Download and run this free simulation of a three- and two-masted square-rigged sailing ship for Microsoft Windows.

• Download the HMS Surprise simulator (release 06.12.09; development history); then just unzip Surprise.zip (for example with WinZip) into any folder (for example C:\Program Files\Surprise) and run Surprise.exe.
• Read the documentation file for the simulator in your word processor (this file is also contained in the download package).
• Download the source code of the simulator (only of interest if you are a C-programmer).

Technical note: I developed this project long ago (starting in 1996!) using the Mingw32 version of EGCS 1.1.2, a port of the GCC 2.8.1 compiler for Windows 95, and subsequently upgraded to MinGW 3.1.0. As Integrated Development Environment I used RSXIDE 2.0 (still available here) with PFE 1.01 as editor. As the individual lines of the RSXIDE Makefile may apparently not be longer than the DOS-limit of 126 characters, and I used a total of 13 .c files, I had to give these short names.

If you do not appreciate why this programme is called HMS Surprise, head for the nearest bookshop and look for the Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian. You can also subscribe to the Gunroom mailing list. For more serious discussion of all aspects of maritime history, join the MarHst-L mailing list.

• Lt Phillips shot on the forecastle (1745)
• Trial and execution of Admiral John Byng (1757)
• Foundering of the Royal George (1781)
• French cavalry defeats Dutch fleet? (1795; Napoleon-series article)
• Nederlandse vloot door Franse cavalerie verslagen? (1795)
• St Vincent and the Marlborough mutiny (1797)
• Pellew blockading Brest (1796)
• Nelson at Santa Cruz (1797)
• Anglo-Russian invasion of North Holland (1799)
• The capture of Mauritius (1810)
• Wasp v Reindeer (1814)
• Richard Henry Dana on tacking the Alert
• Doggett's Coat and Badge
• Dr Haley's diving bell
• A Locatelli critique