Not too long ago, I was reading a fine book–Young Nelsons ~ Boy Sailors during the Napoleonic Wars–about the education of Francis Austen, brother of the novelist, Jane Austen, who entered the Naval Academy at Portsmouth in 1788, when he was aged 11.  And listed among the required subjects which he would study and master during his two to three years there were, writing, arithmetic, drawing, Navigation, Gunnery, Fortification and other noteful parts of Mathematics, as well as French, Dancing, Fencing and the use of the Flintlock. Furthermore, his education was expected to encompass Geography, Chronology, Navigation, Spherics, Astronomy, Latitude,…