kass

I agree with Foxe. Hem those edges, Matusalem! But I would wear the red and white cotton until you can find something in linen. The checks sound alright to me.

You guys are incorrigible! Okay. The quick and dirty. For beginners. Nothing deep. Shirts -- typically white. Can be checked blue and white or another colour and white. Never a solid colour. {Okay. There are "blew" shirts mentioned in inventories, but they aren't nearly as prevalent as white. White is the default colour and therefore the safest choice.} Waistcoats, jackets, frock coats, breeches -- brown, grey (charcoal and dove), blue, red, green, yellow, tan and variants of these. Avoid black (it's expensive) and bright colours. Something that looks like it's had the "shine" taken out is best. White is a bad idea too. Stick with solid colours. Striped waistcoats and breeches are known, but be conservative. Tops and bottoms do not have to match, colourwise. They do not even have to "go together" in the modern sense. So wear a blue jacket with red breeches -- it's cool! Dressing yourself in coordinating shades of blue just will look wrong... Slops and trousers -- canvas coloured. That's hemp canvas, so tannish grey. Or "sail colour". Kerchiefs -- any colour Stockings -- any colour I think that's it. Foxe?

I've been reading "Under The Black Flag" slowly for a couple of weeks now and I have something to contribute to this discussion. Overall, I like Cordingly's writing style. It's very conversational and for this reason I find it an easy read. I think it's a great book to give someone as their intro to the history and people of the Golden Age of Piracy. But oh my God! Cordingly's organisation of subject matter makes me insane! Take for instance Chapter 5: Storms, Shipwrecks and Life at Sea. He starts out talking about the wreck of the Wyddah. Then he talks about some storms in the Carribean. Then he talks about charts and the primitive state of navigation and why no one could figure longitude accurately. Then he talks about Dampier! He goes on about Dampier for a good long time, mentioning neither storms nor shipwrecks and very little life at sea. Then he's back to charts and navigation again. Then he talks about common stomping grounds for pirates and why they were popular with them. Then he finally does a bit on life aboard ship, drinking and gambling, and the importance of musicians on ship. ? Then he starts on the democratic nature of pirate crews and the pirate "code". Thank God the man footnotes all his pronouncements and his bibliography is extensive. And thank God for the index or I wouldn't be able to remember what chapter I read things of import! What I'm trying to say is that it's a really good read, and he documents his statements well. But his "stream of consciousness" style wears on me (which is probably why it's taking me two weeks to read the first 100 pages!). I just start to get interested in a subject he's talking about, and then suddenly we're talking about the taste of turtle fat or how the people hired as local pilots were often bullshitters...

And there's no reason why it couldn't be just folded in half, Pat. But the ones in the Chester County Historical Society are all cut in half diagonally, and I find they lay nicer if you do them like that. But really, since we don't have any GAoP seaman's neckscarf "specifications" or extant examples, it could go either way. :)

Don't ya mean hemp rope... tied in a hangman's knot?

Matt! What kind of trouble do you think I'm brewing up?

Right, Chole. You've hit the nail on the head. There was no reason to bring up the 18th century term "cotton" (meaning a weave of wool) in this discussion. It's not pertinent to the question posed and it just muddies the issue and confuses people. Kass

Matt, don't let all these definitions confuse you. There are a lot of terms for textiles in use in the Golden Age of Piracy, but we can distill it down to a few very simple prouncements: - plain and twill wools (like modern wool flannel and gabardine) - plain and twill linens To be on the safe side, go for solid colours. Patterns were in use, but which patterns are period and which aren't is a question that will sprain your brain. Err on the side of simplicity. Everyone wore solid colours most of the time. So go for solid coloured wools and linens. Nothing fancy. As for the cotton vs linen debate, stick with linen. It's was more readily available in the period and modern linen still looks like period linen, which is more than we can say for cottons. A great (and inexpensive) source for linen is Fabrics-store.com Tell them Kass sent you.

Rusty, first let me congratulate your powers of logic. It doesn't make sense for pirates to wear boots on their ships. That's why they didn't do it. And neither did their Captains wear boots. In the Golden Age of Piracy (1680-1725), boots weren't fashionable. They were pretty much worn while you were riding a horse and then removed. The shoes typical of this period were the kind with buckles on the front. Our idea of pirates wearing big, over-the-knee boots comes more from Errol Flynn movies and Disney than from history. We all have this picture in our heads of what pirates wore, but little of that is real. Here's a great resource for pictures of seamen from this time period: Foxe's Mariners of the Golden Age of Piracy Take a look at what they're wearing on their feet and you won't go wrong. Also if you search in the Captain Twill forum on the word "boots", you'll find a whole discussion about this subject. NOTE: I'm not sure this question belongs here in Plunder, so if the moderators would like to move it to Captain Twill, we could continue the discussion there.

