I think that Norrington in DMC was a person figuratively at the end of his rope. There are essentially two Norringtons in his character - the stiff-upper-lip British officer for whom King, Country and Duty are paramount even above life itself, and the man James Norrington who is smarter than many people make him out to be (they don't give commodore commands to dummies!) and who knows the right thing to do when the time comes - remember that speech that Keira gives Jack (Jack replies: "I like those moments... I love to wave at them as they pass by!") - Norrington has those moments too and he doesn't just 'wave at them' but on occasion he seizes them for the greater good. Hence his allowing Jack Sparrow a day's head start, hence his acceding to Will and Elizabeth's marriage even above his own heart's desire.

Now Norrington in DMC is a man who has just about lost all that. He's lost the Dauntless - no small thing, considering an 80 gun ship of the line would have something like a thousand PLUS men manning her. Care to have a thousand or so souls on your conscience? Not to mention he failed to capture Sparrow, lost his commission and was a wanted man. Plus his beloved is set to marry the once bedraggled wretch that HE HIMSELF SAVED in Curse of the Black Pearl. Norrington SAVED Will Turner at the very start of the series. And Will Turner takes everything (it seems) away from him, prodigiously aided by Jack Sparrow of course.

Norrington by an ironic twist is forced to explore his 'dark side', he has to crawl out of this hell and find 'redemption' as he aptly puts it even if he has to become everything he despised as a British officer = He becomes a drunken, light-fingered, sneaky pirate!

All to recover his lost honour, which by the way, IS a VERY important thing. Honour (at least it used to be) even as important as life or an afterlife. For the ancient Egyptian, the glory and honour one won in life was reflected in monuments and hieroglyphs and were necessary to obtain a place in the afterlife - if you didn't have any your heart was chucked out to a great heart-eating monster and you just simply ceased to exist. For the ancient Greek of the temper of Achilles, honour or 'kleos' was tantamount to immortality as well as it was what people say about you (when you are gone or are dead).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleos

(Trivia: The legendary Cleopatra's name means literally 'the Glory' [kleos] 'of her Father' [patrae])

And from these concepts, our own concepts of honour developed. Honour for Norrington was the over-arching consideration. Something for which everything even personal dignity was to be sacrificed.

But by AWE he realizes that in his quest for honour he has done irrevocable harm to those he loves and raised to power a man most dangerous and implacable. So he 'choses a side'.

Anyways, that's the way I see James Norrington from DMC to AWE. Plus he looks rogue-ishly cool as Scruffington - and he has a pretty mean swordfight to boot!

This be the place for all off-topic and out-of-character silliness...

Fire away!

By Order: Commodore James Norrington RN, BPP

June 15th
"Lieutenant William Thomas Trent III appointed Master and Commander of the H.M.S. Rodenberry."

June 16th

"Sloop-of-War, H.M.S. Rodenberry, departed Port Royal under the command of Lt.William Trent III, 113 souls (5 officers, 12 marines, 35 landsmen, 20 experienced but unreliable sailors, 41 experienced and reliable sailors). Destination, the colony of Nevis in the Leeward Islands. Route North by Northeast via the Windward Passage, skirting the northwest coast of Hispaniola, passing Grand Turk on the Caribbean - Atlantic fringes then heading southeast toward Nevis. H.M.S.Rodenberry will sail without colours while on the high seas so as not to attract untoward attention."

HMS Dreadnought (1742)  (4th ship to bear the name)
Historical: 4th Rate, 60-gun     BPP: 2nd Rate, 80-gun

This the fifth ship to carry the name HMS Dreadnought was a fourth rate, 60-gun ship.
Built by Wells of Deptford, launched 23-Jun-1742, 14ft long, 42ft wide and of 1,093 tons builders measurement. Sold 17-Aug-1784

1755 Capt. Maurice Suckling, appointed 2nd December and ordered to the West Indies after the outbreak of war. On the 25 October 1757 Capt. Forrest in the AUGUSTA, with the DREADNOUGHT and the EDINBURGH under his orders, returned from a cruise off Cape Francois on the 21st, and fell in with seven French ships of war. The enemy were the INTREPIDE and SCEPTRE of 74 guns, the OPINEATRE of 64, l'OUTARDE of 44, the GREENWICH of 50 and the SAVAGE and UNICORN of 30 guns.

