Mission

It seemed like the only place to put that comment I found because it seems like the only topic we have about pirates selling African slaves. (We have several topics on indentured servants, but that's a whole different topic - I don't even really see them as technically being slaves as there usually seems to have been a reason they accepted their servitude and there was a way for them to get out of it. This was not the case for the African slaves for the most part.) The evidence for Blackbeard selling slaves seems fairly conclusive at this point, but it's nice to have further original support for this. Many misguided people seem to think that pirates were somehow divorced from the times and behaved like cheerful egalitarians in every case.

There are a lot of books from this era (and any era, really) that reprint hearsay, cull information indiscriminately from other sources (often without citing them) and interpret it in their own way or just flat make things up, apparently to sell books. There was much interest in books about oversea goings on during this time period and many writers were willing to feed that interest. Not long ago, I was reading an interesting book on this topic called Travelers and Travel Liars 1660 - 1800 by Percy Adams.The author notes that a lot of what were considered 'factual' books on overseas history from this period have since been organized under the fiction section by library systems based on what we know now know vs. what they knew then. Yet there is still a lot of misinformation and incorrect facts in books filed as factual as I learned while reading British sea-captain Alexander Hamilton's A new account of the East Indies, 17th-18th century. (Some of it is still so bizarre that I had to reprint it on my web page, like the story under the title A Piratess, a Witch, a Witch Doctor and a Sea Surgeon on this page. While clearly absurd as it is explained, it makes for great reading.) I think the most interesting thing we can draw from all this is that Richard Moor was a forced surgeon and he gave a rather hard to read testimony that doesn't really help us understand his role among the pirates as a surgeon. (Or maybe that's just the most interesting thing I draw from it.)

While I am not a fan of repeating stuff needlessly, I think it's always a good idea to repeat links, images and other material in threads where they're relevant. I didn't recall a lot of what was in that link and I follow this forum pretty regularly. I always like to encourage people to present interesting information so long as it isn't under very recent discussion. In a related vein, I have been combining old topics on the same subject in the Pub as I come across them so that we can consolidate the information for ease of discovery via the search function and external search engines. Very few people look at topics past the first page (or even the recently posted to search function), so if all the info is consolidated, repetition of information can be reduced somewhat in that way.

Found this about a slave taken and then being sold Dow and Edmonds book The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730. “A Salem bark, William Lord, master, homeward bound from Jamaica, was also at anchor [in Tarpaulin Cove in Vineyard Sound, MA] in the Cove and as she was evidently more than they [Thomas Pound’s pirates] cared to tackle, [Thomas] Hawkins went on board and offered to trade sugar for an anchor. Captain Lord was ready to trade and he also purchased for 12 [pounds], the negro that had been brought from Virginia, __ and gave a draft on Mr. Blaney of the Elizabeth Islands in payment.” (Dow and Edmonds, p. 60-1) .)

What a fascinating find! A look into the Spanish side of things. (And where did many pirates get their supplies from, but the Spanish?) William Red Wake, you really will enjoy checking that page out. It has stuff like this on it: "Supplies taken on for the long transoceanic voyages. Diccionario demostrativo... by the Marquis of La Victoria. Cádiz, 1719-1756. MN " Ohhh, and for Foxe, dutchman, daniel, PoD and several others I'm forgetting... Instruments and implements used for navigation. Diccionario demostrativo... by the Marquis of La Victoria. Cádiz, 1719-1756. MN There are several other interesting drawings as well, including officer cabin furniture that I think might interest Elena.

Garters is a good idea. It's probably your easiest solution if you have bucket boots.

Well, of the responses that give suggestions and the ones that say "You're screwed," I would think the suggestions might be the best way to go. I tried the search and one of the top suggestions was via eHow. They've usually been helpful to me for other, similar questions, although I can't personally vouch for that particular suggestion since I've never tried it. I think part of the problem with getting responses to this here is that a lot of us don't wear boots because they're not considered PC.

Glad you enjoyed it! You're going to have to get your Lob fix from that one for a while because I don't know when I'll be seeing him next. Unfortunately he won't be at the next three events I'm going to. And I don't write for substitute Lobs, although there are a few out there. Lob is a thing unto himself - he has a whole history behind him. I always (try to) follow Michael and Kate Bagley's lead when writing from Lob's perry spectacles. (Well, except for that Brain Gremlin turn he took after I had been watching too much Jason King.) Point being, I don't want to write Lob lite, so you may not be seeing him again until the middle of next year.

Here is the 2012 Surgeon's Journal for the Put-in-Bay Pirate Fest - my new favorite event. Check it via this link.

