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It’s Pickle night!

Pickle night tonight!!! An excuse to party! Never mind naughty old Guy Fawkes…

The best Pickle night party we ever had included firing 2 real naval cannons complete with gun carriages, from our back garden!

Our thin excuse was I had just completed 2 vibrant paintings of HMS Pickle as part of a commission.

I had been appointed official artist to HMS Victory for the 2005 anniversary and to help to raise funds for restoring the famous flagship, HMS Victory.

Pickle night is celebrated in venues as far apart as petty officers’ mess’s in the Royal Navy and the New York Yacht Club Pickle night dinner. Pickle night commemorates the return to England of the gallant H.M. Schooner Pickle, first with the momentous news of the battle of Trafalgar.

You can read more of Pickle’s adventurous story and my research on http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/urgent_dispatches.html (available as a stuning limited edition) and http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/pickle.html.

We probably, almost certainly,  have the most accurately researched history of the ship and her most likely appearance on the Internet.

And my connection with Pickle?

My work was carried out as part of a Victory 2005 project, while I carried an official letter of introduction from the then commander of HMS Victory; that letter really opened doors!

Print No 1 of “I have urgent dispatches” was presented to the Princess Royal by officers of HM Seahawk as a thank you for her part in the 2005 re enactment of Pickle‘s voyage and dispatches.

Oh, and the cannons? Made by Martin Bibbings of the Trafalgar Gun Company, Martin describes his products as the ultimate executive toys!  We had a variety of sea people present including 2 square rigger captains and Peter Goodwin, the Keeper of HMS Victory.

The following day people living miles away said innocently to my (x) wife when she was at work in Plymouth Marine Laboratory, “there were some really loud fireworks last night over Plymstock?