A Few Things Before I Leave

    Reminder: This blog will be inactive from July 8th to August 17th 2012

   So I leave on July 8th for a training course with the RCN...I would like to tie up a few loose ends before I leave.
   First order of business: I was recently asked by Rear Admiral J.J. Bennet OMM, CD Chief Reserves and Cadets (Canada) why Naval officers wear their swords backwards, instead of frontwards. At the time I had no answer (actually no correct answer), so I have been looking for one ever since. As far as I can tell, Commonwealth Naval Officers wear their swords backwards because of some disgrace. It is speculated that the disgrace was over the mutinies of 1797 or that some Naval officer pulled his sword on an Admiral or a Royal.

  Second order of business: As I will be away, I will not be able to do my daily "On This Day" tweets. So I have prepared a little selection for you:

July 7, 1807: ·Czar Alexander I makes peace with Napoleon with the Treaty of Tilsit

July 22, 1807: ·Napoleon creates the Grand Duchy of Warsaw~Buffer zone between France & Russia

July 22 1805: The Battle of Cape Finisterre~Part of the Trafalgar Campaign

July 27 1809: The Battle of Talavera~Where Sharpe captured the Eagle (fictional character)

August 1, 1798: The Battle of the Nile~Made Nelson (more) famous 

August 1 1808: Landings at Mondego Bay Portugal commence (British intervention in Spain)

August 4, 1802: Napoleon is made First Consul for life~He would later crown himself Emperor

August 15, 1769: Napoleon Bonaparte born on Corsica

August 17 1808: The Battle of Roliça~One of the first battles of the Peninsular War

August 17 1812: The Battle of Smolensk~Part of the Russian Campaign

August 20 1808: The Battle of Vimeiro~One of the first battles of the Peninsular War