Capn_Enigma

Just FYI: I was a real sailor, having been in the merchant navy for a decade, so I'd rather prefer you not to patronize me, thankyou. Now, back to the thread!

Unfortunately, my previous post about the "effectiveness" of the US (or any, for that matter) Navy is corroborated by this article on CNN. Note in particular the sentence "Four other ships in the region remain in pirate hands, the Navy said." Had it not been for the valor of the freighter's sailors, the Dai Hong Dan would have been the fifth.

LOL! You are joking, right?

I see that he can dance, too. But he'd have a real hard time beating the real thing.

A noisy parrot that likes to imitate sounds helped save a man and his son from a house fire by mocking a smoke alarm, the bird's owner says. Shannon Conwell, 33, said he and his 9-year-old son fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie. They awoke about 3 a.m. Friday to find their home on fire after hearing the family's Amazon parrot, Peanut, imitating a fire alarm. More here.

Modifications of this plot are almost 25 years old: The Crimson Permanent Assurance by Monty Python.

Pirate attacks increase worldwide Pirate attacks worldwide jumped 14 percent in the first nine months of 2007, with the biggest increases off the poorly policed waters of Somalia and Nigeria, an international watchdog reported Tuesday. Reported attacks in Somalia rose rapidly to 26 up from eight a year earlier, the London-based International Maritime Bureau said through its piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And some of those hijackings have turned deadly. More here.

U.S. ship held in $500M booty row Spain has again seized an American treasure-hunting ship over a dispute with its owners over who has rights to millions of dollars worth of booty recovered from the sea, officials said. Spain seized the "Odyssey Explorer" -- owned by Odyssey Marine Exploration based Tampa, Florida -- as it sailed out of port in the British colony of Gibraltar on Tuesday. More here.

Pirates Of The Burning Sea. "Releasing POTBS for the next year since 2002." Read more.

Thankee! And here is the final result. The color is more purple than blue, but it only looks more dapper that way, don't you find?

Success! This was the result after I soaked the logwood chips in distilled water over the night, let them boil for half an hour and added a minute quantity of alum solution to the filtered extract: This is already a diluted solution, as the basic extract is an extremely dark blue- purple color and almost impossible to photograph. Thanks to all involved, especially to GoF! Now i will see if this is light- fast and then I will fill my weather glass with it. "Perhaps today is a good day to dye!" (Lt. Cmdr Worf)

It is the same as I wrote above in connection with cochineal: To fill a weather glass with "properly" dyed water. I obtained alum today, tried it and it looks promising: Mixed with extract of logwood, it gives a purplish color, not unlike the water from boiled red cabbage. When diluted, it becomes a light purple. I'll have to find out whether it is a light- fast color, though. Of cochineal, I already know that it is, so no problem there. BTW: While digging around the net for instances of logwood, I came upon the following sentence: "The use of logwood was prohibited by law in England from 1581-1662" which, if true, might be of interest to other reenactors. Anyone confirm this?

Thank you both! Meanwhiles, I have found out how to extract the pigment from cochineal: I crushed 5 grams of the dried bugs in a mortar, and soaked them in 300 ml of water over night. Then I boiled up the solution for a quarter of an hour and filtered it (through coffee filter paper). This gave me an extract that is very rich in color, which gave a rich wine red color even when heavily diluted with water (1:4) I used the cochineal extract to fill a weather glass like this in an authentic way: I am still looking for a way to dye water blue. When I try the same approach (soaking, boiling) with logwood flakes, the water only becomes reddish/ brownish. Any ideas? N.B.: Indigo will not do, as it is only very badly soluble in water and would stain the glass.

Good one, Hurricane. Hadn't thought of him at all. Off the top of my head, I'd name the "Lords" of Bart Robert's crew: Valentine Ashplant, Messrs. Hardy, Sympson, Magnes, Sutton & Moody.

You can keep your Bluebeards and your Blackbeards. The most successful pirate of all time controlled a fleet of more than 1,500 ships and upwards of 80,000 sailors -- and she did it all without the help of facial hair. More here.

I discovered a source for logwood. I purchased 200 grams of it, which should suffice for my purposes. I want to dye a small amount (think of half a can of coke) of water blue with it, NOT any fabrics. So, does anybody know how to extract the blue dye? I guess just cooking the wood chips isn't enough, is it? Same question, for cochineal: How are the dead bugs to be treated to release their red color? I hear that they are ground, but is that all?

Edit: [DELETED] Sorry, got the wrong thread.

History is a science, and printing an opinion to the contary in all the big letters of the world and with utter negligence of punctuation or grammar does not change that fact.

that was the one thing i wanted to hear all along.its what i was trying to say from the beginning. Physically, there is a (albeit minute) possibility that all the molecules in a pig (or any other body) start moving upward and that it starts flying. How many pigs have you seen flying today? Even if there is a chance that it may happen, common sense tells us that it does not. Hence, one can practically rule out the possibility. This is called an "educated guess". The possibility alone does not make facts, it is the things that one can or can not prove that make facts. The operating words are "believe" and "think". A gut feeling does not prove anything, neither one way nor the other. At best, beliefs impair individual judgement, at worst, they antagonize science per se.

Google Earth has several map overlays for the late GAoP: To activate them, go into the "Layers" window and expand the "Gallery" and the "Rumsey Historical Maps" subdirectory. There you will find a choice of late and post- GAoP globes and maps for overlay over the usual satellite pictures. Enjoy!

Doesn't that mean: "They look upon me as their Cacique and Captain, and when going to war, I paint my face"?

Silkie, as kass has already pointed out on page 1 of this thread, Unless you can prove that there were tattoos around, you don't have a leg to stand on. It is your belief, and you are entitled to that. But belief does not belong into Twill. It belongs into church. What does count in Twill is facts.

No pix whatsoever, neither in the auctions nor in your sig here. This one is the best I got from ebay:

Normally, paintball is rapid fire. If you slow down the cadence to shall we say one ball per minute per weapon, then it would be realistic... and boring to death. But you could always enhance things by throwing your weapon after firing it or turn it around and club your adversary with the butt. So in short- not a good idea.

As A. O. Exquemelin wrote, buccaneers were compensated for loss of eyesight in battle: