Tall Paul

Cool! Glad you like it, cuz I got you one for your birthday. It should be arriving any day now. Yup. Just check your mail box. Soon. hehehhehe. Happy birthday anyway, Tall Paul. A birthday prezzie for lil me!! From you, Greenighs, A birthday kiss would be the finest treasure a man could wish for "Tall Paul" Adams

He is getting bolder, Three new "Pirates of the caribbean" Props have turned up on ebay from the seller now known as gmwholesale parts. and these definately bear the stamp of pirates-R-Us Pirates Of The Caribbean Prop Treasure Chest Pirates Of The Caribbean Prop Treasure Chest and Pirates Of The Caribbean Silver Plated Bar Prop

Here is a variation of flints Fish in Tinfoil Recipe that has the advantage of being ideal for re-enactment due to it being relatively authentic. You will need, Fish, (one per person) Flour salt water Fresh Herbs (optional) Mix the Flour, salt and water to make a thick pastry. I usually use about two parts flour to one part salt, but the exact mix is up to you. You can use less salt if you want, or go as high as Fifty fifty. Gut the fish, (or get your fishmonger to do it when you buy them), and fill the stomach cavity with fresh herbs, a sprig of fresh rosemary works well as does crushed peppercorns or garlic cloves. It is entirely up to you what you use, depending on what you have available. Trout is an ideal fish for this, but for a pirate event, you may choose to use a salt water fish of about the same size. Gut the fish, but leave the head and tail on. Roll the salt pastry to a thickness of about half an inch. Wrap each fish in the salt pastry, ensuring that all the joins are sealed. Bury the fish in the embers of your campfire. Leave until cooked. It is almost impossible to over cook this recipe, the pastry will harden and form a burnt crust, the water in the pastry will heat up and steam the fish, bringing out the flavour of any herbs that you use. Depending on the size of your fire, an average trout will cook in about twenty minutes. Remove the fish from the embers and break open the pastry shell, it will be very hard, and very hot, possibly with glowing embers embedded on it, so take care. with a bit of luck, the fish skin will pull away with the pastry. Eat the fish. Try, and enjoy. "Tall Paul" Adams

VERY Cool, Not authentic, but VERY cool. Shades of Pirates of the Dark Water. (who Remembers that?) Now there is a live action movie of a TV cartoon that I wouldn't mind seeing.

IN AND IN In and In is a popular dice game at UK Pirate re-enactments. Its easy to play, and authentic to boot. It can be played with two or three players. Each player has Four dice and an agreed number of coins. A "pot" usually a small wooden bowl, or whatever is handy, is put in the middle of the table. The first player throws all four of his dice. if he throws a pair, i.e. Two 1's, two 2's, two 3's, etc, he calls "In !" and puts one coin in the pot. The other player (or the player to the first players left if it it is a three player match), then throws his dice. Again, if he throws a pair, he calls "In !" and adds another coin to the pot. This continues until a player throws an "out !" or an "In and In" If a player fails to throw two matching numbers, he cries"Out !". If this is a two player match, his opponent wins the pot, and a new game begins, if it is a three player match, this player sits out until the game is over, whils the surviving two players continue the game. If a player throws two pairs, he cries "In and In!" and he wins the whole pot. Once the pot has been won, that game is over, and a new game begins. a player who is sitting out because he has thrown an "Out" can now rejoin the match The match continues until until one player has won all of the coins. The time the Match lasts depends on the number of coins in play. I think that 5 or 6 coins is about right for a 3 player match. If a player has no coins left, he must throw an "In and In" (or an "out" if there are three active players) to stay in the match, if he throws an "in" he cannot meet his bet, so he mist quit and let the remaining players finish the match. Three matching numbers only counts as one pair ("in") Four matching numbers counts as two pairs ("In and In") I hope that this is clear, It is a lot more simple than it sounds, and it makes a good pub game, so you can play in and in in an inn. "Tall Paul" Adams .

