Mission

Caring for the sick, too. They would often set up tents on shore for this purpose. (Although it was not the only reason for doing this, some period surgeons believed scurvy could be cured by being on land.) See the discussion Location of the Sick During Landfall on this page for more: http://www.piratesurgeon.com/pages/surgeon_pages/quarters9.html

It's kind of like recipes today - everyone has their own twist. In fact, the more info I find on various specific aspects of daily life at this time, the more varied and creative GAoP folks seem to be n their daily lives. I guess people are people....

Just found this while looking for something else. It's from Robert Smith's Court cookery: or, The compleat English cook. London: 1725:

"Salamongundy.

Take some of the Flesh-part of a Turkey, and the like Quantity of a Chicken minced very small; a few hard Eggs, and half the whites; some Anchovies, Capers, Mushrooms and Lemon-peel, minc'd very small; a little Sorrel, Cives [Chives?], and Spinage: Mix and mince all these well together, and pour over it the Juice of Orange, Lemon, Oil and vinegar, and servit: Garnish with Barberries." (Smith, p. 42)

You would think so, but there were several period reports of wormy ['measeled'] pork.

Just to do clear, I am a huge fan of the Pub and its database-like content. (Something I told Stynky years ago.) I have always been a proponent of sharing info here and do so regularly. I highly suspect that FB will be replaced by something else, the same way that Yahoo groups and mail lists got replaced.

I often bring up the Pub threads at APLH because it seems silly to have to repost things we've spent years discussing and collecting material about here.

I encourage everyone to do likewise. (While slow and sometimes tetchy, the search function can be invaluable.) Keep adding new info too. I personally think this forum will be around a lot longer than the free sites based on web history to date. (So long as Stynky is willing to back it.)

Plus this site is (fairly) easy to search, unlike a lot of the free sites.

Given the (obviously non-period) use of Ham in The Pirates!, I was sort of fascinated to discover that there are no period references in my file of medicine and diet-related quotes to the word "ham," other than referring to the back of a man's thigh in medicine. It is used once in Père Labat's English account of a sea voyage he made, but since that was translated from the original French in the 20th century, I don't know if that qualifies as proof of use on a ship.

The term appears to be period. From the Online Etymology Dictionary:

ham (n.1)

"meat of a hog's hind leg used for food," 1630s, from Old English hamm "hollow or bend of the knee," from Proto-Germanic *hamma- (cf. Old Norse höm, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch hamme, Old High German hamma), from PIE *konemo- "shin bone" (cf. Greek kneme "calf of the leg," Old Irish cnaim "bone").

It makes me wonder if this cut of meat was either not used or if it was just packed in with other cuts of pork and so not differentiated when salted and packed for ship travel.

Anyone know differently?

And, for hangover remedies, we feature hair of the dog...

"CHAP. V.

Of a Surfeit.

Surfeits at Sea generally come by over drinking, (although indeed they may come by over-eating, or from the vitious quality of what is eaten) it is so that nature refuseth to digest the great quantity

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That a man has drank: As a man that hath a burden too heavy, doth not so much as lift at it.

Some nature sis so propitious to them, that when they are too full of drink, they vomit, but some do not; but are extream sick at stomach, and the head achs as it would split. Now if such had given them a draught of warm Water, with some {ounce}ij Oxymel of Squils in it, they would vomit and prevent a Surfeit; especially if after their vomiting they had a pint of Wine burnt, with a sprig of Mint, and a blade of Mace [from the nutmeg tree], and sweetned with fine Sugar, and so drank hot: But if it hath passed the Stomach before the man speaks to you; and the Liver doth not digest it, but lets it lye in the first passages, then there is worser pains and heat.

Now vomiting of it self will do no good: But,

Rx. Spirit. vitæ Ruiandi {dram}j Tinctura a florreguli antimo. gut. iiij. Oxim. Scil. {ounce}j.

This in a glass of Wine will work pleasantly both wayes, and free both Stomach and intestine of the superfluous humour that Nature is charged withal. Some in this case use a Clyster, Electum Cariocost.

