Fox

Bleddyn, do you know that this coming weekend (Sun 29/Mon 30th May) is the Tall Ships on the Tamar festival at Morwellham Quay near Tavistock? We'll be taking the skiff down as 1805 sailors, perhaps see you there. Thorn, the Historical Maritime Society have members in Cumbria if you're looking for a good maritime group. They specialise in Nelson's Navy and have events all over. If you want specifically pirate groups then P.U.B.C.A.T. are a buccaneer group based in Scotland, but I know they do the Whitehaven event each year.

To be honest I only skimmed through it before posting the link, but it seems to be largely mid-18th century

The point I was trying to make is that there is so little detailed information about the original Golden Hind that it's basically impossible to have a guaranteed 100% accurate replica. There are three contemporary pictures of the Golden Hind, and each of them is different. Several sources mention the ship's tonnage as anything between 80 and 120 tons and the only information we have about her dimensions is some very ambiguous records of a special dock built for her in the 1580s.

The Image of the Ordinary Seaman in the 18th Century

Again, I think you'll have trouble finding detailed plans because they didn't use 'em. They didn't just keep measurements in their heads though, models were extensively used which could be scaled up by the shipwrights. A number of diagrams, particularly by the great shipwright Matthew Baker survive showing the different qualities of new designs, but not blueprints or anything of that complexity. Although much has been written about the Golden Hind the vast majority of it is speculation, there just isn't that much reliable information available. Historians cannot agree even on the size or origin of the ship, let alone her construction. I used to be curator of the Golden Hind in Brixham for several years and we had a certain amount of friendly rivalry with the Golden Hinde in London. The two ships were completely different (as much as two small galleon replicas can be), yet both conformed to the limited amount of information available on the original Golden Hind.

You're welcome, I don't have any better close-ups to hand but I'm sure if you searched the net you'd find something easy enough. What I can offer is this A cutaway diagram of a 1st rate man-o-war of the late 17th century. The difference being that this is not a modern picture but a painting by Thomas Phillips circa 1690. FWIW I suspect that most failed attempts at circumnavigation were failures because of the people, or the problems of supply, rather than the ships themselves.

Cloaks were not particularly fashionable during the Golden Age of piracy, and are not very practical garments at sea. That's not to say that no pirate ever wore a cloak (before I get jumped on), but they would have been uncommon.

<Snore...doze...WHA!?!> Nice to be in demand! I don't know of anything you'd honestly describe as a plan of a Spanish Galleon in existence, they just didn't draw in that much detail and models were far more commonly used by shipwrights. There are however a handful of what I would call diagrams of 16th century ships still extant. On the whole it is surprising just how little of the high-charged ships of the 16th century sat below the water-line. I couldn't find a contemporary diagram online (if I have time I'll try to scan a couple and post them) but I did find this picture which is pretty accurate and gives a good idea of the proportions above and below the water. You might also consider the Mary Rose, a 700 ton ship, larger than most galleons (some galleons were huge, but the majority were smaller. For example, 97 of the 128 ships in the Armada of 1588 were under 700 tons). The recovery of the wreck of the Mary Rose has shown us that she drew about 15'. In the waist, or lowest part of the ship, she stood 11'6" above the water and at the stern was 31' above the water. Hope that helps,

The limited amount of pictoral and written evidence regarding pirates' clothing tends to point to them wearing much the same thing as other seamen, and common sense reminds us that when all was said and done the vast majority of pirates were only seamen of one sort or another. The clothing of common seamen has been well discussed (though I'm always up for more), but perhaps a visit here might be useful. It is unlikely that pirate captains wore any kind of "uniform" for the simple reason that neither naval nor merchant officers did until well after the golden age of piracy. However, before we get complacent about what sea-captains wore and assume it was all cocked hats and justacorps I'd like to draw attention to this portrait of a merchant captain circa 1730.

Thanks guys! Actually, during that skirmish most of the crew of the Garlandstone were ashore trying to defend their ship from the other half of my two pronged attack (you can see their feet in the first picture). The two defenders fired their hailshot piece at us, missed, a big bank and a spray of water came up from the adjacent bank (salute to the pyrotechnic fellas), and they ran away in the teeth of our attack. Their shipmates filed back on board pressed at the stern by us and on the starboard side by boarders from the land. After a brief but bloody fight they surrendered the ship, Hurrah But, you're right Josh, if they'd really tried to stop us we wouldn't have stood a chance. As it was I learned a very important lesson; just how confusing it is to board a ship. I'd been sitting in the boat with them a minute previously but by the time I made it into the fight that was going on on the deck of the Garlandstone I had absolutely no idea who I was supposed to be fighting. I suddenly appreciated the worth of field signs. As well as the mast there are also plans afoot for a bow-mounted swivel gun...

Last weekend saw the launch of the Bonaventure skiff at the South West Pirate Festival at Morwellham, Devon. The skiff is 20' long and has a crew of 2-9. At present her motive power is provided by four oars but by the end of the year I hope to have added a main- and fore-sail, and possibly more oars. The skiff represents nearly 5 years of research and 1 year of building. At SWPF 2005 her crew behaved well and Bonaventure can now claim to be the only post-dark age UK re-enactment group to own and operate a waterborne vessel. We can also claim to be the first group to have properly re-enacted a boat-to-ship boarding action (we were the first to orchestrate a ship-to-ship boarding re-enactment four years ago). The skiff will be seen at other events later in the year, and in subsequent seasons. Rowing into the great dock Permission to hook on? Don't be so soft! Boarders Away! This may be in the wrong forum, Mods feel free to move it. Since there doesn't appear to be a "announce the launch of your new replica vessel" forum, and since I've seen other threads about replica vessels here I thought I'd post in Captain Twill.

