Sjöröveren

Good to see there's a pirate event within driving distance from Minnesota. Been meaning to get down to KC for some time, this be grand excuse! Maybe the MN Ren Fest will see the trend pointing towards pirates too.

I've got a bit of knowledge in historic maps and navigation, and would be glad to help you out.

The first thing that comes to mind is how historically accurate do you want to be? What time period are you writing about? The concept of depicting latitude and longitude (especially longitude) developed during the classic age of sail. In the heydays of piracy in the late 17th early 18th century, there would not have been a grid of latitude/longitude on a map. It would have shown bearings (compass directions) to a destination, or trade wind routes, or sea lanes or similar things. They didn't show where you were so much as they showed which way to go.

The nice thing is, these are all very decorative and would great on a tattoo. They are also vague enough that, I think, a pair of tattoos could be created that would only make sense when seen together.

Would the map show the location of an island somewhere in the ocean, or the location of the burial site on an island or something? The smaller the area shown, the more "wiggle room" you would have for straying from actual cartography and into pure fancy.

Sounds like a cool project. Let me know how I can help!

I've always been partial to Ace Bandages. As for ropes, if you're usin em on me, ye best bring a block and tackle too.

"Calico John Kidd" Wow, that sure are charmin. Bout as memorable as "Random Pirate Name" In fact, I thinks I like the latter much better.

Arrr!! All cower in fear before the bloodthirsty Capt. Random Pirate Name!

MacGregor Historic Games at http://www.historicgames.com/RPdice.html

they should have anything you'd want. They are a mainstay at the Minnesota Ren Fest. I've gotten stuff from them in the past, and they know their stuff.

There's a great site for kids of "a certain age" like us. The Imaginary World/Tick Tock Toys at http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/page4.html

Check out this Jean LaFoote disguise kit:

That barefoot belt buckle really ices the cake for me!

So, Calico Jack, and Sjoroveren, actually portray doctor-types. Does anyone else?

I'm interested in comments from mates who do: what in the way of period medicines/medical instruments they own, where they got them, what they take afloat/afield, how they tote them, do they display and discuss these instruments for the tourists, do they interact with the combatants as doctors/surgeons during battles, etc.

Capt. William

I got into reenactment in 1990, starting at Murphy's Landing, a living history village near Minneapolis. I gradually fell into the role of the town doctor, circa 1870. But me real interest in history lay a good century or two before that. I did the local history fair and rendezvous market for a few years, but have never been in a military reenactment setting. It just has no interest for me.

I've cobbled together my collection of instruments from many sources. The best stuff, like fleams, a trephine, a canula and cupping glasses, were bought on ebay. Some things, like scalpels and various knives, I fashioned from other blades. Hint: old manicure kits can easily be remade into catlins, bistoury knives, tenacula, etc. Old soldering irons, if they're small, can be made into cauterizing irons. I've had a blacksmith make specific blades for me once or twice. (It's nice having a blacksmith in your Rolodex, ain't it!)

There's plenty of odds and ends one can make out of cloth or leather, like bandages, tourniquets, etc.

There's still plenty of things I don't have: a proper amputation kit, a spring lancet, retractors, etc. And I can't forget my most popular prop, a realistic human skull with a hole drilled in it -- just like the fellow in "Master and Commander" except mine doesn't have a sovereign stitched into it.

For medicines, I've learned that less is more. There were hundreds of varieties of physick in use, but when it came right down to it, you really only needed the basic diurectics, analgesics, laxatives, purgatives, etc. Whenever possible, I try to get the actual material or chemical. This isn't hard for common things like sulphur or slippery elm. There are some things that one simply can't get anymore, unless you're willing to deal in narcotics. For those, I got descriptions of paregoric, opium and such from a physician, then made reasonable facsimiles out of salt, sugar, food coloring, etc.

I don't use anything fancy to transport them in -- just some wooden boxes. I'd like to get a proper physick cabinet someday.

Hope this helps.

I'd love to hear what other have in their kits.

