Mission

My link to the above photo got broken somehow, so I fixed it. Image 359, with sidepieces is dated to 1700 like Grymm's pair. So unless both sources are wrong, they clearly existed at that time.

I believe that particular part was written in the early 1650s. Here's the Wiki bio on Jean de Thevenot. While it affirms the use of sunglasses, there are a couple of things to take into consideration: 1) It refers specifically to Malta, which may mean it was not geographically widespread. 2) He also attributes the behavior to "Commanders and Knights" and not common folk, and 3) He casts aspersions on the behavior, believing it may do the opposite of what's intended. Say, does someone have a reference for this Syphilis/tinted glasses thing? I have read at least twenty period books on medicine and a dozen or more period sailors accounts and never yet come across a reference to this.

I found what appears to be a period reference in the book The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant in Three Parts, "There is no Winter on this Island [Malta], nor no need of warming one's self by the fire; on the contrary, they always drink their Wine with Ice. [This is not relevant, but I do wonder where they got the ice.] The Air is very thin and wholsom for Old Men, who can hardly die; but Head-aches are dangerous there, and sore Eyes, because of the whiteness of the Earth, which makes many Commanders and Knights to wear green Spectacles, though I cannot tell but that the Glass by contracting the beams of the Sun, may burn their Eyes." (Thevenot, p. 6)

Oh, that's bad. I even started the other post with nearly the same text. I guess I'll combine them. I should note that I got something when I posted that for the auction and then decided to keep it because I liked it and I knew it probably wouldn't fetch what I paid for it. This is more likely to get it's purchase price, or near to it.

I put together a page containing a period procedure for bleeding. Most surgical books refer to bleeding, but don't actually explain how to do it, but I actually stumbled across a period era surgical instructional book that gave an extensive account of how this was done. You'll find it on my website via this link. In related news, thanks to this account - which refers repeatedly to porringers (well, 'porrengers'), I was able to pick up three bleeding bowls proper to the account for less than the cost of one repro-bleeding bowl. This is because pewter porringers are cheap and easy as dirt to pick up on eBay. The three I found compare favorably to the drawings in Dionis' account. Finally, all that reading pays off. (Sort of.)

You don't look like a footstool. Very cool. That looks more like re-enactment quality than Ren-Faire quality.

I got my contribution for this year...

Jennie Gist posted a link to a really interesting article on a pirate encampment that archeologists are excavating in Belize from the early 18th century. The article contains a lot of supposition, but I guess that's about the best we can do when looking at the remains of the refuse from such a site. You can check out the article here.

OK, this is off-topic, but ball and chain reminded me of it. I was entering Dionis' description of Bleeding from his book A Course of Chirurgical Operations Demonstrated in the Royal Garden at Paris. He says this, "I have observed, that when I have bled married Men before their Wives, these Ladies would never allow me to draw much Blood and on the other side, when I have bled Women in the Presence of their Husbands, the Men never thought that I took away enough: Both of them have their Reasons, which are not very hard to be guessed." (Dionis, p. 373) Personally, I'm not very sure I can guess at their reasons, but it sounds funny. (Bleeding too much could made you weak or make you faint.)

That was interesting. It seems to me that I read that it was fairly common to build up the shore land on top of the remains of unusable ships.

That was interesting. It seems to me that I read that it was fairly common to build up the shore land on top of the remains of unusable ships. I believe San Francisco has made similar finds.

More than any previous one, I think this was Lob's Journal. He appears in it more often than the umbrella girl appeared in the first Pirates of Paynetown Surgeon's Journal.

Hey, the Surgeon's Journal for this event is now up and running and you can find it via this link. It'll give you an idea of how the first running of the goats this new event went along...in a slightly goofy, cockeyed way.

Jen, in all fairness I should note that they're the only shoes I've tried other than the really cheap ones. However, I sometimes find my feet hurt in production regular shoes, not to mention PC ones. I was pretty impressed that I didn't have to spend much time "wearing these in" which is the experience I have read about some others having here on the forum with similar cost period correct shoes. I don't even bother putting shoe trees in them any more; the only concession to comfort I make is the gel soles at the heel. The fact that I wore them all day at Put-in-Bay (lots of walking on concrete) without even considering changing into my tennies impressed me.

