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thethousandthpart.com
ultima thule
@thethousandthpart.com
1.7K followers 380 following 510 posts
C18-19 British/Irish history | RN/polar exploration | Photographer; librarian; independent researcher of life and career of Capt. Francis Crozier. www.thethousandthpart.com
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ultima thule @thethousandthpart.com · Dec 5
I created a feed for #NapoleonicHistory - bsky.app/profile/did:... which sd capture all posts/replies tagged with same. Will be tweaking it further as things are still fairly quiet here, but it's a good time to get it going, so please test/pin/share if interested. Remember to tag your posts. 1/2
thethousandthpart.com
Quick walk before all light was lost (currently dusk at 15:30 in this sad part of the world)
Sidelit castle ruins on a very bright November afternoon; the colours are deceptively warm. An old graveyard, still occasionally used today, and a striking column of pink granite in the foreground, inscribed "The Graves of a Household" on the side facing the viewer. A view of the river and the dunes, with the remains of an old stone wall in the foreground.
November 30, 2025 at 10:36 AM
thethousandthpart.com
Quintet
A colour image of a family of pines almost silhouetted against a minimal background of an overcast sky and the Irish sea
November 16, 2025 at 10:15 AM
thethousandthpart.com
“I have in my collection a very interesting unpublished manuscript of Princess Lieven’s, which informed my writing, but which I’m neither going to quote directly from, nor reproduce in an appendix, bc I will NEVER, ever die and you lot can just ask me at any time.” 🙄
November 13, 2025 at 3:16 PM
thethousandthpart.com
Another day, another side of the lough...
November 9, 2025 at 10:45 AM
thethousandthpart.com
Amused at “Crozier museum now!” reaction in a certain community to the news of sale of what had been the Crozier family home and is now a bunch of offices in Banbridge town centre. 1/10 🧵
armaghi.com/news/banbrid...
Historic home of famous and celebrated polar explorer goes on market
The historic family home of a famous Northern Ireland-born explorer has gone on the market. The Co Down town of Banbridge certainly celebrates the legacy…
armaghi.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:23 PM
thethousandthpart.com
“Write what you know” is advice I still think sensible, but how to reconcile it with published works by authors who not only do NOT know but more alarmingly, do not show any inclination to find out?
November 5, 2025 at 3:29 PM
thethousandthpart.com
Looking across the Narrows towards Strangford and the Mournes in the background. Sound up for the bells, birds and wind.
November 2, 2025 at 10:16 AM
thethousandthpart.com
A brilliant thread on how - and more importantly, why - the literary blended with and influenced the historic almost to the point of no return. Really look forward to the article!
andrewbrunatti.bsky.social Andrew Brunatti @andrewbrunatti.bsky.social · Oct 30
If you're familiar with Castlereagh, you're probably also familiar with Shelley/Byron's verses about him that did much to popularise the image of 'Bloody Castlereagh.'

But there's another writer from the same movement whose literary creation was also used to build a dark image of Castlereagh:
October 30, 2025 at 3:28 PM
thethousandthpart.com
Mount Stewart is colouring up nicely (even though that bright yellow was brown in less than two days)...
Various instances of autumn colour advancing at various speed at Mount Stewart in Co. Down - the shades are more subtle than riotous but it's the overall combination of them that is really special. Various instances of autumn colour advancing at various speed at Mount Stewart in Co. Down - the shades are more subtle than riotous but it's the overall combination of them that is really special. Various instances of autumn colour advancing at various speed at Mount Stewart in Co. Down - the shades are more subtle than riotous but it's the overall combination of them that is really special. Various instances of autumn colour advancing at various speed at Mount Stewart in Co. Down - the shades are more subtle than riotous but it's the overall combination of them that is really special.
October 26, 2025 at 8:35 AM
thethousandthpart.com
Read this while on the road, and though there may not be enough 'pure' history for some, it's thoughtful, [darkly] funny and absorbing. It didn't bring peace to my uneasy relationship with museums/heritage sites (nothing could do that), but I enjoyed the book! #HistBookChat
An image of the paperback edition of The Darkness Echoing: Ireland's Places of Famine, Death and Rebellion, by Gillian O'Brien. The cover features a hangman's noose and weaponry, all engulfed in gold flames against a bright red background.
October 24, 2025 at 4:00 PM
thethousandthpart.com
A very happy birthday to Francis Crozier, who still has more of them than the King (thanks to dates varying depending on the source), but today is the real one, according to his father - I wrote about the mystery in www.thethousandthpart.com/notes/the-ma... #NavalHistory #PolarExploration
Francis Crozier’s real date of birth — the thousandth part
After 178 years of confusion over Captain Crozier's date of birth, conclusive evidence is found in his father's correspondence
www.thethousandthpart.com
October 17, 2025 at 6:31 PM
thethousandthpart.com
Very pleased to have spotted Captain Crozier among the famous locals in the Down County Museum, between Francis Hutcheson and Thomas Andrews Jr. (the latter of the Titanic fame).
A photo of a wall of images of famous people from County Down, in the Down County Museum at Downpatrick.