I Just added myself, that makes 4 on this side of the Atlantic. I know that there are more than Two Brits in the pub, so where is everyone else Hiding? I think that part of the problem is that this topic is hidden away in EYOND PYRACY. This is the first time that I have ventured into these waters. Perhaps someone should put a signpost up in RABBLE ROUSING, or PIRATE CREWS, so that anyone not interested in non pirate topics knows that this map link is here. Cool Idea though "Tall Paul" Adams

These items have just turned up on ebay. They have all the trademarks of our old friend Pirates-R-us. Pirates Of The Caribbean Prop Padlock ANOTHER Pirates Of The Caribbean Prop Padlock Pirates Of The Caribbean Set Of 8 Prop Coins He is now trading as gmwholesaleparts and the clincher is yet another Jas Townsend Gorget sold as a prop from the Patriot The Patriot Movie Prop British Prop Gorget In the auction for the gorget, you will see a familiar Pirates-r-us trademark. An irrelevant still from the film to prove the items authenticity. This guy just win't stay dead. Tall Paul.

There is a pair of 18th Century mens Drawers in the V&A, (Thats the Victoria and Albert Museum). they are cut almost exactly like a pair of period breeches, fastening just below the Knee.

Thanks for all the great links, All very usefull. I am afraid that so far I have not been able to find the Dragoon pistol buttcap on the Track Of the Woolf webpage, perhaps I am looking in the wrong place. However, that Is exactly the sort of thing that I am looking for. I used to have a Blackley and son catalogue, they have a great selection, much better than the website would have you believe. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be answering the phone at the moment. Once again, many thanks, Tall Paul

Inspired by Patrick Hand's example, I tried putting a match to one of the tarred straw hats that I made up for last years Trafalgar event...... .......The resulting conflagration eventually spread to the house next door, and took three fire engines to extinguish. I am now living in a damp cardboard box on my garage, awaiting charges of arson and damage to property. .....Just joking, In fact, I was surprised at how difficult it was to get the tar to catch, although it did eventually ignite after dripping molten pitch all over the place. This was an interesting link, when you mention tar or pitch, most people think of the Bituminous road tar that is used nowadays, which can be highly toxic, and unpleasant to work with. If I remember correctly, there is a referance to extracting pitch from a local tree in Buccaneers of America. Tall Paul

Hello to all of you. I have decided to start a project of making myself a flintlock pistol. I have managed to source all of the parts that I will need, apart from the Butt cap, (The metal "Pommel" that goes on the end of the grip.) Can anyone suggest a supplier of parts for flintlock guns, who stocks butt caps. It would also be a great help if they have a website, as this will help to speed up the ordering process. The only place that I have found so far, is The Rifle Shoppe. http://www.therifleshoppe.com/ But I am reluctant to order from them. Not only do they have a very long order time, up to three months, but they have no pictures of their products on the website, sometimes they have pictures of the original guns that the castings are copied from, but that is no indicator of the quality of their stock. Has anyone had experience of buying from the Rifle Shoppe? Or can anyone suggest an alliterative supplier of pistol part castings? Thanks in advance for your help, Tall Paul

1640's to 88, I would suggest that you narrow your time window a little bit Hurricane. During that timeframe, mens costumes underwent significant changes. At the start of that period, men were wearing short doublets with baggy breeches, and by the time you reach the 1680's, the long coats and waistcoats that typify the early 18th Century had come in. I would suggest that you do a bit of research and find what decade of the 17th century matches the costume that you have or intend to get. in a previous post you commented If you ar dressing for this earlier period, instead of leaving your outer garment un-buttoned, or partially buttoned to the waist, as you would with a modern garment, only button the top two or three buttons, leaving the rest of the coat hanging open. It looks strange to modern eyes, but I have seen it enough times in period pictures to believe that this is how they overcame this particular problem. it chould work for costumes cut from the start of the century to around the 1660's/1670's give it a try anyway. As ever, I hope that this helps. Tall Paul

I am afraid that what you see is what you get on that site. I suppose that you could try a few googles and se if anyone has transcribed it. If you have any luck please let me know. Paul

