Sjöröveren

This sounds suspiciously like a 'proper' English pudding, which is essentially some kind of suet, a starch, and whatever else is lying around, very often dried fruit and/or bits of meat. An excellent source for making puddings and general cooking aboard ship is the book "Lobscouse and Spotted Dog" , which was written as a companion book to the Patrick O'Brian "Master & Commander" books. This is called "planking." If you go to a high-end gourmet cooking store like Williams & Sonoma or the like, you can buy a 6x12" piece of red cedar for about $20, which is different from your run-of-the-mill lumber yard cedar in that it is usually shrink-wrapped, has a pretty picture of a salmon on it, and costs about 100 times more than it should.

I like your sound! Québècois folk music has its own unique sound that simply isn't found anywhere else. Adding the pirate element to it makes it something that I can't resist. I'll be looking for your CD! Now that Tanglefoot is breaking up, and La Bouittine Souriante has become too avant garde for my tastes, I need to find a new favourite Canadian group.

One problem is that the Midwest is so damn big. Even going to Port Washington is an all day drive for us, from Minneapolis/St. Paul. Going much further east would mean a major commitment in time, money and mileage. I would have loved to go the the Santa Maria event in Columbus 2 weeks ago, but that's about a 12-hour drive for me. And I'm sure that a drive west from Ohio to MN, Iowa or the like seems just as daunting. The Chicago/Milwaukee area seems ideally suited as a central location. But the timing is difficult. Has the Blackbeards Festival always been on the same weekend? I know most of Archangel crew is going to Hampton this year, but they were at Port Washington in '07 and '08. Did the dates overlap in those years, and we just got lucky in that they chose to come to Port Washington rather than Hampton? It's too bad, because their impression is phenomenal, and I think they brought the entire event up a notch just by being there. Maybe we should consider meeting at some other event in the general area. Chicago Maritime Festival? Bristol Renaissance Fair? Feast of the Hunter's Moon? (that's a bit south, but it's such a huge event) There is probably many other events that would satisfy both the location and the timing needs of many people. But I'll still be at Port Washington, come rain or shine. Probably rain. And tornadoes, as usual.

I just stumbled upon this site at UCLA, with 9 volumes from 1720-30 called "The Ceremonies and Religious Customs of All the Peoples of the World." Volume 7 is all about Islamic customs, and has numerous illustrations.

I may not make the May 22nd deadline. It'll be close, but I may be a day or two late. I'm working as fast as I can!

In the Minneapolis/St. Paul area: Saturday, high about 50, with 30 mph winds. Tuesday, high of 93, still windy. Today, high near 100, windier still. Yesterday, it was 100 in southern MN, and 35 in Grand Marais MN, on Lake Superior near the Canadian border. And we have yet to have a weekend in May when the temp was 70 or higher. All this sun and warmth has come mid-week. This is one of the few benefits of being unemployed!

If ye want a really glorious birthday treat, light the candles on top of that rum cake. Go with the 151, ye will get a really splendid salute! Happy Birthday!

I want to put a black ribbon around a straw or sennit hat, but I've seen it done 2 different ways. One way has 2 tails of the ribbons trailing off, either to the rear or the side. The other way has no tails - the ribbon just circles the base of the crown. Are both ways correct? Did it change over time, or have regional variations? I like the look of the trailing ribbon, but I'm not sure how to do it. The point at which the ribbon completes the circumference of the hat, and begins forming the tails is the conundrum. Is it sewed? Tied? I should mention that I'm looking for info for both the GAoP era and the Napoleonic Era, since I do both. Did methods differ between these 2 times? This is a bit of an arcane topic, but I have a feeling that there's folks out there who know right off the top of their head.

That stick should be in inches. We use a similar device for scale taking pictures of bits we recover. Pretty sure that the stick is in centimeters, since the museum it's from is in the UK. Also, a 30-inch wide hat would be ridiculous in anyone other than a pimp. Hey, maybe that's who was wearing it when the ship sunk!

What does he mean by the word "calendaring"? It's not a use of the word "calendar" that I have heard used in that manner before. Recording the date that the ship came into port, perhaps? Dealing with Scandinavian languages must have been especially difficult for the English. If one spells a word how it sounds to an English ear, the spelling will have no resemblance to the original. For example, the Swedish port of Göteborg, (commonly rendered in English as "Gothenburg") is actually pronounced something like "Yoo-ta-boory." So the common English spelling of the city is apparently derived from a written source, probably a map, rather than a spoken source. The example of "Hedvig" as a ship's name was probably recorded from a spoken source, since it is recorded more or less phonetically. "Hedvig" could be spoken as either "Head-wee" or "Head-wick", depending on whether the speaker were Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, etc. It would have most likely have been spelled "Hädvig" or "Hædvig", "Hedwig," "Hedvik" as well as "Hedvig," again, depending on where the ship was from, and from when. It's also worth noting that "Hedvig" is a woman's Christian name, so the examples given, Hedvig Sophia or Hedvig Eleona may in fact be two different ships as well. And this only deals with Scandinavian words recorded by an English speaker. Can you imagine the difficulty they would have had with a ship from Poland or Latvia? Or from St. Petersburg, where an entirely different alphabet involved? How about the poor harbor master in Riga, trying to decipher what a captain from Glasgow was trying to say? This post also brings to mind the seduction of using secondary sources. The researchers whose works we so often rely upon are the ones who have slogged through the handwriting and misspellings of the primary sources, and we take their work at face value, not taking into consideration that they may have made simple mistakes in deciphering handwriting and spelling. A mistake made at that first stage goes on to become part of accepted history, and can be repeated to the point that any future corrections can seem like revisionism. At least this author has the honesty to state this pitfall of research clearly. Something to bear in mind in our own research, whether with primary or secondary sources.

