William Brand

^ Many. < I'm making good on several this year alone. V What period item have you made that you are most proud of?

Aye, a dedicated mic. Your sound quality will go up considerably.

^ I'm trying out my new dremel stylus. It is very nice. < Now I have no excuse not to begin a few lingering projects. V Does anyone else here do woodworking?

^ Well, having studied Martinique for some time now, I'm tempted to go there. I think it could easily be my favorite and I haven't even been there yet. < I'm going over patterns I got from Kass. So much to do. V What costume projects are you currently working on?

Well...where do I start. I recently purchased five patterns from kass, including the 1700's Frock Coat, the 1670s - 1720s Lady' Riding & Hunting Outfit, the 1700s - 1730s Sleeved and Sleeveless Waistcoats, the 1680s-1730s Breaches and Sailor's Slops and the Late 17th/early 18th Century Accessories for Men and Women. First, let me say how pleased I am to have so many patterns at once. It makes me a little giddy. I now want to make everything at once, but I must exercise control. Second, the patterns look great. They are printed on large format paper and arrived in a large enough format, even while folded, to be filed easily in any filing cabinet. The instructions, both in the patterns and online, are concise and well written. I expect to be a proper dandy of a gentleman scoundrel come November.

Hetha...hello. It has been some time. Welcome back.

^ Aye. I've also been to a sturgeon farm. < It snowed for three minutes today. Lightest, most unexpected storm this year. V Is it spring yet where you are?

Captain Midnight. Thank you in advance for the cartridge box. The check is in the mail. You must be doing your share of business, because your inbox is full. -William Brand, Captain

July 30, 1704 - Martinique Tawny's mischief that early morning was not ended with the ending of Monsieur de Mofras. Tawny was feeling bloody. He craved the need for it on his hands the same way some crave clean water, for a hatred had been planted in his otherwise unfeeling and unnatural heart. The Watch Dog had become his enemy, for he thought of the ship itself as one living thing filled with so many organs to pluck out, but having no way to revenge himself upon her, he took to stalking farmhouses and cottage yards looking for that temporary fare to slake his thirst. It was a dangerous thing to be angry and Tawny understood this, for while it sharpened his resolve, it dulled his wits. He had tried now for two days not to become careless in emotion, hiding whenever he could and stealing only so much to survive and no more. Still, like an angry and wounded animal, he could not stave off the need to rend something in retribution for his pain. His whole body was worked with it and he suffered from his own ill-treated injuries, his ear being the least among them. Smells, unhealthy and boding of lost limbs, had crept into his flesh. He was under the shadow of a constant headache and his body felt weakened throughout. Anger had become the sauce he poured over all of this discomfort. Now he stood over the fallen and unknown man whom he had cleaved so easily. The murder had been satisfying to him in the moment itself, but he knew that any lingering satisfaction would be gone very soon. He also knew that his wanton need to hurt someone had created an inevitable dilemma. The more he killed, the more he would be hunted, so he grabbed up the young, would be sugar baron and hid him under a nest of old straw and wood beside the outbuilding. He used little care in doing so, for he had a plan after a fashion and the discovery of the body was just a piece of it. With the man hidden, he took up the wicked, chosen weapon again and found his way to the slave quarters. Here he discovered a shuttered window, left open to let in the night air, for the slave house was a long, low, suffocating place with little in the way of creature comforts. The slaves were bedded down on straw and mattresses made of leaves and old blankets. They lay in longs rows in one common room, and while their accommodations seemed sparse, they were treated well for a sugar laborers and left to sleep the nights away unguarded. Tawny peered in at the window and found himself hovering over a slave girl of some eight or nine years who lay on the straw next to a larger man of similar features. Perhaps they were father and daughter. Perhaps they were siblings. Tawny hoped it was one or the other. He smiled and purred to himself they way the madd do in asylum corners. He set the cruel instrument of murder which had defeated Monsieur de Mofras next to the slumbering man, and with a skill known only to pickpockets and predators, he grabbed the girl up through the low window before she could utter any protest. With one hand clamped over her mouth and another about her panicked body, he slipped away into the dawning Martinique. ~Starboard Watches on Duty~

Today's special is Rigatoni with olives and bacon...

Harry has witnessed and heard witness of other witnesses that it is indeed haunted. He says that pirits of departed soldiers have made their presence known on numerous occasions.

