Mission

Thanks, Bill! I've added another new page about the surgeon's instruments - this one talks about the seton and cauteries as used in operations on the eye. (The eye doesn't figure into this very much, for those of you who are concerned about that. It's still a little intense for the weak of stomach.) You'll find it on this web page. It is also from the English translation of Jacques Guillimeau's The French Chirurgerie, printed in London in 1683.

If you zoom out 1x you'll see the fort in the lower left hand corner.

I doubt you can do anything with it unless Stynky changes it. Give it time and you'll get used to and not notice it. (Although I must say that I think it is a bit overlarge and the colors are a bit distracting. It would be much cleaner as a simple FB link than something that shows a handful of people who have become fans.)

I added a page that gives more information about my particular collection of period surgical instruments for those of you who are curious. You'll find it here.

But will you t take me to a pirate thing in your little rubberband-run driven prop plane? Noooooo.... I want to go to the South Pacific some day. I want to see some of the islands that figured into WWII. See the lush flora and fauna and whatever else that I happen to find in these places. I also want to dive in Papau, New Guinea on this site:

You know, I do think Bo brings up some good points. This stuff has been simmering under the surface for quite some time and it seems to me that it is a good thing that it is finally seeing the light of day. If such things aren't allowed to be discussed, they tend to lead to unhappy people and rumors about what is really going on. I've heard many such rumors in the past year and a half and many of them have been shown to be false with this post. So at least this discussion has been a catalyst for better communications with the folks who are closer to what's going on. We used to have pretty good communication when Harry was around. He even posted on this forum from time to time. But he retired and that's that. Now we have new people working at the fort who seem to view us with a bit of skepticism. I don't know them, I didn't meet them at the last PiP, but I've heard (rumors again) at least some of them are sticklers for following rules to the letter. Fort Taylor is not a campground, is not intended to be one, yet here we are, a group of people aping some of the most flagrant rule-breakers in history being allowed to camp there. If you were a rule-stickler, this would probably rankle - severely. So now we have to show that we're not all just a bunch of drunken slobs who are taking advantage of an opportunity few people get in Key West. Perhaps the sticklers will eventually see we're really an all-right bunch. (Or not. Although how such folks can even stand to live in Key West for more than a week or two would be sort of a mystery to me. Key West's history is littered with people and events that go out of their way not to follow the rules.) As for the thank you thing, I can understand your ire, but I suspect the fort may not even know that you donated something. I believe the auction was for the Friends of Fort Taylor and not for the Fort itself. FoFT is an all volunteer group. I always donate to them after the event - and have done after every PiP so far - and they always thank me in one way or another. Although I must admit that until Fayma got involved with them, I had found them to be a bit disorganized. So even they may not have been very clear on who donated stuff. Since Fayme IS involved now, I suspect things with the FoFT will improve. They have from my experience. I have only heard back from the fort folks once regarding my donations of money and simulated gibbeted bodies - and that was from Harry. I could be upset - Becky never even got hung up last year - but my philosophy is that if I let other's actions (or inactions) guide my behavior, I am giving control of your emotional well being to them. So I just appreciate the kudos I receive and don't worry about the ones I don't. If it bothered me that much, I'd probably just take Bo's approach and not get involved with it. No sense creating stress in my life. But I don't feel that way, and it's still my favorite event.

Bring it on and I'll use it :) Brig! Oh, Brig!! Are you paying attention? See if you can get Jack to make us a spinning wheel out of the stuff you have in your garage! Kind of like this: In fact, see if he will make the old lady, too. She'd be an awesome prop.

Jack could probably make one out of the stuff he has in his garage. He's like McGuyver.

We may be able to work together over there. I am working on making thread and weaving Spanish moss fibers... I'll be doing very basic drop spindle work and have an inkle to make straps and such.... You two need to get one of those giant spinning wheels. Then you could look like this: (Ok, maybe not exactly like that. ) Diane Stevens always brings a spinning wheel to P.o.P. (Pirates of Paynetown) and it really makes her display look cool.

Run away! Run away!

You know, that is a Mercury crew intensive event. It would be neat to have a photo of our flag flying on the back of it.

Steve the bunny? Oh, my.

Crew? No. SPY?. Yes. I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about.

Why thank you! A tip of the over-large surgical lid to you, sir.

Can someone scrounge up a table and a bit of canvas to plant me under? I have so much stuff now that I can cover a whole picnic table, if that much space is available...

All righty. I'll be sending my Surgeon's gear down to Shay so's we can bring it down and set it up back in the corner somewhere each day. Hopefully it will be near someone who does a good show like Mr. d'Dogge so they can send the public my way.

You know, based on past experience...that's probably the gospel truth. One thing about PiP I've found...no matter how much silliness and nonsense goes on outside the event, the event itself is second to none in my book. But then I've loved Key West since I first stumbled on to the pier at the end of Duvall...

