silas thatcher

during the gaop, they had candle lanterns as well as oil lanterns...my question is which type was used aboard ship and why ?? i am gonna take a semi educated guess that oil type lanterns ( may have been animal fat type ) were not used due to the fire hazard they posed if spilled... does anyone have any info on this ??

here are a few thoughts... we have a very large wall tent, one good size wedge, and a diamond shelter... doors in the back are almost a necessity... allows for cool air circulation ... sod flaps... helps keep the wind out, and helps prevent gnats and the like from an easy entrance... a wedge is ALOT easier to set up than a wall tent, requires far less poles, fewer stakes and if necessary, one person can set it up, and it's alot lighter....BUUUUTTTTT you don't get as much room as a wall tent.... our 9x7 wedge can sleep 4 in a squeeze and have room for the heater... we store stuff under the cots and cover the cots with wool blankets...our wall tent is something like a gazillion feet long and half as wide...looks like a cavern inside, yet takes alot of poles and time to set up... for a fly, figure what you need and get an even larger one !!! not kidding here... the extra shade, rain cover etc., is well worth the extra little cost... for a neat set up, wicked william and doug put two wedges facing each other and use the fly as kind of a leanto between them to provide shelter and a back drop on the back side...

damn, sorry bo...

lol rusty !! no wonder it wouldn't work !!

thank you all... bob swank was involved in alot of activities concerning reenacting of one type or another... he will be missed...

thomas mcclaren,pub member, aka bob swank, of st. louis, missouri passed away today at his home...details to be coming later.... please move this if not in the correct area

got mine today !! thanks william, and sorry for forgetting about it !! looks and feels niiiice....

soaked in water and formed around the blade and clamped.... have to wait until tomorrow when it's dry... then the final sewing, trimming, dyeing etc. begin... hopefully it will turn out pretty good...

micheal, actually chatted with trish about this and she sent me some how pics ( i'm guessing on ones she did ) and gave alot of info that i will try...the leather i have is slighly thicker than what she recommended, but i will try it any way, and as a last resort get some thinner stuff... if it doesn't turn out stiff enough i'll pester ya about the wax thing :) rusty -- pm sent !!

a while ago, i read a book about women in pyracy and navies... one account illustrated a woman that served in her majesty's royal navy of all things, as a man... after her service, she married, i want to say owned a tavern ( i may be confusing this particular fact with another story ) , yet when her husband died and she was left with nothing, she sued the royal navy for her pension... she showed up in court dressed as she did aboard ship... the officers of the ship testified to his/her ability as as able seaman and his/her service... she was then granted the same pension given to males in the service of her majesty's royal navy... i wish i could recall more facts but you get the general idea...

from what i gather ( read- i know some, but not everything ) for the general common man, new clothes were a bit of a luxury that few could afford...so patch and repair was necessary...like mission, i have no idea if a good pair of wool breeches can last 10 or more years, or even 20 with regular use...but patching and repairing wasn't needed on new clothes, it was needed on old clothes... exactly how old ?? don't know... would it be feasible to surmise that some may have been wearing clothes that were from a fashion 20 years ago ?? were the clothes indeed that old, or maybe they were of newer cloth in an old, comfortable, that's what i want, it was good enough back then it's good enough now style ?? heck, granpa still wears his "old fart" clothes... hair styles, language, actions and behaviors, tools, furnishings, personal belongings, etc., can all fit into that category of being old or up to date...at work ( electrician ), i prefer, when i can, to wear a button down oxford type shirt with long sleeves... the same type of shirt i grew accustomed to in high school ( looooong ago it seems ) the last 20 years, i only wear top siders for shoes... haven't had a pair of sneakers since i was a kid...i wear shoes, work boots and pants until they are literally past due... am i being frugal, a cheap@ss, just don't care, don't like to waste ?? don't really know... none of our cars are new... all have 120xxx miles plus.... one project car i have is 1 year older than i am ( 62 vw bug ) my personal example of clothing variance now... benjamin frankiln was known to "dress down" for a person of his status... " old fart" clothes ?? the spanish were known to hold on to styles the rest of the world gave up years ago.... new styles probably are/ were for those that can/could afford them and even gave a rat's @ss about changes in styles...other wise just keep wearing what one can afford or want to wear....

andrew and i have started stage fighting with the local rennie group ... ( yes, it is by a certified teacher ) their training uses rapiers , so we bought two, yet they have no scabbards... kinda guess they figure that these are for stage combat, not wearing out and about... dunno so, i wanna make scabbards for them, and can use them for an earlier portrayal as well... searched on the web for for a few idears and came up pretty much empty handed... i want to make them out of thick leather as opposed to the standard wood and then leather wrap typical for a cutless does any one have a link or two they'd like to share with us ??

i think half shell and jen dobyns summed things up fairly well...

