Mission

I was looking for something else when I stumbled across this thread, which, while very long, was also very interesting to read. Keep in mind that (as of this posting) the bulk of this thread occurred 6 years ago and many of these people are no longer around! So arguing with them will get you no where. I also don't recommend adding your thoughts until you have read at least 3 pages in because it takes that much to get the flavor of the thing. (It is one of our many fantasy vs. accurate garb discussions, although it is one of the better ones from my reading.) Wait... Let me repeat that for the overeager and impatient... I don't recommend responding until you have read at least 3 pages into the thread. Otherwise you may end up sounding rather stupid. And nobody wants that. (Mostly.) If you're not patient enough to read that far in, I suggest you skip this entire thread! Oh, and in case you don't make it this far, this is almost prose poetry: (It would actually be poetry, if Foxe hadn't indulged in a little contemporary Simpsons joke. )

While trolling around searching for images, I came across an interesting period Dutch artist - David Teniers II (aka. David Teniers the Younger). He had a couple of tavern and tavern-related paintings from the mid/late 17th century that I thought might interest the crowds. They're a bit early for GAoP Proper, but worth a look. Tavern Scene (1658) Three Peasants Making Music (Drei musizierende Bauern) (late 17th century) Peasants Making Music in an Inn (1646) The Dice Shooters (Die Dobbelaars) (1630 - 50) [Not sure if this is in a tavern or not] The Old Beer Drinker (De oude bierdrinker) (1640-60) The Card Players (1646) [Not sure if this is in a tavern or not] The Smoker Men Playing Backgammon in a Tavern Hexenszene 1700 OK, maybe that last one is a coven, not a tavern. You can see how I'd mistake it, I'm sure. There are actually more tavern-related pictures by Teniers. Do a Google Image search for his name and you'll find images a-plenty.

Thanks! I don't know if I'll use them or not, but more images are always helpful. Interesting that the first two images show people with crutches and the last one shows a man with no prosthetic at all. Not quite the pirate image we're used to, is it?

Yep, you and Sterling I right. I stand corrected on that. I must have looked at that book (over a really slow connection) five times, too.

Look at that flag! It's more fanciful than the ones most reenactors have come up with. (And that's saying something.)

Happy Easter weekend! I have taken a slight deviation from my intended course by putting together an article on the use of Eggs in Medicine During the Golden Age of Piracy. The second half of the article amputation will be published next month, I promise! It's about half done, so I should be able to keep that promise. It's turning out to require quite a bit of research, especially when finding appropriate images.

Surely you recognize my sense of humor by now... It is most likely the sort of mistake you suggest, although Cooke's account does not appear in either of the first two volumes. (Dampier's does, with the appropriate references to Selkirk.) It brings the accuracy of the images in doubt in my mind because it is clearly labeled and in the section on James Cook. All the other images elsewhere in these volumes appear to match their material.

The trouble is that we (and that includes you) have our own faults and biases that make it impossible for us to be the ultimate judges of truth. So in many ways whether a book is completely correct or not is really irrelevant in the scheme of things. It's best to just know that no author is perfect and read anyhow. (Otherwise you'll drive yourself mad.)

I doubt there is any such thing as a history book that is completely correct. Nor will there ever be. (Except Foxe's books, of course. )

You know, I have been thinking about the cat organ as a physical reality and I think it would have been impossible without sedatives. Cats are not willing creatures and would fight mightily if you tried to put them in confined little boxes, let alone tie some taut rope to their tail. One would be hard enough - imagine trying to do it with sixteen! You would be badly damaged in the process.

I am elusive? I always tell people which events I'm attending. Port Washington is even within driving distance, but I have the impression I would fade into the background in my garb. (If I were to go, I'd probably just bring the hat and wear street clothes.)

Those two images are from an interesting book called (believe it or not) An historical account of all the voyages round the world: performed by English navigators; including those lately undertaken by order of His present Majesty. The whole faithfully extracted from the journals of the voyagers. Drake, undertaken in 1577-80; Cavendish, 1586-88; Cowley, 1683-86; Dampier, 1689-96; Cooke, 1708-11; Rogers, 1708-11; Clipperton and Shelvocke, 1719-22; Anson, undertaken in 1740-44; Byron, 1764-66; Wallis, 1766-68; Carteret, 1766-69; and Cook, 1768-71. Together with that of Sydney Parkinson ... and the voyage of Mons. Bougainville ... To which is added, an appendix. Containing the Journal of a voyage to the North pole, by the Hon. Commodore Phipps, and Captain Lutwidge. The original four volumes contain some reprints of the actual accounts, in addition to narrative commentary by the book's publisher and quite a few pictures. However, as SB1700 noted, there are clearly factual errors in the book like Cook apparently time-traveling to meet Alexander Selkirk. So caveat emptor when reading it. You can find pdfs all of these volumes (separately) on-line by searching for "An historical account of all the voyages round the world."

You and me both. She is elusive.

I see what that a pirate court case? (you may never know what they did) While we may not know, remember the discussion on that nearly useless book Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition that Burg couldn't find any evidence of such. He would have been all over such a court case. He might have written a whole series of new books on that case alone given that he managed to write the first one without any solid proof at all.

That is some poetry! With a bit of updating, John Wilmot could do the comedy circuit in America. I had to look this one up because it sounded clever. (Alas, it really isn't IMO.): tarse (obsolete) - the penis In medical books, it's often called the 'yard.'

Yes, they did. I was going to start my own thread, but when I was searching your forum to see if there were any existing threads on the cat organ, I found this thread and knew that this thread and that topic were meant to be as one.

Nice find! I've never seen any of those before. (I wish I'd had the one with Low shooting the guy in the face when I was doing my article on gunshot wounds.) That last one is a great period drawing of navigational instruments - something I haven't often seen.

THAT is Mission-speak. But I'm running us OT, so I'd better stop now. Sacrebleu! (Itself a term that may date all the way back to the 12th c.)

No kiddin'? Shock me blue.

I happen to have the tome right here... and you are correct about who so spake. (Shame on me for trusting the web!) Although I am not at all clear on where it was you think we were talking about orgies between the three of them. It makes no sense to me given the three actual accounts.

And now... the cat organ. A (possibly) period musical instrument. This is an organ containing a line of cats whose tails were stretched out beneath a keyboard so that the appropriate tail gets pulled when a key is pressed. They may have been organized in order of voice. Supposedly (as the legend goes) when the King of Spain was visiting Charles V in 1549, he saw a parade or some such that included such a device with "sixteen cat heads each with its body confined; the tails were sticking out and were held to be played as the strings on a piano, if a key was pressed on the keyboard, the corresponding tail would be pulled hard, and it would produce each time a lamentable meow." While the above (more easily understood) image is from the 1800s, we do have one from 1657 called Katzenkavalier by Gaspar Schott which was contained in the book Magia Naturalis.

How about like c_ _ t. (Which is the only swear word I can think of that starts with a c. Somehow that sounds like a later era swear word, though. Plus it doesn't make sense in this context.)

Don't feel bad, I don't know what the hell he's on about either. I'm sure it will seem very obvious to us after he gives more insight.

Flat out deleting someone's thread always seems sort of harsh to me. It makes the poster wonder what they did wrong. The title of this thread is pretty broad, even though it started off being about the very same thing. One of these days I am going to stitch [hah!] all the generic flag threads together so that there is only one easy-to-find thread on the topic. (I will not do this with threads on a specific point about flags, just the generic ones.)

I've started a trend. (Actually, Charles Johnson and his wooden-legged pirate have started a trend.)