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I thought at some distant stage in the ever-evolving history of this particular part of WN, there was an experimental steam (possibly it was clockwork) submarine station at Birchoverham Staithe, but I may have misremembered.

 

Anyway, something that you might wish to include on the layout is a very large eagle.

 

On Thursday, early evening, we were driving along a straight road near Grimston and up a head I could see a great botheration of rooks circulating around around a clump of large trees. As we came under the trees, about 100m ahead of us and about 50m up a bl00dy enormous eagle with a white tail crossed left to right. It was big enough to look about the size of a man with wings.

 

Having Googled since, it appears that I probably wasn’t hallucinating ...... such birds do visit Norfolk.

 

 

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54 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

I thought at some distant stage in the ever-evolving history of this particular part of WN, there was an experimental steam (possibly it was clockwork) submarine station at Birchoverham Staithe, but I may have misremembered.

 

Anything is possible!

 

54 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

I could see a great botheration of rooks circulating around around a clump of large trees.

 

While 'parliament' seems to be the most common collective noun applied to rooks (a building and a clamor receive honourable mentions), it was clearly a botheration in the circumstances you describe!

 

Since you've circumvented parliament, I offer a collective noun for special advisers; a sinister of special advisers. 

 

54 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

As we came under the trees, about 100m ahead of us and about 50m up a bl00dy enormous eagle with a white tail crossed left to right. It was big enough to look about the size of a man with wings.

 

Having Googled since, it appears that I probably wasn’t hallucinating ...... such birds do visit Norfolk.

 

 

 

Pretty impressive.

 

I'm bound to echo Northroader and ask if it laneded!

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1 minute ago, Edwardian said:

Since you've circumvented parliament, I offer a collective noun for special advisers; a sinister of special advisers. 

 

How about a Slime or Slough of special advisers.

 

Or perhaps a Blindness thereof?

 

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1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

I thought at some distant stage in the ever-evolving history of this particular part of WN, there was an experimental steam (possibly it was clockwork) submarine station at Birchoverham Staithe, but I may have misremembered.

 

Anyway, something that you might wish to include on the layout is a very large eagle.

 

On Thursday, early evening, we were driving along a straight road near Grimston and up a head I could see a great botheration of rooks circulating around around a clump of large trees. As we came under the trees, about 100m ahead of us and about 50m up a bl00dy enormous eagle with a white tail crossed left to right. It was big enough to look about the size of a man with wings.

 

Having Googled since, it appears that I probably wasn’t hallucinating ...... such birds do visit Norfolk.

Cool. Didn't realise white-tailed eagles had returned to this area. I'll have to tell my family's resident twitcher (aka my Nan).

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1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

I thought at some distant stage in the ever-evolving history of this particular part of WN, there was an experimental steam (possibly it was clockwork) submarine station at Birchoverham Staithe, but I may have misremembered.

 

It would have been nice, but the K class steam submarines were 1913 era devices, though the Holland class subs were active in the early 1900s and were actually deployed to deal with the Russian Fishing Boat Sinking Fleet in 1904 but withdrawn before making an attack on the Russkies.

 

Holland class submarines  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Holland_1

 

K class submarines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_K-class_submarine

 

The Ks were intended to be Fleet submarines and intended to be able to keep up with Dreadnaughts and Battlecruisers...  Their main drawback was the time taken to shut down the boilers and strike the funnels before diving!

 

It would be interesting for the WNR to serve a base specialising in dodgy early submarines and fishery protection vessels...

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5 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

The Victorian Navy saw such rapid change - technological change in hull construction and armour, boilers and engines, and ordnance, and evolving tactical and strategic considerations - that ships became obsolete long before they became worn out.  I'm reading the Cruisers volume at the moment and it seems that if a ship remained in commission for 15 years, it was doing pretty well.

 

Something I thought I had a fair handle on, but underwent something of an epiphany when introduced to Rule the Waves. Not that any of us need another time-sink, and I appreciate it's not a core interest for parishoners, but I can wholeheartedly endorse the favourable review, linked. The successor is just as brilliant, if even more complex.

