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Sapphire & Steel
"The Albatross"
Look-In Television Annual 1981
Written by: Angus Allan (?)
Art by: Arthur Ransom |
A model of an old naval vessel and a bosun's call send a young
boy back to a sea battle in the 18th Century.
Read the story summary at Animus Web
Didja Know?
This story is reminiscent of another
Look-In strip of
Sapphire & Steel,
"Death of an Officer", in
that it involves Time trying to prevent the death of a French
sailor near the time of the Napoleonic wars who could have
become a spy inside England if he'd survived.
"The Albatross" is a 6-page text story with illustrations in the
Look-In Television Annual 1981.
As they frequently do in the Look-In stories,
Sapphire and Steel travel back in time in this story, this
time back to the 18th Century and the naval skirmishes between
Great Britain and France. Though they fought the forces of time, the pair
did not have the ability to travel back in time beyond
Sapphire's ability to rewind time up to about half a day.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story
Prof. John Carter
Anne Carter
Adam Carter
Sapphire
Steel
museum librarian (unnamed)
Lt. Harkin
Lt. Chill
Didja Notice?
The house visited by
Sapphire and Steel in this story is known as Gaunt Gables.
As far as I can tell, this is a fictitious structure.
Adam finds an old penny-farthing bicycle in the attic of
Gaunt Gables. (Photo from
Wikipedia.)
Seeing all the stuff in the attic, Adam proclaims, "It's
almost like Aladdin's cave." In the Middle Eastern folk tale
of "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp", a young man finds
a genie's magic lamp in a cave and uses the genie's powers
to become rich.
Adam finds a model sailing ship in the attic with the name
Albatross on it. He finds it curious to name a
sailing vessel after a bird which seamen always considered
unlucky. The common perception that seamen consider an
albatross bad luck is largely myth inspired by
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", a 1798 poem by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge in which a sailor kills an albatross on the
ship which had led the ship out of the Antarctic, where a
storm had blown them off course. The killing of the bird
seems to bring bad luck to the ship and its crew.
Sapphire and Steel already know the names of the family in
the house when they arrive.
Sapphire telephones the Royal Naval Museum at Greenwich to
find out about the historical sailing ship called the
Albatross. The Royal Naval Museum (now called
National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth) is
actually located in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. The
story is probably meant to refer to the
National
Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
The museum librarian describes the
Albatross as a brig of the Royal Navy built in 1784 and
used as a patrol craft on the South Kent Coast. She
eventually ran afoul of a privateer named La Reine
out of Brittany and was sunk with all hands on October 14,
1790 three miles off Romney. He also remarks that besides
dealing with smugglers and privateers, the ship has several
clashes with French ships bringing in spies.
The Albatross and its historical
story appears to be fictitious. The privateer La Reine
also appears to be fictitious. The places mentioned in the
ships' story are all real.
While explaining the consequences of altering history to the
Carters, Steel mentions Lord Nelson and the Battle of
Trafalgar.
Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) was a British naval hero
who died in the Battle of Trafalgar
against Napoleon's French Navy fleet and the Spanish fleet;
though he was killed near the end of the battle, his forces
won it for Great Britain.
After the Albatross
rescues Adam from the sea, Lt. Harkin tells him they'll put
him ashore to return to his family after they've dealt with
a froggy privateer. "Frog" is a pejorative term for a French
person. It has a history of use in Great Britain.
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