Mission

I was fooling around looking for images for my next article when I came across the Chatham's Chest. I had no idea there actually was a real, physical Chatham's Chest! I thought it was more theoretical and less metal. How about that? For those who have never heard of it, I will regurgitate the description on the National Maritime Museum's website: "The Chatham Chest was established in 1590 by Sir John Hawkins and others to provide pensions for wounded seamen. The fund was supported by compulsory deductions of 6d a month from seamen's wages. The iron chest was ordered in 1625 to hold the money for a mutual benevolent fund for disabled seaman and was deposited with Greenwich Hospital by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty in 1845. The iron chest has five locks: a disguised keyhole in the top, which operated an elaborate lock covering the entire interior of the lid, and four hasps for padlocks. The keyhole in the front of the chest is false. The origional key survives with this chest." For those who've never explored the National Maritime Museum's website, prepare to waste many of you upcoming hours...I am.

Does anyone have a photo from a tall ship of the cockpit they'd be willing to share? Or does anyone know of a tall ship where I could get an image of the cockpit?

This is the Mercury Crew from the September 2011 Santa Maria event in Columbus, OH (You have to ignore the guy in front and the girl in white and black, but other than them it's a pretty good representation of a PC crew): This is the Mercury and Forsaken Crews from the May 2012 Santa Maria event in Columbus, OH (where we specifically asked only folks in fairly reasonable PC garb to be in the photo):

I agree with Captain Jim.

You're actually the third person I've heard say basically the same thing about that event. Curious. (I have never been, so I have no idea whatsoever. My impression is that it has more of a Ren Faire than a reenactor crowd. Rennies can sometimes be a bit cliquey from my experience.)

Here's some other PC outfits (at least AFAIK) from the PiP '09 Surgeon's Journal...

Here ya' go... I don't know what GoF will make of the hat, but Patrick and Michael have both assured me it's PC.

I think you're right, but I was sort of looking for some facts to back it up with. My thought (at this moment) was to progress in my article from a large naval ship with an orlop deck and cockpit to the largest pirate ships to a more typical sloop.

If other people's actions cause you to stop reenacting, you have decided to let them control you. Why would you do that? I can see finding new people or new events if the old ones aren't serving you, but to quit the hobby because you don't like the way someone else behaves? Nah.

I have Animal House on the brain. I finished a book on the making of the movie a week or two ago and so, of course, I went back and watched it again for the umpteenth time. Now all the lines are fresh... Southard is pronounced in Key West as Suth-erd, although if we were to use it, I really like your other pronunciation. I am probably a horrible one to be involving myself in this as I am just thinking about words and the way they go together where you two are considering the character and backstory of the Captain. So I will always choose the interesting name that rolls off the tongue over the one that would better represent your ideas.

Southard is a cool name too. It's near the fort.

Oh. Sorry. "See if you can guess... what I am now?"

The trouble with Whitehead is that it conjures the image of a zit for me. Although Richard Whitehead has a certain ring to it.

So far, I'd vote for Simonton. It's such an interesting-sounding name. Not a big fan of the first name John, though. How about Richard?

If you want to go THAT route, I can give you the names of several medicines that contain Mercury: Calomel, Cinnebar, Hydragyri, the Blue Pill and Vermilion, for example.

"Smith, or Smithee, if you like,"

Actually, what I'M trying to figure out is where the surgeon would be located on a pirate ship. He was often put on the Orlop deck in the Naval ships, but most pirate ships were far too small to have an Orlop Deck from my understanding. So I was curious to see what the biggest ships were and if they might have a deck close to the waterline that's above the hold. As for where and when, I am willing to be pretty flexible for this particular article since I know so little about it and I doubt there were very many large pirate ships. My surgical articles all use surgical material from 1625 - 1750, so I think that's a fair target. As for location, my focus is on European pirates, so where ever they turn up would suit my needs. Of course, the question is pretty open-ended. Personally I'd prefer we stick to the above constraints, but I am game for whatever people come up with. I've not seen this discussed before and I am a fan of making this forum a repository of interesting piracy-related knowledge.

I am doing some research for my next article and I was hoping to enlist the help of some experts and maybe start an interesting topic. The question, then: What were some of the largest pirate ships that we know of and how many decks did they have?

The completion of the article on wound dressings has been posted. You can read it beginning on page 6 on my webpage via this link. (For those wanting to start from the first page and read the complete article, follow this link.) The new pages discuss the role and use of bolsters/compresses and bandages. They include a detailed look at roller bandages, napkins and splints as well as detail on different facets of the process and concerns noted by golden age of piracy era surgeons. Enjoy!

It's funny - in one of those photos the sleeves are tucked under a belt and look like a sash. I wonder if that's where Pyle et. al. got that notion from?

You could always join the Mercury crew. We're pretty much free of the internal BS. (Although we tend to focus on period correct outfits - not to the exclusion of fantasy, but it is sort of our raison d'être.) As for negativity, I find you get whatever you focus on in that regard. There is always negativity in everything, just as there is positivity. Yin and yang and whatnot. So I find I can choose what I want from any environment.

Pictures are worth a thousand words. I have a vented waistcoat with holes at the arm-pits, but I don't think that's what you're talking about.

Not to keep flogging a dead horse, but we have a list of about 2000 pirates by name, sorted by nationality in this thread. (Nobody loves my thread. Even Foxe bitches about it despite the fact that he was instrumental in creating it.)

Every time I stop learning, I move on to a new obsession hobby.

Two sober guys doing gate duty? How odd will that be...