Oh, yes, I'm going to that. So are Mark and Jenny Gist, M.A. d'Dogge (and brother Billie I think) and Trish and Shannon Gallatin. There may be others, but those are the ones I know. How can I pass on an event that's on an island in Lake Michigan in my home state! They're really trying to push for more PC reenactor involvement this year. I've been tempted to go to this in the past, but skipped because it never looked like a PC event. (Going in my PC surgeon persona to an event primarily filled with fantasy pirates results in me being called a pilgrim or a colonialist a lot.)

If you're good at it, it would be an awesome touch. I know I'm not, so I don't assault an audience with my beastly imitation of an English accent. (Listening to Carribean Pearl can be a real challenge. Sometimes it sounds like she's in a race to get the most words out per second. Her natural accent is positively beautiful, but spoken at a goodly clip it can be tough to follow at times)

So she actually knew he was a pirate? Doesn't that just put a whole new face on the thing - at least in this case!

I never use an accent either. Several Brits have told me that Americans trying to effect an English accent often wind up sounding like Burt in Mary Poppins, which makes them cringe. So I honor their wounded ears by speaking in my own voice. I don't know where my character comes from because I'm not a big fan of backstories unless they can be used for humorous effect. Many English surgeons came from Scotland during the GAoP, although Mission is an erroneous spelling of Misson, which is a French surname. (I unhid my original comment in response to this thread when it was started in Captain Twill so we don't go down the path of debating what a proper period accent would sound like. That has been discussed in Twill as the link reveals.)

I have a replica of one. I put a photo of an actual period straight razor in one of my Surgeon's Journals which you can see at the top of this page from Brigand's Grove. Don Dunkelburger found the real one he is holding in that photo at Brigand's Grove and bought it. Then sold his replica to me. (The one he purchased is much larger than mine is, but since period tools like this were hand made, they would have varied widely in size and style.) Below is a photo from the 2012 Put-in-Bay Pirate Fest of Lob the monkey sitting on my shaving bowl staring at my replica razor. (Photo by Michael Colosimo.)

If you want to do it PC, you should not use the modern safety razor, but one that has a blade that goes all the way up to the handle and is not scalloped on the sides to hold your finger tips. You should also probably put EMS on your speed dial. (That's one reason the surgeon was charged with doing all the shaving on this ship - he was used to handling sharp, slippery knives.)

I believe Foxe had a thread on this a few years ago, but I can't seem to find it. Perhaps it was on another forum? Or maybe I read it in one of his papers or dissertations. I do recall reading his comments on the topic. As I remember it, he said the pirates regularly did this and cited several examples of it. It seems to me the purpose was either to make the vessel faster or better for fighting or possibly both.

Since you put it in Twill, it comes off as a question about what would be period correct. (This is what we do in Twill - debate the proper way to represent period correct minutae and discuss historical stuff.) If this is what you're after, I would direct you to these two threads: Pirate Words and Phrases: Meanings and Origins and The "Pirate Accent" If you're polling people out of curiosity (which is sort of what it sounds like to me), we should probably move this to The Crow's Nest.

Pixel pirate, we discuss this same thing in here about every 6-9 months. Someone who hasn't read the previous discussions comes in all fire and brimstone and starts a new thread resurrecting the monster of fact vs. fantasy. I've said it before (several times, in fact) and now I'll say it again - if the most stringent purists were to go back in time, I'll bet they'd be shocked at how wrong we have the details. My guess is that we're lucky if we're 50% correct. Everyone has their schtick. You do yours, they'll do theirs. (Just don't fool yourself into thinking you're the one who's doing it right, cuz' you most likely aren't either.) We just don't know enough to be that correct.

Pretty nifty. I wonder if that was just a single cartridge pouch design or if that was the symbol of the group? The way it's shown, it looks like it's some sort of seal or standard.

This month's Pirate Surgeon article is on the history of pirate and sea surgeons. I offered to write and article for a magazine being put together for the Michigan Pirate Festival next month it was so interesting to research that I decide to make it this month's article. Enjoy!

Well, the four largest nationalities make logical sense. They were all part of the United Kingdom as of the Union Act in 1800. If you add them all together, you get 720 crew members from the UK. Out of the total of 883, that's 81.5%. I don't get the impression it was unusual for people to wind up in different navies, either. Several of the military sea-surgeons I studied were in foreign navies during their lifetimes. Looking at the other nationalities by % (and ignoring the unknowns who could have been anything, including English): 22 American - 2.5% 7 Dutch - 0.8% 6 Maltese - 0.7% 4 French - 0.5% 4 Swedish - 0.5% 4 West Indian - 0.5% 2 Canadian - 0.2% 2 Danish - 0.2% 2 German - 0.2% 2 Indian - 0.2% 2 Norwegian - 0.2% 2 Swiss - 0.2% 1 African - 0.1% 1 Brazilian - 0.1% 1 Jamaican - 0.1% 1 Portuguese - 0.1% Total Identifiable Non-UK Sailors: 7.1%

Sure, why not? Although many pirates seem to have been incredibly short-sighted for the most part. You read over and over again about various pirates doing stupid things like crossing the Atlantic without taking adequate supplies - particularly water.

