Quicksilver Reading CompanionJack Shaftoe is forcibly taken aboard the Dutch slaver God’s Wounds in 1685, suffering brutal medical treatment as the ship begins its voyage toward the Mediterranean and the African coast.
“experience as a barber-surgeon, stoked up the galley-fire to heat some irons” — In the 17th century, barber-surgeons performed manual medical procedures like tooth extraction and wound care, as university-educated physicians considered surgery beneath their dignity.
“cauterizing to be done… while the irons were applied” — Cauterization was the standard, albeit agonizing, method of using heat to seal blood vessels and prevent infection before the advent of modern antiseptics.
“recalled he was on a slaver-ship” — The vessel is part of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, a massive economic engine of the era involving the exchange of manufactured goods for enslaved people along the African coast.
“Ships of the Line of the Dutch Navy… their triple gun-decks frowning at England” — A Ship of the Line was the superpower of 17th-century naval warfare, designed to sail in a long formation to unleash massive synchronized broadsides.
“the previous twelve years” — Stephenson’s annotation: “The account of English history 1673-1685 given in this and following pages is faithful in its general outlines to what really happened, but many of the names mentioned, viz., Daniel Waterhouse, John Comstock, Thomas More Anglesey, Knott and Gomer Bolstrood, Upnor, Sheerness, Roger Comstock and Sir Richard Apthorp, are fictional characters. Events such as the Popish Plot, the urban renewal project around St. James’s and Piccadilly, Exclusion, the founding of the Whigs, etc. really happened.”
“knott had attempted to indict nell gwyn” — Stephenson’s annotation: “It would be a mistake to say that the fictional character of Knott Bolstrood in this book is based upon Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, because Bolstrood is very different in many ways from Shaftesbury. However, in real life Shaftesbury was a member of Charles II’s CABAL who eventually got on the King’s wrong side and indicted Nell Gwyn and fled to Holland where he died. All of these things are also said of Knott Bolstrood in the book.”
“overhauled and boarded by French privateers” — Privateers were essentially legal pirates commissioned by a government via a “letter of marque” to prey upon enemy merchant shipping during wartime.
“relentless bleedings meted out by the ship’s barber” — Based on the ancient theory of the four humors, bloodletting was used to treat everything from fevers to exhaustion by “balancing” the body’s fluids.
“clink of cowrie-shells being sifted to and fro” — Harvested in the Maldives, cowrie shells served as a primary global currency for purchasing enslaved people in West Africa.
“brevis demonstratio erroris craig” — From the original wiki (stuntz): “Brevis Demonstratio Erroris Memorabilis Cartesii et Aliorum Circa Legem Naturae (“Brief Demonstration of the Memorable Error of Descartes and Others About the Law of Nature”) - Leibniz’s first public challenge to Cartesian mechanics.
Encyclopædia Britannica: … Leibniz’ noted Meditationes de Cognitione, Veritate et Ideis (Reflections on Knowledge, Truth, and Ideas) appeared at this time and defined his theory of knowledge: things are not seen in God as Nicolas Malebranche suggested but rather there is an analogy, a strict relation, between God’s ideas and man’s, an identity between God…”
“drs hammond and griffin” — Stephenson’s annotation: “Drs. Hammond and Griffin are fictional.”
“taking measurements with a back-staff” — The backstaff allowed navigators to determine latitude by measuring the sun’s altitude using its shadow, sparing their eyes from the direct glare of the sun.
“The Barbary Corsairs were no less incredulous than you, Jack.” — Operating from North African ports, the Barbary Corsairs were privateers who specialized in capturing European ships to seize cargo and people for the slave markets of the Ottoman Empire.
“intended to make galley-slaves out of them” — A galley slave endured one of the most brutal forms of servitude, chained to a bench for months at a time to provide the manual power for Mediterranean warships.
“feversham” — Stephenson’s annotation: “Feversham is real; he is too strange a character to invent.”
“took out his Janissary-sword in its gaudy sheath” — The Janissaries were the elite, highly disciplined infantry of the Ottoman Sultan, known for their distinct uniforms and ornate weaponry.
“single swivel-gun astern that might have pelted the lead galley” — A swivel gun was a small, bridge-mounted cannon used for anti-personnel defense during boarding actions rather than for damaging the hull of another ship.
“comte de beziers” — Stephenson’s annotation: “This character is fictional but representative of a type that was apparently common at Versailles in those days.”
“points of the inner jib, the outer jib, and the flying jib” — The addition of multiple jib sails ahead of the foremast significantly improved a ship’s ability to sail closer to the wind and maneuver in tight spaces.
“wilkins cypher” — Stephenson’s annotation: “Starting on p. 88 of his book Mercury, Wilkins explains a steganographic cypher based on what we would identify as binary numbers. The key to this cryptosystem is the use of two different handwritten alphabets, denoted (somewhat confusingly) the “a” alphabet and the “b” alphabet. I will call them the 0 alphabet and the 1 alphabet instead, or else this description will be difficult to make sense of.”
“Havah nagilah, Havah nagilah, Havah nagilah, v’nism’chah!” — Stephenson uses Hava Nagila as a deliberate anachronism; while the melody is an old Hasidic tune, the modern lyrics weren’t written until 1918. Stephenson’s annotation: “That the Barbary Corsairs have their galley slaves rowing to ‘Hava Nagila’ is eventually explained… in The Confusion.”
“Who’s for turning Turk?” — To be turning Turk was a contemporary idiom for converting to Islam, a choice sometimes made by European captives to gain freedom or join the ranks of the corsairs.
“oyonnax and ozoir” — Stephenson’s annotation: “Fictitious. More concerning these and their ancestry in the next volume.”
“boullaye and beber” — Stephenson’s annotation: “This seems to be a real story, though the involvement of the bastard son of the duc d’Arcachon is, of course, fictitious.”
“What kind of a thing is that to say to a fucking galley slave?” — The reality of galley slavery meant living in filth and constant physical exertion, as rowing was the only way for large Mediterranean vessels to move in the absence of wind.
Original annotations by: sinder, stephenson, stuntz, quillman, countzero