Jocko

Aye.... I've found a site that has a large collection of plans for ships...

Check this'ere site:

http://www.instantboats.com/boats.html

Jocko

Avast there, Mates!!

Before ya start callin' Mr. Maitz a crook , I think ya might not be realizin' who he be! Which also mayhaps the reason why I's asked him the question in the first place!

Don Maitz is the artist who put many a cover on the No Quarter Given Pirate-zine .... as well as many a decor betwix the covers... For those of you not familiar with those things, surely you've 'eard of Captain Morgan's Rum??? Don Maitz be the man who created Captain Morgan's image that's used on all the bottles, ads, etc...

Therefore, since he is so active within the "No-Quarter-Given-Piratical Community" (say THAT 10 times fast!), I figured that he'd be a good one to ask about tattoos, to be sure .....

I can understand his wanting to protect that which puts food on his plate and as I said to him, if'n he wanted to create Piratical-images specifically for tattooing - not only would I be GREATLY appreciative, but I'd also most likely be first in line!!

Good fortune to all ye on the same quest as I - for that "perfect" Piratical Tattoo!

Jocko

Ahoy mates,

As of late "life" has gotten in the way of me postin' and such... However, today I just managed to get on here and check a few threads...

Interestingly, I have recently been discussing with Don Maitz about tattoos. I asked him if he ever was asked to, and did he, create images specifically for tattooing... Although he said that he had been asked before, he also told me that he was unsure of the legalities of the whole thing. He wanted to know about being paid royalties every time someone had one of his images tattooed on themselves and he asked the question "Are these people willing to put a 'copyright Don Maitz' on their bodies underneath the tattoo?"

I asked some people I know who are in the business and the bottom line is that there is no way to control who gets what tattooed where... Look at Harley Davidson - How many people have that logo tattooed? I seriously doubt that Harley Davidson gets anything when someone has it done. One possibility that was mentioned was that Don could sell images to a particular shop as flash and get a one-time payment for it.

Anyhow, its a shame - for like some of you, I too have been searching for just the "right" piratical tattoo.... no luck yet...

Jocko

If'n any of ya sea dogs be wantin' ta build yer own ship I've got some information for ya. I just been talkin' with a fellow from the U.S. Naval Historical Foundation regarding where a Pir.....eh...gentleman of fortune might find plans to build various ships, etc, and word was sent back as to the following:

"The most comprehensive source of sailing ship plans is a company

called

Taubman's Plans Service International

11 College Drive

Jersey City, NJ 07305

(201) 435-5205

Fax (201) 985-0438

The company does not have a web site. Mr. Taubman's latest

advertising indicates that he is offering his 139 page plans catalog,

plus a catalog of British plans for $10 via priority mail."

So... I'm hopin' that you scurvy lot will all go out and get yer own plans so that next summer, as I look out on the ocean, it be full of sails! :)

Jocko

Welcome! Welcome!

The only thing here that might make you sick is an excess of rum!

Jocko

Hey there Stynky,

I too am facinated a bit with hats (among other things)... One of the things I'm interested in is how to go about making a tricorn out of leather or some such similar material...

I've seen 3 or so movies in which a character or two was wearing leather-like tricorns... I thought that they'd hold up much better in poor weather... I also thought that they'd take much more of a general beating than the felt-like cousins...

What say you?

Jocko

Evil Tiny,

I's be wonderin' wheres you shoved off to? I's still like to be hearin' 'bouts you and your crew, I's do...

Jocko

Aye... I've been known to...er... "taste" rum now and again....and again...

I'd definitely like to be hearin' more 'bout you and yer crew, I's would...

Jocko

Please forgive a poor sod for askin', but how much of a difference are we talkin' in price for a custom sword :) versus a "cookie-cutter" ?

The oth'r thing I'd be wonderin' is how does one go 'bout gettin' a custom sword made? You said that you spoke with the own'r of a comp'ny that makes swords... but not all of us should be so lucky... In fact, I don't think I's know of any stores/comp'nies anywhere near by where's I be livin'....

Yer 'ssistance is much 'preciated, it tis...

Jocko

I'll have to consult me books, I will... I've got quite the bunch... are any of'ya interest'd in a particular pah-rrt of da c'ntry?