I think when you venture into the fantasy realm like this anything is possible. I don't believe most people in the Victorian age ran around in brass goggles. Bucket boots are cool, but if you're doing PC they're just not right. What you wear when you're re-enacting pirate just depends on your goal. (Well, and the event you choose to attend. But that choice also depends on your goal.)

I have just put the finishing touches on a page about the dental pelican. I even learned why the dental pelican often removed extra teeth while researching the information for this page - something that never made sense to me until now. If you want to find out that and how this lovely tool worked, you can check out the page via this link.

If you were going to do it, I would think we would want to make it a pale leather and make the nose a bit less than more crooked. I'd really want to go for the Spy v. Spy look as much as I could get away with it. Here is the plague doctor outfit thread in Twill. While that only shows one example of the outfit, a Google Image search will turn up all sorts of varieties of the mask and outfit. Surely a black spy-like outfit would work...

I got my flight and condo booked.

Good shoes are the first step, at least from my experience. I still stand by the Robert Land ones I linked to. Then you have to throw gel inserts into them. I had gel inserts for my cheap shoes and that made them better, but there is still an absolute world of difference between those and the Robert Land shoes I bought.

Although if I did get a plague doctor mask and wore my Patrick Hand original hat... Hmm. That alone makes it worth considering...

Oh, I know all about the plague doctor outfit. I thought about putting one together but the masks are extraordinarily expensive and I can only think of one event I attend that has the scale needed for something like this to work. I can't see spending all that money for that. (Plus it would be really hot.) Rusty, steampunk is basically Victorian styles and steam-operated machinery and practicality combined in a sort of What if/Supposin' the world had happened like this? kind of environment. It's a fantasy re-enactment - a but like the fairy and mermaid re-enactors. (Airship pirates is a forum devoted to the piratical aspects steampunk. Do a Google search for more on it.) Lacepunk is something new Michael came across that uses 17th c. clothing instead of Victorian clothing. I think.

Feel free to take photos of any period surgical instruments you see in the museums for me. :)

Does it require goggles? If so, I want something like an 18th century version of Doc:

I've noticed a trend towards more women simply portraying period women at pirate events. Given that we're on land, presumably making land-fall while the ship is careened or to spend our loot or because there was no reason to be at sea, it makes sense that there would be women about - for many different reasons such as those mentioned by William. We tend to think all pirates were loners who stuck to their own company and were always at sea - something I doubt was true. From some of the things I've read, a lot of pirates stuck around areas where the pickings were good, meaning they could go back to shore regularly. I once read an account of a pirate officer who had a wife, children and a house on shore (which I have since been unable to find for some reason - which means I can't back it up). The period pirate 'bible' (if you'll allow that conceit), The General History of the most Notorious Pirates, gives us the most sensational details and, as the title suggests, focuses on the most outrageous characters. Do you think that is really an accurate portrayal of your average pirate? It tends to have precious little on the mundane details of these folks' lives, probably because much of it was apparently taken from 1) the recollections of captured pirates - which would focus on highlights and not day-to-day stuff - as well as 2) court records and newspaper reports - which would be rather factual and/or sensational - again skirting the mundane details that would make up a pirate's daily life on shore.

I agree with Jas in principle, but in practice if you're just starting out and trying to conserve costs you can get away without having a waistcoat as I suspect it is one of the more expensive things you will buy. From a comfort perspective, you're much better off spending your money on a good pair of shoes that you'll be standing/walking/running in all day. I bought pretty cheap shoes to start me off and was suitably punished for that choice. This is why you'll find photos of me in tennis shoes during the evenings at events: my feet hurt from wearing the cheap shoes all day. Being a diabetic, I have to watch my feet more closely than most people probably do, so I went for the tennies once we were off-duty. My rationale is thus: Most of the evenings at events where it gets cool aren't open to the public and the accuracy standards are often relaxed to the point where you could wear a modern jacket. It really is more fun to be able to wear period stuff, but I've donned a modern coat at night when needed one and I was just hanging around with the crew. I am damned lucky to have Michael Bagley making my clothes as well as being at many of the events I attend. So I can sometimes borrow his coats and maintain my PC-ness. Now if you're making your clothes, a waistcoat is an item you should have on your to-do list. If I had any talent or interest in sewing, it would be the sort of challenge I'd like. Then I'd want to make a coat with a hundred buttons like this one of Michael's (Hmm. You can't see the buttons here. There are dozens and dozens of them):