Mission

I am reading Travelers and Travel Liars 1660 - 1800 by Percy G. Adams. It's all about how people writing travel journals during this period intentionally lied in their accounts due to poor recollection, a desire to sell books and/or increase their prestige. Interestingly, the way the author presents it, this was not really done in a cynical way, it was done because that's was part of the writing fashion among many travel authors during this time period. I'm only a few chapters in. The section on the Patagonian giants was most enlightening. I came across them in one of the accounts I read which was quoting a Spanish author. (Probably Signor Pigafetta.) Several other amusing bits from various books come to mind as well - the mermaids, women fish (not mermaids) and some of the other amazing creatures cited in the various period travel books I have read.

Of course, most of the people who will take the time to read through this are not the people who will be holding knives to tourist's throats.

Here's a photo of all the PC folks who were there on Saturday evening. (More showed up on Sunday, but you know how it is...) Lots of Mercury crew members in there... lots of Bagley original clothing in there too. It was quite the event! You can see more photos of it on the Surgeon's Journal Facebook photo album.

I just saw a photo recently where the reenactor was pointing his pistol up at a spectator with a large leering grin while anther spectator was holding a second pistol on the same someone from the other side. My first thought was along the lines Ivan Henry has presented. I have also seen people pointing knives at spectators stomachs and even necks. Yeah, it can make for a neat picture and you get to pose all piratey, but just make one slip-up... If you think the people who launch cannonballs through their houses using home made guns stirs stuff up, image the kind of press you'd get for eviscerating a tourist while posing for a photo because your leather-soled boots/shoes slipped on the wet grass!

The Pirates of Fort Taylor at World's End? (Wait, that sounds familiar...)

Yeah, we've really covered all this ground (x1000) in the Pirate Nationalities (Origins) thread which I mentioned in the second post. What does everyone think of attaching this to that thread. Or I could take the slavery aside out and attach that to one of the threads on that topic and just attach the stuff in here that is directly related to the pirate nationality makeup.

Is the question whether striped socks existed during the GAoP (1690-1725)? It seems like as much a question of fashion as it is of existance - if they weren't in fashion, few, if any, people would wear them. By way of example, parachute pants exist, but how many people do you see wearing them these days?

According to Johnson (the original quote that started this thread): "The manner of making it, is first to press the Juice from it, __ (which is poisonous) done here with Engines..." I believe they show a photo of those 'engines' on that other forum I linked to in the first post.

Interesting that all the Wiki references are modern. Where is the period source of all information La Buse? It appears as if it may well be written in French... [Edit] Well, this page contains quite a bit of info as well as musings on why La Buse/La Bouche/Levasseur may not be as widely covered by the popular media as many of the other GAoP pirates. He also fails to mention his sources (bad form), but I suspect it's mostly culled from the General History. Curious that this page, which appears to have done at least some actual period research, only describes him as "slight of build and as having had a limp." No eye patch or scar noted. I'm sure someone out there has better period info than that, though. __ I did find a reference to a pirate captain without an eye, although an eye patch isn't mentioned. This is from the Captain Burgess account in The History of the Pirates (aka. Vol II of The General History): "Burgess being of great use to them [an unnamed Dutch ship], they took him on board, and steered for a port, where some Dutch, taken in another ship, were marooned; but they were wrecked at Youngoul, where Burgess continued 18 months. After this time was expired, he was desirous of leaving the place, and addressed himself to the king. __ who was uncle to the king of Methelage, he requested his black majesty to send him back to that port which he readily complied with, where Burgess continued almost five years, afflicted with sickness, in which he lost one eye." (Johnson, p. 183) This was near the end of the chapter on Burgess and it is indicated that he committed no more pyracy during that time.

Swashbuckler 1700 was sharing some images of Blas de Lezo with me. Señor de Lezo was a Spanish Commander active during the Golden Age of Piracy. (Wiki notes that he defended the city of Cartagena de Indias against the British Admiral Vernon (of grog invention fame) in a 1741 battle which was a turning point in the War of Jenkin's ear. I mention this only to bring up the War of Jenkin's Ear again, a war which continues to fascinate me. But I digress...) Although he was not a pirate, Blas appears to have lost one of each of the standard pirate-associated missing body parts: an arm, a leg and an eye. This led me to wonder... Where the heck did the eye patch-pirate association come from? Even Blas is never shown with one in the images Swashbuckler shared with me. I can readily see how seamen and pirates lost eyes, what with all the splinters flying about during naval battles. Yet not one surgical author mentions this or the emblematic eye patch according to my notes. I can cite you all sorts of references to cataract-removal operations (done via a procedure then called 'couching'), but that procedure was designed to save vision, not cover it over with a black swatch. So... pirate or even period sailor eye patches. Stories? References? Images? Anyone?

I skipping the discussion on amputation in April so that I could talk about the use of eggs in medicine. This month I returned to finish that amputation article. The completion of the amputation procedure begins on page 6. It discusses how the operation was performed, the all-important procedure for stopping bleeding, post-operative concerns and care-giving, the period prosthetic and phantom limbs. Those who have not read the first part, or who want to start at the beginning may want to follow the link in the above quote to get to the first page. Next month we'll be looking at leeches.

