Not even the end of my existence could extinguish the love I feel for you." In the epic sequel to The Lost Valor of Love, worlds collide, and gods and mortals cross paths, kingdoms fall, and ancient, long-buried hatreds stir. In the heavens, the storm god Teshub discovers two of the most powerful gods of the pantheon have fallen to a world torn apart by rivalry, war, famine, and plagues. Soon, he learns, he too must fall. In the north, a crown prince ascends the throne, his queen taken by his enemy as compensation for the crimes of his father. But the new king is prepared to risk everything to reclaim his queen, and plans for war begin. In the east, a near-immortal senses the awakening of a powerful artifact after an eternity of silence. It can only mean one thing: gods once more walk among men, and with their return—the key to his immortality. And from far without, the Creator eyes his dying creation, its fragile boundaries unraveling. From across an enormous board, he picks up a token—an exact replica of a living woman. He smiles at it with fondness and sets it down on a new space. Folding his hands together, he steps back, and waits. The Call of Eternity is the second book in the Transcendence series. **Get it FREE April 16 – 20!!** Goodreads * Amazon The Rise of the Goddess The Transcendence Series Book 3 Istara found the courage to meet Sethi's eyes. In his, the anguish of his love, untainted by the darkness. He was going to leave her. Tears blazed a path through her soul. He drew her against him as she wept, as she accepted what he already knew. For them, there could only be war. 'A SUPERB FINALE. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED.' KATHERINE STANSFIELD, AUTHOR OF THE MERMAID'S CALL In a world older than time, a portal stirs from its long slumber. From out of its cerulean mists, the warship of the scion of darkness and destroyer of worlds emerges. With its gods long gone, Elati is a world ripe for the taking. Marduk intends to take it all. Corrupted by Marduk's devices, Sethi succumbs to the grip of evil. A brutal, merciless commander, he oppresses the kingdoms of Elati, his violence awakening a weapon of the deepest darkness. Poisoned by lies and tainted by hate, he thirsts for its power to obliterate the light of the one he once loved beyond all reason. Desperate to reprieve Sethi from his corruption, Istara pursues her last hope, risking everything to retrieve powerful artifacts of Thoth's, her light her only defense against the growing darkness—and the one determined to annihilate her. Bound by love and driven by duty, Urhi-Teshub reaches the threshold of his destiny, where he faces the horrifying price he must pay to protect Istara. And at the heart of an abandoned island of gods, surrounded by an endless storm, an eternal tower awaits. Caught in the crosshairs of a primordial war for supremacy, Sethi and Istara must face each other one final time. Darkness and light. Enemies. Lovers. Gods. The Rise of the Goddess is the final book in the Transcendence series. **Get all three books FREE April 23 – 25!!** Goodreads * Amazon E A Carter is a British-Canadian who lives in Sweden. Her debut novel The Lost Valor of Love is the first book in the Transcendence series and a finalist winner in the First Novel and Historical Fiction categories in the 2019 Indie Author Network's Book of the Year Awards. When not at the keyboard, she can be found photographing the world around her. Between 2014-2015 she held three exhibitions of her photographs, two by invitation from the city's Kulturhuset. Her work has been seen on national television, and her black and white photography has won two contests, one in the US and one in Sweden. Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Pinterest * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads $30 Amazon – 1 winner , $15 Amazon – 2 winners Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway! a Rafflecopter giveaway

The midshipmen shown in this illustration are dressed in the uniforms as prescribed by the Regulations of 1852 with some modifications as ordered by the newly created Naval Academy. Prior to the establishment of the school at Annapolis in 1843, the young men who would be the future officers of the United States Navy had been educated in a rather haphazard manner. Since the Continental Navy was authorized in 1776, provision had been made for the young men who would in time command the ships of the Navy, but no real provision would be made for their education for many years. With the creation of the Federal Navy in 1797, the rank of midshipman was approved, and young men and, in some cases, mere boys were appointed as warrant officers. Many midshipmen who served in the early Navy had little formal education and, in most cases, no experience at sea or aboard ships. Basically they were supposed to learn their profession by observing their senior officers and doing such duties as might be assigned to them. The need for educational opportunities was evident and as a stop-gap measure chaplains, when they were available, were supposed to do what teaching their other duties and the shipboard duties of the midshipmen would permit. To provide some small measure of assistance, Congress in 1813 established the rating of “schoolmaster,” but the rate of pay of $25 per month did not attract qualified teachers. In March 1835 the position of Professor of Mathematics was created with the status of a civil officer. With a better rate of pay and a quasi-officer status originally, some good instructors were secured, but the training program, mainly aboard ship, was not adequate for the Navy’s needs. To supplement shipboard training, a school had been established in 1802 aboard the Frigate Congress, then in ordinary, or in today’s parlance, mothballs, at the Washington Navy Yard. Any midshipmen who had the desire for a somewhat formal education and could be spared from other duties availed themselves