Jocko

Question then.... How does one go about locating trustworthy and knowledgeable instructors??

Jocko

Ok... I found *A* excerpt of Ocean Born Mary... Its almost exactly the same as the ones I have in the Holzer books... and most importantly it names the ship and the pirate.... I'd be curious to know if any of you have heard of either "The Wolf" or a pirate/privateer named Don Pedro who was supposedly an english nobleman???

Enjoy the tale!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ocean-Born Mary

Mary Wilson was born at sea on July 17th, 1720 (according to

the old calendar), soon after her parents set sail from Londonderry,

Ireland, aboard the ship, the Wolf. As the ship neared Boston

harbor, it was boarded by pirates, led by the ruthless--but very

young and handsome--Don Pedro.

Don Pedro learned that there was a newborn aboard, and offered to

let the Wolf and its passengers continue their voyage, unharmed,

if the Wilsons would name the baby "Mary," after his beloved

mother.

The Wilsons eagerly agreed, and Don Pedro honored his promise.

However, before his own ship of ruthless (and now unhappy) pirates

sailed away, Don Pedro returned to the Wolf with a length of

Chinese silk. He told the Wilsons that the fabric should one day be

used for Mary's wedding gown.

And so it was, when Mary and Scotsman Thomas Wallace married, in

Londonderry, New Hampshire, just before Christmas in 1742. They

quickly had four sons and a daughter, but Mary was widowed soon

after the birth of her last son.

Word of the tragedy reached Don Pedro, still young but now eager to

take his fortune and settle far from the call of the sea. He had his men

row up the Contoocook River to the 6,000 acres of land he'd been

granted by the King of England. "Don Pedro" was actually an English

nobleman, previously the "black sheep" of the family, but his

wandering days were over.

Don Pedro had his ship's carpenter build a fine mansion on a hilltop in

what is now known as Henniker, New Hampshire. The beams and

detailing in the house are uniquely like a ship.

When the house was completed, Don Pedro went to Londonderry

and begged Mary to live with him--as his housekeeper, since she still

mourned her late husband--and Don Pedro supported Mary and her

children in grand style for many happy years.

However, the fortune that Don Pedro had earned, was also a curse upon

him. One night, men came to the Henniker mansion under the pretense

of visiting with their old friend, Don Pedro. Mary and her children

went to bed, unaware that tragedy would soon strike. Mary heard a curse

from outside her window, and then a groan. Recognizing the voice of

Don Pedro, she rushed to the garden and found him alone, dying with

a pirate's cutlass in his chest.

Before he died, he told Mary where he'd hidden his gold, and he asked

her to bury him beneath the hearth in the home they'd shared so happily.

She honored his wishes, and lived a long and comfortable life, never

leaving the Henniker home. She barely touched the treasure buried in

her garden, because Don Pedro had left such a fortune.

One of Mary's hobbies was painting, and the American eagle and stars

she painted over the front door of the home, can still be seen there

today. Inside, her landscape murals also decorate many rooms in the

home.

After her death in 1814, her spirit remained in the house. In the early 20th

century, the home was opened to the public and visitors often saw her

rocking chair sway gently as she let them know she welcomed them.

Mary has been sensed near the hearth she tended carefully after it became

the final resting spot of Don Pedro. Two state policemen saw her one

night, crossing the road in front of her house.

Hans Holzer, the famous ghost expert, has conducted two different and

successful seances to contact Mary. As recently as 1963, she put out a

blazing fire in the house, while the owners watched in amazement.

On many Halloween nights, Mary rises from her grave in Henniker's

Centre Cemetery (twelve rows back from the front gate, and marked

with a special plaque), and rides a magnificent horse-drawn coach to

her home.

Everyone who has seen Mary's ghost, comments on her red hair, green

eyes, and magnificent stature, at about six feet tall. She is, by all

accounts, an astonishingly beautiful woman as a ghost, just as she was

in life.

Her home is now privately owned and definitely NOT open to visitors.

However, Ocean-Born Mary remains one of America's most famous

and beloved ghosts.