Below are some interesting bits about setting up tents for influx of pirates into Nassau, Bahamas after the Rogers brought the King's pardon. This is from The History of the Pirates (aka. Vol II of The General History) and it also includes some interesting details about the construction of houses. "The governor, with some soldiers, guarded the fort, and the inhabitants, who were formed into trained bands, took care of the town ; but as there was no sort of accommodation to lodge such a number of people, they were forced to unbend the sails, and bring them on shore, in order to make tents, tilt they had time to build houses, which was done with all possible expedition, by a kind of architecture altogether new. Those that were built in the fort were done by making six little holes in the rock, at convenient distances, in each of which was stuck a forked pole; on these, from one to the other, were placed cross poles or rafters, which being lathed at top, and on the sides, with small sticks, were afterwards covered with Palmata leaves, and then the house was finished ; for they did not much trouble themselves about the ornaments of doors and windows." (Johnson, p. 220)

I would argue that being a perfectionist will just set you up to fail as badly as you think others have failed. Perfection requires precision which requires rigidity. That will not work with something as messy and contradictory as history. I've seen nearly every 'expert' on this forum who has stuck around for awhile come to entirely new understandings of this period that were at odds with their previous beliefs based on a random quote, image or remnant from history. (Myself included.) I think I learned the most about how little we understand history on the granular level (where clothing styles reside) from Michael Crichton's fictional books Jurassic Park and (even better) Timeline. Not the movie Timeline - which is a complete waste of time and celluloid - nor the movie Jurassic Park - which is mostly just a nice fun house ride - but the books. They have nuances the movies necessarily left out. To think that we can understand history fully is nothing but proud arrogance. And we all what pride goeth before...

Ah, so that means the author didn't necessarily get it wrong, he just (per usual in 17th/18th c. texts) spelled the local word so badly it couldn't be found by Google.

I was slightly fascinated by a description of a food called Manyoco from the 3rd Edition of the General History of the Pyrates by Charles Johnson. The text was not written by Johnson, rather "they were communicated to me by an ingenious Gentleman, lately arrived from those Parts." This information comes from a section in the Howell Davis account in the General History called "A Description of the Islands of St. Thome, Del Principe, and Annobono" (São Tomé, Príncipe and Annobón are islands in the Gulf of Guinea off the western coast of central Africa.) I was particularly curious about the 'engine' he mentions in this account: It turns out what the writer called 'Manyoco' (Manyoko) is a product of the Yuca Root. I learned this via a forum called Arrowheadology which is devoted to the study of Indians and Indian artifacts. Forum user MidlandMan on that site gives an explanation which agrees with the General History in many ways, although the General History author appears to have used the term 'manyoko' - an element of the processed yuca root - with the yuca itself. I was most interested to learn what the 'engine' referred to. You can read the full thread which includes several photos here on the Arrowheadology site.

Somewhere, possibly that article I cited last year, I had read that hard tack was sometimes baked three times or more to assure it would last longer. 'Right' may be too subjective a term. Perhaps 'typical' or (based on what I had) 'edible' would be better terms. (Although I must confess I wondered when had that hard tack at the Blackbeard festival how the hell anyone ever ate the stuff. At the time I thought of all the times the sailors food was rationed and decided that must have something to do with it.) As for taste, I can't see flour, water and salt having much more taste than the stuff I tried.

In the period accounts I've read, that meaning of the term seems to be used more often than the other. In fact, before you delineated the difference, I had thought this was the meaning based on the frequency that I had seen it used in that way. It does explain one account I read that confused me.

I agree there were striped shirts based on evidence that has been produced here in the past. However, my point was that we can't just assume they would be the same as what the Spanish wore for the reasons cited. They may be the same, or they may not.

So (just to be clear) this image really only tells us what Spanish sailors might have been wearing, not English sailors. Thus you could use it to create a Spaniard's look, but you can't really use it to make generalized statements about what English sailors may have been wearing. (Of course, there's always that favorite fallback argument, "But I stole 'em from..." ) From what I've read and the images Swashbuckler has found, the cultures seem to have been noticeably different in style of dress and during the GAoP. If people were as prejudiced against opposing cultures then as they are now (and they seem to have been as bad if not worse - as the English epithet 'Papist!' bears out), most of them probably would prefer not to adopt the other culture's style of clothing. When I say 'opposing cultures,' I say this because Spain seems to have been in and out of war with the other European nations all throughout the GAoP, probably due in no small part to all the wealth they had accumulated from the new world. I particularly want to make everyone aware of the War of Jenkins' Ear, not because it's so relevant (it's not - it's slightly post period), but because it's a funny name for a war. Although... poor Jenkins.

FYI, 'sombrero' simply means 'hat' in Spanish. Any kind of hat. It is only in American English that it is associated with the large Mexican-style as seen in this notable historically accurate woodcut.