Thanks guys for covering the material from which a neckcloth should be made. One more point -- if you make it out of linen instead of cotton, you'll find it's both more comfortable on your neck on a hot day and more functional for mopping up sweat. Cotton tends to get "swamped" -- the more it absorbs, the more droopy it gets and then it sticks to you (think wet T-shirt!). Linen has longer fibres and tends to stand away from the skin, so airflow is increased. Plus it really is a better fabric for wiping sweat from your brow and neck. This is one of the reasons household "linens" were made out of linen until quite recently -- linen is a better fabric for cleaning. Until the advent of disposable toweling and "Swiffers", linen was the thing. Did I mention you can get some really inexpensively at Fabrics-store.com But I digress... Now, to make it: The neckcloths (probably called "handkerchiefs" in the period) are typically a triangle. To cut a perfect triangle, cut a square and then cut the square from corner to corner. Now you have two neckcloths! BONUS! Roll hem the edges and you're done. And to wear it: Depending on how big your triangle is, you could just tie the neckcloth around your neck in a square knot with the right-angle corner pointing down your back. But in GAoP pictures, the neckcloths don't look that big in the back. So you have to roll them. Rolling provides even more insulation and stops sweat from running down your back. To roll your neckcloth, fold over the long edge (the one you cut from corner to corner when it was a square) about 2", fold it over again, fold it over again. You can fold it until you have nothing but a strip, or you can leave a bit of triangle showing. Put it around your neck over your shirt. If your shirt has a fold down collar, put it over BOTH layers (in other words: don't fold the top layer over the neckcloth -- it should not show). Tie the ends in a square not. Now this is not a neck stock. Stocks were long strips of white linen that were wrapped around the neck and tied. They give a bit of a "mummy" look to the neck. Neck stocks are typically only seen on Captains and men of rank. I might mention that this information is based on extant Pennsylvania German clothing discussed in the book "Rural Pennsylvania Clothing" by Gerhert. The clothing is much later than the GAoP (1750s-1780s), but the neckcloths are the same that we see in pictures of sailors in England in the GAoP. So until I can examine some GAoP English neckcloths, this is what I advise.

Beautiful, Zephaniah! Thanks!

Executioner

"Knockout Administering Sensual Stimulation" I am shocked at the absense of the word "kinky"!

American Idol?... What's that? Seriously -- never saw a single episode. Or Surivivor. Or most of the shows people used to talk about around the office (back when I went to work in any office). I'm really so very not cool... Of course I can quote the daily schedule of the SciFi channel, tell you what's playing on History International tonite, and let you know when the next episode of Poirot will be on and where.

Oh Rats, you have to come to MTT (Marching Through Time) one of these years. On Sunday morning before the public is allowed onsite, we have "The Multiperiod Tactical". My favourite year, a sole Roman soldier took out a whole rank of Union soldiers with a Star Wars blaster, and a Landsknecht Kampfrau took five WWII GIs hostage with an M-16 she pilfered from Vietnam camp. I was shooting Nazis with the 1930s bellyguy hidden in the sleeve of my 15th century Houppeland while Bob was taking them out with his 38. Of course being that he was dressed as a monk, he gave his victims "last rights" using his flask of whiskey. "Bushmills Irish Whiskey" says he, "Not that Catholic crap!"

Oh darn! And I was just starting to have hopes of chewing him up and spitting him out at Morwellham!

Big kiss, Skavenger!

Cool! What do you brew, Cap'n Jacob?

That's the report I hear! Eh Filch?

Silkie, I don't think any number of us could corrupt the morals of this lad!

Hee hee! Promises, promises... I'll see you at the Pirate Festival in May, my sweet!

Give the Lady of the House my best, Jack, and you two have a brilliant Thanksgiving!

Bravo, my not-so-good man! I'm proud of you too! Well, I kinda had to defend it. Otherwise they'd find out there was none to start with... "Ooops! Pardon me, kind sir! I appear to have fallen into your lap..."

Jack! How could you? I'll have you know that I was protecting my virtue! I cannot speak for the ruffians who tried to make off with me, but I had drunk nothing but good strong coffee all day! [iNSERT AD: Visit the Empress' Head Coffeehouse! Coming soon to a GAoP reenactment near you!]

Ah... Yes...