GoF, keep at it, you'll know its true worth when it's done This talk of old fabrics reminds me of a question I was going to ask. The other week someone told me of a silk mill somewhere in England they had visited which was selling off original 18thC silk by the yard - it was pretty expensive but they had a shed full of it. Alas, my friend didn't remember the name of the place or where exactly it was. Soooo, has anyone else heard of this place and if so can you remember details?

If you want to meet other UK piratey people may I suggest a visit to the South West Pirate Festival at Morwellham Quay near Tavistock this weekend (Sat-Mon)? Most (if not all) of the pirate groups in the UK will be represented there. If you can't make it I'd be able to put you in touch with a pirate group based at Tewkesbury - I think they're the closest to Cardiff. Cardiff used to have a pirate crew but they disbanded.

I say... We'll be in the Victory Arena during the day and in one of the bars in Anchor Lane in the evenings and I'd be glad to welcome you to our table sir. What part are you playing in the proceedings?

What you wanna do is join the US Navy, request to be posted to whichever of their vessels is attending IFOS and you'll get over for free, and a wage packet to boot. Sometime in August make a pass at the Captain and you'll get kicked out. No problems. I think IFOS this year is probably going to be the most fantastic maritime event in the world. I'll be there, and I'll gladly post a load of photos to the board for my colonial cousins.

There are loads of celebrations going on for Trafalgar. The largest will be the Victory Arena part of the International Festival of the Sea, to be held at Portsmouth June 30th - July 3rd. In the shadow of HMS Victory 3 replica ships of the Nelsonian period are being moored and the whole of that part of the dockyard is being fitted out to look like the eve of departure for Trafalgar. IFOS is the world's biggest maritime festival - bar none - and this year the whole thing is a celebration of Trafalgar. All around the country smaller celebrations are taking place at different times of the year. On July 10th for example Bicester is holding a celebration day, Morpeth held its annual "Gathering" earlier this month and themed it this year in honour of Admiral Collingwood, Sheerness is having a Trafalgar celebration in early October (Sheerness is where HMS Victory was moored after the battle), and there is an event on in London to commemorate Nelson's funeral later in the year too. I'm sure there are many other small events taking place which I don't know about myself - at Nelson's birthplace for example. Perhaps the most important event of the year (though not the biggest) will be the decommissioning of HMS Victory after 240 years Royal Navy service.

I'm pretty sure that most UK pirate re-enactors already know about SWPF2005, and I'm also pretty sure that there aren't many of us on these forums, but in case I'm wrong on both counts: South West Pirate Festival 2005 Morwellham Quay, Tavistock, Devon. April 30th - May 2nd Living History, skirmishes, boardings and cutting out parties, music, arena displays, private pub. Feel free to contact me for further info.

The last pirate flag I made was 14 feet by 8.

Nice pictures GoF, where are they from? The one on the left seems to be wearing the breeches described in Lord Torrington's coat of arms rather than slop contract breeches.

I don't know of any specifically piratical flag flown by O'Malley, but she might well have flown the flag of the Clan O'Malley (if there was such a thing).

Sorry to hear that Corsair, two recent "events" have kept me offline and pc-less for a month or so. If you want me to email you any of the documents and whatnot you've sent me in the past I'd be happy to.

I wondered how long it would be before someone mentioned it I'll have to use a new obscure pirate flag in my signature now...

Both sides seem to make a good argument. IIRC some of the guns recovered from the Vasa in the 60s were dated and engraved with Royal signs, but bore no maker's marks. That's a century earlier of course, but worth mentioning. I'm sure there are other examples too, but on the whole I agree with Corsair that it's more common to find dates associated with maker's marks. I remember seeing something about this gun before though and am I right in thinking that the end of one of the trunnions (where marks are sometimes found) is missing or damaged or something like that? Or was that a different gun? With regard to the other artefacts, I'm pretty out of touch with the excavation, but the last I remember was that stuff had been found which could date the wreck to the QAR period, but doesn't necessarily. I don't know what's been found or identified since though so I couldn't comment.

The Mary Rose Trust sells replicas of artefacts recovered from the wreck in their shop, and I've also seen them in other shops so they presumably have some sort of arrangement with other suppliers. Most of what they do (and it's a pretty limited range) is stuff with what one might call "personal" interest. They sell replicas of a couple of the pewter plates, a pepper grinder, and sundial hidden in a draughts piece, that sort of thing. In addition though they also sell a lot of stuff which is "based on" finds, such as a jewellery set (earrings, pendant, maybe a ring) based on a ring which was found, or earrings copied from a button. They've ben selling that stuff for years so it obviously has a market. Personally though, if you were to sell Whydah replicas I'd be particularly interested in copies of navigational or other scientific instruments found. I have a great interest in navigation myself, I know how hard it is for re-enactors to get decent quality replica for a decent price, but perhaps most importantly there would be another market for them as I suspect they'd also make great desk ornaments/toys for businessmen. FWIW, my wishlist: Navigation instruments. Personal artefacts (ie, those connected with the people rather than the ship or the "pirates"; inkwells, tankards and goblets, knives and forks, shoe buckles etc.) Games (found any chess-men or dice?) - these would probably sell pretty well I'd imagine. A replica Whydah (OK, this should be top of the list, but I doubt I could afford it)

I think that's probably from Ellm's "Pirates Own Book", but it might possibly be from the 1920s(?) edition of the GHP. Defintitely post GAoP in my opinion. Reminds me of the beach parties at the South West Pirate Festival.