of the meager facilities. Three such schools were in operation in 1833 at Boston, New York, and Norfolk. The first truly Naval School was opened in Philadelphia in 1838 at the Naval Asylum, but education for midshipmen was basically still aboard ship at sea when duties permitted attending school. The problem was not solved, so Secretary of the Navy, George Bancroft, historian and man of letters, took matters into his own hands. In 1845, the unused Army facility at Fort Severn, Annapolis, Maryland, was transferred to the Navy with the approval of President James K. Polk. The Naval School was opened in makeshift quarters on 10 October 1845, with Commander Franklin Buchanan as Superintendent. As a staff, Lieutenant John H. Ward was to act as the executive officer and also instruct in gunnery and steam engineering. A Navy surgeon, John A. Lockwood, was instructor in chemistry, Chaplain George Jones taught English, while Passed Midshipman S. Marcy taught mathematics. Three Professors completed the staff, Henry Lockwood in natural philosophy; Arsene N. Girault in French and William Chauvenet in mathematics and navigation. It was a small staff but the beginning of a proper educational system for Naval officers. Congress gave official recognition to the Navy’s school when $28,200 was appropriated for repairs in 1847, and again in 1850 when the name was changed to the Naval Academy. The early classes at the Naval Academy were made up of midshipmen, some of whom had served at sea or attended the so-called schools ashore and new appointees. In 1850 a new code of regulations was placed in effect and new appointees reported to the Academy as “acting midshipmen” to be attached to the Academy for two years and after this first term to go to sea for two and a half years to become a warranted midshipmen and then attend classes an additional two years. The 1852 Uniform Regulations provided dress and undress uniforms for midshipmen and passed midshipmen, while the Academy established a uniform for acting midshipmen. The various uniforms are shown in the illustration. Both the foreground figures are shown in the official 1852 uniforms. The Passed Midshipman is wearing the undress frock coat of the senior officers of the Navy but the sleeves of his coat are plain with only the three small buttons in the cuff opening. In 1852 a captain in undress would have three strips of three-quarter inch wide lace on the sleeves of his coat; a commander, two strips, a lieutenant, one, and a master, three medium buttons around the cuff. Commissioned officers in undress could wear either the epaulets or shoulder straps of their rank, while passed midshipmen wore only a strap of gold lace one-half inch wide and four inches long in lieu of the more decorative straps. Midshipmen, not passed, had no shoulder ornaments. As other officers, passed midshipmen wore the blue cap with the same cap device as lieutenants and masters, a wreath of gold oak and olive branches with a silver foul anchor in the center. Under the 1852 order, masters and above had a band of gold lace around the cap but none was specified for midshipmen. Under a uniform change of 11 February 1853, all midshipmen could wear lace bands. In the right foreground, the midshipman is shown in full dress. The coat is a direct descendant of the one introduced in 1813; tight fitting, with tails and a standing collar. The sleeve lace of the senior officers and the buttons of a master were omitted from midshipmen’s coats, and the amount of lace on the collar was reduced to a minimum, an inch wide band around the top with no lace at the bottom for a passed midshipman, and none for a midshipman. In lieu of collar lace, a midshipman had a foul anchor embroidered in gold thread on either side of the collar. The 1852 order had introduced the use of gold lace along the outer seams of the full dress trousers, the width of the stripe diminishing as the rank went down. For a passed midshipman, instead of flat lace, a gold cord a quarter inch in diameter was used and midshipmen had no seam decoration. The cocked hat was like that of all officers entitled to wear them below the rank of commander, a loop of four gold bullions over the cockade. Captains and commanders had loops of six bullions, the center two twisted. The midshipmen in the center background are shown in the Academy’s variation of the official 1852 uniform instruction. The 1852 order provided that jackets could be worn by all officers when at sea except at general muster or in charge of the Deck. The double-breasted jackets had the same number of buttons as the full dress or frock coats, and officers entitled to wear epaulets wore the shoulder straps of their rank. A jacket was certainly a more suitable coat for young active midshipmen at an educational institution than the cumbersome frock or full dress coats. The standard undress cap was worn as shown on the left center figure without the grommet so that the cap had a nautical flair. As a substitute for the gold cap band of the 1852 order for warranted midshipmen, the cap was worn with a silver foul anchor. The Academy cap device was introduced at Annapolis in 1855, as was the practice of displaying a gold foul anchor on either side of the rolling collar. Acting midshipmen were not permitted to carry the sword of the 1852 order but instead carried the Model 1842 cutlass as a side arm. The plebe or first year man, right center, is wearing the white trousers permitted in warm weather under the official regulations and the tropical straw hat, a very suitable dress for the very hot weather which sometimes reaches Annapolis. In the background is shown U.S.S. Constellation which for many years served as school ship at the Academy. The original system of sending acting midshipmen to sea after two years at the Academy was changed in late 1851, and summer cruises provided the sea experience deemed necessary for the education of young naval officers.

