Mission

Ah, a homework assignment. Raphael Mission. Engineer. Pretend surgeon. Armchair historian. (Foxe's label for me.) Cyclist. My home is an art project. As for who I am, there's this: http://www.piratesurgeon.com... ...and then there's this: https://markck.com And somehow those two things fit together.

I want one. VG Starry Night version. 🙂

If you were on a ship, it was typically biscuit and cheese for breakfast. I did find one period instance of a merchant ship where they made rice - the rare example of a hot breakfast.

You're welcome. (Oh thank God! You can't believe how long I've been waiting for that.)

No. You can barely find anything in the period accounts about the cook or his stewards, let alone something with that amount of detail.

It is sort of both, sort of neither. Because of the dressing, It would have been considered a type of salad during the period featured in The General History of the Pyrates. Since the earliest appearance of the word referring to a stew (actually a ragout) is 1759, well after the end of the golden age of piracy, that is not likely to be what the GHoP is talking about. The Smollet Roderick Random recipe I cite above (1748), further tying it to life at sea, lends strength to this. Although I would say this would have been officer's food rather than general mess. Keep in mind it was Roberts and his guest who were enjoying their savory dish, not the crew. Something worth noting, which I learned after this discussion ended - cookbooks did not represent the food of sailors or even the regular populace/middling classes; they represented the food of the elite. They were written for the cooks of the people who could afford to pay cooks. So they are not necessarily a very reliable source. Then again, they could be appropriate for a large ship's officers (particularly English Navy or East India Company), some of whom actually did hire cooks to serve them on their ships. In fact, the inclusion of this detail in the Roberts account (something not found in the trial documents) may have been intended to show what an elite person Roberts was. Consider other unverified details in that account like his fancy clothing and unusual behaviors. Parts of the GHoP may have been made up by its mysterious author. See this website for more information: https://www.etymonline.com/word/salmagundi (I notice that the online information regarding salmagundi has improved quite a bit since this discussion began in 2010.)

The Delorean was sold in 2003 or 2004 to put the down-payment on my art project. However, the kitchen is Delorean themed... I even have a DMC grill mounted above the stainless (of course) microwave. Sort of... I did a Darth Terrabicus cosplay which is basically Jaxxon in Sith robes. (I didn't have a red flightsuit and I didn't want to get one.) For a while, I was doing a lot of cosplay with the twins, but that kind of died off. You can see my cosplays here (the early ones are not really cosplay and they are kind of dopey, but there you are): https://markck.com/pages/costumes/cosplay_costumes.html

Eight guys took down four aliens? C'mon, son. I am researching and writing about day-in-the-life pirate stuff (with a medical bent, 'natch), cycling (1600 miles last year) and working on my art project (my house). For the house, I am currently doing the office (theme: engineering and probably cats, because that's where the litter box goes) and the spare bedroom (theme: art deco and trains). It's 110 years old, so right now I am mostly fixing plaster cracks and refinishing the (formerly) gorgeous wood trim. Oh, and I'm heading up a Rotary project to do a series of pollinator gardens in the local community, so I spent a bunch of time researching that in order to do presentations to sell it. (Turns out, you really don't need to sell it. There are all kinds of grants out there.)

I have several references to bad, as opposed to hard, cheese but you'll have have to wait until I get to that article.

Ah, Wisconsin... I haven't got to it yet, so I am only partially versed in the uses of cheese at sea. (Meaning I have a bunch of references I vaguely recall, but have not looked into them to see how everything is tied together, where it goes, from whence it comes and who it goes with.) However, I can tell you that cheese was a staple in the navy diet. It was served three times a week, beginning before the GAoP and ending well after it. The 1731 Regulations (which were created using orders which had mostly been issued during the GAoP) stated that a pint of olive oil could be substituted for "two Pounds of Suffolk Cheese; and Two Thirds of a Pound of Cheshire Cheese, [and] is equal to one Pound of Suffolk." (Regulations and instructions relating to His Majesty's service at sea,1st ed, 1731, p. 60) So that tells you what types of cheese the navy was doling out. The cheese often went bad though. I recall reading somewhere that the men sometimes carved buttons out of it, it got so hard.