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{ounce}j in moderately hot Wine injected, excellently draws down the excrement and noxious fumes and evacuates it to the Patients great ease and comfort.

The Body thus cleansed, let him then drink the burnt Wine [brandy] hot, and add to it a scruple of Elixir vitrioli mynsichti [Mysicht's Acid Elixir of Vitriol – a patent remedy] and then it is a powerful stomachical, and will cause digestion: But sometimes it has past the Liver, and hath not been well concocted there, but is sent as it were half digested into the Veins, and so there is no third concoction; it doth not make blood fit to nourish, and now it is a confirm'd Surfeit, and 'tis like the Surfeit spots come out; and there's a Feaver, and loathing of Food, but a great thirst, and desire of more cold drink.

Now ashore 'tis common in this case to run to the Apothecaries for Surfeit water [a digestive cordial], and when he hath drank that, and not the better; then to the Doctors, but it is commonly too late for't, for many a man loses his Life by such delayes, and by trusting to the Surfeit water only. You are here to give discussing Clysters: As,

Rx. Decoct. Com. pro Clyst {ounce}j. Eolect. Cariocostin. {ounce}j. f. enema.

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And let blood before it is too late; for abateing the great quantity of boyling blood is a great help: then purge from the most remote parts, with

Rx. Electu. Cath. regali {dram}ij. either in Bolus, or a Glass of Wine:

For this is one of the best in this case: Or, If he cannot take this: Then,

Rx. Tinctur. Cathart. Grulangij {dram}j. in a Glass of Rhenish [wine] is a good Medicine; and Pil. Ruff. {dram}f. is approv'd.

When these things are first done, then your Surfeit water will do good: The best of Surfeit water is,

Rx. Aqua papaveris composite {ounce}ij. Tinctura Croci. {ounce}j. Elix. Vitrioli {scruple}j. Thriac. Lond. Nova, {ounce}j.

Let him drink this in a glass of choice Canary, and sweat him well. These things will cure and cause a good digestion in all parts." (Jhhn Moyle, Abstractum Chirurgeriæ Marinæ, p. 104-7)

Now here's something you don't often think about in relationship to sea surgery. It's from John Moyle's first book Abstractum Chirurgeriæ Marinæ:

"CHAP. XVII.

How to Cure a Rheumatisme.

This Distemper called a Rheumatime, I have often Seamen to be afflicted with in ships that I have bee in: 'Tis like the Gout, but not the Gout; it siezeth about the Joynts of the Feet, or Hands, or both; and if a flatulent vaapour be stird up with it, it shifts out of one joynt to another, and is called the running Gout: There is sometimes a light readness, with small Tumour, and swoln Veins about the Joynts that it siezeth.

He that hath it, hath lamentable pain and misery, especially in the night. It never is seen to break, (although I believe by ill handling it would) for I saw that Gout broke under a Gentlemans foot by the application of Cataplasms; and together with the virulent matter, there came forth

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like white seeds in abundance, harder than the matter; by which a man may see what a prodigious humour the Gout is of.

I could never find that Purging, or Sweating would do any good in this disease, but rather exasperate it; and drinking of Wine is an Enemy to it; for most of them that I have seen have it, have got it by drinking over much raw Wine, and then lying down in the cold to sleep, whence the Humours plethorick have not had that expiration through the pores of the skin as they should, and the humours could not receive the third concoction for want of h3eat; so Nature expels the raw humour to the outward or extream parts: And at the Joynts the Crude humours make a stop, and the blood makes not so good a circulation as it should: This then is a Rheumatisme.

Now bleeding the principal remedy in this grief, not only once but often, and a good large quantity at a time. The best of Oyles or Oyntments, whether hot or cold, I could never find to do any good; and Emplasters have signified as much as nothing. Bathe the part well with Liquor ontipodagricus Minsichti, or aqu. Arthritica Quercitani: Then embrocate it with the quintissence of Colocynthidos fabri, and

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Antimony. I say, with the often bathing and chasing in of these Medicines, and frequent use of Phlebotomy; and when pain is insufferable, taking inwardly five or six grains of that excellent Nepenthae.

Rx. Quintessentia Papaveris & Hyosciami, in a little Ale, or common Water.

