Yore History is a YouTube channel about history. This channel primarily covers history from a second person perspective, placing you the audience member in the role of various people throughout history. So far it has three of such series' so far.
You can check them out here
.
Yore History provides examples of:
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: This is the end of COULD YOU HAVE SURVIVED AS A SAILOR ON A 17TH CENTURY EAST INDIAMAN!?. Piet and his fellow-sailor Hank made it back to Amsterdam alive, something that could not be said of most of the sailors who departed on East Indiamen. They decide to have a drink to celebrate, which quickly turns into a bar-crawl lasting several weeks and only ending after they spent their entire salary. The narrator notes that this was common, to the point that returning sailors were called "Lords of Six Weeks".
- Addled Addict: Jan Van Pine, the surgeon on the East Indiaman Ship, is one. He is addicted to opium and spends his whole day in a daze. As a result he never uses opium to actually provide pain-relief to his patients, is very incompetent in his procedures, and as such is hated by the rest of the crew.
- Bittersweet Ending: COULD YOU HAVE SURVIVED AS A SAILOR ON A 17TH CENTURY EAST INDIAMAN!? has one. Piet makes it back to Amsterdam alive, his father accepts him home again, and he goes on to marry and have a wife of his own. However his friend Hank dies going on another voyage and he dies in his 40s - the implication being that his time at sea wore down his body and shortened his lifespan.
- Break the Cutie: Piet Van Weste was a Farm Boy in the Netherlands who had a wanderlust and so enlisted to join an East Indiaman for a five-year voyage. He ends up sleeping in miserable conditions, eating rotten food that left him constantly sick, nearly dies of illness, becomes briefly addicted to opium, is savagely beaten as punishment for trying to steal opium from the surgeon, blows his earnings upon his return, and returns home worse for wear.
- Colonel Badass: Justus is a Badass Centurion, being described as a man of immense strength without any fat on his body. He's also described as a survivor of Teutoburg Forest. He dies leading an escape attempt from a Celtic dungeon, saving the lives of his men in the process.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father:
- Played Straight with Piet's father, who not only forbids him to sign aboard an East Indiaman but threatens to disown him if he does. Justified in that these voyages were hellish journeys with high attrition rates.
- Downplayed with Gaius' father, who is disappointed his son won't become a garum-maker like him but who lets his son choose his own path and even pulls strings to get his son a letter of recommendation to join the legions.
- Inverted with Charles' father, who is a Fantasy Insistent Father. Charles wanted to become a coal-miner like his father was, but said father wanted his son to have a better life and so signed him aboard a merchant ship.
- Featureless Protagonist: Averted. Despite the series favoring Second-Person Narration, the protagonists all have distinct names and descriptions.
- The protagonist of Could YOU have survived as a British Navy Sailor during the Napoleonic Era!? is Charles Hodge.
- The protagonist of COULD YOU HAVE SURVIVED AS A SAILOR ON A 17TH CENTURY EAST INDIAMAN!? is Piet Van Weste.
- The protagonist of Could YOU have survived as a Roman Legionary during 2nd Invasion of Britain? - TO BRITAIN! is Gaius Paulius Regulus.
- Gallows Humor:
- Hank the sailor was fond of this, much to Piet's appreciation.
- Justus the Centurion also uses this.
- Getting High on Their Own Supply: Piet makes this mistake. He smuggled a stash of opium onto the ship with the intention of selling it back in Amsterdam and using the money to buy a house when he starts a family, but he is curious and so tries it. The gave him a euphoria in the otherwise-miserable ship conditions.
- Heal the Cutie: Piet Van Weste; see Break the Cutie above. While he went through hell-on-earth, he made it back to Amsterdam alive. When he returned home he reunited with his family, married, and lived out his days in peace. He even retained some wanderlust, traveling overland to some countries surrounding the Netherlands.
- Lovable Rogue:
- Hank the sailor is one, helping Piet to smuggle opium onto the Indiaman and later being Piet's drinking-buddy once they returned to Amsterdam.
- Braddick Black is also one, being an ex-convict who taught the other sailors how to suck rum out of the barrels with their pen quills.
- Rags to Riches: Charles Hodge becomes this. He begins as the son of a coal-miner and a cabin-boy aboard a ship, but the narrator states he'll go on to become a merchant Captain in his own right.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Downplayed with Captain King. He treats his sailors well, only really gets angry at them when they steal his rum rations, and makes sure Charles gets paid when the company official tries to use a loophole to cheat the boy out of his wages. However he still hired the cruel and abusive McGee to be his First Mate.
- Second-Person Narration: The selling point of the series.
- One-Steve Limit: Subverted in the COULD YOU HAVE SURVIVED AS A SAILOR ON A 17TH CENTURY EAST INDIAMAN!? series. There are two men named Hank; the impressment officer who first recruits Piet, and a fellow-sailor on the Indiaman
- Opium Den: Charles Hodge describes vising some of these while in Ming China. He didn't take opium while there, and lost interest in these places after finding the patrons to be poor conversationalists.
- Press-Ganged:
- A impressment officer named Hank (not to be confused with the sailor Hank) offered to get Piet a place on an Indiaman in exchange for part of his wages. Piet already wanted to enlist, but to prevent him from changing his mind Hank had him and other hopefuls locked in a cellar and constantly drunk while they waited for the ship.
- An impressment officer visits Charles while he's in a Havana prison after deserting a merchant ship, and offers to get him transferred to a navy ship. Charles realizes he's being taken advantage of, but decides he has no choice but to accept.
- Recovered Addict: Piet becomes one after he runs out of opium and fails to steal some from the ship surgeon. Likely because he can not afford it in Amsterdam.
- Sole Survivor: Late into his voyage Piet and several other sailors are made to steer burning boats towards a Portuguese fleet harassing the Dutch colonies. Piet is the only Dutch sailor to survive this mission.
- We Have Reserves: The V.O.C. has this attitude towards it's sailors, with the bottom line being significantly higher priority than the well-being of the crewmen. As a result 75% of the sailors died on their voyages.
- Wooden Ships and Iron Men: Both COULD YOU HAVE SURVIVED AS A SAILOR ON A 17TH CENTURY EAST INDIAMAN!? and Could YOU have survived as a British Navy Sailor during the Napoleonic Era!? focus on sailors who engage in navel combat and hard conditions, becoming stronger in the process.