"The Dreadnought getting on the Intrepide's bow, kept her helm hard on starboard to rake her, or if she proceeded, to fall on board in the advantageous situation; but she chose to bear up, and continued to do so during the action till she fell disabled. By thus bearing short on her own ship, those astern were thrown into disorder, from which they never recovered; and when the Intrepide dropped, and was relieved by the Opiniatre, the Greenwich in confusion got on board her, while the Sceptre pressing on, the whole number are furiously cannonaded by the Edinburgh and Augusta, especially the Intrepide, which lay dismantled in a very shattered condition, having a signal out for relief."

BPP ship

Flagship E.Caribbean Squadron, under Commodore Hon. James Norrington Esq.,

Principal Officers: J.Norrington (Commodore), J.Christiansen (Post Captain), T.Gillette (Flag Lieutenant) 

 

 

HMS Edinburgh (1716) (2nd ship to bear the name)
3rd Rate, 70-gun     

The second Edinburgh, a 70 gun 3rd rate, was renamed from HMS Warspite in 1716, rebuilt twice at Chatham Dockyard in 1721 and 1744, before being broken up in 1771 in Plymouth.

 

 

HMS Augusta (1718) (nth ship to bear the name)
4th Rate, 60-gun 

The Augusta arrived at Portsmouth April 14, 1739. The Master Shipwright in Portsmouth  filed a report stating "the bottoms of the Elizabeth and the Augusta were found to be in good condition." A defect was discovered in the main mast of the Augusta requiring repair on May 5, 1739. The Augusta departed for Spithead May 12th after the completion of repairs to the main mast. 

On June 9th preparations were commenced to prepare the Augusta for Foreign Service. Captain Thomas Trevor reported June 13th  that "the ship's boat was overturned going from Spithead to Portsmouth. The surgeon, Joseph Brothers, was drowned."

John Guy, of the Augusta, requested to relinquish his post as Master of the Augusta, June 20, 1739.   Lieutenant Taylor was promoted on June 21, 1739 to Commander of the Augusta, a 60-gun, 4th Rate ship.  Sir Chaloner Ogle, hoisted his broad pennant on the Augusta June 26, 1739 and departed Spithead June 30th for excursions to the West Indies.

Two weeks later, a report dated July 13th, came in from Captain Lee that the Augusta had lost her foremast and would require a replacement on arrival at Plymouth Yard.  At the end of July, repairs completed to the foremast, Sir Chaloner Ogle departed with the Augusta, along with the Pembrooke and Jersey and the Cruizer Sloop to the Bristol Channel.

The monthly books and tickets for the Augusta were sent by Peter Lawrence from Gibraltar Bay December 8, 1739.  Sir Chaloner Ogle, of the Augusta was Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron by the summer of 1740.  Late in August of the same year, the Augusta arrived at the Plymouth Dock with fifty sick men from the Fleet to go the hospital. The Augusta departed August 29, 1740, for the West Indies. Commissioner Richard Hughes, Portsmouth Dock reported receipt of warrant appointing as Master of the Augusta, Elmes Balgay.

Books and tickets of the Augusta, were sent by Charles Dennison from Port Royal, Jamaica on May 18, 1741. Admiral Vernon of the Boyne reported from Port Royal, that the Augusta's mast had sprung  the 17th of June, 1741.

 

 

HMS Enterprize (1718) (4th ship to bear the name)
5th Rate, 44-gun frigate

The fourth HMS Enterprize, 44, of the Royal Navy was originally commissioned as NORWICH, 50, a fourth-rate, in 1718. On May 23, 1744, while the captured sloop named ENTERPRIZE was still in commission, the Navy renamed NORWICH to ENTERPRIZE while reducing her to a fifth-rate. She patrolled the Caribbean until the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1748, when she was laid up in ordinary.

ENTERPRIZE was recommissioned in 1756 at the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, again for service in the West Indies and North America and resuming her duties as Atlantic convoy escort. In 1762 she was present at the siege and capture of Havana, Cuba, an action involving nearly 60 warships and transports enough for more than 16,000 troops.

ENTERPRIZE was decommissioned in January 1764 and was broken up in 1771 at Sheerness.