There will be present ease, and speedy cure; so if a man hath a fit of the Gout or Sciatica on board, although he doth not expect you to cure him, yet he would be glad of ease if you can give it him; and you have no better way than this to do it." (Moyle, Abstractum, p. 70-2)

The website for the event should have that info or, at the very least, names and contact info for people who can tell you. I know of very few events with kit requirements. In fact, Searle's is the only one that comes immediately to mind.

But then I'm one of those people who just show up. In for a penny, in for a pound. (Of course I do that after reading the website and getting in touch with people I've 'met' on the web.)

"Swine's flesh was looked on with some suspicion, but it was believed to be healthy if the pig had been allowed to roam in the wild and eat natural foodstuffs. [Thomas] Cogan wrote:

brawne, which is of a bore long fed in a stie can in no wise be wholesome meat, although it be young. For beside that it is hard of digestions (as common experience proveth) it must needs breed ill [j]iuce in the body, considering the want of motion and grosse feeding thereof for which course we use commonly to drinke strong wine with brawne to help digestion. [Cogan, Haven of Health, p. 133 (1584)]

Thomas Fuller in his History of the Worthies of England (1662), praises 'Hampshire Hoggs' as producing the best bacon because 'Here the swine feed in the Forrest on plenty of Acorns (mens meat in the Golden, Hog's food in this Iron Age); which going out lean, return

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home fat, without either care of cost of their owners... they lodge at liberty (not pent up, as in other places to stacks of Pease), which some assign the reason of the fineness of their flesh.' [Fuller, p. 400] Thomas Mouffet agreed that the pig was especially nourishing 'if he feed abroad upon sweet grass, good mast and roots; for that which is penn'd up and fed at home with taps droppings, kitchin offal, soure grains and all manner of drosse cannot be wholsom'. [Mouffet, Heaths Improvement, p. 68 (1655)]" (Andrew Ware, Knowledge and Practice in English Medicine, 1550-1680, p. 206-7)

Fort Taylor Pyrate Invasion and Put-in-Bay Pirate Fest are pretty much on equal footing for me.

Both events are in fun places, are distant enough to be separated from the regular world, have great nightlife and feel very accommodating. I love the mix of fantasy and historic reenactors at each event. Plus I like the people who show up - both the general public and the reenactors.

Anything can happen at either event... and often does.

Actually, I would suggest starting a new topic with a title more suited to this idea if you want to run with it. Something along the lines of "What's your favorite event and why do you like it?" While sticking it in here might help keep this topic going, it will also result in that part of the topic being buried over time.

I second William's comment about not badmouthing events. Not every event works for every one, which is how it should be. Better to talk about what you DO like than to cause arguments over what you DON'T.

I also have read that meat was typically cooked in stews on BRN naval vessels. Other foods specified would lend themselves well to spoons - oatmeal, peas and such.

Here's an interesting quote sort of related to this topic from German Johann Dietz (Master Johann Dietz, Surgeon in the Army of the Great Elector and Barber to the Royal Court) from his service on a whaling vessel in the late 17th century:

"Apart from this, there was against the mainmast a great tub, fixed some distance from the deck, containing water that was often stinking and full of little worms, for the general drinking. And, on deck, in open crates was plenty of biscuit; which had to be broken and softened in water, otherwise no one could eat it, so hard and mouldy was it. On at least three days of the week we ate groats, pease, lentils and stockfish, boiled, and pickled beef, pork and mutton, with bacon and a great deal of butter.

When the men were at meals, if it was windy one of them had always to hold the mess-bowl, that is, a great wooden bowl. They all lay flat on the deck, and everyone had to bring his wooden spoon; then they all ate with hand or spoon, and had little need of a knife. When the mess-bowl nearly exhausted, and the man who was holding it because of the rolling of the ship saw that there was just enough for his portion, he cried 'Stop! stop!' -at which they one and all gave over." (Dietz, p. 128)

I wondered at first, but you don't find many period images of corpses that are easily discerned as being such. They often look like people who are asleep. (Hogarth's Reward of Cruelty image comes to mind...I first thought it was an actual surgery instead of a corpse in the image until I focused on what they were doing to the guy on the table.)

