Mission

I am reminded of Tony Fry (Tales of the South Pacific) who was always asked if wanted to come out on the PT Boat missions. He protested loudly and said things about never getting him on one of those leaky boneshakers...and then he'd always show up at the dock just as they were leaving with a rusty carbine slung over his shoulder. That's Mission kvetching about his journals before he slings that dusty laptop over his shoulder. "I better check on them and see what those pirates are up to," he mutters as he wanders into the fort, looking for things to write about. "I hate writing. I love having written." -Dorothy Parker "I learned long ago that being Lewis Carroll was infinitely more exciting than being Alice." -Joyce Carol Oates Say, does anyone know if Sutler John was the other PC vendor at PiP this year? I want to put a bit in the Journal about his shop.

Jee-zous! We're slow here at work, so I copied all that crap into word to prep it for correction and translation and it's 25 pages in 12 point! I think some editing is in order... I have been awaiting the Callahan's public shots before proceeding to build the page, however. This is just prep work. BTW, I don't yet know what photos I'll use, but I would like permission to use them from the folks who posted photos. If you don't give me permission, I will assume you do not want me to put your photos on my website and thus won't touch them. Fair is fair. Mary Diamond, Cpt Sophia, Haunting Lily and Jessi have given me permission. I have generously decided to give myself permission to use my photos, with the exception of the really sucky ones. The Callahans give permission carte blanche to PiP attendees, God bless 'em. Grace also gave me permission at PiP, but never posted her photos. Here are all the photo sites I have found for PiP '08: Kate and Mickey Souris' Photos My Photos Cheeky's Photos Cpt Sophia M. Eisley's Photos withoutaname's Photos Spike's Photos Silas Thatcher's Photos RedJessi's Photos Mary Diamond's Photos My Photos from Mary Diamond's Camera Haunting Lily's Photos The Callahan's Photos (Some day...) BTW, dutch - if you give me info on your little rowboat project and any links to websites or whatever you might have (and photos of the board that Grace showed me), I'll plug that for you.

The St. George.

Lookie, lookie what I found on eBay: They're stainless, which is not period correct, but the needle types would be the same in any period. What a splendid teaching tool I now have!

Dampier was in charge of the "fleet" of ships that stranded Selkirk, but if I recall Funnell's account correctly, Dampier's ship wasn't even at Juan Fernandez when Selkirk demanded to be left ashore. (Something Selkirk immediately regretted when he discovered that no one else was willing to stay with him on Juan Fernandez. He pleaded with Captain Stradling to let him back on board which Stradling refused to do.) I believe Dampier had gotten in a fight with Stradling, the captain of the Cinque Ports, and they had sailed their separate ways at that point. However, (if I recall Rogers account correctly) Dampier knew that Selkirk might still be on the island on the Rogers' Expedition and I believe this was one reason he wanted to stop there.

It's kind of interesting that they have any doubt that Selkirk was on the island. The story is supported by historical accounts at both ends - when he was stranded and when he was picked up. I notice the Science Daily article said, "[he] seems to have enjoyed a more peaceful and devout existence than at any other time in his life." While this is true, he was also constantly searching for sails and ships passing. He wanted off the island very badly according to what little documentation we have. As for the survivors of the Cinque Ports, you can read about them in William Funnell's book A voyage round the world. I posted this in your topic in the PiP forum, but since this is the actual reference forum, I'm going to repost it here: If you want to read about Selkirk's life on Más a Tierra/Juan Fernandez Island, I recommend two books: Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe by Diana Souhami. Souhami has a tendency to interpolate from the material she has read to create a POV narrative for Selkirk, which is either annoying -if you want the actual facts- or interesting -if you're one of those romantic folks who don't necessarily want to be weighed down exclusively with facts. She also found some additional period references that I haven't seen elsewhere, so her book is worth the read if you want to understand Selkirk. And, of course, Woodes Rogers' A Cruising Voyage Round the World, pages 72-74. Edward Cooke also has some material on Selkirk in his book A Voyage to the South Sea and Round the World in the Years 1708 to 1711, but it's very slight compared with Rogers account and most of what will interest you there can be found in Souhami's book.

