Iron Jack

Aye, Patrick, We be busy sailin,' pillagin,' 'n, plunderin' our weasely black guts out as usual! Upcoming: 4th OF JULY PARADE, REDWOOD CITY -OK, we just did this yesterday. Hotter than bejeesus backside, but lot's 'o fun as usual, and I got to "fire" me new "chicken gun" at the crowd as well, heh. BLUE FRONTIER RAID - FRIDAY JULY 29TH (unconfirmed) A large fundraiser for ocean conservation. Ongoing cruises with the good ship Royaliste -She just finished a cruise up the Sacramento River delta this weekend and is now back in port and getting ready for: TALL SHIPS 2005 - JULY 30TH & 31ST Piers 30/32 in San Francisco Check her out at - http://www.privateerinc.org NORCAL RENAISSANCE FAIRE PIRATE INVASION - AUGUST 17th & 18TH We invade, we drink, we tatoo, and generally create a ruckus. OJAI PIRATE FAIRE - SEPTEMBER 24th & 25th More big ruckus. And lot's more 'o course! Check us out at - http://www.talesofthesevenseas.com and sign the articles if'n ye dare. Plus, more and more of us scalawags keep showin' up at The Duke of Edinburgh's, Cupertino, Ca. every Thurs. night around 8PM for music, drinkin,' and a generally rowdy good debauch. So, feel free to slip in 'n drop anchor if ye've a mind to, mates.

Right ye be there, mate! Thankee fer the headsup! Couldn't find hardly a bloody thing to do in downtown! Stuck in the Renaissance Center all week (and over the weekend, when it pretty much be all closed. Bah!). Bloody HOT outside too! I did, however, pop into a couple of interestin' pubs while there and managed a glimpse of the "Maritime Sailor's Cathedral." (quoted from the "Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald"): "In a musty old hall in Det-ro-it, they prayed At the Maritime Sailor's Cathedral, blah, blah, blah . . ." So that was interestin.' Mostly got to sit in me room and practice me squeeze (squeak) box, so I did learn a couple 'o new ditties while there, so it weren't a totally wasted time. Payback be a real b*tch if ye be a noisy neighbor 'n be roomin' next to ole' Jack !

Ahoy, mates! Traveling to Detroit this week. Any interesting piratical things not be missed while I'm there? Haven't found any tallships that call the area home.

Me too! Makes me wish I were a kid agin! Wonder if she floats?

Mumbo Gumbo - Love Makes Me Stupid

Indigo Girls - Galileo Good workin' late music.

Old Hobb

Pretty fun hearin' the "bum, bum, bum, . . ." of the runnin' feet on the boardwalk after we made our first pass. Quite the stampede, eh Cap'n?

Captain

Jimi - Georgia Blues

-sushi- raw

Thankee mates! Found the thread in Cap'n Twill and it was very helpful. Don't know which method I will use yet , but I would suspect that a base coat of rigging tar finished off with linseed oil to cut down on stickyness would probably be what was readily available to the average sailor, but I'll let ye know how me "sailin' topper" comes along. By the by, Joshua, I've used the asphalt coating stuff before on my theatrical cannon barrels and it looks good but stays sticky for a loooooong time. Kept getting complaints from me mates of it coming off on their hands while they pushed the cannons in parades and whatnot (pirates be such wimps sometimes). Finally had to give them (the cannons, not me mates) a coat of good ole flat black latex over the asphalt stuff and that seems to have solved the problem.

shock treatment

Red Handed Jill - Methinks you be a different RHJ than the one that currently be ME cabin mate "Red-Handed Jill", heh (or maybe you be moon-lighting? ). Anyhoo, hope your photoshoot went well! In the past, I have successfully stretched a small Jas. Townsend hat-blank to me own big-headed size by just squirting 'er down with some warm water and shovin' er on me head for a while. I did this for Richard Brown's "Blackbeard" hat used for the last Buccaneers Ball (Richard has a pretty big noggin too). Worked out fine and I was a bit sorry to part with the hat because it fit ME so well after the soaking. Hey Patrick (or whomever might know) - Quick hat related question along the same lines: Have you any info. on the waterproofing technique originally used on tarpaulins or felt sailors' hats? I have a felt tricorn that I got from Jeff MacKay that has an oil and wax (?) finish that is waterproof as 'eck and looks quite a lot like the sailor hats that I've seem in museums. It's also very stiff. No tacking required (and it's been rained on!) Haven't hit MacKay up fer the recipe yet (his website claims it is a secret), but I have a felt topper that I'd like to experiment with turning into a right nice sailors' topper by adding the wax 'n oil finish. Any ideas? Anyone know? What was used before Scotchguard? How were oilskins originally made? I've done some web searches, but haven't turned up anything promising other than the DrizaBone treatment, which I will probably give a shot next.

FYI - A good source for very nice "period" pewter buttons be: http://jas-townsend.com/index.php The ones on my black "Sparrow" coat be slightly bigger than 1"D and I used 32 of em! They be a bit pricey at $.75 each, but they be way cool and very nicely done. Jas. Townsend does carry less expensive large plain pewter and brass ones as well. Red Handed Jill, me cabin mate, used smaller pearl-centered buttons on her "Sparrow" coat, but she used more of em. And the pearl buttons worked well for a more "gurlie" lookin' pirate coat.