Fox

Ah well, who's to say. The 'Johnny Rogers' idea in my last post is significant for two reasons: firstly, it's the only explanation of the term given in period - all of the other theories are 20th century; secondly, it's acually the earliest dateable reference to the name (Cordingly and others give 1702 as the earliest reference, in Quelch's trial, but the phrase is not used the trial account or any other Quelch document to my knowledge). Thus, the article is unlikely to have been deliberately explaining a term already in common usage. It's certainly possible that pirates called their flag 'Johnny Rogers' as a joke against the man who had turfed them out of the Bahamas, a kind of reminder, to him and themselves, of his mortality. That's not to say I believe it though. If that's not the real reason then there's no documented explanation and any attempt to find one is only speculation. Two suggestions can be discounted: jolie rouge because the facts just don't add up; 'Ali Rajah' the Tamil pirate, because it's just too ludicrous. Old Roger, meaning the Devil, would be the most likely if I could find any evidence that the Devil ever was called Old Roger in the GAoP. Old Roger, meaning a rogue or vagabond, likewise. To be honest, Roger meaning, well... to roger, is just as likely an explanation as any of the others. But the fact remains that the only explanation which genuinely fits the available facts, and the only one with a period provenance, is that pirates named their flag after their nemesis, Woodes Rogers, Governor of the Bahamas. And, for what it's worth, sometimes red meant 'no quarter', sometime black did, sometimes pirates indiscriminately switched between the two. Depends which source you read.

The ABH/AMH flag of Roberts' is described in Johnson's General History. Some of the other flags commonly depicted also have some basis in fact: Worley's flag is described by Johnson as a "Death's Head", for example, and "Moody's" flag is depicted in a French book from the mid-18th century, but not ascribed to any particular pirate until the 20th century. There are various theories about the origin of the phrase "Jolly Roger", but none of the ones usually put forward seem to have any basis in contemporary documents. The Joli Rouge theory is fairly easily discounted by the fact that not one period source yet found uses the phrase. It's a kind of reverse engineering: Joli Rouge sounds a bit like Jolly Roger, therefore the French must have used that phrase for pirate flags... Only one theory can be traced back to the period. According to a newspaper (Weekly Packet) report of 1719, Davis' company called their flag "Johnny Rogers". The same article claims that "Johnny Rogers" was the pirates' nickname for Woodes Rogers, governor of the Bahamas.

Keep up the nice comments or I'll tell you Blackbeard's headless corpse didn't really swim three times round the ship...

Many of you have commented favourably on Mrs F's stays which I have occasionally posted photos of here. She has decided to this year to branch out and make stays for other people, and will initially be offering made to measure, reed-boned, hand stitched linen stays for $320. Stays can be made in two styles suitable either for 1630-1660ish or 1680-1720ish Website to follow shortly, but in the meantime here's a photo of one of her previous sets. Mrs F can be contacted either through me here or direct at tam(AT)qmaab.com

I'm such a killjoy The flag itself is sadly, probably not a real pirate flag either. the bolt rope is in the wrong place, it's far too small, and crucially, the logs of Lt. Curry's ship make no mention of an encounter with pirates. Neither, apparently, do those of his brother's ship. (And since I'm being a killjoy, I might as well add that "jolly roger" doesn't come from "joli rouge" either).

Yup, I'm afraid it's one of the usual suspects, along with Blackbeard's, Every's, Bonnet's, Tew's, Condent's and one or two others that appear in all the books but have no original contemporary source before the late 1920s

You really need to get yourself a copy of Dow and Edmonds Pirates of the New England Coast, 1630-1730. http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-England-Coast-1630-1730-Maritime/dp/0486290646/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325895513&sr=1-1

Neither, I'm afraid. The "Rackham" flag appears in no pictoral or written source until well into the 20th century. If I had to make an educated speculation as to who created the image I would go for Philip Gosse or one of his associates. One or two written descriptions of flags with a cutlass on them do exist from the period, but no contemporary depiction survives.

Is the second one a breech-loader?

I believe that's the picture in question. The lengths of both jacket and waistcoat are probably about right. For the 1706 Slop Contract specs there's no information about lengths or cut, so when I was making this set I extrapolated information from the 1730s specs. The garments described in the 1730s specs are basically the same as those in the 1706 set, with only minor differences in the detail, and the 1730s specs are the earliest to give measurements. I did add 1" (IIRC) to the length of each to take into account the general rise in average height so that the garments looked right when worn rather than right when measured. I was surprised at how big the jacket turned out when made to the measurements, but there it is. It makes me think that the jacket was a kind of overcoat rather than everyday wear.

