Creed

Great pictures. I hope you sunk t'other ship on the first shot!

Happy birthday shipmate. Drink a few fer me!

I'm reading the biography of Commodore John Paul Jones. During his tour of duty in the Delaware Bay onboard the Alfred while waiting for the ice to melt he would keep his crew in line by "Exercising the guns".

The Alfred's guns were 9-pounders and were mounted on wooden wheels carriages. In the exercise, the gun crews were assembled by drumbeat to man their posts (a predecessor to today's General Quarters). The Chief Gunner would check his equipment and ensure that the cartridge boxes were full. It was the responsibility of the younger crewmembers, actually most were boys, called "powder monkeys" to ensure that the powder cartridges were never empty. It took 11 orders to prep, fire and prepare a cannon to fire again. Their order of call went as follows:

1. Cast Loose Your Guns - muzzle lashings taken off guns and coiled; breach lashes secured and associated spikes, sponges, etc. put into place

2. Level Your Guns - the muzzle of the gun was made level with the deck.

3. Take Out Tampions - the stoppers, or tampions, were removed from the cannon's muzzle.

4. Load with Cartridge - a bag of powder with a wad behind it is placed in the muzzle and rammed in.

5. Shot Your Guns - the cannonball or other shot is rammed in.

6. Run Out Your Guns - the men bowse them outboard until the carriage hits the vessel's topsides and the muzzles are sticking out.

7. Prime - the touchhole is primed with gunpowder from a powderhorn

8. Point Your Guns - the cannoneer who attends the lighted slow match brings it near the breach, kneels down and blows gently on the match to keep it alight.

9. Elevate Your Guns to the Utmost - the other gun crew members, by means of a side sight, adjust the gun and draw a bead on the target

10. Fire - when the top sights of the cannon are on target, the cannoneer applies the lighted match to the touch hole and the cannon fires.

11. Sponge Out Your Guns - a sponge at the end of a stave or a stiffened rope dipped in water is rammed down the muzzle and twisted to extinguish any sparks and to remove and bits of cartridge.

After this, the gun is prepped again for firing.

Ref: John Paul Jones: A Biography by Samuel Eliot Morison

It sounds to me that it was all well worth the crash!!

"Over the Barrel", aye, how I miss the days of floggin'. I be knowin a few of me mates who be needin' one now an again.

I be kinda of short on the pyrate garb but I'll do me best anyhow.

~ Creed/ Mike

As I don't seem to be having duty that day. I just might take a trip with me family and check out what the landlubbers have to offer. :)

I seem to rank up there with Homer Simpson on the Drink-O-Meter ... DOH!

Here be a good link on learnin' ta tie knots!

http://www.boatsafe.com/marlinespike/knots.htm

Alas, Nay, I won't be able to go. I'll be at sea durin' tha' time. Perhaps next year.

From me own experience, wot works for me is to keep a full stomach (crackers n bread work best), take 2 Dramamine, keep busy an if ya get a headache take a nap. Eventually, yer body will get used to the rockin'. They used ta call it gettin' yer sea legs.

Hampton Blackbeard Festival

Ahoy, mateys. Be sure ta check out de Hampton Blackbeard Festival in lovely Hampton, Virginia bein' held on de 5th & 6th of June 2004.