Added here for reference: Feel free to lock my topic and format whatever you like in my list so it fits in your list. (I really don't need another ongoing topic to manage... )

Does anyone else hear the Spongebob guy when they see those little time balloons in old posts?

Added. Just to be clear, as long as there is a link to their site (FB, etsy, website, etc.), I will add them. But if you want to make it as easy as possible for me to add, here is an example. (And, for the record, I can't believe this one isn't already in there): Weapons - Hand Baltimore Knife and Sword Co. - Hand-forged knives and swords made by our own 1stMateMatt. I always hotlink them, so if you do that for me I can just copy it, which is awesome. I only provide a list of what they carry to clarify this for people because I want to save them a trip if they don't carry what they want. However, I don't want to provide any bias... with the minor exception of noting if they are are linked to a forum member. Again, you don't have to do all that, I just need a link and I can do the legwork. If you've worked with them, feel free to add your experience in your post, explain why you like them, whatever you feel like adding. I just don't want to put that in the list because I don't think it's my place to promote anyone. 🙂

I have all sorts of Excel spreadsheets that I've assembled over the years.... pirate ship data, medicine data, where water was found, alcohols sorted by sailor type, pirate nationalities, all manner of food spreadsheets. And you know what's great about them? The data overlaps so I can search them to quickly find dates, current locations and ships when I'm building a new spreadsheet. So it sort of is a database, but not really.

That's a markedly different flag. The elements are there, but the designs are very different. Plus, based on the reference, it's apparently a design for French corsairs, not English pirates. I'll bet it was coopted by one of those 20th century authors and assigned to Moody. (I'd look, but all the reference books I'm not using for my current article are in boxes while I work on refinishing the wood and painting my office. And there are four bookshelves worth of boxes so it would take forever to find.)

If you want to know about pirate flags, you'll want Ed's book The True History of Pirate Flags (you can buy it via that hotlink). I don't think any of the authors you mentioned are on the forum unless Ed has decided to log back in, but he looks at every legitimate pirate flag in that book and explains the origins of the illegitimate ones. It's an easy read and not a very expensive book.

If you list them with a link (a very brief description would also be nice), I'll add them to the first post like I did with the last two William posted.

Boy, you leave for a decade and everything changes. All of the websites below appear to be gone. I have removed them from the list and put them here for reference. However, a few of the links are very suspicious, so I do not recommend clicking on them. I list them here because some of them may have moved to Facebook: General Old Sutler John's - Clothing, Furniture, Accessories Weeping Heart Trading Company - Clothing, Books, Accessories Bradley - Company of the Fox - Mid-late 1700s Items Flying Canoe Traders - Clothing, Hats, Gear & Accessories The Painted Lady Crew - Clothing & Accessories Clothing - Period (or Periodish) Barkertown Sutlers Center Stage Footwear Caboots KM Garlick - UK Period Footwear Maker Rawganique - Hemp Sandals Raystown Forge Sarah Juniper SCA Boots Hats Hat Crafters Leather Goods Blackbeard's Landing - leather accessories Excaliber Leather - hats and accessories MInute Man Armoury - Graye Fox's wallets, snapsacks, cartridge pouches and leather bottles MInute Man Armoury - Graye Fox's wallets, snapsacks, cartridge pouches and leather bottels Jewelry Pirates of the Coast - By our own Diosa Exotic Offerings - Ethnic Jewerly/ Belly-Dancing Pirate Jewelry.com Miscellanea The Dirk and Arrow - Custom Flags, Smuggler's Boxes, Signs, and Other Miscellaneous Sundries Lamplight Feathers Preservation Virginia Store Dragon Marsh Pyrate Trading Company - Hats, drums, flasks, mugs and other leatherwork Brands on Sale - Gibbet Cage Quro Art Shop - Pirate Artwork Miscellanea - Barrels Gibbs Brothers Cooperage Swish Barrel - Barrels and Beermaking Items Tents Redhawk Trading Tentsmiths Weapons - Hand Ivan Henry Trading Company - by our own Ivan Henry aka. Mooseworth Aurora History Pirate Store Replica Weaponry Weapons - Cannon Bircher Inc., Beaufort Naval Armorers The Canadian Cannon Company Cannon Mania, LLC Cannon Mikes Cannons Online Clover Machine Limited Dutch Island Cannon Works, LLC Fire & Iron Grey Star Cannon Technologies Hern Iron Works Kansas Cannon Works Landfall Neff Cannons South Bend Replicas Steen Cannons Other Web Pages Indexes No Quarter Given