ANNAPOLIS: There are maybe half a million sea mines in arsenals around the world. To find and clear them, rather than rely solely on a small fleet of small Littoral Combat Ships, the Navy now wants at least some mine-hunting gear on a vessels ranging from modified oil tankers to catamarans to aircraft carriers. The approach is similar to the distributed lethality concept, which would put anti-ship missiles on a wider variety of vessels. (More on that below). But offensive operations have never been as marginalized and underfunded as minesweeping. The new plan could finally infuse mine warfare into the mainstream of the Navy — or diffuse responsibility to crews that see it as an unwelcome distraction from their ships’ main mission. Decoupling Mine Warfare From LCS Why the change? Necessity is the mother of this invention. The much-criticized LCS program has been cut back from 55 ships to 28 or 30. Only eight of those ships will routinely carry Mine Counter-Measures (MCM) mission modules. Each MCM package includes various robots — Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs), and an MQ-8 Fire Scout drone — as well as a manned MH-60 Seahawk helicopter. That’s even less mine-clearing capacity than the Navy has now with its badly aging inventory of 11 Avenger-class minesweepers and 27 large MH-53E mine warfare helicopters. With eight MCM LCS — four on each coast — and typical Navy cycles of maintenance, training at home, and deployment abroad, “what you end up with is about 2.3 LCSs on station at any one time,” Capt. Mark Leavitt, commander of the Navy’s MH-53 wing, told the annual Expeditionary Warfare conference here. “2.3 is not a whole lot.” So, Levitt and other officers told the conference, the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. John Richardson, personally ordered a study of one crucial question: “How do we get more capacity?” The answer: take equipment developed for LCS — helicopter counter-mine kits, drones, unmanned boats, and robot mini-subs — and put it on a wide range of platforms. “We started with a very tight marriage of LCS to MCM and the CNO has corrected us from that,” said Maj. Gen. David Coffman, the Marine who heads the Expeditionary Warfare division (N95) on the Navy staff. The service will still buy the 24 MCM mission modules for the LCS program, but it will break up some of those MCM packages and place bits and pieces on different vessels. Which Ships? The top candidate to carry mine clearing gear? The carrier-sized support ship known as an Expeditionary Sea Base. Capable of carrying four huge MH-53 counter-mine helicopters and all their support staff, the ESB also has plenty of room for drones, small craft, and other equipment. The design evolved from the experimental Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB) USS Ponce. (The first ESB, Puller, recently replaced the Ponce in the Persian Gulf). A second candidate is the high-speed catamaran called the Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF, formerly the Joint High Speed Vessel). While much smaller than the ESB, it’s also much faster — even faster than the Littoral Combat Ship — and has a shallower draft, allowing it to get much closer to shore. For its size, the EPF has a roomy multi-purpose bay able to carry a wide variety of equipment, as well as a helicopter pad (although not a full hangar for long-term operations). One limitation: EPFs are currently crewed by a mix of Navy sailors and civilians, which means it can’t destroy mines under international law, only find them. While these auxiliaries are the top candidates, the Navy’s also studying outright warships: amphibious ships, destroyers, and even aircraft carriers. For example, all these types of ships can operate the Navy’s workhorse helicopter, the MH-60S Seahawk, which can be fitted with a laser to detect mines (the ALMDS) and mini-torpedoes to destroy them (the AMNS). Leavitt even suggested the Seahawk could be easily modified to carry UUVs and drop them from the air to hunt mines, dramatically expanding their reach. The Navy’s also experimented with unmanned mine-hunters deployed directly from a destroyer’s deck. Many ships can also embark an Expeditionary Mine Counter-Measures (ExMCM) team, which uses inflatable boats to deploy UUVs and divers. From Distributed Lethality To Distributed Mine Warfare? Overall, this new concept for mine warfare looks a lot like the fleet’s new approach to anti-ship weapons. Two and a half years ago, the Navy declared that it would no longer rely almost entirely on its aircraft carriers for offensive firepower against another fleet. Instead, it would upgun a wide range of ships, from destroyers to LCS to auxiliaries, with anti-ship missiles, an approach dubbed distributed lethality. As Rear Adm. Peter Fanta said at the time, “If it floats, it fights.” So is this distributed lethality for mine warfare, I asked the officers who briefed the new concept at the conference. Is the new maxim, if it floats, it hunts mines? “Yes,” said Coffman, plus there’ll be MCM units ashore. “That’s potentially very true,” added Navy Capt. Hans Lynch, who leads the mine warfare branch (N952) under Coffman (italics ours). “When we actually have an incident, we’re going to actually need to mass MCM capability quickly, and I can’t imagine a scenario when we have enough LCS to actually mass that capability as quickly as we need it.” “So I think shore-based makes a lot of sense,” Lynch continued. “ESBs make a lot of sense, EPFs make a lot of sense, coalition (i.e. allied) platforms, and really I think there are opportunities for even DDG-1000 (destroyers): They have enough room that we can put a USV or UUV onboard. Even aircraft carriers or some of our big-deck amphibs could support a lot of the mission platforms that we have.”

The concept of “distributed lethality”—what Navy leadership has described as “holding more adversaries at risk across a wider geography”—was a recurring theme at the recent Surface Navy Association Symposium on surface warfare strategy. But the Navy needs to make clearer what it means and how will it be implemented. At the symposium, Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden said distributed lethality is about “increasing offensive power … defensive hardening of individual ships” and employing the ships “in a more distributed manner.” Translating the concept of distributed lethality into action has implications for Navy operations, logistics, finances and overall strategy and raise critical questions. How Will Distributed Lethality be Employed? The strategy is only indirectly referenced in “A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority,” a report released last month by the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). The report directs the Navy to partner with the Marine Corps to develop concepts and capabilities that include “high-end combat at sea” and to “explore alternative fleet designs” that include “exploring new naval platforms and formations.” According to naval doctrine on warfare, early phases of a military campaign require “normal and routine military actions,” assuring allies of a “commitment to regional security,” and demonstration of “capabilities and resolve.” Such end states require global presence, and this is where distributed lethality provides critical value in the Navy’s contribution to the U.S. Joint Forces—enhanced deterrence. Distributed lethality is intended to complicate the potential adversary’s calculus and to impose undesirable costs for challenging U.S. forces. That being said, the Navy and Marine Corps’ high-value surface assets such as aircraft carriers and large-deck amphibious ships will still require protection by surface combatants, but its inventory of ships is only so large. If distributed lethality differs from the way business is conducted in the fleet today, implementation could require making significant adjustments to logistics and budget. What About Fleet Logistics? An increase in offensive power and defensive hardening of individual ships will undeniably require additional funding. A more lethal force— to compete with current and future adversaries—will require rapid acquisition and fielding. At a minimum, distributed lethality implies a large increase in current munitions and could require investing in many new weapons. Yet the CNO’s “Design” report readily acknowledges, “We will not be able to ‘buy’ our way out of the challenges that we face. The budget environment will force tough choices but must also inspire new thinking.” When will these “tough choices” be made to facilitate a distributed lethality budget? Can “new thinking” realistically compensate for a clear lack of funding, or will cuts be made elsewhere to support this concept? Distributed lethality has tremendous merit and potential, but successful execution will require more rigorous analysis. In June 2015, the Navy’s Distributed Lethality Task Force was charged with just that, and its partnership with the Naval War College and Naval Postgraduate School for wargaming and further study should help to accomplish a more robust understanding of the concept. How the CNO’s “new thinking” challenge will be implemented remains to be seen. To move forward, Navy strategy and guidance documents need to be adapted to address the realities of making distributed lethality real. At a minimum, the Navy needs more actionable guidance on how to balance competing priorities. Leaders speak with urgency about distributed lethality and its use in an era of “great power competition.” If time is of the essence, much more specificity and rigor is required. Katie Jacobson, a Navy lieutenant commander, is an active-duty Surface Warfare Officer and a Federal Executive Fellow at the RAND Corporation. Her Twitter handle is @katiehjacobson.