Here's a bit about some French pirates from The Memoirs of Pére Labat 1693-1705, translated and edited by John Eaden. “[Feb. 4th, 1705 - I believe] As soon as our men received their share of the money for the caique and her cargo, they promptly went ashore to carouse as long as the money lasted, according to custom.” (Labat, p. 244) "Most of the crew had spent all their money by the 20th February [1705], so I helped [Filibuster Captain] Daniel to make them return to the ship. In order to do this we spread a rumour in the town that an English merchantman was expected at St. Thomas [where they were], and on hearing this all the crew came aboard in the evening." (Labat, p. 244)

OK, playing around with the search function Google Books. Note that Google books certainly doesn't have every book ever written in it. It also has the limitation that it can only be found if the word is spelled properly and the interpretation program can figure the words in the books it is searching out. (Those f's for s's confuse the heck out of the search program, for example. It. words do end up being spelled as 'Congrefs' by the interpretation program for example. However, it's the best source I can think of to find words in really old books as of this moment. Searching for the terms "deadlights" and "dead lights" and limiting the time period of the search to books printed during 1/1/1500 - 1/1/1750, I get: 1. A faithful narrative of the capture of the ship Derby: belonging to the East-India Company, Agraham Anselm Commander) by Angria the Pirate, on the Coast of Mallabar, December 26, 1735. "Deadlights were put up in the Victorys Great Cabin, that the Vizapunt and the rest should not make their Escape in the Night, all the Vessels Boats rowing, under Arms all Night, under the Stern, and round about the Gallivat [A small armed vessel, with sails and oars used on the Malabar coast.] that came off for the Vizapunt." (Page 73) 2. The meaning above appears to me to agree with something found in the 1736 Dictionary Britainnicum put together by Nathan Bailey. "Dead Lights [ in a Ship] the Shutters for the Cabbin Windows, generally put up, or in most Ships rather let down in a Storm." 3. The earliest use of the word (via a Google books search, anyhow) appears by separating the words (dead lights) which is from the 1726 book A voyage round the world by way of the great South Sea, George Shelvocke: "About midnight a sea struck us upon the quarter, and drove in one of our quarter and one of our stern dead lights, where we ship'd great quantities of water before we were able to stop them again: and were were for considerable time under continual apprehension of foundering again." (page 3) So I don't even think we can state with certainty that the word in reference to shutters was in use during the golden age (which I have defined as being about 1690 - 1725 per Foxe.) And this meaning has nothing whatsoever to do with eyes, much less their closest cousin in meaning, lanterns. So I'd say deadlights in reference to eyes (or even lanterns) is a non-period word based on what info I've found. Used properly for the GAoP it refers to shutter on a window in a ship.

A lot of pop-pirates use the slang term "deadlights" to refer to the eyes and I was wondering how far back this went. I actually found another topic about frog lanterns that had this to say... So blackjohn (who can be trusted more often than not) seems to have gotten to the bottom of the origin of the term as being a part of the ship, although his source cites a very wide time range, making me wonder if even that is a period term. Regardless, this tells us nothing about deadlights being used to refer to eyes. A surf 'round the net to figure out when and how this came to refer to eyes produced a lot of useless crap - there are several unsourced "Pirate Dictionaries" out there that have copied and repeated variations on the explanation "Yer eyes, lad!" Of course, these same sources also define 'Arrrr!' so we can set most of them aside as chaff. Interestingly (but still no more useful) is that Hargrave Jennings wrote a book in 1873 called Live Lights and Dead Lights but that is a book that discusses religion. This all seems to go back to the supreme source of pop-piracy: Treasure Island, which was first serialized in 1881-2. (After Jennings book, interestingly enough.) In his book, Stevenson has Long John Silver spouting the improbable sentence "Here you comes and tells me of it plain; and here I let him give us all the slip before my blessed deadlights!" So unless someone has read something referring to 'deadlights' (or possibly 'dead lights' or 'dead-lights') as being eyes in material previous to that, this appears to be yet another thing that Stevenson gave us in his imaginative book written 150 after period.