William Brand

We hang about your tent, because you present such a hospitable camp and supply a generous table.

It would make a beautiful addition to kit, to be sure, but I often wonder if the combination (convenient as it might) makes for an awkward pistol and a clumsy hanger. If anyone would like to buy me one I'll do an extensive 30 year study.

This is why I haven't read it 'thoroughly'. The paper did provide some glossary terms and description I hadn't found anywhere else and confirmed some that I had found.

I say that you baby that truck, though I'd love to see you haul a bunch of Missouri cedar walking sticks.

Adam Cyphers should also be mentioned for his honorable attack on those period slops of his. Authenticity by grit and grime! Nice! That's a great shot of an up and coming re-enactor.

And a few of the Forsaken

Yes, I can't say enough about the Archangel presentation standards. Amazing kit and presentation.

Aye, sunset on December 2nd I believe.

Your kit is perfect for the Fort Taylor event. You should drive down and join us there.

I say this all the time, but if you plan to walk, get yourself a good stick. So many period drawings show sailors carrying a tall walking stick or a cane when ashore for use as a tool and protection. I love the checked shirt and slops.

They pass the muster and set the bar even higher.

I don't know the kit standards for St. Augustine, but I like the look you've gone for. I'm a big fan of the working man's sailor. I fixed the image links.

And some more...

Everyone stopped to stare at the buttons and ask about the overall construction. Even the most devoted Jack Sparrows asked how such a coat could be made, and by whom. Here are some more favorites of mine...

It's not a picture thread without Michael lacing someone up. Jessica and Michael at Fort de Chartres.

You're not kidding. I have a ship's biscuit that's three years old. That thing will break teeth of not soaked in rum or gravy. That biscuit is one of my favorite bits of 'kit' and I love showing it to people. They always look very surprised that such a thing is food.

This is one of my favorite outfits. First, because I 'get it', and second, it's well executed and M.A.D. Dogge puts on the proper pomp and circumstance.

My thanks to Becky Bodily Cousineau for taking this picture of me at the Utah Pirate Festival. Interestingly enough, I had more than one public attendee ask me if 'I was the only historically dressed pirate' at the event. I did not expect to get that question as often as I did, but I was delighted that so much of the public was looking for something more. The coat hanging behind me was a gift from Captain Sterling, and almost every pirate that came through the tent stopped to examine the hand covered buttons and tailoring.

I was so very sorry to learn the Mike Ameling died a few years back. I had no idea. The man was an amazing artist when it came to blacksmithing.

Chris Wills pointed me to this link for Jeff Pavlik, a Boulanger and historian out of Michigan. Jeff's site has some excellent descriptions, images and recipes for baking bread and other food of Colonial North America. http://colonialbaker.net/ The site even contains a write-up about the 'sea biscuit'. http://colonialbaker.net/english_sea_biscuit.html

None at my finger tips for convalescents, but the high mortality rate aboard ships in general due to poor living conditions and scurvy made your quote stand out to me. I remember reading (I think it was in "Batavia's Graveyard") that the Dutch masters would over hire a crew for any given ship expecting to lose as much as a third of the men before reaching the tropics.

Too Vaudeville.

We have many good men and women who number themselves among us, having never attended an event with us. Proximity is not requisite, only favored. What we should do is bring the better part of the crew to you for an event.

To lose so few is impressive, especially in the face of such significant losses in earlier years.

I found a cribbage board for $2 and this nifty little tic-tac-toe game for my ditty bag. Cost me 50 cents.