Birkenhead Drill

An inspiring story I heard on a BBC (Daily Mayo) podcast…

Captain Edward Wright of the 91st Argyllshire Regiment told the court martial:[10]

The order and regularity that prevailed on board, from the moment the ship struck till she totally disappeared, far exceeded anything that I had thought could be affected by the best discipline; and it is the more to be wondered at seeing that most of the soldiers were but a short time in the service. Everyone did as he was directed and there was not a murmur or cry amongst them until the ship made her final plunge – all received their orders and carried them out as if they were embarking instead of going to the bottom – I never saw any embarkation conducted with so little noise or confusion.

HMS Birkenhead

Blood thirtsy despots

No doubt this is a section that could expand, if I was to add the rest of Europe then it would be become a full time project. What particularly is of interest to me is that fact that the region I live in seem to have so many of these delinquents that it almost seems to have been normal. If your medieval region didn’t have a crazed, bloody thirsty despot, then you were well off the social radar. Based on what you read about these people, you wonder where they got their maniacal tendencies - there was certainly no TV, video games, or horror movies, then again, the only form of entertainment seems to have been brutal wars, hunting or beating up peasants.

This post was inspired by Curious Expeditions site, a fabulous read.

• Vlad the Impalier (i)
• Vlad (ii)
• Elizabeth Bathory
• Darya_Saltykov