Anyone fancy a trip to Sweden? (You could take in the Vasa while you're there...) http://www.ui.se/eng/nyheter/burma-opens-up-to-the-world----in-depth-reading-on-burma-in-a-topical-ui-report.aspx Speakers include N.A.M. Rodger, David J. Starkey, Arne Bialuschewski and yours truly, amongst others.

Thankyou all. I'm not sure if Mrs F. really counts as a wench, but there was certainly rum involved!

Actually, any standardization in the distance between knots occurred after the GAoP. For GAoP and earlier the chip log and glass had to be a matched pair, and the knots in the log were tied at the correct points relative to the duration of the glass. You also have the problem that until 1929 there was no single internationally recognised definition of a nautical mile. The maths for this is fairly easy with a calculator. 1 knot is equal to one nautical mile per hour, therefore the ratio between your knot-length and one nautical mile needs to be the same as the ratio between your glass and one hour. If, for example, your glass runs for 15 seconds, that is 1/240 of an hour, simply divide whichever nautical mile you've decided to use by 240 to get the distance between knots.

The bills of mortality in the eighteenth century newspapers make for interesting reading too, revealing a few odd deaths. One of my favourite is the woman who was crushed to death at the execution of John Gow.

The awls in the tool-shelf in the background are more suggestive of a sailmaker than a tailor to my mind

Slightly early, but interestnig nonetheless, the stores for Drake's last voyage (1595) included "sundry instruments of music for 8 musicians and 9 trumpeters" and 13 drums. The instruments are described elsewhere as a lute, "hobboyes sagbutes, Cornettes & orpharions bandora & suche like".

Good finds guys :)

Is anybody else thinking 'pencil sharpener'? And here the parson is surely deliberating which one to stick his finger in first... Ah, bottom humour. Now we've reached my level.

The word you're looking at in the book is actually 'pinnesse' (it's those damn long S's), more usually spelled 'pinnace'. Unfortunately, a 'pinnace' might be one of a couple of things. Sometimes it refers to what was essentially just a smaller version of a ship, with three masts etc. Other times (and probably in the case of the Swan) was a much smaller vessel with, usually, two masts.

A good point, but to my mind THE problem is that if there had been an accident it could have resulted in serious injury or death to a bystander.

Campeche? The logwood cutting community there had fairly on-going contact with pirates, but shorter term trade relationships existed all over the Carbbean and Spanish Main at different times.

This is a really fascinating area that could use a lot more study. A lot of it depends on where and when you're talking about, but assuming you're talking about the golden age, there were a number of different ways for pirates to dispose of tradable commodities and acquire the necessities the required. There are numerous mentions of pirates trading with ships they met with at sea, exchanging cargoes which were valuable but practically useless, such as sugar, for provisions, ships' stores, or ready cash. There are a few reports of ships being sent out by unscrupulous merchants for the express purpose of trading with pirates - one colonial official (I forget who off the top of my head) reported that he'd been told by the pirates themselves that they could not possibly have continued to the extent they did were it not for the supplies they received from colonial merchants. The rumours about North Carolina's involvement are solid fact - Tobias Knight, collector of customs for the colony, admitted trading with Blackbeard and storing the pirate's goods on his property. Henry Every, amongst others, forced traders on land to purchase his commodities, but voluntary transactions also took place on land - Gardner's Island gets a mention here and there, and in the 1690s at least there was no shortage of willing merchants in the American colonies. By the 1720s the colonial authorities had largely clamped down on trade with pirates in the Americas, but there were still plenty of people on the African coast willing to trade. Probably the most remarkable enterprise was the trading post on St. Mary's Island set up by former buccaneer Adam Baldridge and New York merchant Frederick Phllipse in the 1690s: Phillipse sent consignments of Western commodities to Baldridge in St. Mary's (and the lists of stuff he sent are truly enlightening). Baldridge traded the commodities with pirates calling at the island, and sent pirate loot and Malagasy slaves back to Phillipse. The trade between pirates and unscrupulous merchants was advantageous to both parties, which is probably why it was allowed to go on for so long. For the pirates it meant being able to replenish their stores and provisions without having to run the risk of dealing with 'legitimate' society. For the merchants it was an opportunity both to sell their goods at an inflated price and also to acquire other commodities at a substantial discount. Everyone wins. Goods taken by privateers were first 'condemned' by a Court of Admiralty, which determined whether the capture was lawful. The goods (and often the prize itself) were then usually sold at auction, and the profits placed in the hands of the privateer's owners, who were in turn responsible for paying everyone their due.

My grandfather was a land-surveyor from the 1940s to the 1980s and used a drawing kit almost identical to that one. Dividers might be the one-handed kind shown in the photo above, but might also be straight ones. Possibly, that's the differentiation in the inventory.

Bravo Mister Wake! A fine intiative. If you PM me with your email address I'll send you some more over in case you run out.

Most people do. As long as you grudgingly accept that I'm brilliant, I don't care.