Elena

I still don't understand why it can't be left as a reference book, with any further comments and registration closed...

And even this pub itself can remain closed for new registrations but open to search and retrieve the information in it. This is what I am advocating for. To keep it online but read only.

Why don't you leave it online, read-only, not "committing it to the depth", only switching off registrations and letting it remain the source of information for the present and future generations? Many forums are treated this way after getting closed, and I consider it way better. For me, turning the forums offline is equivalent to burning books after having read them once, instead of leaving them to be read by the posterity. And why would you want to SELL it? Information is free and it is supposed to circulate free, in order to enlighten many people. If having a price on it, it will arrive to only few people... I am sad to let it go, but I would be even sadder to see it deleted/ turned offline, when it comprises a tremendous load of information. Please, reconsider! Turn off posting and registrations (in order not to get spam) and let it live its old age undisturbed! Also, where are you moving to? I mean, I'd like to know the new tavern the pirates are gathering in, to come to the experts with my strangest questions from time to time .

You got the deserved credits for your help here under "Thank you" graphic (but the thread will be visible most likely since tomorrow. Today the November issue of the Chronicles isn't going to be released yet. However, I posted it already as a reminder because tomorrow will be a busy day and I might forget to publicly share my thanks for you).

Thank you, Coastie and Mission! I think this was what the crew needed to hear! <3 (In truth they won't split and will fight, catching it in the middle, because they are less merchant ships than the villains believe )

As usual, I need some brainstorming with you, seasoned pyrates, so please help. A pirate ship - and most of them weren't too big - wants to attack what they think to be two (also small) merchant ships travelling together. But most likely they can't fight two ships at once, so they need to separate them and attack one. Any ideas how to separate them? (The strategy isn't necessary to actually work - just to sound logically to the pirate crew when hearing it). Because they are going to lose anyway...

Tea was a colonial delicacy, so it was precious when being looted. Tea and coffee had a high value.

This year I am staying out. Sorry, but it's more and more difficult to send things outside the European Union. I guess I have been in it since 2010 or 2011.

Glad to have you among us. If you have a website, you'd better put it in your signature, like I do. It makes for a better advertising. We are here all kind of pirates - the reenacting kind, the teaching kind, the writing kind, the crafting kind. I am the writing kind; are you? What country are you from? I am sailing to you from the Black Sea, from Romania.

Liverpool was the main sailing point then.

Congratulations!

Well, we know which kind of competitions are now at public fairs of all kind. But which kind of competitions were spicing a harbour town's holidays? I know there were cockfights, dog fights someplaces, there were men brawling and the winner took a part of the bets (ancestor of nowadays boxing)... I had heard that in Scotland there were big logs to be lifted and thrown away by strong men. Which kind of sport competitions (ie showing the men's strength) were in the 1700s? Perhaps archery, I guess, but what more?

I think it depends on where they were. You know, if close to an uninhabited island/ cay or to Tortuga (close like one day distance or less), they might want to burry the body. If not, the traditional sew him in his hammock and send him overboard. I think there were prayers said (as accurately or not as they could remember, but they wouldn't risk to send a man on his last trip without a prayer at all - sailors of all kind were a superstitious bunch) then eventually say something about him, drink a glass in his memory and... see about his goods (which might be sold at the main mast).

I do follow.

I love it!

Yes, and some in the Mississippi Delta. Which is the subject of my question.

Thank you for your ideas. They are good. I was hoping for the insight of someone who either knows about the Mississippi Delta pirates, or who knows at least the area. Because my Danube Delta which I know better seems to be radically different - including with having a port, Sulina, both at the river mouth and at the sea at the same time. Why would English and French pirates attack differently at sea? I am just guessing, but wouldn’t it always be of most benefit to be the windward ship? In general English (not pirates, Navy too) fought from the windward and French from the leeward: "French ships typically fired their broadsides on the upward roll of the ship, disabling their opponents but doing little damage to the enemy ships or their crews. This was compounded by the French tendency to fight from the leeward gage, causing the guns to point high as the ships heeled with the wind. British and Dutch ships, by contrast, tended to use the opposite tactic of firing on the downward roll into the enemy hulls, causing a storm of flying splinters that killed and maimed the enemy gun crews." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_ship_tactics#Development_of_tactics_in_the_French_Navy

Yes, as usual, I need help. I know how the pirates attack in open sea, taking the wind gauge if British, the French were taking the leeward gauge... But there were pirates also in Barataria, in the Mississippi Delta, among marshes and floating islands, and their tactics had to be different. Also those who hit in Bahamas among the many cays and islets. I would need some different attack techniques... I also imagine (up to you to tell me if I am right or not) that these pirates in the Mississippi Delta would be men who know well the area and are well armed, but who have pirogues and fishing boats, waiting for a ship to get aground on a floating island or to get stuck somehow in the marsh...

Thank you very much. So it is how I understood it from the beginning, ale is a specific kind of beer. Just like lager, guiness, etc. are different others. What I had seen written in a few places that confused me was the specification "ale, not beer", and that it would have been incorrect in a period environment to use the word beer.

Which is the difference? As a non native English speaker, the dictionary gives to both the same word. If you look an English-French dictionary (which I did), again, "biere" is the equivalent. So... I have the impression English people differentiate them. How?

Thank you, it helps a lot. And I love your signature quote!

I am thinking at a fair as a public holiday on a feast day... let's say Mardi Gras, May Day, or the town's patron saint. What kind of attractions were there then, besides eating and drinking and dancing? I assume fortune telling, the games specific to the area... and what else? A bit later than our story there were shooting stalls - hit all marks and you'll get a trophy. What could have preceded this in our times? Archery, darts... or what?

Congratulations! Good health, good luck and happiness to the whole family!