William Brand

I have a pole hatchet that I use as a tool in camp. It came in handy when driving in the tent stakes, and it was carried into at least one skirmish. Still, a stone will drive a stake as easily as a tool plucked from off ship.

Exquisite work. Most commendable.

As of today, we are well over the 80 pirate mark. This is a good year for numbers.

"Thou must have a good time." "Thou must not bathe above three times in a fortnight."

August 6, 1704 - The Navarra First bell of the First Dog Watch Amador Pessoa was not a man of surpassing wit, and as the first bell came and went he was found among his fellow crewmen puzzling over the words of De la Cruz. He looked down at the food set before him, but the phrase 'You're almost fat enough' kept going through his head and this put him off his food. "Are you not hungry...?" said a fellow sailor, reaching for his plate. Pessoa brushed him away hard enough that he almost upset the man and the bench he sat upon. There was some good humored chuckles at this. Then Pessoa began eating meager bites, if only to stave off those who watched his full plate greedily. He chewed the food with no real relish, but accepted more of it all the same when the cook came by offering second helpings. "You never serve twice." Pessoa observed. "We're shy a man, I think." the cook said, serving the extra fare to the few who'd have it. Then the cook looked about. "Where's that cousin of yours...?" Pessoa grunted and glanced around the room unconcerned. He seldom thought of Zapatero as his cousin, for they were but distantly related on his mother's side. Zapatero was nowhere to be seen. Pessoa shook his head and was returning to his food when something in his stomach went very cold all at once. He stood up a little, but not so straight as to bump his head on the overhead beams. He peered into the badly lit corners and edges of the room. Zapatero was not there. He set aside the plate and began moving about the lower deck, slowly at first, and then carelessly shoving sailors aside as a momentum of concern built in his guts. There might have been protests at this, had it not been for a kind of stern, almost frantic expression on Pessoa's face. Then Pessoa found himself facing the Lieutenant across an open space in the throng. De la Cruz was looking at him with no real expression. He had just chanced to be standing there when Pessoa looked his way. Pessoa blanched at the emotionless face, for there was something there in the young man's eyes. Something purposeful which gave Pessoa pause and understanding at the same time. De la Cruz did not speak, but Pessoa could hear the words from before in his mind just the same. 'Your blood is in the water, Pessoa.' Pessoa's jaw tightened, for the Lieutenant's words had not been metaphoric at all. He now knew the purpose of the shots he had heard before and the cost of them.

Then welcome aboard the Mercury, Lad.

Thank you for the consolidation of threads. Wow. We seem to have a great many things to say about this festival.

August 6, 1704 - The Watch Dog Faustino Quinones watched Tudor from the far edge of 'Port Spain', a nickname given to the frigate's port side by Robert Hollis, owing to the many Spaniards housed among the guns there. Faustino, one of many onlookers, watched Tudor with an altogether different interest than the others. While his fellow Spaniards continued to appreciate the Steward openly, remarking time and again about the Captain's 'luck', Faustino kept his opinion to himself. He agreed with them on some level, for the women was fair, but his estimation of her were loftier and born of other desires. His envy of the Captain stemmed not to base needs but to the idea of having a Steward at all, and the other luxuries touching the Captain's position aboard ship. Faustino was man of ambition. More to the point, he was a man of opportunity and this was an opportunity like no other.

Tudor found Lazarus seated on an unmarked cask. He had a rudely turned pottery cup in his hands filled with something dark. He smiled to see her walk in, but it was a thin thing. He was tired. The galley had a kept heat to it that was stifling, and what little air came in by the weatherdeck door only served to remind them that it was only just a little cooler out there. Syren was at the door, fanning herself with a plate. She looked both better and worse for the day's work, but she was on her feet. A Spaniard remarked on her not ten feet away and she didn't so much as roll her eyes. Lazarus started to get up when the Steward came in, but Tudor waved him down. She helped herself to the rum barrel, measuring off a healthy ration. Then she served out some food for herself and ate standing. Everyone was quiet, content to share the room without talking. Lazarus uncovered a coper pot, revealing a fair sized bottle and nodded at it, but Tudor waved it off. Then Christopher Newstubb was at the door begging the use of a good knife, for he could not find his own. Lazarus shook his head with a wry grin and sent the man again with a kitchen knife almost too long to be practical. Like the rest of the ship, the kitchen had settled into routine.