HMS Shannon was a 38-gun Leda-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806 and served in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. She won a noteworthy naval victory on 1 June 1813, during the latter conflict, when she captured the American Navy's USS Chesapeake in a singularly bloody battle. Josiah and Thomas Brindley built Shannon at Frindsbury in Kent and launched her on 5 May 1806. She was to spend her first seven years under the command of Captain Philip Broke, who was transferred from Druid, and took command of Shannon in June that year. Shannon was one of the largest frigates built by the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, at a time when the Admiralty concentrated on producing vessels in larger numbers but to smaller builds and less heavy armament. Shannon was quickly put into service. She formed part of a squadron under Commodore Owen that was patrolling off the French port of Boulogne. On 8 October she took part in the bombardment of the town using Congreve rockets. Her next task was sailing in 1807 with Meleager to protect the whale fishery off Greenland. Despite encountering ice on 7 May 1807, they were able to push through, reaching the southern part of Spitsbergen on 17 June. There the two ships surveyed the Bay of Magdalena, at a latitude of 80°N. They eventually reached a latitude of 80° 6' N before the ice stopped them. They then turned westwards and reached the coast of Greenland on 23 July. The island of Shannon is named after the ship. Shannon spent the early autumn cruising from Shetland. She then left, returning to Yarmouth by the end of September, where she cruised off the Downs. She put into Spithead on 28 September to undergo a refit. By the end of 1807, France had invaded Portugal, and Shannon joined Sir Samuel Hood's expedition against Madeira. The British took the island without firing a shot. Captain Broke then escorted the transports that had accompanied the fleet back to England, where they arrived on 7 February 1808. Shannon put into Plymouth before returning to patrolling in the Channel. On 20 July Shannon was in company with Surinam and Eclair when they captured Comet.[2] Then on 21 August, Shannon was in company with Surinam and Martial when they captured Espoir. In November 1808, Shannon took the French frigate Thétis in tow. Amethyst had shortly before captured Thétis, which later entered service as HMS Brune. Shannon spent 1809 with the Channel Fleet and on 27 January captured the French 14-gun privateer cutter Pommereuil. Broke sent the prize into Plymouth. On 1 June 1811, Shannon returned to Plymouth and was put into the dock where her hull was re-coppered. After this was completed, she sailed for Portsmouth to complete her refitting and resupplying in preparation for being assigned to foreign service. Broke and Shannon were ordered to sail for North America as tensions between Britain and the United States escalated in the run up to what would become the War of 1812. Shannon sailed from Portsmouth and arrived in Halifax on 24 September 1811 after a journey of 45 days. On 5 July 1812 Broke took command of a squadron consisting of Shannon, Africa, Belvidera, Aeolus and later Guerriere. Vice-Admiral Herbert Sawyer then ordered him to carry out a blockade of American ports. Broke's first success came on 16 July when he captured the 16-gun American brig Nautilus off Sandy Hook. The Nautilus had been on a cruise from New York. Later in the evening, the squadron spotted and gave chase to the USS Constitution as she sailed from Chesapeake Bay to New York. The chase lasted some 65 hours, during which both pursued and pursuers had to tow and warp. Belvidera eventually managed to come within gunshot of the Constitution on the afternoon of 17 July, but a lucky breeze blew up, and the Constitution's clean bottom allowed her to make good her escape. Shannon's next duty was to meet a convoy homebound from Jamaica. An American squadron under Commodore John Rodgers had sailed to intercept it. Shannon ensured the convoy safely passed the Great Banks, before she returned to the American coast. She put into Halifax on 20 September to take on provisions. Sir John Warren arrived while she was in port, and took up the post of Commander in Chief of the North America and West Indies Station. He then despatched Shannon with the schooner Bream to rescue the crew and offload the money being carried by the frigate Barbadoes, which had been wrecked on Sable Island. While carrying out this mission, Shannon encountered and subsequently captured an enemy privateer schooner, Wily Reynard on 11 October, that she took back to Halifax with her. On 31 October, Shannon, and while cruising with Tenedos, Nymphe and Curlew, Broke captured the American privateer brig Thorn. Thorn was armed with eighteen long 9-pounder guns and had a crew of 140 men. She was a relatively new vessel and was three weeks out of Marblehead on her first cruise. Sent to Halifax with a prize crew, Thorn was subsequently purchased and renamed as the Nova Scotia privateer brig Sir John Sherbrooke. Sir John Warren was at Bermuda during the winter of 1812, and left Broke in command of the Royal Navy squadrons operating on the coasts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and New England. In December Broke took the Shannon and escorted a homebound convoy half way across the Atlantic, returning to North America by sailing round the Azores. In 1813, Captain Oliver arrived on the station aboard the 74-gun third rate Valiant, and took command from Captain Broke. Broke continued to deploy with his squadron until the Shannon and Tenedos became separated from them in a gale. They decided to steer for Boston, reaching the port on 2 April. Having observed the activity in the port, they returned to their squadron and reported the presence of the American frigates Congress, President and Constitution. In their absence, the Chesapeake had entered the harbour through the eastern channel. Captain Capel aboard Hogue ordered the Shannon and Tenedos to watch the port from close inshore, while the rest of the squadron cruised in the offing. On 16 May Shannon and Tenedos chased a large armed ship under American colours, and forced her to run aground near Cape Ann Town. Shannon anchored close to the grounded ship and