Gentleman of Fortune

I don't mean to slam on the breaks, but I think we need to back up a little and restate some terminology so that no one is misunderstood or misquoted. Canvass in this discussion, is referring to a Hemp material, not a cotton canvas that you may be thinking of. You can google a definition if you'd like. The ironic thing, is that RH just happens to be selling a proper hemp canvas that is pretty heavy and would be GREAT for this application. Greg PS Greg is not on the payroll of RH, he just acts like it sometimes.

Glad you renew'd the thread... as I was going to post on the other one anyway. In the other thread, I had started an exercise regime and was eating healthier and had lost about 17 lbs when disaster struck and I had an accident which left me with a broken ankle. That was last May. I am still on the road to recovery and can't really "exercise" in the traditional sense, but i am trying to do it the old fashion way of changing eating habits and trying to look at food differently. Surprising, with NO activity at all in the last 8 months, I only gained back 3 lbs of the 17 I lost before my accident. My goal is 30lbs before July. I too will keep this thread alive and try to walk the walk. Greg

I don't think you can go wrong with pastel colors for late 17th early 18th century. Yellows, beige, brown, pink, light blue..... Greg

Take a look http://tinyurl.com/yc2sct Greg

For those that have never been to Williamsburg, I bet they will just immerse themselves in the W'burg history and not go anywhere else. And, while there is not too much else in W'burg besides the college and the outlet stores, if you want something else to do.... Mariners Museum is a world class Maritime museum Jamestown Settlement is celebrating its 400th anniversary and a great place for early 17th C stuff Yorktown Battlefield and Museum Where America won her independence Virginia War Musuem covers military history up to modern times (with a pretty decent Civil War and WW2 section Fort Norfolk For more Rev War and War of 1812 goodness Nauticus Gives you another state of the art Maritime Museum, complete with a real Friggin Battleship to climb on And thats all within 45 minutes to an hour from Williamsburg going towards VA Beach If you go the other direction (towards Richmond) you get a whole host of other Neat Things To See Gettysburg... One lousy battle was fought there, and it always gets the lions share of the publicity. The whole rest of the War was fought in the south, so if you are interested in Civil War, you can go to The Museum of the Confederacy IMHO there is lots to do, and more in the Neighborhood of our pirate interest in Williamsburg.... Hey, didn't the Governor of Virginia pay for the hunting down of Black Beard? And I believe that they brought his head back to Williamsburg.

I have been getting loads of these wife swap re-enactor spam mails.... Has anyone else? That is about the last thing I would do (or recommend) to any re-enactor. They always try to make you look like an ass h*le anyway. And for some re-enactors, that is not too hard. I think the con outweighs the pro..... Greg

A customer wanted a picture of my monmouths... so I thought I would kill too birds with one monmouth cap and post here as well. anyone else make a resolution to loose weight? Greg aka GoF

Neat! Thanks for sharing! Greg

Well, not that magic.... I thought it might be fun to show pictures of where we do hobby stuff ( or computer time). In my case its both. I have a loft above the master bedroom and it serves as sewing/computer/gunsmithing/library room. Computer is out of the picture to the right.... anyone else care to share? Greg aka GoF

I can't stand R Williams... I just get tired of his shtick soooo quickly. My favorite would have to be Steve Martin. Greg

Ahhh.... But I never said "lets have an award for the person that was the most authentic, or had the best group..." I thought it would be cool to have an annual recognition award for the person that has done a lot for the hobby in general and has been a great pirate kind of good will ambassador. They don't even have to be a member here (but it would be nice). And nobody has to nominate in a post, you can send me a who and why to my e-mail or pm' me. Greg aka GoF

Well, yes. Its probably a fairly decent, and inexpensive copy of a French pistol that came out in 1777 (The French also came out with a new musket of that model too). It has a number of things that are unlike GAOP turn off pistols... even the un-turn-off type. Besides "looking" different, flash pan is cast as part of the lock block, and has a "back strap" that starts at the barrel tang and continues down the back. It would probably be a great option for Rev War privateer, but I would pass on it for GAOP. If you want a kit, have some woodworking/metal working skills and want to give something a try.... 1690/1700 English Pistol Comes in a variety of metals (Brass, steel, and German Silver) for ~$475 and that is for everything you need (stock, parts and barrel). I will probably end up with one of these myself.... But I got other projects in the works and don't have time for another at the moment. Good luck! Greg

