MarkG

The auction is winding down but there are still some great deals. It has been a huge success. We've raised over $500 so far. To put it in perspective - that's more than the ship takes in on admissions on its best day. Thanks to those who donated and bid. Check out the remaining items here. Mark

Someone is supposed to have reworked a pontoon boat to look piratical at Buckeye Lake in Ohio. The Pirates of Paynetown event in Indiana has a couple of aluminum boats that have been reworked. They are painted dark brown with a mast and rigging added. There has also been a modern (1960s) sailboat that has been reworked. It has a lapstrake hull so the modifications were mainly painting it to look like wood and changed to the rigging. I think that this is a 24' boat. Mark

I have a couple of spare wedge tent if they are needed. Mark

Another problem - ship names were often used multiple times. In 1620 there were a half dozen Mayflowers. Two of them had a captain named "Jones" and both visited Plymouth, Mass. The second one only stayed long enough to sell some trade goods at inflated prices. For decades, historians thought that the original Mayflower had returned to take advantage of the Pilgrims. It wasn't until a marriage certificate from the 1620 voyage turned up that they knew that captain's first name and proved that he wasn't the one who sold the trade goods. Speaking of Pilgrims, they sent a ship full of clapboard back in 1621 but it was taken by French pirates in the Channel. Mark

More like 16x16. The shade fly is the same again but there is some overlap. Figure 16x30. Mark

Linda Ketcham, the director of the Santa Maria, wants people to know how happy she was with the event and the auction. Mark

Don't forget the Santa Maria benefit auction. We are posting the last items right now. The first ones posted will end in two days. The swords are going much too cheap. http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/markandjennie_g

I want to thank everyone who came to the Santa Maria, especially the ones who helped me with the boat. Several locals commented on how nice everyone was. Some of my pictures are here. http://picasaweb.google.com/mark.gist/SantaMaria2009# plus some videos The fearsome .Duel on the .Mark

Pirates giving money to a Spanish Galleon? It's a strange world we live in. The Columbus Santa Maria has been good to our pirate group and it is in a budget squeeze so we are doing a benefit to help the ship. All proceeds will be automatically donated to the ship. Note the starting bid is the minimum for Ebay charitable donations. See here for a list of items. It may be a couple of days before everything is listed so check back.

The history of the Roanoke Colony is complicated. There were three sets of colonies. The first one of was supposed to be much larger but the ship carrying food stores hit a sandbar and most of the stores were lost. The colony was scaled back to 101 men and boys. They stayed most of a year but grew concerned when the resupply was late. Drake stopped by after sacking Saint Augustine and ended up transporting the colonists back to England. A week or so later the supply fleet arrived and found the colony missing. They left 16 men to maintain English possession. These men were eventually driven away by natives and probably perished at sea. The third colony included full families in the hope that they would be more likely to stay that way. They were supposed to pick up the 16 men on Roanoke and settle along the James River. They got as far as Roanoke and the captain announced that he was not going any further. He intended to go privateering. The governor, John White, stayed on board to arrange for supplies. This was in 1587. The Spanish Armada attacked England in 1588 and Elizabeth refused to allow any ship to leave England. There were rumors of a new armada in 1589 so it was 1590 before a relief ship could be chartered. This was actually a privateer ship that was paid to check on the colony as a side-trip. They found the colony deserted and signs that indicated that the colonists had left peacefully. The captain of the ship was killed when the long boat capsized and the mate refused to stay any longer. That was the total sum of the search for the lost colony. Over the next 17 years it was assumed that the colony still existed and had moved to the James River. The Jamestown settlers were instructed to find them since their experience would be invaluable. The trouble with this was that they were already dead when the Jamestown settlers arrived. The Powhatan Indians became alarmed when ships explored the James around 1606 in preparation for Jamestown. The chief, also known as Powhatan, ordered the English colonists to be wiped out. When the Jamestown fleet arrived in May of 1607, they stopped at Cape Henry to look around. They were greeted with a shower of arrows from a hidden source. There is some speculation that this was the Powhatans returning from wiping out the Roanoke colonists. Regardless, John Smith was eventually captured by the Powhatans. Before he was returned, Powhatan told Smith that he had wiped out a group of English already. Smith sent a report about this back to England. This has been lost but the response still exists. Basically, the colonists needed Powhatan so they were not to take any action that would affect relations. Smith gave these details in a book he published in 1628. This is the same book he wrote about being saved by Pocahontas. Many historians assumed that Smith was telling stories but later research indicates that this was probably the truth. Reports of blond and/or blue-eyed Indians elsewhere probably indicate shipwreck survivors. A lot of ships were wrecked along the Virginia and Carolina coasts between 1590 and 1700. Note - my main source for this is Set Fair for Roanoke by David Beers Quinn. (out of print). I also recomend The Virginia Adventure by Ivor Noel Hume. This is also the accepted history when I have volunteered at Jamestown. Mark

Captain Morgan died in 1688. I'd use that for the end of the privateer period and the start of the GAoP. That's around the time that England and Spain reached an understanding and England stopped allowing huge raids with thousands of men. After that pirates were operating illegally and stopped being so picky about only attacking Spain. During this period they were piracy was mainly ship-to-ship instead of raids on major cities. There were still places that tolerated pirates in order to attract an armed defense force. By the mid-1720s these colonies were well enough established that they no longer needed to depend on pirates for defense. That is when the British started getting serious about ending piracy. They also started allowing local trials instead of having pirates shipped to London for trial. By 1730 most pirates had been put out of business (many at the end of a rope). Note, I'm getting this from reading Under the Black Flag a couple of years ago.

The pipes were almost certainly tobacco pipes. Tobacco was very popular at the time. Keep in mind that the tobacco of the time had a much higher nicotine content than modern tobacco so smoking a pipe would give you a nicotine buzz. Several years ago someone I know bought up the crop of period tobacco that they grow at Saint Mary's City. He and a friend sold it as period twists. He said that he got a contact high just from handling the stuff. Someone else I know tried smoking it and said that he was just about talking to spirits from that stuff. I don't smoke but I have one of the twists for my display of period items. Mark

It was me. I was paying attention to the pottery so I didn't notice you. My wife, Jennie, and my brother-in-law were there, too. You might remember them from Pirates of Paynetown 2007. Mark

Two reasons: 1) The flintlock has fewer parts means that is is cheaper to make. The safety is just an extra notch on the sear instead of a separate part and screw. The English lock, which also has a dog, has even more internal parts. 2) Fewer exposed parts which makes it more reliable on a long-term basis. Mark

We have set up a charcoal grill on the ship after hours but I don't have one. We could also set one up in the park beside the gangplank as long as someone kept watch. The fogon (the Spanish name for the firebox) is big enough for a couple of pots. We have had wood fires in it but we will probably cheat and use charcoal. There are places that we can keep coolers. Mark

The ship is moored at a city park which is run by a different group. Officially there is no camping allowed there. Unofficially it has a number of homeless sleeping there nightly. There will be people sleeping on the ship. There is very little privacy. The main deck is a single open space. There is a single cabin (the only one in the fleet). The hold has a small amount of open space but most of it is taken up by cement blocks that act as ballast. The ship does have a few modern amenities. There are some power outlets for people who have air mattresses and need to plug in a pump. There are also some lights (note - no candles or oil lamps for fire safety). The ship regularly hosts scout sleepovers. Mark