Joe Pyrat

I may miss taking a cruise since I'll be sailing south before the end of May but I would like to come by for a visit and take a look at her if that is permissible.

PASTRY

FARE

Where you be moored at mate, I'll drop by.

Wench

CARE

Rediker estimates 1,800-2,400 active pirates at the peak of the 1719-22 era. In 1609 William Bishop was reported off Ireland with a pirate fleet of 11 ships and 1,000 men, with another 10 ships expected. In 1611 another pirate fleet was reported off Ireland consisting of 9 ships and 500 men.

I am somewhat skeptical regarding the numbers attributed to Ward and Bishop and believe Rediker's estimate may be on the low side.

[EDIT] Might also add that in 1695 Henry Every's squadron alone consisted of about 400 men [/EDIT]

Following Queen Ann's war you have a number of recorded instances of pirates ships operating together which should approximate the number of men attributed to Avery's squadron, just off the top, Jennings Teach and Roberts.

Thinking about it, based on Radiker's estimate this would mean that Jennings, Teach and Roberts commanded something like 30 to 50 percent of all the active pirates at the time, which doesn't seem likely to, me anyway.

Aye Mistress, and that be why they be in such an uproar here in Saint Augustine... Time and tide will tell.

There have always been pirates, from prehistory until the present day, including the periods between the more romanticized times of Drake, Morgan and the time following the War of Spanish Succession. I think the broadest definition I've seen for the GAoP is something like 1560 - 1730 which fairly well covers everything. Well of course unless you want to count those pirates who came before and after.

Kidd is mostly remembered because he had a catchy name and he wound up being a political pawn. Tew is not someone most in the general public have ever heard of. I read of a study where people were, at random, ask to name a pirate. Something like 95% of them named someone active between 1714 and 1722 and my guess is most of the other 5% named Morgan.

Avery is an interesting character though. Avery's career spans that period just prior to the beginning of the War of Spanish Succession (1701) making him the stuff of legend while such GAoP pirates as Teach, Vane, etc were young. You could make a case that he was the father of the GAoP, but the big explosion in piracy still occurs following Queen Ann's War and fairly well dies out, on a grand scale, following the death of Bartholomew Roberts.

When I look at these periods I look for a preponderance of activity which is why I have gravitated toward the definition I proposed. Of course there are many who have other definitions so it would appear that there is really no generally agreed upon definition of what constitutes the Golden Age of Piracy leaving it to the student of the period to decide on his or her own definition based on what their studies indicate is relevant.

Here are some shots of mortars I got at Castillo de San Marcos in Saint Augustine.

Buccaneer

LATE

Local rumor control here in Saint Augustine has them shopping for housing.

Mistress Lilly, this guy does excellent work but it is quite expensive. However based on the amount of work involved I would have to say his prices are not unreasonable.

I have ask several historians this very question and I've gotten a different answer from each of them. Someone here mentioned the various periods could overlap. IMHO they did not overlap but were inter spaced with periods of a decline in piracy or wars which allowed potential pirates to get letters of marque and become privateers. My personal definition looks like this

Elizabethan Sea Dog Period 1560 - 1605 The time of Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, John Hawkins and Martin Frobisher

Buccaneer Period 1655 - 1688 The capture of Jamacia by the English to the death of Henry Morgan

Golden Age of Piracy 1714 - 1722 The end of the War of Spanish Succession (Queen Ann's War) to the Death of Bartholomew Roberts

Some like to refer to this entire period, 1655 - 1730 as the GAoP, but I think there were significant differences in how these men were viewed in these various periods. While one can argue logically that all were pirates, the ESD period and the Buccaneer period saw defacto sacntioning by the Crown while the latter period represents a change of attitude where they were seen as the "enemies of all nations".

Welcome aboard mate and thanks for the rum offer, he be my kind of pyrate.

There is a shop here in Saint Augustine which has several old blunderbuss for sail. They have some carving on the stocks and for the most part have very dark stocks. If you are interested I can get some pictures for you.

My blunderbuss, residing on a boat (high humidity environment), is beginning to pickup some surface rust on the shiny (bare) mettle parts. My experience with older weapons does not include ones much older than the American Civil War which appeared to have a surface rust patina but may have been originally browned although browning by a modern black powder gunsmith is much more even.

Morgan, since you are a weapons inspector, would allowing a a weapon to brown naturally then oiling it necessarily exclude a weapon from an event?

I had no idea you guys were into this stuff. I've loved "Steampunk" since I was a kid, just didn't know it had a name until quite recently.

You might also get a kick out of Treasure Planet

I have to agree with Lady B, although I did watch it. The most interesting thing I thought was the props they used to set up the challenges.

^ Kind of a toss up between my digital camera and my Mustang

< Always wanted to sail off to some exotic port and now I have

V What's the one thing you always wanted to do but never got around to?

mermaid

cars

SNUB

Why's the RUM always gone???

Oh, that's why...

Looks like it be time to make another RUM run.

Here I be at the Buccaneer in Charles Towne, Carolina Colony