Selkirk was fairly sane when he was rescued. He was a very fast runner. His feet were quite calloused and he went about bare-footed as his shoes had rotted years before. In fact, when he came shipboard, he couldn't wear shoes for weeks. He couldn't speak in complete sentences according to Woodes Rogers' account. If you want to read about Selkirk's life on Juan Fernandez Island, I recommend two books: Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe by Diana Souhami. Souhami has a tendency to interpolate from the material she has read to create a POV narrative for Selkirk, which is either annoying -if you want the actual facts- or interesting -if you're one of those romantic folks who don't necessarily want to be weighed down exclusively with facts. She also found some additional period references that I haven't seen elsewhere, so her book is worth the read if you want to understand Selkirk. And, of course, Woodes Rogers' A Cruising Voyage Round the World, pages 72-74. Edward Cooke also has some material on Selkirk in his book A Voyage to the South Sea and Round the World in the Years 1708 to 1711, but it's very slight compared with Rogers account and most of what will interest you there can be found in Souhami's book.

Say, you were there, weren't you? I only remember Edward showing up, asking if he could come in and then leaving [to get reinforcements, no doubt]. Then a bunch of people showed up, the identities of which I recall not, and the moment, she was abjectly destroyed. Sterling...now you don't have to draw the chairs. That should make it easier, right?

That's great. It's totally wrong because we were sitting at 90° to each other on the ground, indian style, but...I may use it on the web page anyhow. ("Above is a faithful rendition of the event as it unfolded by someone who was clearly not there at all.")

It was an editorial; this is the playground of such hapless information bottom feeders. And The Citizen sometimes has some of the finest examples of mental instability in print. That and the police report are the most entertaining things in the paper. (Well, they used to be.) I've no doubt Harry will acquit us quite handily if the powers that be pass on it. Don't get me wrong, someone sane needs to rebut such stuff, particularly when that someone has expert knowledge and a title in back of it, but you'll never convince the irrational that they are anything but right. Any hand-wringing on our part is to miss a wonderfully droll spot of amphigory.

I want a photo of me sitting in Deadeye's tent listening. (Unfortunately he and I were the only ones there and I never took Mary's camera out - I probably wouldn't have been able to operate it at that point anyhow - so one wasn't taken. But if anyone manages to come up with one, I'd really appreciate it.)

Oh, come on you guys! That letter is funny! He tied us to slavery, George Bush, Halliburton, racism and the Spanish Inquisition! I've worked with city councils in the past and had to deal with the sorts of folks who show up to object to things (like new equipment for playgrounds, for example) and let me tell you...all the kookies are not in the box. And 90% of the folks who will read that editorial know it. Take the people with whack-a-mole games for brains with a huge grain of salt and you'll find them to be massively entertaining. Just my 2¢.

"I like 'Indiana.'" "We named the dog Indiana." "May we go home now, please?" "The dog? You are named after the dog?" "I've got a lot of fond memories of that dog." (I'm not helping, am I?)

Some good details in this: “[1705] The Cocoa-Tree is small, and the Nut or Kernel bigger than an Almond; and ripens in a great Husk, wherein are sometimes 30, nay 40 Cocoas. These Cocoas are made use of to make Chocolate: And as in England we go to the Tavern to drink a Glass of Wine, so they do here (upon this Coast of Mexico) as frequently go to their Markets to drink a Dish of Chocolate; And the Indians count it a very wholesom Drink. We were glad, whilst we were upon this Coast, to make three Meals a Day of it for near a Month. We would much rather, if we could, have fed upon Flesh; But however, living near a Month upon Chocolate, it made us very fat, and we found that it kept us very well in Health. Whether, if we had lived upon it much longer, it would have done us hurt, I know not; but I am apt __ to believe it would have increased our Fat too fast, and so have made us unhealthy.” (Funnell, p. 89-90)