Basile Duflot de Mofras was the eldest son of his departed father. He had already been a man of twenty-one years when his father had died of yellow fever, a disease brought to Martinique by the slave trade. Basile, though considered young by some, had proved to be an able provider for the large family left behind by the departed family patriarch. He was the industrious boy now turned man that his father had made of him. Basile walked the grounds of his family's modest estate. It was early yet and still dark, for Basile was up long before the sun. He was already walking the rows of buildings which dotted the new sugar plantation, just now blooming from investments across the sea. The property would soon blossom under Basile's control, and with far less suffering in human commerce, for Basile did not favor slavery. Still, he was pragmatic and the plantation was obliged to maintain the use of some purchased men and women for awhile yet, and Basile mused on this as he entered one of the larger outbuildings on the property. He was there for several minutes, pacing and thinking, and at first he noticed nothing amiss. The building was quiet, as he expected that it would be at this hour, but as he lingered, the mathematics in his head slowly gave over to something else. One moment he was calculating the income that his endeavors would bring and the next his skin was crawling with an alarming clarity that Basile himself could not understand. He had instincts to be sure, for he had used them wisely in many a financial matter over the last two years, but nothing quite like this had ever overcome him. The hair on his arms and neck seemed to stand on end as his skin goose-fleshed. He suddenly felt smaller than at any time in his life, including the time his father had slipped away in fever. He did not like the feeling one bit. Also, and Basile found this strange, he could swear that the odor of old cheese had crept into the place. Then the silence of the place was broken by a sound not unlike wind followed by a thick and solitary thump, wet and deep. Basile looked down to see seven inches of curved metal protruding from his waistcoat just above his right breast. He dropped the lantern out of his hand and it almost sputtered and died, but didn't. He felt the end of the garden scythe jutting from his chest and turned to see who had assailed him, but could only make out the two shadows on the wall cast by the fallen lantern. One shadow was his and the other belonged to something else. Some tall and twisted thing. 'My negro Thomas has killed me.' he thought and he tried to say as much aloud, but it just came out abbreviated, sounding like 'Taw...Taw...Taw...' before he slumped over dead on the ground. Tawny smiled at this, finding providence in the man's pronouncement as he plucked out the garden implement.

You're welcome, and William will do. I'm often called Mister Wake, but "Red Wake" is a nickname. William Brand is my pirate name, but William will do.

Ravens. They make tools, mimic other animals and like shiny things.

And save your money for Pirates in Paradise. The festival is not to be missed.

I know there is a strong need to know everything about the festival at this time, but some questions about the overall festival and the fort itself cannot be answered quite yet. We have to be patient for the time being. Meanwhile, let us all focus on the small stuff that we can and should be working on. Hurricane is already doing his part very well in oganizing all that he must do to ensure that the Port Royal encampment runs smoothly. The Mercury group is doing the same, little by little, and the Red Coat camp is growing. We must not sweat the small stuff... Recuitment Basic or improved kit, depending on the individual Individual camp needs These three things are the most important, and after them comes the larger picture when more answers are available to us. As the year passes, I will post all necessary updates. Things that we know so far... All of the encampments (i.e., 1680 Port Royal, 1720 Mercury Careening Camp, The Red Coat encampment and the Sutlers Camp) will all be camped in the trees South and West of Fort Zachary Taylor. We will have limited access to some parts of the fort. We will be using the Western side of the fort and the ramparts facing the ocean for some activities and battles. Each camp will portray and control their own needs. Each camp will have at least two campfires to be maintained and carefully watched by the members of that camp. Wood will be provided as it was in years past. Water will be available for our use. It will also be required for fire safety. See above. Several battles will take place at the fort, camps and throughout the park. The camps each have their own prefered modes of dress and kit. Please see the indivdual threads for assistance and instructions. People who are not staying at the camps due to health requirements or comfort or lack of accomodations may still participate in activities along with anyone else and they should be encouraged to ask questions and volunteer. The more the merrier. There will be law enforcement present. This is due to park regulations. Don't worry. This presence will be small and it exists only to keep things safe should safety by required. Our own individual safety should by governed by our own common sense. Participants who are camping on site can arrive as early as Tuesday, November 27th and stay through Monday, December 5th and Pirates camp for free. The Wolf will do sailing trips as always. If you haven't seen a sunset from the Wolf, you haven't seen the sun set. There will be a hanging or two. Come witness a hempin' jig. There are bathrooms. There may be multiple shower options this year. Warm and cold. There are events outside the fort. Harry has asked us to visit schools and help promote the festival in any way that we can. We should be aware of the End of Hurricane Season Party, the Walk the Plank Competition, the Parade and the many other events llisted on the Pirates in Paradise website. And last but not least, we're going to have a Hell of a good time. Oh yes.