October 10, 2025 at 5:03 PM
thethousandthpart.com
Timeline cleanse, with lots of foam and none of that North Sea rubbish.
October 5, 2025 at 7:20 PM
thethousandthpart.com
Such a shame the Guardian chose to concentrate on "solved the mystery" and "'incredible' likeness" (firmly in the eye of the beholder tbh) rather than details/process of the search/find, given that this lady comes from a [presumably] unmarked grave in a 'wrong' cemetery. #NavalHistory
September 28, 2025 at 4:08 PM
thethousandthpart.com
Beach ‘forest’ #CoastalPhotography
A colour image (mostly brown with a light touch of copper) of the temporary art made by the tide on a sandy beach: it appears almost like a group of trees with bare ‘branches’ sticking out.
September 28, 2025 at 9:41 AM
thethousandthpart.com
Quick run (well, a brisk walk) before sunset; pleased to report none of that cloudless summer nonsense remains.
A colour image in mostly yellows and blues, of some sunlit clouds and a fading (but complete) rainbow over the river. The sky occupies about nine tenths of the image, as it should do in the north and west of Scotland.
September 21, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by ultima thule
annamthane.bsky.social
Enjoy reading in September!
Here is an updated list of new #nonfiction #books about the #18thcentury scheduled for this month: regency-explorer.net/new-releases/
#Regency #Napoleon #history #JaneAusten #read #18thc
A compilation of 44 covers of books about the 18th century. You find the whole list by following the link in the skeet
September 20, 2025 at 7:06 PM
thethousandthpart.com
Finally starting to read this in its entirety, having previously enjoyed extracts here and there. Someone really ought to repeat his route next year to mark its 230th anniversary! #HistBookChat #IrishHistory
Image of the dust jacket of "A Frenchman's Walk through Ireland, 1796-7" ("Promenade d'un Français dans l'Irlande"), by Jacques-Louis de Bougrenet (Chevalier de La Tocnaye).
September 19, 2025 at 2:54 PM
thethousandthpart.com
It bothers me slightly that we still don't know Croker's reaction to having mountains, then not having mountains.
eddiejenks510.bsky.social Eddie Jenkins @eddiejenks510.bsky.social · Sep 9
A map of John Ross and William Parry's 1818 #Arctic expedition, presented to William Scoresby by Ross. This map includes the infamous "Croker Mountains" mirage which led Ross to turn away from the entrance of the NW Passage.
September 9, 2025 at 1:28 PM
thethousandthpart.com
Cupid’s Arrow/Crow Conversation
A colour image from the North Sea coast, with an underwhelming background of some sunlit high-rise blocks. In the foreground, on a red, rusted pole looking not unlike a giant arrow, two crows can be seen sitting side by side.
September 7, 2025 at 8:53 AM
thethousandthpart.com
Yet to read this, but such a great cover, too - enjoyed reading the interview with its designer yalebooks.co.uk/an-interview...

#NapoleonicHistory
September 3, 2025 at 1:06 PM
thethousandthpart.com
Foggy river this morning instead of the sea - could it possibly mean the start of the season known elsewhere as "autumn" and practically invisible here?
A subdued-colour image (predominantly blues and pale yellow), looking across a misty river towards the dunes. Most of the shapes in the image are soft and blurry, but the smell of autumn is very sharp.
August 31, 2025 at 8:53 AM
thethousandthpart.com
Picked up "Second Identity" for commute reading; yet to break through its multiple waves of history to the main topic, but enjoying some of Cobb's observations a little too much. I could almost forgive him his dislike of hills and Scotland (not in a million years, Sir😀) #HistoryBookChat
An image of a book page, from Second Identity: Essays on France and French History by Richard Cobb, published in 1969. The selected quotation on the page starts with "The historian should, above all, be endlessly inquisitive and prying, constantly attempting to force the privacy of others, and to cross the frontiers of class, nationality, generation, period, and sex. His principal aim is to make the dead live."
August 29, 2025 at 2:05 PM
thethousandthpart.com
Layers and stairs (another sunny day ignored ☑️)
A colour photo which could almost be black and white, of an interior from the Aberdeen Art Gallery, showing a good variety of shapes and textures, lit and unlit.
August 24, 2025 at 10:16 AM
thethousandthpart.com
Learning from @hartleyspecialc.bsky.social that the Duke of Wellington was once sent a dog, ship's biscuit and preserved meat from an Arctic voyage, I suspected John Ross - wrongly, bc it seems the goods came from Parry's 2nd expedition. The sender is Capt. Hill en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hi... 1/3
A screenshot of a digital catalogue entry from the Wellington Papers at the Hartley Library, University of Southampton. The entry details a curious document from 3 November 1823, describing it as a “letter from John Hill, Victualling Yard, Deptford, to Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington: Hill sends the Duke an Eskimo dog obtained from a North Pole ship. The dogs are trained to hunt bears, “sea horse” and other wild animals: the dog may need to be watched for a time, though he is good tempered with humans. The dog has been used to draw a sledge… Hill also encloses a sample of the biscuit and two cannisters of preserved meat which were carried on the ships. The biscuit was made at Deptford in February 1821…”
August 22, 2025 at 3:00 PM