Museum of the Royal Navy Hartlepool

We are in Teesside for a family funeral tomorrow, and a few spare hours this afternoon was an opportunity to visit the Museum of the Royal Navy in Hartlepool.

The centrepiece of the museum is HMS Trincomalee, one of two surviving British frigates of the post-Napoleonic era. Her near-sister, HMS Unicorn, is in Dundee, and I have regularly visited her on business trips. Trincomalee was ordered in 1812 and built in teak in Bombay, India, due to oak shortages in Britain due to shipbuilding drives for the Napoleonic Wars. She was a 38-gun frigate of the Leda class, although rated as 46 because carronades were counted in armament from 1817. She was launched in 1817 and arrived in Portsmouth in 1819, too late for the Napoleonic Wars, so she was put in reserve. Trincomalee was refitted and rearmed in 1845. She departed from Portsmouth in 1847 and remained in service for ten years, serving on the North America and West Indies Station. 

The ship is in much better condition than Unicorn and is fully masted.

The dock buildings have been converted into shops of the period, with nautical themes.

There is a display area describing the ship and a series of displays on naval life of the period. If you are in the area, it is well worth a visit.

Persian Army of the Napoleonic period

 My latest project has been completed, at least for now. The Persian army of the Napoleonic period was inspired by Lawrence Kelly's book Diplomacy and Murder in Tehran. I followed that up with a history of the South Caucasus and, finally, the most useful, Maziar Behrooz's Iran at War.

While Behrooz is essential reading for the history, the wargamer will find David Brown's booklet, The Persian Army of the Napoleonic Era, indispensable. It is available as a PDF download from Wargames Vault. This provides all the available details on the units and pictures that help with painting. We don't know everything, so some judgement is needed.

The Persian Army of the period fought against the Russians and the Ottomans, giving the wargamer a new opponent for these armies. The French and the British dabbled in the region and provided some support at different times. The army itself is interesting and colourful, with a mix of European-type units, traditional militia, and cavalry.

My current favourite ruleset for this period is Blucher, which enables large battles and doesn't require hundreds of figures. I went for 15mm because Irregular Miniatures do a decent range.

The project got a kick start when I noticed Mark Bevis was selling off his armies of the period. In 1994, Mark wrote a guide to Middle Eastern armies of the period that helped me get into the period at a time when there was very little written.

I bought some of his regular infantry and artillery and rebased them for Blucher.

Next up were the regular cavalry from the Irregular Miniatures range and Zamburak camel gunners. I will supplement these with some of my Ottoman figures of the period to represent tribal cavalry.

And finally, a unit of Russian deserters formed a guard unit known as the Great Warriors. Again from Irregular

The army first appeared on the tabletop against the Russians and performed very well.