So I would says he meant a skeleton.

Rediker is a self-proclaimed historical activist so I tend to take anything he says with a grain of salt.

I agree that some pirates were irreligious, but my comment was that not all of them were and I provided links to some examples here on the Pub.

Here's the last bit from David Marley's somewhat disappointingly footnoted book Daily Life of Pirates before returning it to the library stacks. This is about flags and some of it actually is sourced, which is helpful. (Although I tried to track down the original sources and failed to do that.)The first one calls back to Daniel's original comment starting this thread.

The earliest recorded instance of the display of a black flag is believed to have occurred in July 1700, when Captain John Cranby of the HMS Poole described the French corsair Emmanuel Wynne's ship as having been chased ashore at the Cape Verde Islands while fighting under 'a sable ensign with crossbones, a Death's head, and an hour glass' (the latter to signify that the opponent's time was running out)." (Marley, p. 181)

While that quote is not sourced, it does give the name of the person who is supposed to have reported this, which is more than I've seen so far in this thread. (It may be noted in another flag thread on the Pub, though.)

"Although the colorful expression 'skull-and-crossbones' did not enter into common usage in the English language until much later on, a report submitted to London from Governor Walter Hamilton of the Antillean Island of Antigua on December 14, 1716 (O.S.) [Er, Marley explains somewhat sniffily that this means Old Style dates in the beginning of his book. This would take to long to explain, but if you're curious, look here.] described a recent spate of attacks perpetrated in those waters by Sam Bellamy - and specifically mentioned how his pirate sloop Mary Anne had run down a hapless pair of trading vessels near the Dutch island of Sabá while flying a large black flag emplazoned with 'a Deaths Head and Bones a-cross.' [Footnote 14: Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: America and West Indies, vol. 29 (London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1930), 230.]

Eleven months later, Hamilton would also describe an altogether different kind of pirate standard being flown by another rover, when he recorded the narrow escape of a little British sloop chased through the shoal waters of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands by a pirate ship of 18 or 20 guns, which had fired three times at its intended victim: 'the first under British colors, which he [the pirate captain] lowered, and then hoisted a white ensign with the figure of a dead man spread on it.' [Footnote 15: Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: America and West Indies, vol. 30 (London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1930), 148.]" (Marley, p. 182)

Thus much for David Marley and his book.

Reading David Marley's Daily Life of Pirates (which is proving to have some questionable facts, but I am still committed to reading through it), I came across this, which I thought was worth throwing out there. He doesn't source it (again), so I don't know where he got the info.

"Fully cognizant of the irreligious nature of their piratical foes, the Spanish-Americans would even devise a system of passwords known as santa y seña or 'saint and countersign,' based on the Church calendar. If a vessel or fortress were approached by strangers after nightfall, they would be challenged by a sentry shouting out a saint's name at random, which was to be answered by correctly identifying the corresponding place associated with that particular saint - to a cry of 'Santa Rosa,' for instance, the proper reply would be 'Lima;' to 'San Francisco Javier,' the answer was 'Navarra;' and so on. This system had been introduced with heretical English or Dutch pirates in mind, as they would never have such pious answers ready on their lips. Moreover, such a flexible system permitted Spanish vessels to depart on protracted voyages without worrying about a specific password having been altered during their absence." (Marley, p. 170)

Note that in the beginning he says pirates were not religious. While true in some cases, it is not in others as has been shown here. Sweeping generalizations like this are part of the problem with this book IMO. He'd have been better to start by saying that pirates were generally not Catholic (although even that is not entirely true) rather than broadly labeling them. Still, Marley's primary focus is pretty clearly on buccaneers, so I suspect there is probably something in the code he talks about.