How about a cookbook from 1705? It took some finding because my origional link no longer worked due to the website changing its system since 2002 when I first came across this volume. but here is a website facsimile containing a multitude of recipes. You will need to study the index carefully as it appears to contain food recipies and medicines listed alternately. This is because the book is written with Recipies from the front, and medicines from the back. Er...... The easy thing to do is to cut-and-paste the summery from the website. Summary: Recipe book containing medical and cooking recipes. Recipes for cooking are written from front to back; medical recipes comprise the larger section and are written from back to front with book reversed. Contains a table of contents for each section. A number of recipes are attributed to named individuals. here is the link. http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/codex...orkID=43&Page=1 I have tried to attach a link to the information page for this manuscript, but because the entire website is search generated, each url is unique and attempting to post ut causes it to revert to a search engine. So the best I can do is give you a link to the homepage, and a fwe keywords that may help. http://www.library.upenn.edu/ Author = Petre, D. Subject(s) = Cookery, English--Early works to 1800. Traditional medicine--Formulae receipts prescriptions--Early works to 1800. Form/Genre = Cookbooks. Recipes. Codices. Manuscripts I hope that this helps. Tall Paul

The second book listed, "http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10520/10520.txt - no date given, but the writing style suggests it's a few grizbillion years old." is one of three chapters from a book called "The Queens closet Opened" This section , "The compleat cook", Consists of recipies. The other two sections, "The Pearl of Practice", And "A Queens delight" cover Medical Remadies and confections respectivly. The Book was published in 1655 (During Cromwells rule), and claims to be a collection of the recepies used in the Royal Kitchens if King Charles I.

Thanks for that Red, Funny enough, I was considering buying a copy of feeding Nelsons Navy only yesterday. Reading your quote has rung a bell, I think that I recall the reference to fish going to the sickbay whilst reserching shipboard medicine. On the subject of Turtle soup, I used to live across the road from a family were closly related to the Lusty family (No jokes please) who made their fortune manufacturing canned Turtle soup. From what I remember, the soup was not unlike a slightly fishy consome soup and came with a small rectangle of turtle flesh which i think was a very pail colour with a slightly rubbery texture. But that was many years ago. You can still buy lusty's soups, but I am fairly sure that their turtle soup is now of the "Mock"variety

Loyalist arms have started to sell their locks seperately, Their new pricelist takes some finding, their prices for locks are lower than anywhere else I have seen online. I am seroiusly considering having a go at putting a pistol together as a personal project. The only part that I havn't been able to find a supplier for at a resonable price, is the butt cap (Is that the corrrect name for the brass "Pommel" at the end of the butt?) There is a very good supplier here in England, Very good, but VERY pricy I would prefer to use something a bit more basic for my first attempt. Anyone have any suggestions?

A bit of lateral thinking here, but given that black cloth was relativly hard to come by/expensive. And if it is possible that some flags at least were painted. White fabric would've been fairly plentiful on a ship, and if not, relativly easy to come by. Why not start with a sheet of white canvas (Or some other suitable material), and paint everything that doesn't look like a skull & Crossbones (or whatever) black? Instant black flag! Tall Paul

If you were at SWPF Cire, then we probably met eachother too. I just didn't rcognise you. In that case I have met Cire Foxe &Badger (Foxe & Badger??? )

Something that I forgot to put in my previous post, that has been worrying me, is that so far, I have found no reference to sailors setting lines or nets in order to catch fish. it seems unlikely that such an obvious source of protein would be left un-tapped. Perhaps it was so common that no-one thought that it was worth mentioning at the time, or perhaps modern authors don't think that caught fish is relevant to an essay about Naval provisions. or maybe I just haven't read the right book yet. But the closest I can remember seeing is an account of pirates robbing a fishing boat and taking the catch as part of their bounty. Can anyone think of an account of mariners supplementing their diet with fish?