 

Fascinating subject, I wish you joy of your studies :)

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20 minutes ago, Hroth said:

It would be interesting for the WNR to serve a base specialising in dodgy early submarines and fishery protection vessels...

 

Definitely!

 

I like the sound of the Holland Class because they were petrol-electric with lead-acid batteries ....... just my type of Edwardian Tech. The Wolseley 4-cylinder 160hp engine was I think the same as that used for various railcars at about the same time.

 

There were some similarly-equipped RN surface vessels, called something like despatch boats, used to carry messages within a fleet I think ....... very racy little things with multiple engines and three propellers.

 

PS: Yes, Motor Despatch Boats, which seem to have been what MGBs, MTBs, E-boats etc evolved from. They were hitting 25 knots at about "our period".

 

 

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Now thanks to you lot I got distracted into reading up on the Imperial Japanese Navy's squadron posted to the Mediterranean during the Great War, based at Malta, escorting allied convoys between Gibraltar and the Suez Canal.

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1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

While 'parliament' seems to be the most common collective noun applied to rooks (a building and a clamor receive honourable mentions),

What is our Parliament, if not a building full of clamour?

 

Quote

it was clearly a botheration in the circumstances you describe!

Could also be applied to a group of Parliamentarians, especially by special advisors.

 

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

Since you've circumvented parliament, I offer a collective noun for special advisers; a sinister of special advisers.


The plural I don’t usually mind: in normal times, the number of differing opinions means they cancel each other out (a “nothingness” of special advisors?) But these are not normal times, and we seem to be under the influence if not control of an unelected advisor, who rose to prominence by raising a lot of noise about the EU being run by a group of unelected officials....

Perhaps a “singularity” of special advisors?

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1 minute ago, RedGemAlchemist said:

There is a term for that. I am not allowed to type it on this site though.

Does it have some letters, say the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th - in that order - in common with a steel town in what was formerly Lincolnshire?

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2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

While 'parliament' seems to be the most common collective noun applied to rooks (a building and a clamor receive honourable mentions), it was clearly a botheration in the circumstances you describe!

I'd always thought that a 'parliament' was of owls but this website confirms that you are right (as usual):

 

https://www.countrylife.co.uk/nature/collective-nouns-for-birds-68344

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15 hours ago, RedGemAlchemist said:

Cool. Didn't realise white-tailed eagles had returned to this area. I'll have to tell my family's resident twitcher (aka my Nan).

 

The ones introduced to the Isle of Wight have been known to travel widely – wouldn't you if dumped on the IoW – including East Anglia. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-52528155

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14 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

A 'contrivance' of collective nouns.

 

I got stuck behind a Lumber of Lorries the other day....  ;)

 

 

A Spin of special advisers would also be appropriate.

 

 

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more thorts
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On 01/08/2020 at 17:50, webbcompound said:

A Victorian fleet magically disappears and resurfaces in a drowned future version of London in this tome I imagine. Or do you mean Admiral G.A. Ballard?:huh:

 

I thought, as soon as I pressed the button, "you should have checked the bookshelf first!". Never got on with the other chaps dystopian fiction.

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34 minutes ago, joppyuk1 said:

I thought, as soon as I pressed the button, "you should have checked the bookshelf first!". Never got on with the other chaps dystopian fiction.

 

Yes, a typo that had gratifying unintended consequences, but turning to the work of the Ballard you find less Admira{b}l{e} ... 

 

I found it well written, compellingly so, but perhaps more prescient than it is cheerful!

 

The central theme, as I saw it, of Drowned World, was the tension between a survivalist resistance to the altered conditions, which is perhaps seen as ultimately futile, and the protagonist changing his outlook to embrace or adapt to the new environment, becoming part of it, rather than at odds with it.

 

I wonder if there something for us there in the Age of Covid? 

 

 

 

 

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Those are crazy temperatures.  Here in NZ we might see those kinds of temperatures in the middle of our Summer once in a while, - or at least where I live in the Waikato we do, - but those are utterly un-British like temperatures.  Your humidity is lower than what we get which is something that you might be grateful for.

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