Did I say wonderful? I meant, remarkable.

Wonderful work. Very well done in my estimation. I look forward to the finish.

Bienvenue, Monsieur. You should begin your own event where you are and we'll travel there.

I'm sure that I can get them up to 4X, so that's no problem.

I own it and I have found it useful, as have other pirates on the Pub hoping to build and understand such things. It's a good, simple book with easy instruction.

At first I didn't laugh, but as it progressed into absurdity, I couldn't stop laughing. Yes. I know the type. Best to come from humble beginings and to have stories of bad luck, fair luck, and good luck in honest proportions.

Right...I have May on the brain. Fixed.

Ransom has already answered this one.

I have long wanted to design a shirt which touches on my two obsessions. Pirates and Firefly. I've finally done just that with my Pirate Shirt (Pirate/Sea Rover as it translates into Chinese) by creating something that Jayne or any pirate might wear comfortably about their respective ships. I'm selling these on both men and women's shirts for $20.00. This cost covers shipping and the shirt. Please send payments to my paypal account at sweet_h2o@excite.com by June 11th. Shirts ordered on or before June 2nd are only $18.00, so take advantage of the discount. Wear them with pride at your next shiny shindig or pirate gathering.

And for dessert...flaky pastries stuffed with vanilla cream.

Absinthe...

Tonight's special is Spanish style baked fish with herb crust...

And what an excellent attempt indeed. My compliments, sah.

Here, here. And as we have service men and women who are members of our fine Pub and Pyracy community, the holiday strikes close to home. May we see another year without any friends or family lost. Raise a glass to the fallen.

My mind sees Historical Interpretation and Pop-Culture Interpretation completely differently. For example, when I see the sailors in Master and Commander I think 'clothing', but when I see the sailors in a POTC I think 'costumes'. It's the same for Renn Faires. When I see a guy in an Elizabethean collar and the finery of the age I think 'clothing', but when I see a guy in an open silk shirt and frippery I think 'costume'. I never think of History versus Hollywood. My mind separates them instinctively into clothing or costumes. EDIT: I must agree with the good fellow below. I would like to see a monmouth cap or two from time to time.

