This reminds me that I've never been able to square up the dates and the info that CSF gives us as to when and how Bush gets where he is by the time we see him in Lt. HH.
Part of the problem is the age thing which CSF dickered with as he went along, but I tend to go with the 10 years older than HH that we get in the later books before CSF retooled things a bit. So ...
Bush is born in 1766. Passes his Lt.'s Exam in 1796 which would make him THIRTY YEARS OLD??!!WTF? Somewhere in the books (my memory fails me ONCE AGAIN) it's mentioned that he entered the RN in 1790, at 24!!! That's DAMN late for someone coming in on a midshipman's track.
So here's my crackpot theory *puts on tinfoil hat once again*
There were lieutenants who came up on a different track via the lower deck. Generally rising into the midshipman/lieutenant ranks after serving as a master's mate. These are the guys who came from working class backgrounds and didn't have the $$ or influence to come in as volunteers/midshipmen.
From the Peter Goodwin book referring to the master's mate track --
"Few officers entering from influential backgrounds could surpass the proficient abilities of these lower-deck men. However, experience and accumulated knowledge was not enough for further promotion: of this group only 13.5% reached post captain and a mere 2.5% reached flag rank. Of the remaining 84%, most of these men never achieved rank beyond lieutenant, mainly because of age. The other reason why promotion was limited was the patronage system .... "
Hello Mr. Bush and your Chichester background and your total and complete knowledge of how every spar and sail and piece of line operated on those ships. And didn't CSF make a point that Bush passed his exam based on seamanship alone? Which he would have known in spades if he had progressed up as a master's mate.
The only bit that doesn't quite fit the crackpot theory of the moment™ is the date he enters the RN, although I will be a silly bitch and just finesse that to mean that was the date he was entered into the midshipman's rank from master's mate. Amen.
And of course, this is probably just all crap on my part. XD
help me out here because I can't do the math
Part of the problem is the age thing which CSF dickered with as he went along, but I tend to go with the 10 years older than HH that we get in the later books before CSF retooled things a bit. So ...
Bush is born in 1766.
Passes his Lt.'s Exam in 1796 which would make him THIRTY YEARS OLD??!!WTF?
Somewhere in the books (my memory fails me ONCE AGAIN) it's mentioned that he entered the RN in 1790, at 24!!! That's DAMN late for someone coming in on a midshipman's track.
So here's my crackpot theory *puts on tinfoil hat once again*
There were lieutenants who came up on a different track via the lower deck. Generally rising into the midshipman/lieutenant ranks after serving as a master's mate. These are the guys who came from working class backgrounds and didn't have the $$ or influence to come in as volunteers/midshipmen.
From the Peter Goodwin book referring to the master's mate track --
"Few officers entering from influential backgrounds could surpass the proficient abilities of these lower-deck men. However, experience and accumulated knowledge was not enough for further promotion: of this group only 13.5% reached post captain and a mere 2.5% reached flag rank. Of the remaining 84%, most of these men never achieved rank beyond lieutenant, mainly because of age. The other reason why promotion was limited was the patronage system .... "
Hello Mr. Bush and your Chichester background and your total and complete knowledge of how every spar and sail and piece of line operated on those ships. And didn't CSF make a point that Bush passed his exam based on seamanship alone? Which he would have known in spades if he had progressed up as a master's mate.
The only bit that doesn't quite fit the crackpot theory of the moment™ is the date he enters the RN, although I will be a silly bitch and just finesse that to mean that was the date he was entered into the midshipman's rank from master's mate. Amen.
And of course, this is probably just all crap on my part. XD