Dear Sir,
I am the webmaster of www.royal-navy.org and wondered if you would like to join us and the many other RN Ship Associations.
Our site is expanding rapidly.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Yours aye
Steve Yardley-Latham
Editor
Ocean Waves - Royal Naval Heritage
Dear Steve,
We would be pleased to exchange links with you, and I have copied Terry Kearns my web master in Atlanta Georgia, and ask him to link AHOY with your site.
Best regards,
Mackenzie Gregory.
Hi Mackenzie,
Welcome onboard! It is good to have with us and hope we can be of service to you.
I will add AHOY in the next day or two. There are several seperate areas that I could add links to you, where readers can go to yoursite. Your website needs the attention it deserves.
As a matter of interest I am based on the border of Texas/Mexico.
Please don't hesitate to contact me and I will send an email once I place you.
Many thanks, again, welcome onboard.
Kind regards
Steve
Steve,
Thank you for all of that, you have done Ahoy a great service, and also produced a colorful and interesting web site to cover British Naval History.
How come you got involved from Texas?
But, will you please add the para below to your introduction?
John initially set me on my way, but since March 2002, Terry has revamped Ahoy totally, and put up with me for over a million words, although we have never met I feel one of his family in Atlanta, without his dedication andexpertise our site would not show its face to the world.
My thanks for all your help.
Mackenzie ( I get Mac for short )
Hi Mac,
Job done, paragraph added.
Thank you for your kind comments.
I just had a look at Terry's website. He knows what he is doing and that makes a big difference on the web. Very professional, good background and good references. Sign of a good man.
I never settled after leaving the navy in 1982. I have travelled a great deal, Russia during her change, Africa, Europe and then ended up in Mexico. Into the USA for three years and now in Mexico for the past year awaiting USA residency. I acually live in a border town just inside Mexico.
Travels in the navy never really gave the 'indepth' knowledge of the foreign people and their part of the world. It is true that travel is a great educator and I have learnt much about the world. I also realised peoples have different perspectives on past histories and current world events. And some individuals in socities at this moment are 're-writing' events which disturb me greatly. For example and maybe it is only a minor view point but increasiningly I see the "Hollywoods" , Naval Institutes and others, making their marks. Sometimes I have spoken to people about naval history and I get back, "Hey the US Navy recovered that secret code machine and learnt the German codes". This is just a minor detail but it is important. (They saw the Hollywood film, it was in colour and so it is true!)ha! (I only use the USA as an example, even the UK is as bad at times).
Have you noticed that "Free GPL Wikipedia" encyclepedias are popping up around the web? Anyone and everyone can simply input thier information based on their knowledges which could be very limiting or very professional but for the world to see. One Wikipedia copies from the other and eventually the www is a glow with all this information no matter how accurate. If it says the US Navy discovered the Inigma Machine and they decoded it, it is what people will believe. The frightening aspect to the loss of the truth is that once these databases start filling up, it is becoming increasingly difficult to change the information.
I own the two domain names www.royal-navy.org and www.royal-navy.info and decided they have to be used for the right reasons. As always the British whether navy, army or airforce are slow to react. The US Navy has Institutes, Magazines and every other mass media machine working away yet the Royal Navy (Inclusive of all the commonwealth) in all its glory and history is a mess of media information. Great books, great authors, museums, etc but not gelled together to give that extra force and acknowledgement.
It seemed very reasonable to setup a Naval Heritage Website with these domains. I have little finance but a huge vision of the future of these domains and the many hundreds I own asociated with the marine environment.
The Royal Navy needs a Maritime publication set for its Heritage. There needs to be a Naval Heritage Institution based for the Royal Navy due to the size of its past, other than the US-Navy Institute. There is a need for standards and excellance in heritage information.
There are numerous projects that can be beneficial for the true history of the navy, whether that past was right or wrong, it should be exact in truth.
The only way forward is to bring as many Historians together. Heritage organizations and such like. One central place where all is welcome and all can be heard. What ever their affiliations, correctness of information, etc, here is where they can communicate and know of each other to form on the principle of the greater is the sum of its parts. Standards, Institute and many other tools will be guides and help for all regardless of professional or amature. At the moment the web is full of everyone.
Sorry Mac I have rabbited on a bit. Just to give you an idea of the happenings. You are the only 'historian' showing at the moment. I have spoken to three and yet to approach others. I have held back because the site needs to show it means business. In the days and weeks to come there will be a better showing.
Now that you have some insight, how would you feel to be more involved? Be part of a management team? Your naval background, experience and dedication is quite a portfolio in itself. This website needs professionalism to grow and expand. How it is acheived is, well open to the team.
If not part of a management team then as a Professional Advisor.
I am talking with another Commander turned historian to get onboard too. Really need a team
The site has to grow professionally and needs good management team.
Well, I hope you haven't fallen asleep Mac.
It is great to have you onsite as a Historian and I know the site will develop into something special for all of us. You will be better placed in the weeks to come. If I can help you in anyway further, just let me know Mac.
Kind regards
Steve
Steve,
Thanks for that. You flatter me, but I would be happy to be a part of your vision in any way you think I might make a contribution.
I do know exactly what you are saying.
I too, get cross when I find a Hollywood film stretching the truth to suit the local market. I had problems with the Morison account of the Battle of Savo Island, he laid blame on the Australian Hudson crew that first sighted the Japanese Fleet, he was totally wrong. I, in fact post war, interviewed the Captain and the Navigator of the aircraft, to ascertain the true story.
But with Morison's stamp on a particular slant, many others slavishly followed his lead to perpetuate the myth about this Hudson crew.
I have fought a number of internet battles to correct stories that were totally wrong about facts, and it takes a lot of bloody persistence to win through.
The Naval Institute magazine Proceedings published an account of SAVO by an officer in Chicago, he was at a very different battle on that night to the one I participated in, I corresponded with them, but its almost impossible to refute a retired US Naval Captain in his own Institute Journal.
Just an example of what you talk about Steve.
Best wishes,
Mac.
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