Fox

D'oh! Too much rum... 30/31st May

I don't know how many folks on this board are from the UK, but here goes. I've just confirmed the date for the third annual South West Pirate Festival, which this year will be held at Morwellham Quay, Devon. The programme will include living history, skirmish, shanties, theatre, puppets and kid's activities.

As Hawkyns says, both belts and button flies are authentic. Like I said, all our kit is copied from period sources or surviving originals, so while you may find small mistakes upon close examination from a distance of a foot or more it's all authentic. A lot of people over here go about with their tankards attached to their belt too, but it's something I've NEVER seen in a period depiction so I've always assumed it's just a re-enactor thing. It's not really practical is it? Since we're all seafarers did you know that forks were banned in the Royal Navy until 1897 for being too girly?

Without wishing to plyug my own group too frequently I feel I must also dreaw your attention to Bonaventure, UK based Eliazabethan maritime living history group. Have a look at the gallery pages, all our costumes are copied either from period pictures or surviving examples so they are pretty much as authentic as it's possible to get.

According to Cordingly in "Life Among the Pirates" the overwhelming majority of pirates in the Caribbean in the early 18th century were English speaking, so it seems sensible to concentrate on that. I suspect that in the 17th and 18th century (and I'm no linguistics expert you undertsand), the differences between American and English accents were considerably less than they are nowadays, since by 1720 (to pick an arbitrary date for piracy) the oldest American families can only have been there for 3 or 4 generations, and the vast majority would have been there for much less. Plus, those families who had been there for generations would have been constantly refreshed by the influx of new colonists. therefore, I reckon, most of those American spoke with an English accent, or something very much like it. If my above surmise is taken as reasonably sensible then we are looking at most pirates of the Golden Age speaking with an English accent, which as we know varies widely from region to region. Looking particularly at the West Country accent so beloved of Hollywood pirates I think it's fair to say that Wartooth is back to front. Hollywood considerable toned down the West Country accent for the movies, even today it is still spoken so thickly by some people in Devon and Cornwall that outsiders genuinely cannot understand it.

I have to agree with John, I think the "poyrayte" accent started with Robert Newton in Treasure Island, but it does go a little deeper. Long John Silver was a Bristol man, and Newton himself came from Dorset so was speaking in his native accent when he played Silver. Two years later he played Blackbeard, supposedly another Bristol man so the accent came out again and stuck for good. Sorry for being off topic.

For 1600s look at Bonaventure Seamen All the clothing is copied from original sources of the period 1580-1680.

Whoa tetchy there Hawkins!! Joshua's question was perfectly valid and didn't sound like a serious challenge to me. Perhaps you are just a little insecure.

For photos of accurate reproduction seamen's clothing from the 16th and 17th centuries got to Bonaventure and have a look at the gallery page. All the clothing shown is copied either from contemporary pictures or surviving original clothes.

Ah Bess, is that the puppy pile I've been hearing about?

My great great grandfather was a seaman in the Royal Navy in the 19th century, and he made for all his children a toy box in the same pattern as his sea chest. My aunt has his original sea chest and I am fortunate enough to have inherited one of the toy boxes he made, which though a humble toy box can be considered an authentic 19th century sea chest. Obviously this chest post dates the Golden Age by quite some time, but i thought it worht mentioning because it is more or less the same as the chest shown in the link given by Hitman. I have seen barrel topped chests, but not as sea chests and from earlier than the Golden Age.

Yes Hitman, it probably is stupid, but then it's not the first time men have argued over prostitutes is it? LOL I take your point entirely about the differences between English and American cultures, particularly with reference to slavery. I am not in any way an expert on the American history of women's roles (nor yet English), but I think a very important point might be raised about the options available to women two or three generations ago is that changes were made (certainly in England) during the 19th century. Prior to the 19th century women could do most jobs that men could, excepting the particularly skilled ones like carpentry and smithing, and indeed most of those involving animals, AND they kept their own wages. It was during the 19th century that women's lives became much more restricted, resulting in the women's lib explosion of the early 20th century.

There's a brilliant reference somewhere (I'll see if I can dig it up) to the frigate Duncannon at the siege of Youghal in 1645 which mentions that the ship was blown up by a woman carrying a candle into the powder room. My first thought on reading it was "So THAT'S why women on ships were considered unlucky!" LOL. Anyway, the point is that here we have a woman on a warship, during action, presumably helping the gun crews by fetching powder. This probably also means that she was not an officer's wife, as the fetching and carrying would probably be considered below her, which means that in all probablility she was in fact a seaman's wife, a fact which the author of the document did not seem to think unusual. Of course, it must be borne in mind that the Duncannon was in "home" waters rather than "foreign" at the time, which may have a considerable bearing.

Off the top of my head here's a handful of common female occupations: House servants (maids, cooks, companions, housekeepers etc.) Ale house keepers shop keepers seamstresses weavers spinners dairy workers farm hands (in England at least women worked the fields along with the men as a matter of course) None of those jobs listed were an exception, they were jobs which women could be found doing in any town or village in England. Of course, being a housewife was a full time job, in addition to which wives often helped at their husband's work. One of the most interesting and telling peices of evidence of the usefullness of women can be seen in the early colonisation of America. Those colonial expeditions which included women were overwhelmingly more successful than those which didn't - see Giles Milton's "Big Chief Elizabeth" for more details.

Captain Roberts, what is your source that "the only occupation that a woman could hold was prostitution"? I think that's a totally erroneous statement. Also I notice that nobody has mentioned Lady Killigrew on this list yet, which is odd because her tale is so easily verifiable. In the 16th century the Killigrews were Captains of Pendennis Castle, Cornwall, and sometimes Vice-Admirals of Cornwall. This did not of course prevent them from indulging in piracy (all the Cornish are pirates), and it has been said that one or other of the Killigrew men was the model for the pirate king in Pirates of Penzance. Lady Killigrew is known to have been very active helping her husband's (and later her son's) pirates, and on at least one occassion personally led a boarding party against a ship in Falmouth harbour. Foxe

Yeah, as far as I know the earliest reference to footropes is from the mid 17th century. The Golden Hind replica I worked on did have footropes on the main-course yard, principally to facilitate getting out to the floodlights mounted at the end of the yards! On smaller vessels, with (naturally) smaller square sails, such as those of the Elizabethan age, bunt lines running from the yard to a block beneath the sail, then back up the other side of the sail to the yard are used for pulling up the sail from the deck. If time was not an issue, eg coming into harbour, then the yard could be lowered, but otherwise bunt lines are actually easier for concertina-ing the sail than going out on footropes. Foxe

As with most things nautical there can be as many different answers to this question as there are ships at sea. A pilot can indeed be a local man who joins a ship temporarily to guide her through a particular area, or he can indeed be a permanant member of the crew, the third officer if you like, responsible for navigation. In many cases it was the pilot who was responsible for navigation at sea as well as inshore. Perhaps the most successful English pilot was John Davis, who served as pilot on some of the most important voyages of his age. He sailed with Hudson to the North and Lancaster to the East, and is usually credited with being the discoverer of the Falkland Islands. Foxe

Hi, There are actually several replicas of the Golden Hind, at least four proper replicas and a large yacht shaped like a galleon somewhere in California I think. I have spent some time as curator of this one: http://www.goldenhind.co.uk There are a number of depictions of the Golden Hind which date from the period, and while they all show broadly similar things (3 masts, standard galleon shape etc) they all seem to differ in the details like whether or not the ship had a stern gallery and whether the guns were above or below decks. Foxe