BPP ship

Frigate E.Caribbean Squadron

Principal Officers:

Jean Rodin Baron de Barre (Post Captain), Wesley Bennett (First Lieutenant), James Montgomery of Duan (Quartermaster)

 

HMS Rodenberry (1725) (1st ship to bear the name)
Unrated, 12-gun Sloop-of-War

Based on HMS Resolution, a sloop of the Royal Navy and the ship in which Captain James Cook made his second and third voyages of exploration in the Pacific. She impressed him enough that he called her "the ship of my choice", and "the fittest for service of any I have seen."

She began her career as the North Sea collier Drake, launched at Whitby in 1770, was renamed Marquis of Granby, and purchased by the Royal Navy in 1772. She was fitted out at Deptford with the most advanced navigational aids of the day, including a Gregory Azimuth Compass, ice anchors and the latest apparatus for distilling fresh water from sea water. Twelve light 6-pounder guns and twelve swivel guns were carried. At his own expense Cook had brass door-hinges installed in the great cabin. Resolution cost the Admiralty £4,151. Her complement totaled 112 souls.

Lower deck length: 110 ft 8 in (33.73 m)
Keel: 93 ft 6 in (28.50 m)
Maximum beam: 35 ft (11 m)
Draft: 13 ft (4.0 m)

BPP ship

Post Ship E.Caribbean Squadron

Principal Officers:

William Thomas Trent III (Lt./Master and Commander -16), James Watson (First Lieutenant - recent promotion from Midshipman), Peter Foster (Quartermaster)

June 16th - Officers assigned - Midshipman John Terrell (14), Midshipman Edward Cartwright (17)
June 16th - Marine detachment assigned - Eleven (11) men under command of Serjeant Kenneth Worth.
June 16th - Set out from Port Royal bound for Nevis with dispatches.

Heart of Oak

Come, cheer up my lads! 'tis to glory we steer,
To add something more to this wonderful year;
'tis to honour we call you, as free men not slaves,
for who are so free as the sons of the waves?

Heart of oak are our ships
Jolly tars are our men
We always are ready;
Steady, boys, steady;
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again!

We'll ne'er see our foes but we wish 'em to stay,
They never see us but they wish us away;
If they run, we will follow, we will drive 'em ashore,
For if they won't fight us, we cannot do more.

Heart of oak are our ships
Jolly tars are our men
We always are ready;
Steady, boys, steady;
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again!

 

The actual music is here on site. For all you StarFleet Officers, Patrick Stewart sang this on a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. Not to be missed.

PROLOGUE  
 
At first there was no real pain. That would come later.  
 
Just the shock, the blast of sensory thunder that tore through his being as the deranged fish-man spitted him on the iron spike. The sensation coursed through his body at lightning speed. The pain would come later.  
 
Admiral James Norrington, on temporary secondment to the East India Trading Company by special command of Lord Cutler Beckett, counted death as an old acquaintance, though by no means an old friend. Death had been a constant companion throughout his years in the service. He had sent men to their deaths before, both his own and those of his enemies. Now the old acquaintance was turning on him.  
 
Well, Norrington thought, if I am to meet him now then I will be ready... I will meet him sword in hand. I will show him that I am... unafraid. What more can a man do?  
 
The pain was slow in coming, he mused with a wry smile. But it was coming. And with it came death.  
 
No death that he had expected, not some skeletal figure out of Brueghel, not some hollow eyed skeleton with a scythe. Death had eyes... and a face... and writhing slimy tentacles in place of a beard.  
 
Norrington gasped. The pain was searing through him now.  
 
Death was upon him. He felt weak. His sword was like solid lead in his hand.  
 
His sword... this sword... strange how this sword had led him to this pass. Norrington's first impulse was to curse the day that he had come across the half drowned wretch named William Turner, that long ago foggy day when he was a young lieutenant on his first Caribbean posting. William Turner the blacksmith, William Turner the traitor, William Turner, the man who came between him and the woman he loved.

She had been there too, that day.  
 
She was gone now. He smiled to himself as his lips found the taste of hers still warm and soft in his memory. Though it had not been ten minutes past, the spreading agony followed by the softly cascading numbness had made it somewhat difficult to recall the taste of those lips. Norrington fought, cursing the numbness, wanting to remember it, as if its memory was the very thing that kept him alive.

She had asked him... begged him to come along. He could not - heaven knows he wanted to! But he was an old dog, too old to change. An old sea dog with nothing left but teeth and claw and his cherished honour. Besides, there was still a last duty to perform, a last sin to expiate. She had asked him to come... but he could not. Duty before self. 
 
