PirateQueen

Ravenswood Leather I've never purchased through their site, but I've patronized their booth at faires. I absolutely love their shirts (the Swordsman, the Highlander and the Rogue I can vouch for), and their leatherwork is tempting.

Rumba, I believe Callenish wasn't so much recommending the site as he was recommending the vendor, having been a customer of theirs and presumably finding their products to be satisfactory. That's the sort of testimonial we need to hear from our pubmates especially when a vendor's site isn't as descriptive as we'd prefer.

Another little peeve of mine is seeing "Avast!" used when obviously "Ahoy!" was meant. "Avast" means "stop," not "hello."

Another item you might have, were you Catholic, would be a religious medal or two, maybe of a saint that could represent your struggle with your faith. Maybe St. Michael. On the other topic, voudoun still has a significant presence in the Caribbean, in places like Haiti and elsewhere.

If you were Catholic, one of the items you'd most likely keep close sentimentally would be a rosary. Prayer book or bible not so much. That would be more of a Protestant thing. Just my 2 sous.

"Aaaaargh" also seems to be associated with English pirates (or Scots or Irish). My persona isn't English, etc., so you'll never hear me say that. I also don't like reading "pirate-ese." I don't like having to stumble over interpreting non-standard contractions, nevermind that most people don't consciously write the way they talk, with all the appropriate apostrophes to indicate which letters/sounds they don't use in speech. So I tend to gloss over writing like that. Eef I were to do zat, I would be writing like zees, n'est-ce pas? Ridicule!

Didn't the officers on Roberts' ship refer to each other as Lord, and collectively call themselves the House of Lords? :) I think pirates would have used ranks they were familiar with, but also would have bucked convention, hence the tendency for the Quartermaster (or whatever they chose to call the person trusted to represent the crew in matters of importance) to have quite a bit of authority.

No doubt, and I think it would have been the job of the Quartermaster or whichever officer was seeing to the best interests of the crew to assure them of an accounting until the spoils could be shared out. I don't think plunder was often in the form of coins or something that could immediately be distributed. Plunder was often goods that they sold at the next port, after which they would split the proceeds.

I guess that speaks to the color question. Again, all Cordingly said (and perhaps at this point we are playing what I like to call the semantics game) was "most" common seaman wore blue coats. I don't know what he means by most, but I took that to mean that blue was quite a common color, and that's probably why later the British RN chose to adopt blue as the official coat color; but certainly coats came in other colors as well. I think we are agreed that the coat of the common sailor was short, regardless of the color, and that common sailors had been wearing short coats for some time, since short coats were worn by common folk and laborers, and sailors, I think, could be counted among the laborer class. One aspect of "pirate costuming" at faires etc. that I find amusing is the preponderance of the skull and crossbones motif. I doubt that pirates would have so blatantly advertised their illegal status, no matter how pirate-friendly the port. Perhaps the bolder fellows sported discrete symbols; but "most," no. Thoughts?

Just an observation on misquoting sources: most of the esteemed members of this pub, except for Monterey Jack, seem to have missed that Cordingly was describing what many common seamen wore in the early 18th century, including a short blue jacket over a checked shirt. He went on further to speculate that pirates wore variations of this traditional costume. He didn't state as fact that pirates wore short blue jackets over checked shirts. That said, I'd like to add to the discussion that I too find it incredibly lame when people adamantly insist that sunglasses similar to their Raybans were worn in the late 17th, early 18th centuries; and their buttoned-up granny boots can trace their design to the middle ages.

I was surfing the Video on Demand feature of my local digital cable service (Charter) and noticed they had a selection of current movie trailers. One of them was PotC2, and there was no cost to view it--as many times as you want. So if you have a similar service, you might want to check it out.

Anything by James L. Nelson, including: The Marlowe Series (The Guardship, The Blackbirder, The Pirate Round) The Only Life that Mattered (formerly published as The Sweet Trade by Elizabeth Garrett, a pseuodonym)--this is the best, IMO, novelization of Anne Bonny and Mary Read I have ever come across. Also try The Requiem Shark, by Nicholas Griffin, a novel about Bartholomew Roberts from the point of view of the ship's fiddler.

The Black Swan (1942, Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara) Captain Blood (1935, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland) Treasure Island (1990 made for TV, Charlton Heston, Christian Bale, Oliver Reed, Christopher Lee)

Go here, PRP Applicant Guide, see step #3. If you're coming in on PRP's gatelist, you should plan to spend some time with PRP in the encampment.

Smilin' Pete, you probably heard from me. I re-route email that comes to PRP's info@portroyalprivateers.org account, making sure it gets to the right people. I just looked you up, and you sent your application to the Info address, so I forwarded it at the end of June to our Secretary at membership@portroyalprivateers.org. Since then, you should have received a newsletter with some event info. As to the applicant process, go here:PRP Applicant's Guide. You need to contact the Secretary or the Event Coordinator to let them know at what event(s) you'll be auditioning. If you want Corona to be your audition, let them know. Email contact is fine.