John Woodall is a card! I've been entering his book The Surgeon's Mate into my computer. (The whole...damned...thing. It's that good.) and I came across a quote that made me laugh out loud. He's been describing all the instruments in the surgeon's chest in pretty vivid detail and then he put this in the middle of it [Note that Woodall is the surgeon and the surgeon's mate would be his assistant]: “Of the Brasse Bason. I have nothing to write concerning it, but that at the least the Surgeons Mate have one if not two, and if he finde no use for it let him sell it for good liquor at Bantham, as a Surgeons Mate lately did one of mine.” (Woodall, p. 34)

They had a sort of quarantine in some ports during period. It was called pratique [or some random spelling variation thereof] and seemed to come from the Mediterranean countries. I'm putting a whole section in my book on this and I have a ton of quotes from just about anyone who sailed there, but this is the most descriptive: “We came up close to the mouth of the haven of Messina, and sticking the ship ashore under the trees, ran hastily with a halser and fastened to one of them… After we had been a while there, no one suffered to come ashore, we are all hands called out of the ship and directed to a small quadrangle, where an old fellow, perusing the bill of health we had from Genoa, puts on a great pair of spectacles as big as saucers and, making each man expose his groins and armpits, he looks into them and with a stick thrusts in them, where, finding nothing, we are allowed prattick, and then went into the town. One of our men who came from Genoa with a bubo [from Gonorrhea] was quite cured, for I purged and seated it off, so as he was well and nothing showed but the want of hair, tho our man earnestly lookt into it and see if he could find what he suspected.” (James Yonge, Yonge, James, The Journal of James Yonge [1647-1721] Plymouth Surgeon, p. 75) There's nothing in my notes about a flag, though. They just had to stay in a certain place in the harbor from what I can tell.

Only yesterday I read that Christmas wasn't quite the grand holiday it has become before Dickens penned A Christmas Carol in 1843. In fact, if I recall it correctly, it was regarded in England as a holiday for the hoi polloi. Dickens popular tale made it more appealing and fashionable, causing it to take off from there. Again, just something I read in a profile of Dickens. As for shipboard celebrations, I have some data in addition to the Teonge quote at the top of this post. It's all from common sailor Edward Barlow, who, as seems his wont, is complaining about the food. “[1661]We had but small Christmas cheer, not having Christmas pie or roast beef or plum ‘podich’ and suchlike, I remembering that the poorest people in all England would have a bit of something that was good on such a day, and that many beggars would fare much better than we did; for all we had nothing but a little bit of Irish beef for four men, which had lain in pickle two or three years and was as rusty as the Devil, with a little stinking oil or butter, which was all colours of the rainbow, many men in England greasing their cartwheels with better; and also we had not two or three days to play in and go where we would, as the worst of servants had in England, but as soon as we had ate our large dinner, which was done at three or four mouthfuls, we must work all the day afterward, and maybe a great part of the night, which made me many times to put in consideration what a hard task I had taken upon me for my lifetime…” (Barlow, p. 68) “[1668, Yarmouth Frigate] So it being December, we kept our Christmas Day there [‘Ligorne’ Road], but we wanted such Christmas cheer as many a one had in England, for we had nothing to our Christmas dinner but a bit of old rusty salt beef, which had lain in pickle eighteen or twenty months, and a piece of it for three men, about three-quarters of a pound, which was picked out of all the rest, for the officers having the first choice always, nothing was left for the poor men but the surloin next to the horns, and they have Hobson’s choice [‘that or noe’]; and if they do but speak against it, then they are in danger of being drubbed or beaten with twenty or thirty blows on the back, and a poor man dare not speak for that which is his right, for the captain and purser and other officers, having the best of all things, a poor man is not to be heard amongst them, but he must be content to take what they will give him, they many times putting that into their pockets which is a poor man’s due.” (Barlow, p. 161-2) “[1693] And in August our men began to be sickly, several of them dying although the place [bengal] had plenty of good provisions; a good cow for six shillings, and a good hog for half a crown, and a good goose for one shilling, and hens for three halfpence and twopence, and good white rice for a farthing a pound, and green fruits and ‘saliting’ [salading] at Christmas and all provisions very cheap. “[1673] And it being December, we kept our Christmas there, being prisoners [of the Dutch], and instead of good pies and roast meat, we were content with a little boiled rice and a piece of stinking beef, which they gave us three days in the week, and a quart of stinking water to drink for a day, the weather being exceeding hot.” (Barlow, p. 228) “[1676]Having put all our good on shore that we were to deliver [to Marseilles], we walked ashore being Christmas, to take our recreation and see all about the town, which is a place of very good buildings and a pretty large town or city, where all things are very plentiful, both for meat and drink. They have a very good wine of several sorts and very cheap, especially a red wine, which is a king of wine much like to claret, only a clearer red and better wine to drink.” (Barlow, p. 271)