I used to have a pair just like these, and I wouldn't get another like them. They were very tight behind the ears, even after loosening the coil of the loops. They also corroded from perspiration very quickly. The place where the nosepiece joined the lens frame turned green and corroded in two within a year.

This picture is great! It means that I can wear my "period" glasses for distance, and my pince nez for reading. I had always thought that pince nez were 19th century at the earliest.

I'm pretty sure Red Bess had a good Mother's Day. She got some gardening stuff, the we went to see Star Trek (LOVED IT, and going to it was entirely her choice by the way!) then we all had Chinese/Thai food (her choice again.) I'll let her speak for herself, but speaking for her "3 boys" we had a great time!

Have the grandest of all birthdays today, me dear!

I got this link today, and it's worth checking out. Mostly horrible 70's hairstyles mixed in with terrible artistic choices in album cover design. I'm sure the music is great though.

That would help me too. I'm all for it.

The Fool's Gold Pirates, captained by our own dear Merrydeath. We are based in the IA/MN/WI/IL area.

But that implies that all that stuff from Wikipedia that I spent 2-3 minutes cutting and pasting could be misleading! Is that even possible? I always thought that Wikipedia was absolutely accurate in every way! Man, my whole world just started spinning the wrong way!

I want to get in line for 100 on the next order, whenever that may be. Soon, I hope.

Collecting antique medical stuff has been a hobby (and a money pit) of mine for some time now. Same probably goes for Mission, right? There is a lot of weird stuff, but a lot of it you see over and over. The truly exceptional stuff doesn't come around very often, and it's usually out of my price range. I get lucky once in awhile if the seller doesn't know what they have. What shocks me is the odd things that always get lots of bids and sell for big bucks. Ear trumpets. Go figure! And anything made to shove up yer -- well, you get the idea. I guess there's a segment of the population who just enjoys that kind of thing. Fortunately, I'm not bidding on those things.

Happiest of Birthdays to ye, my dear!

from Wikipedia: Lead usually oxidizes white. The black may be oxidized bismuth. Also from Wikipedia: BTW, gingiva = your gums Antimony can be toxic in small amounts. For that matter, copper is toxic in fairly small amounts, yet it's used in all kinds of food containers. I do know that you should never cook in a copper panned if it hasn't been properly tinned. It would taste terrible, and isn't at all good for you. So I would stay away from modern pewter for regular use. I'm not a chemist, nor physician, nor anyone else that could give a definitive answer. Once in awhile probably won't kill you. But cast aluminum is probably safer. Antique pewter - no way! If it isn't filled with lead, it's probably filled with antimony, arsenic or who knows what. I would also avoid acidic liquids like fruit or tomato juice. Metals and acids don't go well together. There, that oughta keep you up all night, throwing away all your pewter. Sorry, ye had to ask.

Happy Birthday dearie!

I've done a few test projects to remove engraving. The first was on a cheap pewter tankard, straight sided with fairly thin gauge metal. I started with a file, trying some draw filing along the way. This removed all but the deepest engraving. I then moved to 0000 steel wool (at least I think it's 0000. I've misplaced the packaging.) That removed the biggest of the filing marks. I then moved on to a foam backed 600 grit sanding pad, sanding by hand. That brought out a dull polish, but fine marks are still visible. I'll need to get some crocus cloth to get closer to a mirror finish. I was so impressed at how quick and easy this was that I decided to see how it would work with a cast aluminum mug. I figured that aluminum is cheap and ubiquitous, so if I wrecked it, I wouldn't be out that much. The engraving wasn't as deep as on the pewter, but of course the metal is quite a bit harder. Filing did a fair job, but I was getting a lot of marks from the edge of the file (not holding it properly, I'm sure) So I put some 300 grit on my orbital sander and dove in. Not too bad. I switched to 600 grit, and it looked even better. No trace of the engraving left, now just the little swirly marks from the sander. I think I'll proceed by hand from this point. I'll do a few more before I tackle the Williamsburg pewter. The tough thing about that one is that it sides are curved - inside and outside curves. So I won't be able to use either a flat file or the orbital sander. I'm really left with hand sanding for that one. I might try flattening the edges of the engraving with a little brass ball peen hammer I've got, if I can find something to work as a mandrel inside the mug. And I'm not sure if brass is harder than pewter - it sure seems like it is. I'll do a test on some beat up pewter before I try it on the good stuff. Thanks to everyone for all the advice given here. I've only dabbled in metal work up to this point, and that was only very small scale blacksmithing, nothing with white metal. But things have gone well enough, and the local thrift store seems to have enough pewter mugs available, that I'm confident in proceeding slowly. If this works, I'll never pass up an engraved mug again!

I just saw an old Bugs Bunny cartoon yesterday (on the DVD of the old "Horatio Hornblower" with Gregory Peck) called "Captain Hareblower" Great classic Bugs Bunny stuff, with Yosemite Sam as "Pirate Sam." I was impressed at how they got the look of the ship correct. Most drawings of ships done by people without any knowledge will make huge mistakes, but the naval architecture in this cartoon was quite good. I guess I've just become too much of a tall ship nut to not look for that sort of thing.