Ol Man From the Sea. Check. We spoke on all subjects concerning Pirates in Paradise and it was a good long conversation. We discussed the good and bad things about an ever evolving festival and what we could do as individuals and as a group to make the event even better. It was an excellent conversation and I'm looking forward to PIP even more. Harry Silkie Red Cat Jenny Dorian Lasseter Siren, Captain of the Poseidon Red-Handed Jill Maeve Jim Hawkins Kass Ol Man From the Sea

I hope I haven't alarmed anyone with the question of officers. To put all of your minds at ease, we are not proposing an officer heavy crew. Quite the contrary. There won't be any cumbersome politics. There won't be any heavy handed authority or ordering. Just a few individual positions for someone who has the will and the know-how to play a roll. We're trying to answer the ongoing question of what each of us can do and would be willing to do at camp. The majority of the camp is and will be filled with your everyday, able bodied, pirates. If you are still uncertain about any issues presently being discussed, feel free to get in touch with me through chat or private messages. I know that a forum can be a deceiving medium of discussion and sometimes we may define upcoming plans and events rather poorly, so you may contact me with any clarifications and questions you may have. I'll even discuss matters by phone. I'm very glad to see so many people planning and striving to improve the camp.

Positions might have been a better word than officers. So, the 'position' of cook, the post of Doctor, and so forth. All of us are pirates, but pirates and something else... Pirate and cook. Pirate and carpenter. Pirate and cartographer. An aid to some small order, but more than this, a distribution of preparation. If someone plays the ship's carpenter, or just one of many ship's carpenters, they could study all of the material necessary to educate the rest of us and the public. A carpenter could collect the period kit of tools to use there at the festival. They could also run the manning of the pitch pots (which Harry has agreed to let us have at camp if we can find pitch and pots). A ship's Doctor could also prepare a necessary kit. Capital knives, cauteries, forceps, tenaculums, bullet probes, saws, catlins and so forth. Then after the twice daily battles with the fort we would have a surgeon to bear our dead to.

The location of the trial is in question due to the construction at the fort. With construction beginning in July, we might not know until then, and it may be a decision that is made once we are there. I will let all of you know once Harry has more information for us.

Welcome aboard, Sil. Don't be self-conscious about any level of understanding you may have on the many subjects of pyracy. We all come into this hobby with varying degrees of understanding, and then only based on what we have learned right or wrong. You'll find some very good people here and more than enough shared information to add to what you know, so feel free to share what you have learned and ask what you want. Pyracy is the tideline between real and imagined.

Aye, no politics. The play's the thing. It would be used primarily as a designation of who is who, not a distribution of power or work loads. It would just be nice to turn to someone and introduce them as "able seaman" or "Coxswain". It would also be played out on the stage of combat, especially when someone falls. Example... "They've killed the Quartermaster! Show no mercy!" ...and so forth.

I've been asked by several people attending the festival if the Mercury Camp will have any officers, so I put the question to the Mercury attendees. Will we have anyone playing officers in the Mercury Camp (i.e., Quartermaster, Bosun, Coxswain, Cook, Steward and everything else)? The question has come up due to some proposed battles and living history plots for the event. We previously discussed having nothing but able seaman. Are we opposed to some officers and appointments? If you have strong opinions on the matter, remember, keep it friendly. The question and answers to it will determine some of the planning for the various camps.

As far as the draughts go, I'm very happy with the print shop I always use here. Besides, it is just six blocks from my house, so I can proof at a moments notice. We will be printing other things though, so do check into it. We might consider the Key West map for the other shop, especially if they can do 24 x 36. That's...well...huge.

I have updated the most recent names and altered the format of the Roll Call to reflect all of the camps. Please let me know of any corrections.