Ships of the Line?

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

Once again, i am struggling with the design for my personal flagship. I tried drawing it again tonight, only to realize, that as far as the decks go, what i wanted to do with her design is very difficult to achieve the 'sweet spot' as far as where one of the aft decks end, and another begins, and the bulwarks and rails. I also remembered if would have made the ship a 3rd rate, this sweet spot woul've been achieved... any thoughts?

I also don't know if any of you serious re-enacters/festival goers command large ship of the line flagship. i have only ever met two people who do. I'd be fine with commanding one if it's not that uncommon, but if it is, I'm going to have to fine tune my design for the smaller 46 gunner...

So what are you commanding? Do you know of anyone who sails large warships?

[Silver]

greyhound you should be aboard sloop it's fast just as your name suggests.

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

greyhound you should be aboard sloop it's fast just as your name suggests.

I am the type of pirate to command a large galleon.... one of the designs calls for a 46 gun dutch built french galleon. with four masts. I need a ship fitting Greyhound's character.

Big, and grand, and elegant, but can turn deadly in an instant, but she is fast, she was a sucessful prototype, that greyhound stole.

[Bright]

http://denver.craigslist.org/for/2874367174.html

Here be one for the dinner line ;-}

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

thanks but i have since made up my mind... I'll be using a third rate SOL... i portray 'Pirate legends' anyway, a good exaple of my portrayal, would be Pirtaes of the Caribbean, realistic, pretty historically accurate, but embellished with classic pirate lore. i also need to see Roman polanski's Pirates for research into what I'm looking for.

[Cascabel]

I really wonder why you would even bother worrying about an imaginary ship anyhow. You can't show it to anybody. In all my over 20 years of portraying pirates,nobody has ever asked to see my ship. The closest thing that has happened is the occasional child asks where it is, and I simply tell them it's anchored "on the other side of the cove", or something like that, and they are satisfied. It is far more important when entertaining the public to look and act like their idea of a stereotypical pirate than anything else. Once they have met you, and "little Johnny" gets his picture taken with you, they are quite happy, and you don't really have to say a whole lot. Most encounters are only a couple of minutes or less, unless you are doing a presentation of some kind. If you want, you can stretch the encounter a bit longer if they show interest or if you are flirting with "little Johnny's" mom or something. It's always good to have a couple of stories available if needed also. You don't need a lot of variations to your "act", as you are always interacting with different people throughout the day.

[Mission]

I'd have to agree with Cascabel. People usually remember short stories with a point related to what you're presenting, interesting turns of phrase and jokes; they don't remember technical details, no matter how well you you present them.

I don't even really have a character backstory and I spend more time with individual groups than most reenactors as well as hours writing about what has happened at events.

The only people who might be interested in your backstory are other reenactors with backstories. (And they're often just waiting for you to finish telling yours so they can tell you theirs from my experience.) The only reason I can think of for creating an elaborate backstory (or any backstory, really) is if you think you are a method actor and you want to "get into" your part by doing research. Either that or when you get involved in a multi-participant interactive story. (And even there, I've often noticed that the other writers are waiting for you to finish telling yours, so that...well, you get the point.)

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

it was primarily because if you're going to call yourself 'captain' you have to know what to call your ship, but yeah, you bring up some good pionts about presentations, thanks for the advice. Another contributing facter is i am very artistic, i've been drawing since i was very young, and drawing pirates/pirate ships since i was at least 5. So the design work is a sort of natural to me, So it comes natural, now that i am fairly good at ships, to draw my own, it was espicially frustrating, because i'd just finish a beautiful version, only to change my mind about what she was,