MarkG

A friend who plays the lute says that the gut frets drive her crazy. Mark

Snopes says that the 12 Days as a teaching device is a myth. On the other hand, the English worried about the Spanish and Catholics for centuries after the Spanish Armada. A few Irish regiments were recruited for the English Civil War and, when captured, they were executed on the theory that Irish Catholics were too dangerous to be imprisoned. In the New World, the cry "No peace beyond the line!" was supposed to come from the Spanish. This referred to the Line of Demarcation which the Pope drew, dividing the world. Any Protestants found on the wrong side of the line were subject to imprisonment for heresy. The Spanish were rather lax about enforcing this but the English believed that the Spanish were enforcing it. It became an excuse for raids on Spanish territory. Mark Mark

Hardbody golf bags work for weapons. Mark

Yes, everyone who could drank beer or other brewed beverage but, most of it was small beer with a very low alcoholic content. In this case, heating the water to brew it killed the germs rather than the alcoholic content. BTW, they did think that water was unhealthy. One of the complaints from the non-Separatists at the Plymouth colony was that they had to drink water. Governor Bradford's response to this was that it was the healthiest water in the world, as healthy as beer. Since they got their water from small springs, close to the source, this was probably correct. Mark

He was more anti-Spanish than anti-Catholic. He accompanied Hawkins on his 1561 voyage selling slaves and trade goods to the Spanish colonies. They ran into a large Spanish fleet and asked for a truce. Instead the Spanish attacked Hawkins' fleet and only two ships returned. After that Drake decided that the Spanish could not be trusted and swore vengeance on them. Of course, the English were anti-Catholic in general at that point. Mark

Not all of the New Model Army were necessarily puritan, in fact, the vast majority were Presbyterian or Independent. Additionally, conscripted recruits might be of almost any denomination (barring Papists). The particular troops sent under Venables to the Caribbean were, to a great extent, the dregs of pre-existing regiments whose officers took the opportunity to get rid of them. There's a good discussion of religion in the Caribbean colonies in Christopher Hill's essay, Radical Pirates? Here's an interesting quote I found: Mark

In the New Model Army? I'd be surprised. In Jamaica? Possibly. There were Catholic Irishmen in the English Civil War but they fought for the King. They also scared the regular population who regarded them as a sort of boggy-man. Most of them were executed rather than captured. Mark

Joseph Ruggiero, the founder of the SEA Rats Atlantic was killed while working on a movie in Roanoke, VA. His 93-year-old grandmother died the same day. There is a nice article on it here. Mark

Putting aside for the moment the fact that I'm a Royalist officer and this song is treasonous..... Is there documentation that that is the original tune? I know from the mid 18th c as 'Ye Jacobites by Name". Any idea which came first? Never knew Chumbawumba did historic stuff. have to look up more. Hawkyns Robert Burns wrote the most familiar works using an older tune. Mark

<br><br>The Spanish Guitar ha been around long enough to become a folk instrument by the GAoP. Recorders and flutes were very common.<br><br>The art of David Teniers is a good resource for taverns. He shows lutes, fiddles, guitars and flutes. You can see some of his works <a href="http://www.klassiskgitar.net/imagest1.html">here</a>.<br><br>Mark<br><br><br>

Agreed. Come to this side of the pond Hurricane, I'll see your Old Maui and raise you Hanging Johnny... While this is getting way off topic, I'd like to add a thought or two about shanties. Firstly, there are some jolly good shanties that aren't necessarily whaling songs, but I certainly agree that most of them, and all of the better known ones, date from the 19th century, or, at best, possibly the very late 18th. Either way, they're out of period. Now, I wonder about the reason for the lack of earlier shanties. It has been suggested that earlier sailors didn't really sing them, but it seems unlikely that one day in 1785 a sailor said "gee, I know we've been at this for hundreds of years, but this work would be so much easier if we did a bit of singing", and there are at least some sailors' work chants that go back to the medieval and Tudor periods, some of which may have been tuneful. I suspect the real reason for a lack of early shanties is that there was less of a distinction between working songs and social songs in the earlier periods. Three Poor Mariners, for example, is a song that turns up in collections from the early 17thC onwards, but has many characteristics of a later shanty (it's easy to bawl, has an easy to remember chorus, and can easily be accompanied by foot-stomping) so, despite its presence in popular singing books and setting to a popular dance tune, might very easily have been sung at sea as a work song. An alternative idea, given the stated importance of musicians in pirate crews, might be that sailors worked to music, but without necessarily singing: however, not every crew had a musician present, so it seems likely that singing would have taken their place. At least some of the time they had musicians playing instead of someone singing. That's why musicians are mentioned in pirate articles. I've seen speculation that the most common instrument was the fiddle. Mark