Poor Josh...first M.A. d'Dogge explains the facts of life to him, now Stynky's taken him on as a protege. The boy will come to no good. Thanks for sending the mug back, sir trickster. What is beerp? Like Artoo-Deetoo?

Just wanted to record this before I finished the book and sent it back to the library. It's from William Funnell's A Voyage Round the World. They were on Dampier's privateer St. George attacking a Spanish Man of War. The journal entry date is July 22, 1704: "So hoisting the bloody Flag at our Main top-mast Head, with a resolution neither to give nor take Quarter, we began the fight, and went to it as fast as we could load and fire."

But what will the audience think? (It's really not that hard to figure out. Alimentary, my dear M.A. d'Dogge.)

Here's an interesting piracy food tale from William Funnell's book Voyage Round the World. This is from his 1704 journal entries. “I have heard Captain Martin tell of some French Pirates who were in these Seas, that having been sometime cruising up and down, and not meeting with a sufficient Booty, and being every where discovered by the Spaniards, and out of hopes of getting any more; they concluded to come to this Island of Juan Fernando’s, they being twenty in number, and there to lie nine or ten Months; which accordingly they did, and landed on the West side of the Island; then drew there little Armadilla ashoar, and in a small time brought the Goats to be so tame, as that they would many of them come to themselves to be milked; of which Milk they made good Butter and Cheese, not only just to supply their Wants whilst they were upon the Island, but also to serve them long after…” (Funnell, p. 20-1) Juan Fernandez Island is where Alexander Selkirk [Defoe's model for Crusoe] was marooned for four years and four months.

I thought this was pretty interesting: "“For every body that is blasted, or strken with lighning, doth cast forth or breathe out an unholsome, stinking or sulphureous smell, so that the birdes or fowles of the ayre, nor dogges will not once touch it, much lesse prey or feede on it: the part that was sticken often times sound, and without any wound, but if you search it well, you shall finde the bones under the skinne to be bruised, broken or shivered in peeces. But if the lightening hath pierced into the body, which making a wound therein (according to the judgement of Pliny) the wounded part is farre colder than all the rest of the body. For lightning driveth the most thinne and fiery ayre before it, and striketh it into the body with great violence, by the force whereof the heate that was in the part is soone dispersed, wasted and consumed. Lightening doth alwayes leave some impression or signe of some fire either by ustion [burning] or blacknesse: for no lightning is without fire. Moreover whereas all other living creatures when they are striken with lightening fall on the contrary side, onely man falleth on the affected side, if hee be not turned with violence toward the coast or region from whence the lightening came. If a man bee striken with lightening while he is asleepe, hee will be found with eyes open; contrarywise, if hee be striken while hee is awake, his eyes will be closed (as Plinie writeth.) Philip Commines writeth that those bodyes that are stricken with lightning are not subject to corruption as others are.” (Paré, p. 208)

Did you get that as a Christmas card? That's great. If I weren't an anti-social curmudgeon who refuses to send Christmas cards, I send that one.