I think one of the interesting things that Pirates and groups that associate with "The Pirate Brethren" are doing is starting to create an "18th Century Impression". That is, while they do have their pirate clothes and such, they are also branching out into towns people, magistrates, merchants, smugglers, and Kass is bringing along a Coffee house. As i stated earlier, so much of what we do is not on a ship, that we need to do a convincing job of portraying "pirates" doing on shore what pirates might do while on shore. And that means interacting with people that are not pirates, on shore. For the record, I would rather watch a few women dressed as period whores, and play acting it up as best they could for the public, than "another stupid sword fight". But that is just me! Greg aka GOF

Another fly in the ointment. I don't mean to be contrary or just a pot stirrer. But i feel a problem with this debate, in part, because it focuses the gaze so squarely on one part of our circus, while in the mean time, the elephant sneaks by into the tent while we are distracted. The thing is, regarless whether we are the most historical living historians on the planet, or the biggest ren-faire farbe going, we all are living out our own little fantasy. The caveat being that the person in question is making a reasonable effort to be a sailor/pirate (see Hawkins post), i don't think i have a right to say to a woman that she can't portray a male pirate, regardless of what the historical numbers are for female to male ratios. If there are 5 women, pulling off a decent male impression out of a group of 12..... then great, we now have 12 more decent pirate re-enactors. One can say she is pretending to be a woman who is historically "pretending" to be a man at sea, and the other 4 can just be 21st century women. "pretending" to be 18th Century sailors. Again, as long as they are making a reasonable effort, I feel that is acceptable. Because, what is the difference between a girl pretending to be an 18th century sailor, and an overweight, 58 year old, with pasty white skin pretending to be an sailor from 1705? IF women are exaggerating their proportions at sea (as sailors) than a lot of us men are grossly exaggerating the number of out of shape, too old white men at sea too. Cordingly has the average age of a sailor for GAoP being 27. At 39, i need to find a 15 year kid to hang around with so that we can get back to the "average" and correctly support the historical numbers for age (I am not even going to address my weight.... but I am on a diet! The kicker again is, we are not even on a ship 95% of the time. So much of what we do is land based that there are infinitely more roles for women than can imagine. Smugglers, black marketeers, traders, townspeople, etc. There is cool stuff out there if you only look. Greg aka GoF

For those of you who have wanted to meet the Nautical Sage Ed Foxe, your opportunity may be at hand! http://members.aol.com/soldaten/guests.html just kidding about the rock thing! Greg aka GoF

Earlier it was stated that, in so many words, If that is your philosophy, I think you are missing the point. No, the artist probably never laid eyes on Reade or Bonny, but they probably saw thousands of sailors, so they knew exactly what sailor clothing of the period looked like. The publisher approached them and said, "hey, I want to run a picture of those two pirate girls in my paper/book/broadsheet, draw me a picture of them." So, the artist took what he knew about sailors, and added Bonny and Reade to it. He wouldn't have drawn them in a blacksmiths outfit, or a farmers outfit, or a courtier's outfit, because the viewing public also had a good idea what sailors looked like (Great Britain is an island after all), so the cloths that they are wearing are probably very accurate for period seamen (which is what they were trying to do). So, when Kass, Foxe, GoF, etc say that you would do well to use the pictures of Reade and Bonny as a guide, we are saying, in essence, here is a picture that the viewing public in the early 18th century KNEW were sailors clothing, so if you want to look like an early 18th C sailor, is a great reference. Yes, there are pictures where the artist took a great license when depicting the subject. Normally, it was done to illustrate a point or to lampoon the subject. The R and B pictures, I believe, are not of that category. Greg aka GoF