fired a few shots to disperse a number of militiamen who were assembling. Lieutenant George Watt of Shannon then managed to bring the ship off the shore without loss. She was discovered to be the French corvette-built privateer Invincible, of 16 guns. Mutine had captured her in the Bay of Biscay but the American privateer Alexander had retaken her. Her captors sent Invincible into Halifax. On 25 March Shannon took on stores of water and provisions from Tenedos, which was then detached, with orders to rejoin the Shannon on 14 June. FIGHTING THE CHESAPEAKE During his long period in command of Shannon, Broke had drilled his crew to an extremely high standard of naval gunnery. "The weekly routine at sea was for the watch on deck to be exercised at the great guns on Monday and Tuesday afternoons, and in the afternoons the first division of the watch was exercised at small arms. Wednesday and Thursday forenoons saw the watch on deck at the carronades, and in the afternoons the second division of the watch at small arms. Friday was reserved for the Midshipmen – great guns in the morning, small arms in the afternoon. Thus each man had one morning at the 18-pounders, one morning at the carronades and two afternoons with musquets in every week. Saturdays were reserved for washing clothes and scrubbing the berth deck in the afternoon. Sunday, apart from Church service and any necessary evolutions with the sails, was free." In addition to these gunnery drills, Broke was fond of preparing hypothetical scenarios to test his crew. For example, after all hands had been drummed to quarters, he would inform them of a theoretical attack and see how they would act to defend the ship. He would also arrange on occasion for a wooden cask to be sent over the side so competitions could be held to see which crew could hit it and how fast they could do so. A game called 'singlestick' was also devised and practiced. "This was a game employing roughly similar thrusts and parries as were used with cutlass, but as it was played with blunt sticks, hits, although painful, were not often dangerous. It soon developed quickness of eye and wrist." Eager to engage and defeat one of the American 'super-frigates' that had already scored a number of victories over the Royal Navy in single ship confrontations, Broke prepared a challenge. The President had already slipped out of the harbour under the cover of fog and had evaded the British. Constitution was undergoing extensive repairs and alterations and would not be ready for sea in the foreseeable future. However, Chesapeake appeared to be ready to put to sea. Consequently Broke decided to send his challenge to Chesapeake, which had been refitting in Boston harbour under the command of Captain James Lawrence, offering single ship combat. While patrolling offshore, Shannon had intercepted and captured a number of American ships attempting to reach the harbour. After sending two of them off to Halifax, he found that his crew was being dangerously reduced. Broke therefore resorted to burning the rest of the prizes in order to conserve his highly trained crew in anticipation of the battle with the Chesapeake. Broke sent the boats from the burnt prizes into Boston, carrying Broke's oral invitation to Lawrence to come out and engage him. He had already sent the Tenedos away in the hope that the more favourable odds would entice the American out, but eventually began to despair that the Chesapeake would ever come out of the harbour. He finally decided to send a written challenge. "As the Chesapeake appears now ready for sea, I request you will do me the favour to meet the Shannon with her, ship to ship, to try the fortune of our respective flags. The Shannon mounts twenty-four guns upon her broadside and one light boat-gun; 18 pounders upon her main deck, and 32-pounder carronades upon her quarter-deck and forecastle; and is manned with a complement of 300 men and boys, beside thirty seamen, boys, and passengers, who were taken out of recaptured vessels lately. I entreat you, sir, not to imagine that I am urged by mere personal vanity to the wish of meeting the Chesapeake, or that I depend only upon your personal ambition for your acceding to this invitation. We have both noble motives. You will feel it as a compliment if I say that the result of our meeting may be the most grateful service I can render to my country; and I doubt not that you, equally confident of success, will feel convinced that it is only by repeated triumphs in even combats that your little navy can now hope to console your country for the loss of that trade it can no longer protect. Favour me with a speedy reply. We are short of provisions and water, and cannot stay long here." By now Shannon had been off Boston for 56 days and was running short of provisions, while the extended period at sea was wearing the ship down. She would be even more at a disadvantage facing the Chesapeake, fresh from harbour and a refit. Broke despatched a boat carrying the invitation, manned by a Mr Slocum, a discharged American prisoner. The boat had not reached the shore when the Chesapeake was seen underway, sailing out of the harbour. She was flying three American ensigns and a large white flag at the foremast inscribed 'Free Trade and Sailor's Rights'. Though Lawrence had not received Broke's letter before leaving harbour, according to author Ian W. Toll, it would not have made any difference, Lawrence intended to sail at the first day of favourable weather. The fact that it was not in his nation's interests at this point in the war to be challenging British frigates seems to have not entered into his reasoning; President had in fact slipped out of harbour in foul weather to commerce raid, which was deemed in the US national interest. The two ships had in one another about as close a match as could exist in a state of war. Chesapeake's (rated at 38 guns) armament of twenty-eight 18-pounder long guns was an exact match for Shannon. Measurements proved the ships to be about the same deck length. The only measurable difference between the two ships was the size of their complements: Chesapeake's 379 against the Shannon's 330. Shannon carried 276 officers, seamen and marines of her proper complement; eight recaptured seamen; 22 Irish labourers who had been 48 hours in the