In answer to the second question, the tavern owner would have one or more bouncers on the staff to keep things quiet. Also, the locals get upset when you kill the tavern owner for no good reason. That is really short-sighted behavior. You might be able to drink for free tonight but ho is going to provide drinks tomorrow? You've shut down one tavern. The others are probably going to shoot you on sight or close until you have left port. If the taverns are closed then the locals are going to run you out of town. Then where will you sell your booty and recruit new crew members? I think that, in general, pirates had to be on good behavior when in a friendly port if they expected it to stay friendly. Riches are useless unless you have someplace to sell them. Unless you intend on spending the rest of your life at sea or surrounded by armed guards, you will have to obey the local laws. BTW, Wikipedia says that it was one drinking establishment for every ten residents. Mark

I hope we see you more places than just Paynetown. Mark

Recorders were popular for hundreds of years although they went out of style by the end of the 18th century. A flageolet is basically a recorder without the thumb hole. It became popular during the second half of the 17th century. These are easier to play than side-blown flutes but they lack dynamic range (you can't play louder or softer without changing pitch) which is why they went out of style. All of these are appropriate for the GAoP. Since they were so common, they have the range for nearly all period music. Mark

Just the thing for a tropical island. I have one but I only bring it out when it is cold or wet. Mark

Hehe, that's good. I'll have to remember this next time someone gives me grief for calling it a bake kettle, that being the term lots of folks over here have started using, after a bunch of digging around for references to what the thing is actually called in period. But change comes slowly. Maybe letting them in on the joke will speed things along Wikipedia gives two possible origins for the name. The first is that they meant "Dutch-style" ovens since the first Englishman to produce them based his technique on the Dutch. The other is that they got the name because Dutch merchant ships were selling them. Either way, that is the name they have had since the English started using them 300 years ago. Mark

The TV show Castle just had a steampunk episode. You can see it on-line here. The episoe is "Punked". Mark

Do ye mean me or Piratelooksat40? For me - I mean in reality - not fantasy - having a dagger strapped to a thigh seems like a counter-intuitive idea to me, due to not actually being able to get to it in anything but an awkward manner - rendering it pretty much useless in an actual fight. I've been thinking about this. I doubt that women expected to use hidden daggers in a fight. A little dagger isn't going to help against someone with a sword or even a big knife. This is more like something you would pull out to stab him with when he isn't expecting it. Or in the Victorian tradition, to stab yourself with in order to escape a fate worse than death. Mark

Sounds like fun, especially the part with the Bounty. Too bad I'm heading in the opposite direction that weekend. Mark

Do you have a date? Mark

My new fiddle.

Upkeep and modern regulations can be a killer. In the 1970s, Plimoth Plantation decided to limit maintenance on the Mayflower II to what was needed to keep it open to visitors. By the early 1980s they were informed that they needed to perform some major work or it would sink. In the 1990s they discovered that all of the metal screws that had been used to attach the planking had rusted away. This left holes in the planks that allowed water to get in and rot out many of the timbers. They had to remove most of the planking and replace the timbers underneath. At one point they got it sail able but it literally took an act of Congress to get it certified. No one in the Coast Guard was willing to sign off on taking her out. Even then, in order to meet modern standards they had to have a modern boat alongside as a lifeboat. Mark