What to do, what to do. That be a helluva choice, keep fightin or a free round. I must be gettin ta be an old softie, fer I cants punch a lass in the face just fer the fun of it. An seein as Red Bess has come ta her wits an stopped singin, I'll lead the next chorus. An I'll take a draught o that rum ye be pouring, Maggie me dear.

I am a Sailor, Stout and Bold

Long time I've ploughed the Ocean.

I've fought for King and Country too

For Honor and Promotion

I said "My brother Sailors, I bid thee adieu

No more will I go to the Sea with you

I'll travel the Country through and through

And I'll be a Rambling Sailor!"

I be enjoyin the floor show so much I right forgot bout fightin! I think I'll jus be settin and watchin whilst me breeches dry.

Oh, bugger! I ain't wearin' no breeches...

I got into Great Big Sea about 2 weeks after they played a free concert at the Minnesota State Fair, 2 summers ago I think. They haven't been back to the state since, to my knowledge.

I also have to recommend Tanglefoot, another Canadian band. They play a lot of good songs of the sea, and do my favorite pirate song, "Traighli Bay" I have seen them live maybe 10 times, and they never fail to thrill. They will be playing in Minneapolis on Feb 14, and in Winnipeg, Manitoba the following weekend. Their website is http://www.tanglefootmusic.com/

Here's a little sample of lyrics from Traighli Bay:

We pulled up alongside with our grappling hooks and lines

Guns and cutlasses in hand on the gunwales we did stand

Every hand from the Captain to the cabin boy

Saw three dead the chains had flayed, then we raised and crossed our blades

To their mates we gave our best as the sun set in the west

With pikes and swords, pistols, fists and feet

Chorus

And with tar on our pigtails and blood on our rapiers

We'll fly the skull and crossbones and by God we'll take no prisoners

It's hiho away boys, we'll sail from Traighli Bay boys

Hoist the Jolly Roger at the break of day

This past August, I got my wife a silver French coin from 1715, and a sterling silver bezel. The coin cost less than $10, the bezel was quite a bit more. It was for our 20th anniversary, and she was quite overwhelmed by it.

There's lots of interesting old coins on ebay, many of them with really cool sailing ships. But since POTC came out, there are lots of fake doubloons, etc. plus many coins sold as "pirate treasure" when they're really just old coins. Wait another few months, and the interest in them among all the flatlanders out there will die down.

::leans over and picks up a soggy bowl of what used to be chow mein.:: ere it is lass.....

If that be chow mein, then clearly you have never been to Singapore!

Just another chestnut for all out there, there is a book called "The Adventures of Roderick Random" by Tobias Smollett. 

I just googled this title, and the full text is available online at Project Gutenberg ( http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbi...lookup?num=4085 )

It's FREE!

It also appears to be available as a reprint at $8.95. But that ain't free!

Well, I don't rightly know if it were Bess's kick in the shins, endkaos's kiss or Maggie's splash o' rhum, but it be Tuesday night and I seem t'have passed out three days ago. I can smell meself even over the stench of all of ye here, and I seem ta be sittin in a puddle o chicken chow mein. At least I hope it be chow mein.

-

-

-

Nay, I tasted it, I'm not even sure that it be chicken, cos it don' taste like no chicken.

It be Friday night, an there be nothin' I like better on a Friday night than bloodyin me mates noses and havin me teeth kicked in by me mates! No malice or harsh words. Just fists and feet flyin free! Afterwards we'll all gather round and sing mournful songs to absent friends, propose marriage to each other, and gush praises bout what great scrappers we be. I'll tap the first keg and throw the first punch. Take that, who e'er ye be!

And here I thought a woman wouldn't be accepted as a doctor in that day and age. (But we all know there were medicine women fer many hundreds of years in tribal cultures.)

About the only folks who didn't accept women as healers were the doctors, i.e. the medical establishment. Until the mid 19th century, maybe 5% or less of folks in the West (Europe & No. America) ever saw a doctor even once in their lives. The vast majority of people used what we today call "folk medicine." Most practictioners were women: mothers, grandmothers, 'witchy women', etc. Midwives, at least the professional ones, were often former prostitutes who had become, hmmmm... unmarketable. 17th-18th century England, there were Bonesetters, lower class women who knew how to set broken bones. British surgeons had forgotten how, and would often amputate a broken arm.