Thanks, Eye! I love those buttons. Coats and waistcoats with lots of buttons look really neat to me.

Here is some more from North's story in the The History of the Pirates (aka. Vol II of The General History). The first part is about how they dealt with treasure. Sequins have come up in several other accounts from this book, which I find sort of interesting. And, of course, to the re-enactor there is all that stuff about making gold buttons and buckles. (Get your wallet it if you want to be PC in this manner!) "When they came over against Cachine, some black merchants, goldsmiths, and several Dutchmen,came on board to trade with them, bringing a great many sequins, and other gold coin, to change for Spanish dollars. As many of the pirates designed to knock off and return home, they gave 500 dollars for 200 sequins, for the conveniency of close stowage about them. The goldsmiths set up their forges on board the ship, and were fully employed in making them buttons, buckles, and what else they fancied,so that they had a fair opportunity of putting in what alloy they thought proper." (Johnson, p. 199) The second bit is about a tribal custom when the pirates were staying in Madagascar. I have come across photos of African tribal scarifying, but hadn't read about it in a period document before this. "As the whites were returning home with their company, they fell in with another nation, the Timouses, whose prince joined North, with 500 men, and swore a strict amity with him and his crew. The ceremony used among the natives, as it is uncommon, so an account of it may, perhaps, be agreeable. The parties who swear to each other, interweave their toes and fingers, so that they must necessarily sit very close to each other. When they have thus knit their hands and feet, they reciprocally swear to do each other all friendly offices, to be a friend or enemy to the friend or enemy of the party to whom they swear; and if they falsify the oath they make, they imprecate several curses on themselves, as may they fall by the lance, be devoured by the alligator, or struck dead by the hand of God. Then an assistant scarifies each of the contracting parties on the chest, and wiping up the blood with a piece of bread, gives this bloody bread to each of them to cat, that Is, each eats the blood of the other; and this oath, whether it be with equal parties, or with a prince and his subject, where the one promises protection and the other obedience, (which was the nature of that taken between North and this prince) is looked upon inviolable, and they have few examples of its being broken; but where any has been wicked enough to violate this solemn oath, they say, they have been ever punished according to their imprecations." (Johnson, p. 211)

We actually did talk about that, but the list was so huge at that point that no one wanted to do it. Still, if you know of another place where that data can be found in such a form, fess up. (If Swashbuckler wants to answer his own question, that would be the place to start. He really needs to do some of his own research to become truly knowledgeable and research savvy anyhow.) One nice thing about the list is that I footnoted a lot of the pirates indicating who contributed the names and what the source was. That would be tremendously helpful in trying to find their dates of operation. Many of the pirates without footnotes came either from Rogozinski's Encyclopedic opus or Gosse's Who's Who where more info is in the offing. Or we could just buckle down and start adding dates. ("Asps! Very dangerous. You go first." )

Eventual pirate Captain North's story in the The History of the Pirates (aka. Vol II of The General History) contains all sorts of interesting comments. Here are two. The first is about getting a Letter of the Marque renewed (or extended): "[North] ...returned to Jamaica, and went on board and cruised in a Spanish barcalonga, of 10 guns, commanded by Capt. Lovering, born at Jamaica. They cruised three months in the West-Indies, and making but a small hand of it, they steered for Newfoundland, to try their fortune on the banks. Here they met a man of war, who renewed their commission for six months longer." (Captain Charles Johnson, The History of the Pirates (aka. Vol II of The General History), 1834 Edition, p. 188) The second is an interesting comment about water casks. Well, I thought it was kind of interesting. "They fitted this ship [the Pelican, which the crew had purchased] for a long voyage, out of the joint stock of the company; but iron hoops being scarce in New-England, they were obliged to take casks hooped with wood, which I mention, because it proved the ruin of their voyage to the East-Indies for a whole year." (Johnson, p. 189) "...they thought of going to sea again [after being stuck ashore in the East-Indies for some period due to sickness], but on examining their water casks, they found the hoops all worm eaten and rotten, so that there was no proceeding; but this defect was repaired by their cooper, who was an ingenious fellow. He went into the woods with the Mayotta slaves, and with withes [willow branches] and other stuff he gathered, fitted them up, and made them tight; in acknowledgment of which service they chose him captain, and North was made quarter-master." (Johnson, p. 191)

"[From the Chapter on Captain Nathaniel North] The first cruise he made, they took a couple of good prizes, which made every man's share very considerable; but North, as he got his money lightly, so he spent it, making the companions of his dangers the companions of his diversions, or rather joining himself with them, and following their example; which all (who are acquainted with the way of life of a successful Jamaica privateer) know is not an example of the greatest sobriety and economy. His money being all spent, he took the same method for a recruit, that is, he went a second time privateering, and met with such success, that he engaged very heartily in this course of life, and made several lucky cruises." (Captain Charles Johnson, The History of the Pirates (aka. Vol II of The General History), 1834 Edition, p. 184-5)