Thank you, Foxe, I should have pointed out that the Newgate Calendar was the gossip sheet of its day, focusing more on sensationalism than fact.

Ever perused the Newgate Calendar? "The original series of this work, by R. Sanders, was published in five volumes in 1760 and narrated notorious crimes from 1700 till then." You can search on keywords at this site. Try typing in "pirate" and see what you get. Complete Newgate Calendar

James L. Nelson's "new" book: you know, of course, that this book was published a few years ago, but released under Nelson's pseudonym, Elizabeth Garrett, with the title "The Sweet Trade". I love Nelson's work, and "The Sweet Trade" was the best treatment of the Anne Bonney/Mary Read story I had ever read. No wonder! Nelson was actually the author!

GoF: Ain't a spelling error. "Receipt" is an old way of saying "recipe," not much used nowadays, but quite common in the 19th century and earlier.

I think Desert Pyrate is on the right track. Is this it? Vintage POTC ride postcard

I'm skeptical of that origin story. La Bamba is an old dance style from the Mexican state of Veracruz that probably traces back to indigenous folk roots more than anything. The song itself is a play on words, in Spanish. "Bamba" is probably from the word "bambolear" which means to sway or swagger, which could be stretched to mean someone who is being boastful. Pay attention to the lyrics and you'll hear, "I'm not a sailor, I'm a captain!" and "To dance la bamba, you need a little bit of grace/skill." During the dance, the man and woman tie a large ribbon into a bow knot with their feet, which takes a lot of skill and grace, and when they're done, it's definitely something to boast about. It's a clever dance. How that's being tied in to Laurens de Graf, I can't speculate. It's true that he was involved in a raid off Veracruz in 1683, but I've never seen that associated with La Bamba before, from any legitimate mariachi or folklorico organization. Here's an interesting tidbit about de Graf, from an AP news article, "New Research Shows Pirate Ships Gave Blacks Equality With Whites," by Bart Jones that appeared in newspapers Feb. 25, 2001: Arguably the most “successful” pirate ever was Laurens de Graf who was one of the buccaneers most feared by the Spanish and who led a fleet that peaked at 2,000 men, Kinkor said. De Graf eventually was pardoned by the French, given a minor title of French nobility and helped found Biloxi, Miss. In history books, de Graf is described as tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed and white. In reality, he was a black escaped slave. Historians lied about his color because they feared he would serve as an example to other slaves who also might revolt. “Historians did not want people to know de Graf was black,” said maritime historian James Nelson of Harpswell, Maine. “The thought of a black uprising was the most frightening thing in colonial America.”

Googled this: http://www.finishing.com/127/14.shtml Boil an egg, let cool, mash the egg yolk with your silver metal, fork-spoon-dish-whatever, place it in a sealed plastic baggie and put in the refrigerator overnight--both the silver and the yolk-and you will have a black silver tarnish in the AM. Two days for a heavier tarnish, or two eggs. Feed the residue to the dog or cat. James Watts - FL Also just happened to catch part of Haley's Hints on PBS earlier today. He showed how to remove tarnish from a copper piece with a lemon wedge dipped in salt. Tarnish came right off without scrubbing.

Excellent book, one of my favorites. I found out that the author was really James L. Nelson last month in the last issue of No Quarter Given. I was surprised at first, but then it made complete sense. I love Nelson's writing style, he's a terrific storyteller. I've only read his Marlowe series and also his Biddlecomb series, as well as The Sweet Trade, and they're all excellent. (I understand he's written some books about the Civil War, but since I'm not terribly interested in that genre, I haven't read them. I'll bet they're as enjoyable as the pirate and revolutionary war stories, though!)

LOL! Most of us here on this forum, otherwise we wouldn't be here! I know what you mean, and since I'm just interested in pirates in general, I do read the occasional pulp romance novel. I can recommend a few: Anything by Laura Renken. She wrote a trilogy, I think the first one was called My Lord Pirate, the second Night Shadow, and the third, Heart of the Condor. Good stuff. King of the Pirates by Stef Ann Holm was a nice bit of fluff. Honestly, I think Lifetime Network should make some of the better romance novels like this one into movies. I think they'd be great. Don't forget to try the "classic" historical romances like Captain Blood by Raphael Sabatini or Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier! I would caution against relying on pulp romance novels for historical accuracy. I've run across lots of inaccuracies in many a one! (Example, one was set in the early 1600s, but in one scene the heroine stumbled across some photographs--yikes!)

I didn't say it was all drivel, m'dear. There are "boards" on this forum for various topics, some are more serious than others, and some in between. I wouldn't call posts in the appropriate boards where people are getting to know each other drivel. I'm referring to what's being pointed out, that is, off-topic posts that add no value to a thread--the really useless stuff. It's distracting and off-putting.