I've portrayed a doctor/surgeon at reenactment events for about 10 years, and I like to tell folks that if they found themselves sick in Colonial America, if they had any hope of survival, they should run away from the physicians and find themselves a grandmother, preferably Native American. They actually knew something.

... and lets not forget the cure-all properties [or near abouts] of Mercury.  That surgeon's chest mentioned above, often near forty of those two hundred odd medications were variations of Mercury, recommended for most ailments.

  You could tell the mercury was starting to have the desired effect when the patient began to frequently and copiously _drool_...

All kinds of poisons used in physick, because they reduced symptoms or produced "results" i.e. vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, etc. Lead and mercury were probably the most common. Calomel was used as an analgesic well into the 20th century. It's on oxide of mercury, now used mostly as flux when soldering electronic components.

One of the more common uses for mercury was for treatment of syphillis. It was injected directly into the business end of the male member, (and presumedly the corresponding female portal) with at least one daily dose over the course of a week. This gave rise to the old expression "One night on Venus, one week on Mercury."

Bone was my first guess too. I've seen Lakota flutes made from a wing bone of a bald eagle, but I couldn't examine it, since it's considered a sacred object and not something thats passed around out of curiosity. But it looked alot like the thing in Jacks hair. Hollow, kind of a flattened tube. I suppose it could be an albatross bone or something. Anyway, its way cool.

What the heck is that long white thing in Capt. Jack Sparrows hair? I've seen that movie a dozen or two times, even done freeze frame and zoom in on the DVD, and I still can't figure out what it is. Is it a bone? a feather? a pipe? I'm stumped!

The Sutler of Mount Misery, G. Gedney Godwin, offers 18th century medical instruments.

http://www.gggodwin.com/

G. Gedney Godwin has, IMHO, the best medical supplies for the reenactor available anywhere. Their prices can be a bit on the high side, however, which has earned them the nickname, in some circles, of "Oh My Godwin." Worth every penny though.

:)

Most physicians didn't become ship surgeons because A- they had to touch people, B- the pay stinks and private practice pays better (except on a pirate ship where you're valued) and C- It wasn't an elevated position.

PS they're starting to use leeches again but not in bloodletting. (Although I'm sure some new agers are) but in surgeries in tiny places the surgeons cant reach.

Yes, surgery was considered to be a distinct profession from physic (doling out medicine, hence the title physician) Surgeons were much further down the status ladder from physicians. To this day, if a Physician in the UK specializes in surgery, he/she loses the title "Doctor" and reverts to Mr, Mrs or Miss. They don't suffer the same drop in status or income, however.

I understand ship's surgeons to be warrant officers, i.e. entitle to the same benefits and respect due an officer, but was not a proper member of the Navy. A warrant officer was also accorded the right to board and disembark the ship as he pleased, subject to Captain's approval. On board a pirate ship, however, who knows how a surgeon fit into the hierarchy. I haven't come across any factual accounts of such a situation.

I've heard of leeches being used today in reattachment of severs bits -- fingers, ears, etc. They secrete a natural anticoagulant, and this keeps the blood in the severed bit from clotting.

I'm looking to hook up with anyone else interested in the subject of ship's surgeons. I've been in re-enactment for some time now, and usually portray physicians or surgeons from about 1700-1880, depending on who's paying me. But I've always been land-locked. I've become more and more interested in sea-faring things, thanks mostly to my wife Red Bess, who also lurks about these parts.

Any other sawbones and leech doctors about?

Not exactly a piratical faire, but there's an event comin up in August 04 just a bit north of Toronto. It's called the Battle of Georgian Bay, and appears to be an 1812 event, but there looks to be a fair number of tall ships involved. Site is at http://www.battleofgeorgianbay.huronia.com/bgbsite/

but there's not much there yet. Not exactly the Midwest either, but a nice place to visit, and it's on big water.