Ok... I found one of the many excerpts I have regarding the Country Tavern in Nashua NH... One point of interest is that My wife and I were married in the restaurant... We had been living in Nashua for quite some time and ate brunch at the Tavern every other Sunday... We had become quite friendly with the Manager at the time, Bonnie Gamache... So, when we decided to get married and we were looking for a place, the Country Tavern came to mind...

Anyhow, here's the excerpt...

----------------------------------------------------------------

The following account comes from two of Arthur Myers' books on

hauntings, a chapter in "The Ghostly Gazetteer" and the

Introduction of "A Ghosthunter's Guide."

Country Tavern

Nashua, NH

Over the past 250 years, Elizabeth Ford has shown herself to be an

exceptionally warm, loving person - both when she was alive, and

since she died at the age of 22.

She was murdered by her much older husband, a sea captain. After a

long sea voyage, well over nine months, he had returned to find his

wife with a baby. Obviously, it was not his.

They lived in a house that had been built shortly before, in 1741,

in what is now Nashua, New Hampshire.

Local legend has it that Captain Ford seized the baby, and locked

Elizabeth in a closet for three days. He killed the baby, and buried

it beside the house. When he let Elizabeth out and told her what he

had done, she went into a frenzy. He stabbed her to death, and

buried her elsewhere on the property.

For more than two centuries, the place remained a private house, and

common rumor was that it was haunted by the ghost of Elizabeth. But

these stories became much more prevalent a dozen years ago when the

house became a public place - a luxury restaurant. It is called The

Country Tavern, and is a couple of miles north of the Massachusetts

state line. An adjacent barn was combined into the house.

What had once been a private ghost story over many generations now

became a phenomenon that was constantly observed by workers in the

restaurant, as well as hundreds of customers. Elizabeth became

locally famous.

She was a beautiful young woman, tall and slim, with delicate

features and long hair down her back. Oddly enough, although she

looked very young, her hair was white.

Elizabeth was most often seen looking out a window of the restaurant

that had originally been the barn. But she ranged all over the

place, and had a sense of playfulness and comaraderie that endeared

her to many of the restaurant's staff.

When I heard of The Country Tavern's interesting reputation, I

called there and spoke with Meri Reid, a member of the family that

owns the place. After consultations, she called back and said sure I

could write about their ghost, and could I possibly bring along a

medium who might be able to get rid of Elizabeth? Apparently, the

owners would just as soon have Elizabeth vacate their property and

head off for the wild blue yonder where they felt she belonged. I

brought along an excellent, spiritual medium named Annika Hurwitt,

who lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

One of the first people I met at the restaurant was Bonnie Gamache,

a manager. She was one of Elizabeth's closest living pals. She told

me of waiting on a family named Fox, who had lived there a few years

before. They were having a family reunion at the restaurant.

"They told me stories about Elizabeth," Bonnie said. "I thought it

was a lot of baloney. The mother said that one of her sons used to

play ball with Elizabeth. He was there at the table, now 35, and a

lawyer. He said yes, the story was true. When he was a child he

could see Elizabeth and so could several others of the ten children

in the family. He told me that when he was small he would roll a

ball across the floor and Elizabeth would roll it back to him."

The family related an incident that happened when they were moving

out. They had piled into a station wagon, and a moving man told Mrs.

Fox that someone must have been left behind. She counted heads and

responded that everyone was in the car. He replied, "But I just

heard someone say, 'Please don't go.'"

Bonnie went on to tell me: "The woman would dust the mantel and then

turn around to dust the table, and something she'd just put on the

mantel would now be on the table. And there were other little tricks

that Elizabeth would play on them. I thought they were kooks at the

time, till I had my first experience with Elizabeth. That was when a

coffee cup came flying off a shelf and smashed against the wall

between the heads of another waitress and myself. It flew a good six

feet. Scared the hell out of us."

The ladies' room seems to be one of Elizabeth's favorite hangouts. A

high point of the folklore of the place is the lady who had her hair

lifted mysteriously. Bonnie Gamache was a prime witness.

"I was here when the lady was in the ladies' room," Bonnie told me.