dang !! missed it... happy belated

here is a link to the 2011 gathering at fort de chartres http://s360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/ysail2/FDC%20june%202011/?start=all ... managed to get a few pretty good pics of quite a few from the pub... bo, there are a couple af great pics of you in there ( my opinion ) the st. louis pirate fest is on hold for the time being... ( some kinduv reorganising in the ranks within the powers that be, i think ) but a few of us will be guest reenactors as mariners at the st. louis renaisance festival starting may 19 and running for 4 weekends... it is held at rotary park in wenztville, mo. there are several of us in the pics that attend as guest reenactors at that event... as for me, live in st. charles, mo., electrician for 24 years, married, just got into this a few years ago... have met alot of great people, learned an awful lot, and have been improving my garb at the same time...very entertaining and interesting hobby !!

after reading patrick hand's comment about pockets being " just so dang handy ( or useful, don't remember exactly which ) " i put pockets in all my garb... hand sewn, even !! but realizing that just because it makes sense, doesn't make them correct... but this pic helps me out with the nay sayers...as far as back pockets, i have absolutely no idea... never researched anything about those.... i stick with hip pockets and a haverasck to carry my hidden stuff...

the better half did score not only one, but two wool rugs at good will and fairly cheap, too !! one is in our living room and the other i use in the wedge tent...

jsut going out on a limb a little here.... i am going to speculate that the surgeon had only one size box not matter the length of the voyage...different boxes for short voyages, long voyages and extra long voyages ?? gonna guess not...i am thinking that if additional medical supplies were needed, there would have been an extra box/crate or the like packed full and the surgeon simply restocked his box from those supplies... maybe a barrel was used too... so i am leaning towards a box the size that two man servants could easily handle, yet may be a trifle heavy for one man.... i am including instuments and medicines in the box with my weight figures... as a second thought, chest for instuments, a chest for medicines, and maybe a third for additional supplies... lighter weight, more stowable... could have even all fit together in some fashion...

and while on the subject, i am aware that the jolly roger/ jolie rouge bit has been offered up as just a possibility, what have you uncovered showing it's origins ?? probably never mentioned until much later too is gonna be my new guess ....

well WTF ?? !! every book i have shows those flags, but if they were never even mentioned until much later, iguess it is suspect.... hmm, certainly something to think about...what about bartholomew robert's flag ?? the one with abh amh on it ?? does that one at least have any period proof ?? deflating news indeed !! :)

the one thing i have learned about period clothes is that people were capable of producing very fine cloth and clothing to match !! very fine furniture, jewelry and the like were also made at the time and lots earlier... jsut because it is old does not by any means make it crude and "old looking"

i have no idea if baggywrinkles were period or not... my limited knowledge says no, but i am sure that someone else can shed more light on it.. some of the books i have showing the sail consrtruction of period sails do not show or mention baggy wrinkles... leather is shown as chafing gear, and that is in the books i have...other books may show different.......but.... i do know how to make baggy wrinkles if it is deemed a necessity ...

the guy at brigand's grove doing the navigation display was rusty hicks from here in st. louis( rusty spike on the pub ) ... his display is very vast and covers many years...since i have been doing my own candles, both pillars and dipped, i could bring some once i do a new batch, but i dunno about actually doing a whole set up that covers from start to finish...maybe a mock set up that show the different stages of dipping candles might do ??? been toying around with hand sewing a sail for a while, but it has been set on the back burner...make one big enough for a fly or awning ?? or just a very small one for display ?? probably something like 8 x10 or so would be manageable and useful for shade.... just some thoughts

since the sponsors of the event seemed to bend over backwards for the reenactors ( place to camp, food !!, free transport on the ferry, golf cart, and much more) i am probably leaning towards our own involvement and what we could do as reenactors to help make the event more memorable due to our participation... of course right now i am drawing a blank ( i'll blame it on the cold thing )

if you want to place your stakes 3' from the pole, 8.5' is the length from the pole top to the stake.... with the stake at 4' from the pole, the length increases to 9'...at 5' away, the length is 9.5'... this is however NOT the total length !! you have to add some for the top of the pole, about 6" for a bowline or eye splice, and you have to add some to go around the stake and back up to tie a taut line hitch or a trucker's hitch, about 3'... the trucker's hitch is more of a modern knot and uses up a little more rope... so for an 8' pole with a stake about 4' ( good distance ) from the pole, you need 9 + .5 + 3 or 12.5' make it 13' for extra measure.... if you are unsure about high winds, etc., move the stake out further, but increase the length of the rope a foot or two if you want the hitch up a little higher so you aren't kneeling on the ground to bend them, make them a little longer still... to double check this, have someone hold the pole plumb, tie a rope at the top, measure out for the stake, and stretch the rope to the stake and back up to a comfortable heighth for the hitch.... measure that and voila !! u got it as a side note, the further out the stakes are, the more stable the fly or tent will be... but having stakes and ropes too far from the poles makes a tripping hazard in the dead of a drunken night !!