ship and of whom only four could speak English, and 24 boys, of whom about 13 were under 12 years of age. Broke had trained his gun crews to fire accurate broadsides into the hulls of enemy vessels, with the aim of killing their gun crews, rather than shooting down the masts. By contrast, half of Chesapeake's officers and up to one quarter of the crew were new to the ship. Her crew had conducted no practice at small arms nor of the main battery. Despite this, Lawrence believed that he would win the battle. The previous American victories over Royal Navy ships left him expectant of success, especially since Chesapeake had a substantially larger crew than Shannon. Still, before setting sail, Lawrence wrote two quick notes, one to the Secretary of the Navy pronouncing his intentions and another to his brother in-law asking him to look after Lawrence's wife and children in event of his death. He then set sail. Just before the engagement, the American crew gave three cheers. The two ships met at half past five in the afternoon, 20 nautical miles (37 km) east of Boston lighthouse, between Cape Ann and Cape Cod. Shannon was flying a rusty blue ensign and her dilapidated outside appearance after a long period at sea suggested that she would be an easy opponent. Observing the Chesapeake's many flags, a sailor had questioned Broke: "Mayn't we have three ensigns, sir, like she has?" "No," said Broke, "we've always been an unassuming ship." Shannon refused to fire upon Chesapeake as she bore down, nor would Chesapeake rake Shannon despite having the weather gauge. Lawrence's behavior that day earned him praise from the British officers for gallantry. The two ships opened fire just before 18:00 at a range of about 35 metres, with Shannon scoring the first hit, striking the Chesapeake on one of her gunports with two round shot and a bag of musket balls fired by William Mindham, the gun captain of one of Shannon's starboard 18-pounders. Two or three further broadsides followed that swept the Chesapeake's decks with grape and roundshot from Shannon's 32-pounder carronades. Shannon ran into Chesapeake, with Chesapeake lying athwart Shannon's starboard bow, trapped by one of Shannon's anchors. Shannon now opened fire on the Chesapeake's maindeck with her after guns firing through the Chesapeake's port holes. Many of Chesapeake's crew were killed or wounded; two thirds of her gun crews were already casualties. The Chesapeake’s wheel was then shot away and her helmsman killed by a 9-pounder gun that Broke had ordered installed on the quarter deck for that very purpose. With Chesapeake trapped against the Shannon and unable to manoeuvre, Chesapeake's stern now became exposed to raking British fire. Her situation worsened when a small open cask of musket cartridges abaft the mizzen-mast blew up. When the smoke cleared, Captain Broke judged the time was right and gave the order to board. Lawrence too tried to give the order to board, but the British were faster. Mr Stevens, the boatswain attempted to lash the two ships together to prevent the Chesapeake from disengaging and escaping. This bravery cost him an arm. A party of small-arm men rushed aboard the Chesapeake, led by Broke and including the purser, Mr G. Aldham, and the clerk, Mr John Dunn. Aldham and Dunn were killed as they crossed the gangway, but the rest of the party made it onto the Chesapeake. "Captain Broke, at the head of not more than twenty men, stepped from the rail of the waist-hammock netting to the muzzle of the after-carronade of the Chesapeake, and sprang from thence upon her quarterdeck." The main-deck was found to be empty, having been swept clear by Shannon’s broadsides. Broke and his men quickly advanced forward along the deck, while more British reinforcements leapt aboard. Meanwhile, the first lieutenant, Mr George T. L. Watt, had attempted to hoist the British colours over the Chesapeake, but was hit in the forehead by grapeshot as he did so. Fighting had now broken out along the top-masts of the ships as rival sharpshooters fired upon the their opponents in their rival's masts, and on the sailors on the exposed decks. The British marksmen, led by Midshipman William Smith, who had command of the fore-top, stormed the Chesapeake's fore-top over the yard-arm and killed all the Americans there. Captain Broke himself led a charge against a number of the Americans who had managed to rally on the forecastle. After four minutes of fierce fighting, the Americans called for quarter, but then, finding that they out-numbered the British, they rallied and counter attacked. Three American sailors, probably from the rigging, descended and attacked Captain Broke. Although taken by surprise, he killed the first. Still, the second hit him with a musket, which stunned him, while the third sliced open his skull with his sabre, knocking Broke to the deck. Before the American could finish Broke off, he was cut down by William Windham. Shannon's crew rallied to the defence of their captain and carried the forecastle, killing the remaining Americans. Broke handed over command of the Shannon to Lieutenant Provo Wallis. Though wounded, Broke was able to save the life of a young American midshipman who had slid down a rope from the fore-top. With American resistance weakening, Lieutenant Charles Leslie Falkiner, who had commanded the boarders who had rushed the main-deck, took command of the prize. While the two yard-arms had been locked together, Mr Cosnaham, who had commanded the main-top, had crawled out on the main yard-arm where he could fire down onto the Chesapeake, killing three of her men. The British then secured the ship and took her surrender. The engagement had lasted just eleven minutes. Shannon had lost 23 killed, and had 56 wounded. Chesapeake had about 60 killed, including her four lieutenants, the master and many other of her officers, and about as many wounded. Captain Lawrence had been mortally wounded by fire from Shannon’s fore-top and was carried below before the Chesapeake was boarded. His last order upon being wounded was "Don't give up the ship!". A large cask of un-slaked lime was found open on Chesapeake's forecastle and another bag of lime was discovered in the fore-top. British sailors alleged the intention was to throw handfuls into the eyes of Shannon’s men