Is there any way of pre-selecting certan factors? Gender for example, The first three names that it came up with for me were - Jaetty Faced Jill Old Midship Anna and Cask Charlotte I wouldn't mind, but I am a bloke!! I quite liked the ship name that came up though. The Vengeful Locust Something relentless and very distructive, I like it. Second choice, The Vengeful Revenge, Not so good. Anyone remember my modest attempt at creating a Pirate name generating formula? http://pyracy.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5523 If anyone can come up with a similar formula that works better, I would be glad to hear it. Although I tried, I couldn't do better tan this one. Tall Paul

Pirates would've been subject to the same problems of keeping food fresh as any other mariner during the age of sail. foods that would stay fresh for months on end had to be chosen. this usually meant either dried or salted. The following is the bill of fare during the late 18th and early 19th century, for a sailor in the Royal Navy. But the components are typical of the foods that would have been useable and available to sailors for centuries before. Monday: 1 pint of oatmeal, 2 oz of butter. Tuesday: 2 pounds of salt beef. Wednesday: ½ pint of peas, 1 pint oatmeal, 2 oz of butter, 4 oz of cheese Thursday: 1 pound of salt pork, ½ pint of peas Friday: 1 pint of oatmeal, 2 oz of butter Saturday: 2 pounds of salt beef. Sunday: 1 pound of salt pork, ½ pint of peas In addition to this each man would receive 1 Gallon of beer, and 1 pound of ships biscuit (or bread if in port) every day. The bread/biscuit probably represented an important source of complex carbohydrates, and the quantities, in addition to the oatmeal and the peas, was probably a good indicator of the energy requirements of a person working as crew on a sailing ship. Pirates, operating outside the law, would probably not have had the same access to merchants able or willing to provide cereal products such as grain or bread, as legitimate seamen. I would be interested if anyone has an insight as to how they would supplement this shortfall of carbohydrate in their diet. (If indeed they did, nutritional deficiencies seem to have been an occupational hazard of life at sea. The salt meat would have been soaked in water during the previous night, and then boiled. the ration for each mess, (group of men,) was marked by a number stamped onto a lead tag which was attached to the portion before it was cooked. (Very healthy) One of the perks of the cooks job was to collect the fat that rose to the top of the boiling pots. This residue was called slush, hence the cooks nickname of "Slushy". He would supplement his income by selling this slush to sailors for them to spread on their biscuit, (His slush fund?) I have prepared several pieces of salted pork, that my enactment group are still using after five years. Between shows, they live in a bag in my garage, and they still shows no sign of decay. It was said that a seaman eating whilst ashore could be recognised By the large amount of salt that he added to his food on account of fresh meat tasting bland to him. In the book Buccaneers of America, Exquemelin goes into some detail about how buccaneers provisioned for a venture. I do not have my copy handy, but as far as I can remember, for the most part it consisted of kidnapping a local turtle fisherman, and holding him captive until he caught enough turtles to meet their needs. some of these were kept fresh by turning them onto their backs. the rest were salted. Elsewhere in the book, Exquemelin goes into some detail about which species of turtle are best to eat. There is also an account of a band of buccaneers, who when an adventure went wrong, where forced to slaughter their horses, and salt the meat in order to provision themselves. Remember that Buccaneer, loosely translated means bacon maker, they started out as hunters, killing and preparing meat by smoking and drying it. So in the early days at least, they would have had an insight into preparing meat by this method. In the Galapagos Islands there is a cave containing the skeletons of many giant tortoises, each with a neat square removed from its shell. The story goes that this is where pirates butchered the animals for their meat.

Are you fishin' for compliments GoF? Because your site is pretty useful. Lots of helpful links. and good information. now you owe me a beer for the plug Paul

Hello Jib, I would refer you to my previous post. Since during the era when baldrics were worn, and for many years afterwards, (See Eds pictures) coats did not come with lapels, it is probably because your coat was not cut to be worn with a baldric. Without seeing the coat, I cannot possably comment. But it sounds like your coat is of a much later pattern. Paul

OK, Before some pedantic git points out that there are lits of illustrations of Medieval, and Dark ages AND Elizabethan sword belts, and so on. I had better poin tot that what I ment to say is that. The first illustrations of sword belts used during this era appear during the late 1670's, but they do not become commonplace until the mid 1680's.