I am currently working on a variety of articles on food during the golden age of piracy. It was originally going to be one article, then three, then five and now it's completely spiraled out of control and will probably end up being 25 articles. I have been working on it for over two years now. It will probably take another two to finish it at this rate. Most of the articles look at the five basic types of long-haul sailor types I have identified - navy, merchant, privateer, buccaneer and pirate. Some of them add sixth category - explorer. Nearly all of them are data-driven, presenting all sorts of statistics on what I have discovered. (I have this unbelievably complex assortment of Excel spreadsheets.... but enough of that.) Anyhow, there are still going to be 5 basic articles. Think of them as the overarching articles. Three are finished, one is partially finished (actually, it has been split into about 20 articles, but there is a top page for them). The last one hasn't been started. The underlined words are hotlinked to articles. (Because they are complete. Sort of. I keep finding new material as I research new articles and will eventually go back and add the new material to the old articles. I digress...) The five overarching articles include: 1. Food and Health - Food was intimately tied into health and humor theory, with each food having humoral properties. This article will eventually be tied into the series of articles I am currently working on which is about the individual food found in sailors' account during the the GAoP. These are organized by food type, including: Fruits - Vegetables - Grains - Non-Meat Proteins - Meat Proteins - Fish. (I am presently working on Non-Meat Proteins.) 2. Food Procurement - Looks at how each of the five types of sailors got food, some of it legitimate, some of it not, including - gifts (of food), sharing, purchasing, taking, hunting, fishing, catching turtle and live animals (animal pens). Each section provides statistics on the percentage of sailors I've found who used each method. 3. Food Organization - The first third of this article is primarily about the complex structure of navy food procurement and dissemination. Since nearly all sailors were in the navy at one time or another, parts of this structure were disseminated to the other types. These are treated separately and include the East India Company (which was a thing unto itself), non-EIC merchant ships, privateers, buccaneers and pirates. It talks about food-related officers including pursers, masters/supercargos, stewards, quartermasters on legal and illegal voyages (their roles were different) and cooks. You get a generous dollop of info on the cookroom at then end of the article. 4. Provisioning Locations - I decided to talk about two categories: English navy provisioning stations and the pirate locations. To be fair, any port city could be a provisioning location, so I focused on those places frequented by pirates mentioned in accounts from around the golden age of piracy. This includes three areas - the Western Hemisphere (Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados and Juan Fernandez Islands), the Eastern Coast of Africa (Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Sao Tome, Principe & Annabon, St. Helena and the Cape of Good Hope) and the Western Coast of Africa (Comoros, Mauritius & Reunion and Madagascar. ) You will notice only a handful of them are hotlinked and that is because only the navy and Western Hemisphere locations are complete. These will probably be the last articles I write. 5. Sailors and Food - This is the article the average person wants to read. What did each type of sailor eat? How and where did they eat it? I quit the Provisioning Locations article to write this and as I got into it, realized it would be much easier to finish if I wrote a complete account of the individual foods found in the sailors accounts. (Remember, back at #1?) I was NOT going to write those article because I knew they would be a giant PITA, but... here I am writing it now. Been writing just these for over a year. At least I've learned a lot. (I mean A LOT.) So you must wait for this one until I finish that one.

Bump. Yet another fantastic topic from which I learned so much. (Where, oh, where, is Patrick Hand today?)

Wow... I think it was this topic that in part sparked my interest in the pirate surgeon's role in death and burial. I eventually wrote a whole article about it. You can see it here: http://www.piratesurgeon.com/pages/surgeon_pages/deceased1.html.