Joe Pyrat

Aye Cap'n, unless you be in love with her boats be a might big project. O'course I should be the last one talkin', but in my case it was love at first sight.

BELLS

PoD, when you get the Queen Anne LoM ready, please PM me. Can't wait! :)

That explains why so many keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

My favorite definition of history is "A conceited look at the past by the side that won." Now there is trend toward rewriting history to fit the current ideas of what is politically correct which seems to lead to an even more warped view of the past. Throw in that fiction, repeated enough, takes on historical significance, such as the Black Bart moniker for Bartholomew Roberts, walking the plank, etc. All this combines to make delving into histories mysteries much more difficult for the novice or even the would be professional resulting in more works of fiction masquerading as histories.

I especially like the rope work on your dagger and sword, great detail. Looking good mate.

BILLS

Felix Lighter #1

GULFS

I. D. Hooson

PoD mate, not to take anything away from your work, your original was excellent and would be an outstanding addition to any display. Since you are doing so much research on this, here's what I'd be interested in and perhaps others here. LoM on period correct vellum, weathered a bit, from Queen Anne dated during the War of Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War) and made out to me. The high point of the GAoP being after Queen Anne's War up to about 1722 the document would be expired but indicate the bearer had been a privateer prior to starting the sweet trade. Such a document would make an excellent addition to my rig and greatly add to the background story for me pyrate.

Sad, but to a great extent true.

You are about a 4 hour drive from Saint Augustine. The Castillo de San Marcos National Monument is home to the oldest historical weapons demonstration program in the country (over 50 years). You can OJT on the cannons here starting on Saturday or attend the next cannon school in September. Call and ask for Joe who is the Park Ranger in charge of the historic weapons program, he can provide you with a wealth of information including load tables, cartridge construction, firing methods, etc. Edit... We use Goex

Actually it's quite pleasant in Saint Augustine at the moment, 73F, heat index 71F, thunderstorms and rain. Barometer 29.44 and rising humidity 91%. Wind seems to be negligible although I did experience a bit of healing when the front first went through.

Aye mates, totally agree. When I started out I was thinking I needed to age my gear, but the more I thought about it and talked to others, the more what you are saying seemed to become obvious.

This had occurred to me regarding the drawings in Johnson's General History and other places. The cartridge boxes we use at the fort are the belt type and work quite well but do hang up on things from time to time. The other thing that occurs to me is would you really be reloading? Spanish marines were expected to get off one shot every 15 seconds (4/min). This was in a land action in ranks where they would have covering fire long enough to reload. I wonder if this would be an option during a boarding? When in the fighting tops or closing on another vessel using a musket it might, but using pistols on deck? Still it's an interesting rig and I am planning on giving it a try but I am going to carry the cartridge box on the belt not the neck sling or suspenders.

Can't say I'm a fan of artificial aging of anything as most of the time it winds up looking, well, artificial. Even if I didn't wear my gear as often as I do it will age over time and in fact has. Keep in mind that not all clothing was old and dilapidated and pirates, especially, had the opportunity to upgrade whenever they got the urge you might try the natural aging process even if you don't have a lot of opportunities to wear your gear. I would question using your gear for modern tasks involving chemicals not present back in the day, like mowing the yard. This might be a great reason to buy a sailboat though. I do like QM James suggestion on cleaning though, I'll give this a try. And I hear you Rumba. I kind of draw the line at the lice infestation. :) My first weekend at the Castillo here in Saint Augustine I had borrowed a shirt from the NPS. I rinsed it out after day one which didn't make much difference so I didn't for day three. By the afternoon of the third day I was apologizing to people who wanted a picture with me so now I have enough shirts and stockings to use clean ones each day.

STONE

Mostly PvE and missions like you.

CLONE

SPEED TV

Josh, You can play Pirates of the Caribbean Online for free but only up to a certain level. If you want to go past that then it too is $15/mo. It is more cartoon like but has the advantage that you can crew a ship with other players. Wish PotBS had this feature.