She was gone now. She was safe. She was safe and that made all this worth it. Even if that meant that she would be with Will Turner now... even if it had brought him to this pass. She… she was worth it. 
 
It was not the sword, thought Norrington. It was her. She was his life, his death, his damnation and his salvation. 
 
The pain was well nigh unbearable now. Death was upon him, leaning down with foul fishy breath and eyes that seared into his very soul.  
 
"Tell me James Norrington…do you fear death?"
 
What a question, Norrington thought.  
 
We all fear death. There's no question. What matters is how we face that fear.  
 
Ask a stupid question my friend -  
 
The perfectly crafted steel blade sliced into the monsters' chest. Norrington had dined on calamari before and he mused that it was not unlike slicing through the soft flesh of a squid. He remembered how the creature had squirmed when he had lanced it with the fish-hook, all those years ago, a young Midshipman savoring the triumph of his first kill. He felt the monster wince - with pain... perhaps not... maybe with surprise...  
 
It did not matter. He had made death flinch.  
 
Ask a stupid question, my squid-headed friend... I'll give you an answer.  
 
His hand was a leaden weight falling from the hilt of the blade that his rival had once crafted for him. His heart was pounding like the death drums at a pirate's execution. He thought of her... all he had done... all of his sins... all that he was and now would never be again.  
 
He let it go. She had forgiven him. With her kiss she had forgiven him. And now... as he felt his heart beating for the very last time, James Norrington forgave himself.  
 
In his mind his lips found hers and he closed his eyes.  
 
------------------------------------------------------------  
 
Davy Jones pulled the sword from his chest. Though the dead Admiral had struck true, there had been nothing to strike. His still beating heart lay under guard in his cabin, a pair of swivel guns pointed straight at it, soldiers with bayonet fixed and lighted linstocks surrounding it. And Davy Jones, immortal though he was, shuddered at the thought...  

"Tell me James Norrington…do you fear death?"

He looked down at the cold clammy corpse that had once been England's foremost Admiral and one of the best swordsmen in the Caribbean. He thought of the soul that had not surrendered to him but had instead responded with a carefully executed 'Up Yours'.

"I'll take that as a no,” he muttered as he pulled the blade from his shoulder and stalked off, defeated. 

FROM THE PORT ROYAL COURIER

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Sir James Norrington, Vice Admiral of the Blue, recently promoted to command His Majesty’s Naval Forces in their continuing war on piracy. Admiral Norrington was a fine leader, well beloved by his men, and his services to King and Country will be sorely missed…

What'll we do with a drunken sailor,
What'll we do with a drunken sailor,
What'll we do with a drunken sailor,
Earl-aye in the morning?

Chorus:
Way hay and up she rises
Patent blocks o' diff'rent sizes,
Way hay and up she rises
Earl-aye in the morning

1. Sling him in the long boat till he's sober,
2. Keep him there and make 'im bale 'er.
3. Pull out the plug and wet him all over,
4. Take 'im and shake 'im, try an' wake 'im.
5. Trice him up in a runnin' bowline.
6. Give 'im a taste of the bosun's rope-end.
7. Give 'im a dose of salt and water.
8. Stick on 'is back a mustard plaster.
9. Shave his belly with a rusty razor.
10. Send him up the crow's nest till he falls down,
11. Tie him to the taffrail when she's yardarm under,
12. Put him in the scuppers with a hose-pipe on him.
13. Soak 'im in oil till he sprouts flippers.
14. Put him in the guard room till he's sober.
15. Put him in bed with the captain's daughter*).
16. Take the Baby and call it Bo'sun.
17. Turn him over and drive him windward.
18. Put him in the scuffs until the horse bites on him.
19. Heave him by the leg and with a rung console him.
20. That's what we'll do with the drunken sailor.

*) A relative of the cat-o-nine-tails

And also in Latin...

 

Ebrio quid faciamus nauta,

Ebrio quid faciamus nauta,
Ebrio quid faciamus nauta,
Ebrio quid faciamus nauta
Hora matutina?

Euge! Et spumat salum,
Euge! Et spumat salum,
Euge! Et spumat salum
Hora matutina.

Crapulam primum edormiscat....

Quem aqua frigida rigemus . . . .

Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules

Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these.

But of all the world's great heroes, there's none that can compare.

With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadiers.

