MarkG

Note - "belaying pins", not "belay pins". Mark

A pirate ship would also carry a good supply of tar for caulking. Regular ships could put in at port to be careened (scraping growths off the hull and sealing leaky seams) but pirate ships had to do it themselves and often in order to catch other ships. Mark

I originally set the bed up with sisal and had no real problems with stretch once I got past the initial break-in period. I set everything up very tight and have had no problem at all with sagging. I've since strung the bed with manilla because it's actually cheaper for me than the sisal. For around 20 years we set up a rope-strung bed when camping. I used Manila and never had much trouble with stretching. I used softwood but it was 2x8s so they didn't warp much. I used pegs for the ropes. Originally I wove the rope individually. Later I started doing it in pairs. This sped things up a lot. I didn't have to run the entire rope back an forth. I would just run a doubled over piece, hook it over two pegs, then tighten. It worked just as well. Mark

You can also hold the stock under your arm and fire it one-handed while holding the reins with the other. The stock drops down to allow this. I saw an extreme example at the mission at Capistrano. This was an early 18th century dragoon carbine an the stock was specially shaped to hook under the arm. This is a very handy arm for a pirate. I've been using a Littlecote carbine. It is short enough to load in an open boat and would have greater range than a pistol. It is also possible to climb aloft with it. Mark

In Columbus's time there were three officers of the watch - the captain, the sailing master, and the navigator. Each had an eight hour watch. The crew may or may not have had a dogwatch. One of my books indicates that the regular sailors stood four hour watch with eight hours between watches but this is (informed) speculation. Mark

Bender!

Pirates of Treasure Island ran low on money half way through so they fired most of the cast and dressed up the crew as pirates. Mark

First - I blog because it helps me order my thoughts. Having a big ego helps (too bad everyone here is so shy and retiring). I actually have a few blogs. I was including posts about my boat in my pirate blog but I started a separate blog just for that. Most of what I post to my pirate blog is either research or reviews of events or general opinions. As far as people stealing my stuff - it's the Internet. Stuff gets stolen. Mark

Happy birthday, Salty. I know the trials of a December birthday. People say "I took the money that I would have spent for your birthday and bought you a bigger Christmas gift," but we know they were lying. Mark

Here's our Pirate Christmas tree

Thanks all.

There were a few of us singing and playing at the fort a couple of times but no audience. Mark

We can ask Linda, the director of the ship. Mark

If I'm live-firing then I usually patch my ball. I've had unpatched balls develop a spin and veer off to one side or another. Everyone should have a worm and ball-puller as part of their kit but I've had to lend mine out several times. Mark

It depend on what parties have the ship booked. They are not in a position to turn down money. Regardless, if the ship is busy then we can arraign for the visitor center to be open. Mark

Check the book The Mayflower and Other Colonial Vessels by William Baker. His shallop plans could be scale down at a longboat. The Mayflower's longboat looks a lot like the shallop except smaller. Baker based his shallop plans on Dutch open boats from the first half of the 17th century. The Smithsonian might have plans for the shallop. Mark

If you are going to load and fire immediately then you don't need to wad. A lot of people do to get a louder bang. The problem is that if you can't get it to go off for some reason then you have to use a worm to pull the charge. If you don't wad then you can just dump the load. If you are going to carry your pistol then you have to wad to keep the charge from falling out. BTW, you can also use grass or leaves to wad. Choose green ones and you are less likely to start a fire. Mark

We'll have another Santa Maria event in September (Talk Like a Pirate Day weekend). Mark