Mission

Prize seems to have a long history according to etymology online (which I like better than most such things, although I did find a word in print before the earliest date they give for it - sorry, I don't remember what it was). Anyhow: prize (n.2) ... "to take, seize," from Latin prendere, contraction of prehendere "lay hold of, grasp, seize, catch" (see prehensile). Especially of ships captured at sea (1510s). The spelling with -z- is from late 16c. Unfortunately, they don't list the phrase 'prize-money'. However, money goes way back as well, so I don't think it's that much of a stretch to say that the two things would be put together when a sailor was talking about getting their share long before it appeared in print, so I would be inclined to agree with your conclusion. Although, as you already know, if you can't produce definitive proof, you can't say it was in use with any authority.

Yay! Mark too! Looking forward to seeing you guys there!

Plague Doctor costumes are wonderful. I thought about making one up, but they would not really apply to a ship.) There's actually a thread about it that was split off from another topic.

Here are some other images of surgeons at work...the majority of what I've seen to not wear aprons. Adriaen Rombouts, mid-17th century Surgeon attending to a wound in a man's side, by Johan Joseph Horemans (Antwerp), early 18th c. (Say, I like that red, sleeved coat...) Surgeon letting blood (to the right of the patient), unknown Flemish painter, 18th c. He may be wearing an apron or that may be his belt and breeches. It's hard to tell. Bleeding a patient, Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg, 1695 Bleeding, by Cintio Damato, 1671 from the book Nuova et utlilssima prattica di tutto quello ch'al diligente barbiero s'appartiene By Garret Lundens (1649) Leg Amputation from the book Chiurgia Curiosa (1716) Amputation, From the book De Gangrena et Sphacelo by Hildanus (1617)

Excellent finds! Thank you for posting them here. (This is turning out to be more interesting than I thought.) Most of them appear to be cloth, although the apron on the dissectionist is pretty clearly leather. It is also the sort I purchased - with the button. It's not very far from that to the grisly scene a ship's surgeon would face during battle, so an argument could be made. (Although someone of my SJ Facebook fan page pointed out the dissectionists did wear them.)

Captain Sterling asked me "have ye ever come across 18th c. surgeons wearing blue linen aprons?" Now, I had not looked into the question of the surgeon's apron in any depth before and the answer surprised even me, so I thought I would share it as others might be interested in knowing the answer. The ONLY near-period reference I found to a surgeon having an apron is from John Woodall's book the surgions mate, 1639 edition: "If the Surgeons Mate cannot trimme men, then by due consequence there is to be a Barber of the ships Company, and he ought not to be wanting of these following necessaries. One Barbours case, containing, Rasours foure. |Aprons three. Scissers two paire. |Shaving towels twelve. Combes three. |Water-pot one. Combes-brush one. |Sweet water one. Bare-picker one. |Washing-bols lesse or more. Curling Instruments. |Hoane one. Turning Instruments and Spunges. |Whet-stone one. Mallet one. |Basons two. Gravers two. | And what else is necessary to Flegme one. | the Barbers profession, as the Paring knives two. | expert Barber better knoweth." (Woodall, Contents of the surgeon's chest, 6th page) Woodall does not indicate what these three aprons would be made from, however. From this, it also sounds as if an apron was something used more by barbers than surgeons. (Note that barbers would also do bloodletting, which may lead to further need for an apron.) This sort of apron reminded me of a sketch made in 1669 by Maurice Sands for the comedic play Monsieur de Pourceaugnac: This is a drawing of an apothecary (druggist in our terms) and since it is for a comedy, it may well be exaggerated. However, it is probably also reminiscent of what such people would wear, even if it may be overstated, because otherwise the image would not be recognized to contemporary audiences. The only other account I have of a change of clothes for the operating theater is from a modern book, albeit a very well and fully researched one by Guy Williams called The Age of Agony: "Near this, there is a row of pegs on which the surgeons would hang their ‘operating coats’ –discarded frock coats, usually, which, after they had been used in the theatre for any length of time, would be stiff with dried pus and blood. On entereing the theatre to operate, an eighteenth-century surgeon would take off his street coat and then would put on his ‘operating coat’, rolling up his sleeves and turning up the collar over his white linen to save it from becoming unnecessarily stained." (Williams, p. 117) However, this is also not an apron, it is a coat and it is also for a land-based operating theater. This actually agrees with period and near period images of surgeons operating (on land.) From Traite des Operations de Chirurgie, by Rene Garengeot, p. 365 (1723) From A General System of Surgery, by Lorenz Heister (1743) Leg Amputation, from an 18th c. Painting in the Royal College of Surgeons I do have one image that may be of a surgeon wearing an apron, but it's not very good and I collected it before I started keeping track of sources and dates: You may argue that these are not of ship's or even military surgeons, and I would agree that's a fair point. Such men would be going from patient to patient, encountering all manner of bodily fluids and may need better protection. The only sketch I have found of a ship's surgery is from the early 19th c., but it again fails to show anyone wearing an apron. Rather, they seem to be wearing regular clothes for that period: Ship's Surgery, unknown artist (1820) So, taken all together, it is probably more appropriate not to wear an apron in the role of a ship's surgeon than it is to wear one. Which, as i mentioned, shocks even me, especially since I shelled out $60 for one several years ago.