Those heroes of antiquity ne'er saw a cannon ball,

Or knew the force of powder to slay their foes withal.

But our brave boys do know it, and banish all their fears,

Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.

Whene'er we are commanded to storm the palisades,

Our leaders march with fusees, and we with hand grenades.

We throw them from the glacis, about the enemies' ears.

Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.

And when the siege is over, we to the town repair.

The townsmen cry, "Hurrah, boys, here comes a Grenadier!

Here come the Grenadiers, my boys, who know no doubts or fears!

Then sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.

Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health to those

Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the loupèd clothes.

May they and their commanders live happy all their years.

With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.

There are a number of words in the song which are not in current usage:

• Fusees - The Grenadier officers carried fusees - fusils, or muskets rather than bombs. 
• Glacis- A term in the science of fortification, referring to the smooth sloping embankment that usually preceded the pit in front of the walls of a fort. Designed to deflect cannonballs, but also a dangerously exposed place to stand throwing grenades.
• Bumper - A bumper was any container that could be used to clink with another reveler's bumper in a toast to someone's health. It could be filled with beer, canary, grog, sack, posset, cider, ale, shrub or punch. It usually referred to a handled vessel such as a (pewter or ceramic) beer-mug or (leathern) jack, but it could refer to a (horn or pewter) beaker or even to a (treen, pewter or silver) punchbowl that could be picked up and passed around for everyone to quaff.
• Louped clothes - (pronounced "loup-ed" in order for it to scan) It means 'looped', and may refer to the lace (those 'bastion loops') common to all Redcoats. Other sources suggest that it refers to the shoulder 'wings' worn by Grenadiers.
• toe row row - Refers to forming up in rows in a straight line.. with toes on the line.

From: Wikipedia

"Oceano"

Piove sull'oceano
Piove sull'oceano
Piove sulla mia identità
Lampi sull'oceano
Lampi sull'oceano
Squarci di luminosità
Forse là in America
I venti del Pacifico
Scoprono le sue immensità
Le mie mani stringono
Sogni lontanissimi
E il mio pensiero corre da te
Remo, tremo, sento
Profondi e oscuri abissi
E' per l'amore che ti do
E' per l'amore che non sai
Che mi fai naufragare
E' per l'amore che non ho
E' per l'amore che vorrei
E' per questo dolore
E' questo amore che ho per te
Che mi fa superare queste vere tempeste
Onde sull'oceano
Onde sull'oceano
Che dolcemente si placherà
Le mie mani stringono
Sogni lontanissimi
E il tuo respiro soffia su me
Remo, tremo, sento
Vento in fondo al cuore
E' per l'amore che ho per te
Che mi fa superare mille tempeste
E' per l'amore che ti do
E' per l'amore che vorrei
Da questo mare
E' per la vita che non c'è
Che mi fai naufragare
In fondo al cuore
Tutto questo ti avra
Te e a sembra tutto normale


(Translation)
It rains on the Ocean
It rains on the Ocean
It rains on my identity
Lights on the Ocean
Lights on the Ocean
Gaps of luminosity
Maybe there in America
the winds of the Pacific
Uncover its immensity
My hands hold tight
some faraway dreams
And my thoughts run to you
I row, I shake, I feel
Deep dark abyss
It's for the love I give you
and for the love you don't know
that makes me wreck
It's for the love I don't have
and for the love I'd want
It's for this pain
It's for this love I have for you
That makes me get over those real storms
Waves on the Ocean
Waves on the Ocean
that will gently calm down
My hands hold tight
some faraway dreams
and your breath blows on me
I row, I shake, I feel
A wind around my heart
It's for the love I have for you
That makes me get over thousands of storms
It's for the love I give you
and for the love I'd want
from this sea
It's for the life that isn't there
that makes me wreck
deep in my heart
All this will have you
and to you everything will seem normal

Standing Orders and Instructions

for the officers and men

of the Eastern Caribbean Squadron,

North American Station

 

To all officers and men of the Squadron. Please take time to familiarize yourselves with the nautical terms, orders and instructions that are posted for your perusal. Officer candidates in H.M. Royal Navy are especially enjoined to commit these to memory and master them in anticipation for their Examinations for Promotion.

By Order,

Hon. James Norrington, Esq., Commodore RN

 

THE INSTRUCTIONS, ORDERS AND ARTICLES FOLLOW IN REPLIES SECTION