"I heard an ungodly scream, and this woman came flying out the door,

white as a ghost. She said she was standing in the bathroom in front

of the mirror, brushing her hair. She had very long hair down her

back. She thought she saw something behind her and she turned around

and looked, but no one was there. All of a sudden the hair came up

off her back and went up into the air, as though someone were

holding it up there. That's when she screamed and came flying out.

She was very angry; she thought we were playing some kind of a

'Candid Camera' trick on her and was threatening to sue us. When I

told her about Elizabeth, she loved it. She went back into the

bathroom and waited about half an hour for Elizabeth to come back,

but she never did."

I had my own problems with Elizabeth. I don't see ghosts, but they

play games around me. I've had enough pulled on me over the years to

believe in poltergeist activities. One of the spirits' biggies is

fooling around when I'm taping someone - either in person or on the

phone. Elizabeth went wild during the couple of weeks I worked on

her story. I could be taping in the restaurant, or from my home to

the restaurant, or to someone else's home, and if I were talking

about Elizabeth I learned to be happy if the tape was left

unscathed. Sometimes it would be blank. Sometimes the words would be

sped up, or slowed down. Sometimes the tape would jam - in front of

my eyes - and then suddenly start up again.

Elizabeth had fun too with the restaurant's customers. Meri Reid

gave me an indication as to why the owners would just as soon see

the last of Elizabeth when she told me this story:

"When we first opened the restaurant we had an incident," she told

me. "There were four businessmen sitting at a table, and two of the

plates that were in the middle of the table suddenly slid across the

table and landed on the floor. Naturally, there was some

consternation. The waitress went over to ask if there was a problem.

They said yes, the plates had just slid across the table and onto

the floor. The waitress replied, 'Oh, that must be our ghost,

Elizabeth.' And the four men stood up and walked out."

(This reminds me of a similar case, in which a restaurant in

Cobleskill, New York, The Bull's Head Inn, had a resident

ghost, thought to be a lady - a Mrs. Stacy - who had lived in

the building when it was a home. Mrs. Stacy hated liquor. The

restaurant owners had been indiscreet - they had built the bar

in her bedroom. Not a good idea. Kathy Vedder, the manager,

told me:

("A customer and his wife were sitting at a table in the main

dining room. When he put some butter in a little dish, the dish

picked right up off the table and flew across the room. The

man turned white as a ghost. I picked up the dish and put it

back on the table and kept walking, remarking as I went: 'Oh

you know, these old buildings.' He just stared at me."

(That's what I call cool.)

The Contact

The day I brought Annika Hurwitt to The Country Inn a large group of

observers had gathered there. I guess you could call it a ghost

rally. Most of the staff had come in, even on their day off; I had

brought several friends; Annika had at least one friend present, a

psychotherapist; and there was quite a delegration of regular

customers. Annika's friend had a new coat, and Elizabeth stole the

belt - in the bathroom, where else? But she brought it back - after

everybody had searched the restaurant for half an hour. She

rematerialized it - in the bathroom.

Annika went into meditation, and told us she was in contact with

Elizabeth. "This woman," she said, "was very much in love with the

father of the child. What she's doing, she's like the mother animal

constantly looking for her young. What we need to do is let her know

that her child has passed on and that she can only unite with the

child in spirit." In fact, Annika felt that the baby had

reincarnated more than once. "What Elizabeth must hear," Annika

said, "is that even though we can see you and feel you at times, you

are not in your body." She said she would try to move Elizabeth to

higher spiritual planes, to help her give up her earthly attachment.

Through dowsing the surrounding land, Annika determined that the

baby was buried underneath a huge tree next to the house and that

Elizabeth was buried under a tree farther out in back. "She thought

the baby was there, in back," Annika said, "and that's why she kept

looking out toward that tree. She assumed her husband had buried

them together, but in fact, out of his maliciousness and jealousy,

he had buried them apart."

The Seance

Annika held the seance, and said that Elizabeth had gotten the

message, that she was in another world, and should no longer try to

hold on to this physical world.. A few days later, I called the

restaurant and talked with Bonnie Gamache. She said there had been

no further signs of the ghost.

"I love Elizabeth," she said. "I've spent a lot of time with her,

and I feel that she's my friend. She gives me comfort. I'm here by

myself a lot, and I've never felt that I was alone. The morning

after the seance, I went into the ladies' bathroom and told

Elizabeth how much I was going to miss her."