Not to go to far off topic, but the thing I remember about staying warm while sleeping in the cold was that you should change the layer of clothing closest to your skin. We were ground camping in 2 feet of snow and I didn't know any better the first night and froze to death. When I was talking with someone the next day, they advised me of the above, explaining that the clothes next to your skin get sweaty during the day which makes them poor insulators when you're stationary. So I tried it the second night and found I was as warm as toast.

If you want, just post that it's sold and tell me which post it is and I'll lock it.

You can't delete posts - no one but mods have been able to do that since I can remember. It's usually not a good idea to delete stuff, even after it's no longer relevant. We can lock them for you, though. (I'm guessing this is about the items you're selling?) I think there's a time period after a post is made in which you can edit them and after that time has passed it is no longer possible. I don't understand that one myself. It has to do with people posting inflammatory things and then changing them afterwards which hasn't happened around here in several years.

You're dragging me into this? (Then again, based on our mutual experiences, I guess it's a fair cop. When do we leave?)

"New York... New York..." (Actual photo of melting Brain Gremlin prop.)

Oh, that's too bad about the Galeon. I will remove it. Just for the record, here is the entry as it originally appeared in my list for those interested in it. El Galeón Andalucia - Spanish Galleon - 495 tons - 17/18th Century - Nao Victoria Foundation, based out of Seville, Spain Thanks for the input, but I actually looked at the Shtandart and Götheborg when I started this and they're both completely modern inside. This is why I was originally focusing more on ships and reproduction ships that served as museums. It appears to be extraordinarily challenging to make a traveling ship authentic inside for reasons of both comfort to a modern crew and regulations. In fact, it was the reason I originally left the Kalmar Nyckel and Half Moon off the list - after seeing too many traveling ships that were modern inside I decided most of them probably wouldn't fit my criteria and stopped including them. Although the Nyckel and Moon do appear to be mostly PC inside. (Unless I missed something, which I may have.) This is definitely not a complete list of reproduction ships from the period I identified. That would be redoing work that has already been done, because you can find most of them on wikipedia in the Ship replica entry. You can also find a list of historical ships in the Museum ship entry, although there are obviously not a lot of them from the 17th and early 18th centuries.

I've finished the last half of the article on Burns. It begins on Page 6. Featuring a closer look at the topical medicines used to treat burns and how they stack up today. Also looking into some of the procedures that period surgeons employed including wound dressing, debridement, handling burn blisters and scars and special treatments required for facial burns.

Thanks for the suggestions! I removed the Amsterdam and added the Adventure II, Half Moon and Kalmar Nyckel. I did some research and El Galeon is actually called the El Galeon Andalusia and is based out of Seville. Very neat. So I added that too. The Vasa will always be on the list because it is one of the few ships which has royalty-free photos of an orlop deck on-line. (Perhaps I am just giving in to sentiment here.) To be most honest, I was putting this list together for myself as a reference to find images for my surgeon's articles on Wiki Commons - which sports searchable, usually royalty free images. I thought it might be of interest and use to others, so I posted it. (I am a big fan of sharing information as you may have noticed.) The reasoning here... Wiki Commons is pretty well organized (and gets better all the time), but sometimes people name things incorrectly and the search function doesn't turn up what you're looking for. (Like orlop decks for example.) In these cases, it's best to have other things to search for such as period accurate sailing ship's names.

I thought it would be nice to have a collected list of historically accurate wooden ships and their websites for reference purposes. I am thinking of historically accurate ships here, not partially historically accurate ships (for example, those with motors and such that travel to festivals.) I am also not talking about museums that are about ships, unless they are a part of the ship itself like the Vasa museum. I'm focusing on ships you can actually tour and see inside the whole of the ship, set up as it might have been during its actual sailing days. I restricted the list to ships from 1600 - 1750. The early 17th century ships are a stretch, but I've not been real lucky finding stuff for our period. (Jennie Gist suggested some of these to me.) Adventure II - Ketch - Late 17th (1670) - Charles Town Landing, SC, US (Note: original website gone, may no longer exist) Batavia - East Indies Merchant - 650 Tons - Early 17th century (1628) - Lelystad, Netherlands Dufyken - Barque - Early 17th century (1606) - Freemantle, Australia (Note: original website gone, may no longer exist) Half Moon - Dutch Vlieboot (like a Carrack) - Early 17th Century (1608) - Based out of Albany, NY, US (Note original website shows an image of the boat, but no info. Half Moon) Jamestown Settlement Ships - Susan Constant - 120 Tons (1605), Godspeed - 40 Tons (1605), Discovery - 20 Tons (1602) - Williamsburg, VA, US Kalmar Nyckel - Pinnace- 300 Tons - Early 17th Century (1625) - Based out of Wilmington, DE, US Maryland Dove - Trading Ship - 40 Tons - Late 17th Century - Historic St. Mary's City, MD, US Mayflower II - Merchant Ship - 242 Tons - Early 17th century (1607) - Plymouth, MA, US Vasa - Galleon Warship - 1210 Tons - Early 17th Century (1627 or 😎 - Stockhold, Sweden Feel free to suggest additions, although if you do, please include the name, time period, city where the ship/museum is located and website to make this list more useful. (Also nice are the type of ship or at least the tons burthen.)