Well... it could indeed evolve into a two part (or multiple) prizes... one for "re-enactor", and one for "Merchant" etc. But right now, since the "prizes" are coming from my own locker... I can't really afford to have the "south west regional pirate of the year" along with a "north of the mason-dixie line pirate of the year", or European Merchant (or whatever). I am kicking around some ideas in my head, but I am thinking of something a little more meaningful than just a label "pirate of the year". Possibly something along the lines of having an article on the winner in one of the Pirate glossy mags that are now coming out. Maybe a period authentic cutlass with "pirate of the year" and their name inscribed on the blade.... Who knows? I have fielded a few PM with suggestions and nominations... some for folks that have not been mentioned publicly yet. But as someone already said, deciding amongst a field of worthy folks could be tough. Anyway... Still thinking (and taking suggestions and nominations) Greg aka GoF

I have been talking with K Garlick via e-mail (and when I see him at TORM) and he seems jazzed to do pirate shoes. I think he is even working on a prototype for an Upper-class shoe. A lot of shoe makers are hesitant to make a latch smaller than 1". For most, they either do later shoes that have larger latches... or earlier shoes that are not the same, so they get kind of "perplexed" when asked. That, and there really haven't been a lot of folks asking for a shoe for this time frame. In the UK, its the ECW, and in the States its F&I and not a lot in between. And lastly, nobody has buckles for that size latch... until NOW! Now, lets see a picture of you wearing the shoes Mick! Greg

I used the word "contest" but it really isn't that at all. Shall we say, "official recognition"? If you want to post here, or PM or e-mail any more nominations (and why) I will gladly accept them and work out some kinda thing.... Greg

Plus... not all sail cloth is the same. For the Admiralty, there were different grades/wights of cloth. Now, that is usually referring to flax sail cloth, but the point is, that there were varying degrees of heaviness of sail cloth. I wouldn't worry too much about the weight... And Kass seems to be able to get various weights (so get what your fingers would be comfortable sewing). greg

Dude! I like how the tops of the tongues are "scalloped" (is that the right word?) I don't think mine are like that... which is a shame. Cool though. It might be time for me to get another pair! I hate to be out "shoe'd" Greg aka GoF PS... I swiping the jpg for my website... ok?

I have a note book... I like to write things down. I also "make a web page" and add it to my gentlemenoffortune site. There are probably twice as many pages unpublished with notes, pics and stuff to help me remember. But I am a little weird Greg

I love contests... and prizes. I was thinking about doing a "pirate of the year 2006" contest. This would be as an award/prize/recognition of the Pirate that has done an exceptional job of promoting, participating, and general good will in the realm of historical or fantasy piracy over the last year. Its not a popularity contest or anything, but I thought it might be cool to do. I have a rather extensive prize closet, and maybe we could do an "interview" an push to have it published in one of the Pirate Magazines that are afloat these days. Anyone else think its worthwhile? It would be hard to choose, as there are a lot of folks here that are really outstanding and do charity work, organize festivals, create and sell gear, run pirate groups etc..... It could be an annual thing too.... Whattayathink? Greg aka GOF

You said lining... but in the context of the discussion I think you meant to say "covering" as in, "could it be some sort of fabric covering that makes them red?" Right? My answer would be that i think that it is some sort of paint on the leather to make them red. That being said, there are period shoes that are fabric and also shoes that are fabric covered leather. Here is anohter look at the "painted" heels and tongues. I cant remember the exact date of this... but if I recall correctly this is one of Louis. Now here is another shoe of the GAoP (I am pretty sure... you will have to forgive me as I can't find my notes) that has a red heel, but without red tongue And lastly, here is one of a late 17th century man's shoe covered in velvet. I would imagine that the fabric covers a multitude of shoemaking construction sins... but all the fabric covered ones that I can think about off hand are pretty elaborately embroidered. Which means you are going to have to have a pretty swanky "rest of the outfit" to pull off the look. Greg aka GoF

Once again we have to change our point of refrence... we (including myself) often look at 17th/18th century things with 21st century eyes and ideas Good point Kass! Greg