I was bored today, so I wrote this up and posted it on FireFlyFans.net... The following observations are the rantings and ravings of a Firefly fan with too much time on his hands. I'm having a slow day. Sue me. When Firefly came out in 2002, the available materials on the subjects of canon were very limited, but for those few things displayed on screen in what can only be described as a very irregular broadcast schedule. Fans that were fans from the word 'go' clamored to understand every little detail of the Verse, for there is no fan like a Firefly fan. One of the issues that arose early on, perhaps more among the prop-making uber-fans than anyone else, was the question concerning the symbols and emblems of the Independents. One of the earliest to pull ahead in the race of prominent symbols, especially among us Browncoats, was the patch (and the later theoretical flag) of the Independents. At first, the most prevalent example of the patch (the ever-present star and bars) was that one which appeared on the coat worn by actor Nathan Fillion as he portrayed Mal. Mal is seen wearing this coat in two important battles in the series. Indeed, it is the first easily viewable appearance of the patch, though it is actually shown on several soldiers before Mal appears in the scene. Because of this, it was, and often still is assumed that the patch is intended to be worn as it is shown on that coat alone, as if no other coat exists. More rabid fans that were blessed to actually record the sporadic airings of Firefly, noticed that not all of the soldiers in those scenes wore the patch in the same direction. A few people commented on this seemingly confusing wardrobe issue, but it did not circulate widely amongst the early fans. As time went by, more and more of us became interested in the limited fan based collectibles of the Verse. At the time, there was no official Blue Sun shirt, no Jayne shirts, and almost no real merchandise to speak of. Still, even in the merchandise infancy of the Verse there was a fan based interest to possess all things Firefly. The patch of the Independents remained in the forefront among many popular coveted items, so several aspiring fan-capitalists created early renditions of it. Each of these possessed the traditional star, yellow bars and green background, though many showed the star as black. As the output of homemade and mass produced patches became available, the question of orientation began to spread. Some cried,"Star point down." Some cried, "Star point up." Many fans created mythologies that were not mentioned in the original writing at all. And the debate (although mostly subject to personal interpretation) went on. Strangely enough, many of the people most interested in the answer to this question agreed equally that the best way to resolve it was to get the answer directly from the horse's mouth. Or in other words...from Joss himself. People on both sides of the question agreed that if Joss were to answer this question, the debate would end and all Browncoats would accept this final authority in full, as one might have expected them to do. Not so. When the Companion volumes for Firefly were released to the public, Shawna Trpcic stated that the star was always intended to be worn star point up and triangle point down. Shawna Trpcic was the series costume designer for Firefly. She is the designer that created the patch for the Independents. Indeed, she created the entire look and feel of their uniforms and the vast majority of costumes for the series. Essentially she's the Betsy Ross of the Browncoats, but this fact proved unimportant. Some said, "She's just a designer, not the creator of the show." Some said, "She designed it, that's the way it should be." More unusual than either of these two responses was the prevailing third response. The supporters of make believe. These are the ardent fans that are so loyal to Mal as a character, that they endow anything related to Mal as an extension of Mal. That is to say, anything about Mal is gospel. You see, Shawna Trpcic explained that Mal is seen wearing the patch upside down because of a wardrobe mistake. Nothing more. Nothing less. Someone working within the wardrobe department sewed it on upside down. The coat specifically created and aged for Mal's character just happened to bear this mistake. This means that by shear luck, Mal's coat is wrong. This news seems to have had no effect on the staunch supporters of the wardrobe error. In fact an entire mythology about Mal's choice to wear it in this fashion has pervaded the fans of Firefly for years, with several strong reasons heading the list. These mythologies, once appealing during the time of the unanswered question, now continue on by momentum alone. They are perpetuated in complete disregard for the original creator and fans of Firefly repeat them with a hushed reverence in a headstrong attempt to make the mythology of an error into something more substantial. In short, Mal made the decision. Not the misguided seamstress. Not fate. Mal. Where are those fans that said they would defer to the word of Joss? Tim Minear (executive producer), Gareth Davies (producer) and Joss himself all signed off on Shawna Trpcic's designs, but this has made only a marginal difference in the opinions of the fans themselves. Instead, we've created new questions. Are we Browncoats or Malcoats? All of the other Browncoats in the series are seen wearing the star point up, as intended. Therefore it stands to reason that a Browncoat is one who wears the emblems and accompanying symbols of the cause of the Independents as a whole, thereby supporting the veterans and fallen soldiers of the Independents, rather than adhering to the cause of single soldier. Can canon exist where canon is refused? Yes. I'm rambling at this point, and yes, I recognize that this is far less important than the issues of unemployment and world hunger, but humor me. How many people out there are star point up and how many are star point down? The questions keeps appearing in various forums, so let's get a headcount. Let's see where people stand on this altogether trivial matter before I wax fan-pseudo-philosophical again. I need to lie down. And before anyone from the 76th gets their costumes in a bind, relax. As I've stated elsewhere, a battalion or regimental patch is different as it represents a smaller group of the whole, not the whole itself. Therefore, the patch of the 76th can have the star upside down, borrowing the emblems of the whole to define their own unique place within it.