in an unfair and dishonourable manner as they attempted to board, though that was never done by the Chesapeake's crew, and the historian Albert Gleaves has called the allegation "absurd," noting, "Lime is always carried in ship's stores as a disinfectant, and the fact that it was left on the deck after the ship was cleared for action was probably due to the neglect of some subordinate, or petty officer." Shannon’s midshipmen during the action were Messrs. Smith, Leake, Clavering, Raymond, Littlejohn and Samwell. Samwell was the only other officer to be wounded in the action. Mr Etough was the acting master, and conned the ship into the action. Shortly after the frigate had been secured, Broke fainted from loss of blood and was rowed back to the Shannon to be attended to by the ship's surgeon. After the victory, a prize crew was put aboard the Chesapeake and the Shannon escorted her and her crew into Halifax, arriving there on 6 June. Lieutenant Bartholomew Kent, of Nova Scotia brought the first news of the British victory back to London. At Halifax Chesapeake's crew was imprisoned. Chesapeake herself was repaired and taken into service by the Royal Navy before she was sold at Portsmouth, England in 1820 and broken up. The victory in closely matched combat raised the shaken morale of the Royal Navy, and the Americans honoured the heroism of Captain Lawrence. After setting out on 5 September for a brief cruise under a Captain Teahouse, the Shannon departed for England on 4 October, carrying the recovering Captain Broke. They arrived at Portsmouth on 2 November. After the successful action Lieutenants Wallis and Falkiner were promoted to the rank of commander, and Messrs. Etough and Smith were made lieutenants. Captain Broke was made a baronet that September. The Court of Common Council of London awarded him the freedom of the city, and a sword worth 100 guineas. He also received a piece of plate worth 750 pounds and a cup worth 100 guineas. The British buried Captain Lawrence in Halifax with full military honours; six senior British naval officers served as pall bearers. Although Shannon's surgeon had pronounced as fatal Captain Broke's head wound from a cutlass stroke, he survived; nevertheless he never again commanded a ship. Two-thirds of the men that followed Broke in the boarding party were wounded or killed. The casualties, 228 dead or wounded between the two ships' companies, were high, with the ratio making it one of the bloodiest single ship actions of the age of sail. It had the single highest body count in an action between two ships in the entirety of the war.[22] The fact that it happened in 15 minutes is a sign of the sheer ferocity with which this battle was fought. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Shannon wh. Chesapeake" to any surviving claimants from the action. Commander Humphrey Senhouse (acting) assumed command in June 1813. Shannon was in ordinary at Portsmouth in 1814-1815. Between July 1815 and March 1817, she was at Chatham undergoing extensive repairs that cost £26,328. She then returned to ordinary. She underwent a small repair for £4,969 between May and July 1826. She was fitted for sea between August and December 1828, which cost another £14,746. In September Captain Benjamin Clement recommissioned her, and he would command her until 1830. The Shannon became a receiving ship and temporary hulk at Sheerness in 1831. On 11 March 1844 she was renamed Saint Lawrence. Shannon was finally broken up at Chatham, a process completed on 12 November 1859. Graves of Shannon's crew are marked in the cemetery of the Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax and at the city's St. Paul's Church, then the cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Nova Scotia. A plaque was erected to commemorate the battle in Halifax in 1927 and may be seen at Point Pleasant Park. Shannon's bell is displayed at the Maritime Command Museum in Halifax while the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax has an exhibit about the battle which includes the battle-damaged ships bell from Shannon as well as a surgeon's chest and mess kettle from Chesapeake. Because he was able to claim six days as acting captain of the Shannon, Provo Wallis became senior to many others who had been lieutenants in the Napoleonic-era Royal Navy. It was an advantage that, combined with his longevity, eventually propelled him to the post of Admiral of the Fleet. A fictionalised account of the battle appears in The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian. The battle became the subject of a British ballad: The Chesapeake and the Shannon The Chesapeake so bold, out of Boston, I am told, Came to take a British frigate neat and handy, O! The people of the port came out to see the sport, With their music playing Yankee doodle dandy, O! Yankee doodle, Yankee doodle dandy, O! The people of the port came out to see the sport, With their music playing Yankee doodle dandy, O! The British frigate's name, that for the purpose came To tame the Yankee's courage neat and handy, O! Was the Shannon, Captain Broke, with his crew all hearts of oak, And in fighting, you must know, he was the dandy, O! Yankee doodle, &c. The fight had scarce began when the Yankees, with much fun, Said, we'll tow her into Boston neat and handy, O! And "I'll kalkilate" we'll dine, with our lasses drinking wine, And we'll dance the jig of Yankee doodle dandy, O! Yankee doodle, &c. But they soon every one flinched from the gun, Which at first they thought to use so neat and handy, O! Brave Broke he waved his sword, crying, "Now, my lads, let's aboard," And we'll stop their playing Yankee doodle dandy, O! Yankee doodle, &c. He scarce had said the word, when they all jump'd on board, And they hauled down the ensign neat and handy, O! Notwithstanding all their brag, the glorious British flag At the Yankees' mizzen-peak it looked the dandy, O! Yankee doodle, &c. Then here's to all true blue, both officers and crew, Who tamed the Yankees' courage neat and handy, O! And may it ever prove in battle, as in love, The true British sailor is the dandy, O! Yankee doodle, &c. Name: HMS Shannon Ordered: 24 October 1803 Builder: Brindley, Frindsbury Laid down: August 1804 Launched: 5 May 1806 Completed: 3 August 1806 at Chatham Dockyard Out of service: Receiving ship in 1831 Renamed: HMS St Lawrence in 1844 Honours and awards: Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Shannon wh. Chesapeake" Fate: Breaking up completed by 12 November 1859 General characteristics Class and type: Leda-class frigate Tons burthen: 1,065.7 bm Length: 150 ft 2 in (45.77 m) (gundeck) 125 ft 6.5 in (38.265 m) (keel) Beam: 39 ft 11.375 in (12.17613 m) Depth of hold: 12 ft 11 in (3.94 m) Sail plan: Full-rigged ship Complement: 330 Armament: 38 guns Upper deck: 28 x 18-pounder guns QD: 8 x 9-pounder guns + 14 x 32-pounder carronades Fc: 2 x 9-pounder guns + 2 x 32-pounder carronades museum.gov.ns.ca/mmanew/en/home/default.aspx