Not pirate and pre-GAoP, but still sort of neat. It's from the Calendar of State Papers Colonial, East Indies and Persia, Volume 8: 1630-1634:

"Part wages of Brute Gread, carpenter in the London, detained for a copper kettle, to be repaid to his wife Dorothy, it appearing by certificate that said kettle was brought ashore with the bottom burnt out and was afterwards cut in pieces and used about Mr. Muschamp's wooden leg. 4½ pp." (November 3, 1630)

As I said, I don't know his source. I have already found one apparent factual error in his book, so maybe he's wrong. (He also has some rather dubious things to say about earrings IMO, but I didn't want to dredge that hoary topic up.) To be honest, I can't imagine there being a standard way of eating, other than by vague associative custom and learning from elders and peers, but I just found his comment interesting.

You seem to focus on topics like this, what are your thoughts?

I know they dove on wrecked ships to retrieve the stuff worth retrieving. Pirates were known to prey upon the Spanish in the late 17th c. when they were rescuing the gold from sunken treasure fleet ships.

But I imagine you're talking about something that wrecked near shore? If so, I would guess it would be done in the same way as careening if it was possible to retrieve the ship. (Although careeening was primarily done by hand after unladening the ship to make it as easy as possible for the men to move it. Plus they didn't have to fight against the weight of the water inside the ship the way one would have to with a wrecked ship.)

The image below is a 19th c. view of careening. I have hotlinked the image to the wiki commons page where you can see it in great detail.

They might also use horses and such. This is another 19th c. image called Figures dismantling a beached ship on a rocky shore by Auguste Delacroix:

They probably can't re-float it very easily, so I'd guess if they couldn't haul it out, they'd just destroy as much of it as they needed to get it out of the way.

How would you do it knowing the sorts of things they had available to them? Maybe use blocks and tackles to increase their hauling power? Try to drag it with other, floating ships? It wouldn't be a usual problem - a couple of attempted searches of the Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies didn't turn up any matches. So I would expect that since the problem was atypical, the solution would be likewise.

Reading along in David Marley's Daily Life of Pirates and I came across this, which I found interesting. Back on page two of this discussion the three- versus two-tined fork was mentioned and so when I read this, I found it interesting. (I don't know what Marley's source is for the comment; he's not always that good at citing his sources...)

"The customary eating practice at the time was to hold one's food down on a plate with a double-tined fork, cutting and passing portions of it into the mouth on the tip of a sharp knife. Spoons were also used for soups or stews, each individual's set of utensils designed to fold up or nestle into a portable kit carried on their person. A refinement that began to become more commonplace toward the end of the 17^th century meant using the fork to life portions of food into one's mouth, so that three tines became the norm for forks, with round-tipped knives for cutting. Plates carried aboard most ships were usually squares made out of wood, and pewter mugs were used for drinking – although pirate crews that had been successful in looting rich merchants often dined incongruously off China or even silverware." (Marley, p. 43)

This month's Surgeon's Journal article is about drowning resuscitation, looking at the several ways a seaman could be nearly drowned, how he might be retrieved, a brief look at books that talk about drowning from around and slightly after the golden age of piracy and the various methods that were used to revive victims.

You can read it by following this link.

Sloops are normally single-masted vessels. When people talk about sloops from this period in the Caribbean, they usually refer to two different ones: Bermuda- and Jamaica- built sloops. (You will find a somewhat more detailed discussion on sloops this page of my article The Pirate Surgeon's Quarters in the Golden Age of Piracy.) The image below is of a Bermuda Sloop. I haven't found an image of a Jamaican sloop.

I recently found another image that contains a sloop in the Caribbean, although it is from 1783. The image can be blown up to see quite a bit of detail on this page of the JCB Archive of Early American Images. The sloop is in the upper left hand corner.

You will note that both of these vessel show about a dozen or so men on board, however. I would think two or three pirates would be in a very small boat, such as a canoe or pirogue. The reason pirates would want a larger ship (such as a sloop) would be so that they could add more men and guns to their company since these were the two advantages they had over merchant ships.

Ha ha ha.

What about meals taken at Cafe Sole and Blue Heaven?

The skull and crossed bones was more a sign of death than it was of pirates during the GAoP. The pirates who borrowed the emblem did so to inspire fear.

There was a whole design school of jewelry and art which grew out of the concept of 'memento mori' (Latin for "Remember that you will die".) It dates back to the medieval ages, if not ancient Rome. The artwork actually has its roots in religion, which is about as far from piracy as you can get.