She had avoided the seance, feeling she could not bear to say

goodbye to Elizabeth.

Six months later, when the manuscript for the book was completed and

I was preparing to send it in to the publisher, I called Bonnie

again to see what had happened.

"It's been real quiet," Bonnie told me. "I don't think she's here

anymore. I wish we had never held that seance."

I mentioned that Elizabeth was presumably better off now than in her

long earthbound situation.

Bonnie began crying. "I know," she said. "But I didn't even get to

say goodbye to her."

The Sequel - an Interdimensional Friendship

Have you ever read a novel and felt downhearted when it ended? Have

you wished you could stay with the characters to whom you had become

so attached, wanted to find out what happened to them after the

story ended? Well, there is a sequel to the above story.

The above account was a chapter in my book, "The Ghostly Gazetteer,"

which came out in 1990. About three years later, I got a call from

the TV show, "Hard Copy." They wanted to do a sequence on a case

from my books, and asked for suggestions. My first choice was The

Country Tavern, because the central figure, Elizabeth, was so loving

and attractive.

Annika and I showed up on the appointed day, to find the restaurant

crawling with cables and cameras and TV technicians. We hadn't been

there more than five minutes when Annika whispered to me,

"Elizabeth's back."

A few moments later I saw Bonnie Gamache and told her what Annika

had said. She smiled with delight and said, "Oh yes, she's back."

Annika meditated further, and said that Elizabeth is no longer an

earthbound spirit. She now knows she is dead, and has been on to

higher spiritual planes. She just likes to visit her old earthly

haunt. Annika said that Elizabeth comes back for two reasons: Her

friends at the restaurant miss her, and she likes to demonstrate to

them that death is not oblivion, that life goes on.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll try to find the excerpt for Ocean Born Mary... I have several Hans Holzer books which have accounts of him and Sybil Leek visiting the house in Henniker NH. Just have to find them... I've been to the house myself, not in it - just outside...

Jocko

Have any of you heard about either Ocean Born Mary or The Country Tavern?

Ocean Born Mary has to do with a pirate taking over a ship bound for the colonies and making a deal with the captain's pregnant daughter that she name the child Mary if it turns out to be a girl... The haunting is in a house in Hennicker New Hampshire..

The Country Tavern is currently a restaurant in Nashua New Hampshire but back when the "events" happened it was a private home to a ship captain who went out to sea for 10 months and returned home to find his wife had given birth... he ended up murdering her and the baby and burying them in separate locations on the property...

If you all are interested I can post the complete stories with all the details... including the pirate captain's name, etc...

Jocko

I thank thee! ALL of thee!... I appreciate any and all help that I can get.. I shall do just as you said... I have recently discovered a gun shop not too far from my home which I will, on my way home from work, stop in...

thanks again...

Jocko

Aye I TOTALLY hear ya and understand... Safety is ALWAYS paramount.. The reason I'd like to learn how to build them is that, after learning to build existing designs, I'd like to try my hand at new designs... I have some ideas I'd like to try to increase the reliability of firing (mechanism and configuration), accuracy (rifling), also different methods for operating in rain, etc...

As for my resources... My father-in-law is a machinist - he had his own company/shop for 30+ years... So in that regard I'm all set... As for design knowledge, etc, I myself am an engineer (electrical) and many of my friends/co-workers are mechanical engineers (one of which may be joining the pub here soon...) so I can get lots of assistance with design and even analysis. As it was said previously, research, experience, and safety are the three things I am in need of...

Jocko

Aye... now we're talkin'

What I'd be alikin' to know is how difficult and/or expensive it 'tis to build cannons, BP pistols, and BP rifles??

Jocko

I thank thee Capt. Davies, or do ya prefer Mad Dog?

Anyways, perhaps once things gets a bit settled up 'ere for me and I can get me somethin' seaworthy, I might do some explorin' down your way... Your Brotherhood seems to be only a throw of a cannon ball away!

Jocko

Aye! I be from the southern shores of Massachusetts... Amongst the last scraps of townage prior to the bridge into Cape Cod...

'ello there! I too just joined today! Any of ya hail from New England?

Jocko