Hiding under the carpet possibly under the altar - , Sir Edward Warner 1511 - dsp 1565 of Polstead hall and Plumstead. flic.kr/p/X4EpzL He was a younger son of Henry Warner of Besthorpe by Mary daughter of John Blennerhassett of Frenze flic.kr/p/r7DYJw & Jane flic.kr/p/r5T4gR daughter of Sir Thomas Tyndall / Tindall of Hockwold who m2 William Drury who m2 Dorothy daughter of William Brampton He m1 Elizabeth d.1560 daughter of Thomas Brooke, 8th Lord Cobham:: Widow of Sir Thomas Wyatt 1542 of Allington castle Children - 3 sons who all died as infants. He m2 Audrey dsp daughter & heiress of William Hare of Beeston:, Widow of Thomas Hobart of Plumstead Aa professional soldier and household official, he was a member of Henry Vlll's household by 1537, sewer by 1545, esquire of the body by 1552; Constable of Clitheroe castle 1542; Lieutenant of the Tower Oct. 1552-July 1553, with Sir Thomas Cawarden to 1563; Commander to investigate office of master of Ordnance 1553, Musters in Middlesex 1559; Master of St. Katharine’s hospital and steward, East Smithfield 1560, JP for Middlesex 1561 Collector for loan, Middlesex 1562; Steward for William 1st Lord Paget, In a minor augmentations grant of Nottinghamshire property, he became an active dealer in monastic property, selling or exchanging nearly as much as he bought. In one of these transactions, the purchase of the Carmelite friary at Burnham, in 1541 his name is associated for the first time with that of his future brother-in-law George, 9th Lord Cobham. Warner fought in the Netherlands in 1543, and his service in the Scottish campaign of the following year brought him a knighthood: in this campaign one of his commanders was his future parliamentary patron, the 2nd Earl of Rutland. In May 1546 he was brought before the Privy Council for ‘indiscreet talking of Scripture matters’ but was dismissed on promising to amend: it was a foretaste of his later radicalism to extreme Protestantism . After the accession of Edward VI, he advanced rapidly. He received a £50 annuity for his services to the late King and a wardship carrying an annuity of £22, while in a series of transactions with other purchasers he acquired a share in monastic and chantry lands worth £3,000- £4,000. He was also granted a licence to eat flesh in Lent for life, perhaps a token of his developing Protestantism. In 1549 he was a marshal against Kett’s rebellion and in 1552 his military prowess was rewarded with the lieutenancy of the Tower, surprising by the Duke of Northumberland, as he had become an intimate of the ex-Protector Somerset’s loyal colleague Lord Paget, visiting him at his house many times, including a month before Somerset's arrest. He had became MP for Grantham in Henry VIII’s last Parliament, which he may have owed to his brother Robert’s service with Catherine Parr, who held the manor but his immediate patron was the 2nd Earl of Rutland, In the crisis of July 1553 Warner held the Tower for Northumberland, and Mary’s triumph brought his immediate dismissal. He was, however, re-elected for Grantham to Mary’s first Parliament, where he was one of those who ‘stood for the true religion’, ie, for Protestantism. The outbreak of Wyatt’s rebellion inevitably cast Warner under suspicion. On 23 Jan. 1554 he was denounced to Gardiner by the Spanish ambassador and 2 days later he was arrested with the Marquess of Northampton, a relation by marriage who was staying at his house by Carter Lane. Within six months he had sunk from lieutenant of the Tower to prisoner there, but he was not put on trial, his wife continued to receive the revenues of his lands, and in January 1555 he and several other prisoners were ceremonially released, with ‘a great shooting of guns’. At first bound in a recognizance of £300, he received his pardon on 2 July. He was to survive the Marian period with no worse damage than the loss of a few of his monastic lands, and before the end of the reign he was even employed under Sir Thomas Tresham in a survey of the Isle of Wight On Elizabeth’s accession he was restored to the lieutenancy of the Tower, and became MP for Grimsby. After his leniency in dealing with prisoners, among them Lady Catherine Grey who he permitted secret visits with her husband Edward Seymour Lord Hertford which resulted in her pregnancy, he was dismissed and imprisoned for a short while. He spent his last years in pleasant retirement in Norfolk. In the summer of 1565 he travelled to continental spas for his health, but on 7th November died. His will of 22 October asked for a funeral "with as little pomp as may be" and mentioned a collection of law books and chronicles. Sir Edward wears plate armour with a mail skirt and tassets strapped over the thighs. There are broad toed sabatons on his feet, which rest on a hound crouching on a grassy mound. Symmetrical haute pieces rise from the pauldrons to protect the neck. Rivets or straps are shown at the articulated sections of armour. He stands between shields of Warner & Cobham “His wyves also by armes yowe see apere”. while above are the arms of Warner with the motto “Go straight & feare not” "Syr Edward Warner, knight, now restethe here Who lyved to full fifty yearres and fawer His wyves also by armes yowe see apere. what .....st then Wyche ,,,,ed to ........ them mower hys virtues ran wolde not be certen pas ..................................... synke Or blot his fame with rude or cytic ink ........... golden gilt in brass In .....hereafter let this be said for all Upon God and man herewyth and ever shall Died 7th day of November AD 1565 " - Church of St. Gervase and St. Protasius, Little Plumstead Norfolk