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Able Seaman

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Everything posted by Able Seaman

  1. A very sad event, indeed. I wish I had joined this forum years ago. I thought the website facelift was an indication of the forum living on indefinitely. It really is the only place where I trust my questions to be answered with authentic source material. A place where my questions are not only answered quickly but passionately. I will miss this site. With the every expanding internet being what it is, I know that I will not find a better group of individuals to hold intellectual conversations. I wish everyone the very best. Piracy restored, commerce expelled!
  2. Thanks for the responses! I think that a hat would be most logical, though. I have seen pictures around this period where men are dressed in frock coats at table. It's possible they were just posing for the painting, though.
  3. Hello. The title of this topic seemed relevant for my quick question. I am reading The School of Manners by John Garretson and during his listing of Behaviors For the Home, he states, "Be never covered at home, especially before thy Parents or Strangers". Now since being naked in front of company would be strange (although I suppose is was a different time ) I am wondering what being "covered" actually meant. None of my period dictionaries had it so any information would be greatly appreciated.
  4. Beef 50 bb. at £7. 10 per bb. £375 Pork 18 bb. £12 per bb. 216 Flowr 64 bb. £8 per bb. 512 Bread 50 C. £4 per C. 200 Beans 10 bus. 8 Rum 100 Gall. 10s. per Ga. 50 Sugar 1C.2[13] £8 per C. 12 Hogs fatt a Cagg[14] 7 £1380 This was taken from the forum the food sailors ate and I wasn't sure what the shorthand ("bb.", "bus.", etc.) meant. Even the list Fox just gave me contains "18 bbr. of Beef & pork". So "bb." and "bbr." must be used to measure meat but even looking over "beef" and "pork" in Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities, 1550-1820 I was still unsure. Suggestions?
  5. Thank you so much for all your help! And for all of your inadvertent help from piratesurgeon.com. Your web page is a gold mine! It's both impressive and very well organized.
  6. Thank you so much for this information! After searching through it, this is definitely what I needed! And if there are no widely known source documents then I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if I did just make up my own bill of lading from the source you supplied. And, if you wouldn't mind telling me, what is the difference between a "manifest" and a "bill of lading"? Just so I don't use the terms inaccurately. The table in RaIRtHMSaS is perfect! I doubt there would be much change in their food supplies considering the massive overhaul of the navy didn't occur until midway through the century. But if you can find the time, I would love to know just a couple of the references that talk about food eaten shipboard. If it's as difficult to pin down on pirates ships as you say, then I find no harm in making up my own menu. Also, is there any information out there about what a pirate ship would be supplied with or a navy ship in times of war? For example, barrels of gunpowder, shot, muskets, flint, pistols, etc. Again, much thanks!
  7. Hello, everyone! So after much research and looking over this forum, I have been unable to find an example of a complete period manifest, circa 1720. Everything I try to pursue ends up being a list of names but what I am searching for is an accurate account of what cargo a ship of the period might have on board. Both for goods of business and crew rations [apologies if the latter is called something different]. I am writing about multiple types of vessels; a royal navy 6th rate frigate with a complement of 149 and equipped in a warlike fashion, an English sugar merchant sloop with a compliment of 80, a pirate brig with a complement of 163, and a pirate sloop-of-war with a complement of 127. The manifests don't need to be as specific as I have listed but close would be phenomenal. Of course any books or references are greatly appreciated, even to just give me a nudge in the right direction.
  8. Oh good! If it reaches into the early 1720s then it shouldn't be a problem at all! And I will definitely share if I uncover any other sources! Would you be interested in non-British information if I happen to come across any?
  9. Much appreciated! So I was reading the description of The Wooden World and that type of information seems like it would be extremely helpful but I'm a little hesitant to use it only because it's 50 years later and more. The mass overhaul of the Royal Navy after 1750 changed a lot of things [brass plating, uniforms, etc] and I wasn't sure if Command of the Ocean was the same book but years before and dealt with the exact same areas [as CotO delves into battles and voyages]. I came across another book called Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, 1700-1750 by Marcus Rediker. Do you have any thoughts about this book or the author? The description seems to touch similar areas but not as detailed and came off as bias towards pirates. And The Wooden World seemed to paint a very different picture of the Royal Navy. More collaborative instead of evil.
  10. I'm grateful for the offer but I'll just buy the books. I won't put you through that. Thank you! This was exactly what I was looking for as far as names go and the backstories will be significantly improved! But I do have a couple more questions... Are the specific jobs of the officers outlined in these books as well? The description said "biographical details" but I wasn't sure what that included. I also noticed that the end year was 1714. Do you have any book titles that would cover the rest of my time frame? I searched for similar titles with later years but nothing came up. I did see these were recently released from Drenth, though. But it could be another couple of years before they come out with another series, if they do at all. Does it mention the original source material in the back of the books or do you think it would be material I couldn't access? Thanks again! This was extremely helpful!
  11. The years 1720-1722 is when the books will take place. Anything else outside of that would just be helpful for who my characters worked with during Queen Anne's War and so on.
  12. Hello all! So I am quite new to this site and am very excited to pick the brains of such passionate people. Why I'm here... I have started writing a fictional, pirate novel series based in the Caribbean during the period of 1701-1725 [because of character backstories and whatnot] and keep hitting historical snags. My want is to write a book for people like us. Those of us who live and breathe history and laugh absurdly at Pirates of the Caribbean and its inability to choose a period. And although no body of writing is ever perfect, I want to be as authentic as possible. In today's society, even in books, I feel pirate related fights and personalities are not fairly projected and often fall into pop-culture ideas and stereotypes [*cough, cough* Jack Sparrow *cough, cough* Black Sails]. Why I'm here at this moment... Question 1: I have spent large amounts of time attempting to find information, most of it from here [praise be to pyracy.com!], but can't seem to find anything about who was posted in the Caribbean during my time period. Most of the story takes place in Jamestowne, Havana [yeah, Spanish stuff!], Kingston, and Port Royal. So the question is, who filled those posts, where, and when? Any information would be helpful, even if it's not British. I will be making up names [because fiction] but it's always nice to sprinkle in some real ones. Plus I don't want to accidentally make up posts or falsify the names of superior officers if it's documented somewhere [yikes!]. Question 2: This is kind of an add-on to the first question, but what exactly were the postings in the New World? It's always hard to differentiate [especially online] from lists of officer postings from England proper to the Caribbean. Was there a Commander of the Watch on land for common crimes [especially in the colonies and Kingston]? An Admiral of the Fleet? Were military officers even stationed in the islands or just admiralty? I know that Sir George Byng was the Admiral of the Fleet in England but how many Admiral of the Fleets were there? Was there one stationed in the Caribbean? Question 3: What power did each officer hold and what were their jobs [common crimes, officer commissions, etc.]? This question is mostly in reference to a scene I wrote between an Admiral of the Fleet [which is subject to change if one did not exist ] and Sir Nicholas Lawes, governor of Kingston, Jamaica. Could the governor tell an admiral of such rank what to do or vice versa? Or did they simply coexist? What types of things fell into each others jurisdictions or was jurisdiction not even a thing back then? Question 4: Were the posts on a ship or a city? This is especially in correlation with Admirals as I have read from numerous sources that they spent most of their time on their flagships. I know this was a long one and for those of you who made it to the end, I thank you for taking the time. Again, any information is greatly appreciated as I am in a desperate way, haha.
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