Funny, I was just looking for this the other day and was disappointed to find that the YouTube video had been taken down. (Oh, those pesky copyrights. ) It's one of the few teevee programs I've seen that got most of the facts right based on what I've read. A lot of 'history' programs seem to be more of a mixed bag of history, theory and dodgy re-imagining.

Interesting. I thought the details, particularly those backed with period resources, provided some nice insight into how someone came to be part of a pirate crew and what that experience might have been like. (I don't believe in spiritualism myself, but there are some folks around here who will enjoy those elements as well.) Since I couldn't easily find your article on Cindy's site, I changed your blog link into a hotlink so it's easier to get to the article. (It's at the bottom of the page for those of you looking for it.) For those interested in the Whydah's Real Pirates exhibit that inspired her, check it out via this link.

Some of Pyle's works are definitely more accurate than others. I have used them on my website on occasion. It is almost impossible to avoid putting modern touches in your work, though. We live in the now and can only view the past through a lens which includes our experiences. (I am always curious when people who say they should have been born in another time - past or future. They would be completely lost and anyone who believes otherwise is fooling themselves. You could adapt, of course, because humans are built to do that to a degree, but I doubt they'd be nearly as happy as they think.)

It's quite possible. I vaguely recall having a discussion about using an an eye patch to cover damaged eyes, either here on on my Pirate Surgeon Facebook page. The trope about peg-legged, hook-armed, patched-eye sailor probably originated with the Greenwich Pensioners, as pointed out by Foxe. Based on pm discussions I had with Brit.Privateer, I came to the conclusion that the pirate connection was just a refined Hollywood extension of those caricatured sailors. (Do an image search for Greenwich pensioner and you'll see all sorts of cartooned former sailors with battle damage.) As I mentioned in the article I wrote after we had this discussion, damaged eyes were also common on land. I found several period references to this, although I didn't use all of them in my write-up because I was focusing on eye damage sustained at sea.

You know, this would probably be a whole area of research for someone. I suppose the make-up of a crew would depend upon the crew itself. We tend to focus on the English pirates because we all read English and our primary sources are in English and are often about English pirates. (Plus the GAoP as we define it seems to have been a time where you had all these out-of-work pressed naval men and former privateers as you've pointed out in other threads. Like would attract like, if only to make communication easier, so it seems intuitive that English-speaking pirates would tend to connect with other English-speakers. But what of the corsairs, the South China Sea and Mediterranean pirates?

For June I have put together the first of a two part article on shipboard burns during the golden age of piracy. The part discusses all the different ways a sailor could be burned with accounts of such from various period references. It then explains how the humoral theories dealt with the concept of burns and finishes with a period description of the 3 degrees of burns. Next month will be about cures of burns, featuring the various medicines used to treat burns - mostly topicals - as well as how surgeons treated things like blisters, dead skin, scars and burns of the face.

I agree with Gertie. I'd advise anyone to purchase shoes that allow you to use inserts, even if you don't have special foot problems. I use plain old Surgeon Shoals inserts and an extra pair of socks. I also have some custom heel pieces I made for my shoes because I need to be careful of my feet (diabetes) and the heels of one of my shoes chew the absolute hell out of the back of my foot. There are purists who would argue against this, but they probably wear period underwear as well, so their opinions should be discounted by we mere mortals. (I mean, have you seen period underwear?))

I dunno, I kind of like the Osprey books. They're not perfect, but no modern written source can be because it's reaching back 300 years and using the same period materials we all have today. The Osprey quote on boots seem to sum things up fairly well.

The comments on the clothing were interesting, although I thought they got a bit overwrought in places. If the commentators are correct, this was not every day garb as I think we had discussed previously. (This is my basic concern with most period portraits though, particularly commissioned pieces. The artist goes out of their way to make the subject look better and more ornate than they normally would have been, so the clothing may not be truly reflective of reality. It would be a good representation of the finest clothing of the period as well as the high-fashion styles, though.)