A very nice response, thank you. I'm glad we are at last talking about this stuff. Open communications is much better than all the silly rumors I have been hearing. Ew...schedules. I keep schedules when I'm paid to. What if you provided me with a space in a corner or somewhere not on the map where I could set up and see how the traffic went for an hour or two? That's what I've done at every other event. They usually seem happy to have me around because few people display the stuff that I do. As for perks, I personally don't care about the insurance (which is most likely for the fort rather than for me - I've purchased event insurance for several Haunted Houses so I am passing familiar with how it works.) I never stay in the fort. The only perk I get that I really want is gate admission and the ability to hang around after hours so I can write about what happens in the Journal. And the Journal is sort of a perk for the fort - it's free advertising. I don't do it only for that reason, though; I like to write it. In fact I'm going to try and do the majority of the web page during the event this year. Well...that's the plan. Don't hold me to it as I don't know if I can stand being away from the action for the hours that will take each day to do that. Not to mention not knowing how good the internet connection at my condo will be. But I can't resist the challenge of trying to do it this once...I'm in the planning stages even as we type.

I feel that if one of our crew is at an event.....the Mercury be.......because the one does and can carry the spirit of the Mercury......Yo Ho Spirit, yes; crew, no. crew n. 1a. A group of people working together; a gang (theFreedictionary.com) :huh:

I've heard that security argument, but that seems really thin to me. Just my 2 cents, worth what you paid for it. Well, it's good news that we may be able to earn our way back to beach camping. Although I don't recall anyone telling us we were supposed to get demonstrations, skits and scenarios up and running to make a point to the fort personnel last year. (Not saying it didn't occur, I just don't recall it.) Of course, last year seemed a little disorganized compared to the previous years to me. I figured this had to do with Harry not being around to handle some of the logistics. Change is always a challenge for a big event like this. I did notice as I have been updating the look and feel of the PiP Surgeon's Journals that there were fewer activities in 2009 than in 2008. 2008 had all sorts of interesting things like Dutch explaining navigation, the silly olympics thing, sword fight training and the conquistadors taking Spike. Part of the problem with presenting at PiP from my perspective is that I spent $100 to ship my surgeon's stuff down there in 2008, but wound up only doing two presentations with it. Michael brought it down last year and I never even got most of it out of his van. From that and my 2007 experience (one presentation to one guy), the Key West audience has been light compared to other events. Most of the folks who do wander up to peek at the stuff in KW don't seem quite as patient with the explanations as folks at other events where I've presented. Plus there's nothing quite so boring as standing by your stuff for hours when there's not much traffic to make the time pass faster. If I wanted to be chained to a position, I'd become a vendor and at least have the opportunity to get paid for being stuck in the same place. But I like the freedom of being a volunteer. Admittedly, I personally have never had the patience to stand there and do that all day at any event. It makes for a boring Surgeon's Journal - my other reason for going events. Presenting for 2 or 3 hours seems much more reasonable for a Key West pirating vacation if there's traffic enough to keep the time spent presenting moving. I will say this, though. When everyone else is involved in presenting, it helps a LOT. There's nothing like esprit de corps to make presenting more enjoyable. Having Dutch next to me at PiP '08 doing his navigation thing made standing with my gear at the ready more pleasurable. Watching M.A. d'Dogge do his weapons presentation at Put-in-Bay in June and knowing he would generously hand them off to me gave me greater incentive to hover about the medical table and try to amuse and horrify the on-going crowd. But I'm starting to ramble now. I really like PiP and I'm not trying to throw a wet blanket on stuff, but these are important issues to me when it comes to presenting. If it's nothing but tedious hot work with tepid interest, you won't find me willing to pay extra to get the gear down there nor to do it for very long if I do.

It would be interesting to learn why those who choose to camp are being required to remain inside the fort now. From my experience it's usually stuffy in there.

That sounds like an excellent match with our crew from what I've seen. We've several very independent and rather non-conforming members who also want to do historically correct and document their stuff as well as possible (me most definitely included).

Well, that's almost a philosophical question. It would be more accurately stated that the Mercury isn't located. I own the excellent drawings of the Mercury (as created by William Brand aka Red Wake), but that's about as much of it as there it outside of imagination. As far as group location goes, we tend to be spread out all over the US. Many of us are from the midwest, but there are some on the East and West coasts and points in-between as well. The crew (AFAIK) was really begun at Pirates in Paradise 2007 in Key West by William. If I had to write a description of the aim of this crew (and this is just me, not official or anything), I'd say it is to help people develop their period accurate character persona, clothing, camping and so forth in a friendly, non-imposing way, while also having a good time together at period events. All the members are quite free and open with their information and idea exchange from my experience. This crew is nothing like formal as far as participation goes; you can choose what events and sorts of re-enactment opportunities at those events you wish to participate in. Although I've noticed that the staged mini-things are often kind of fun to do; things like battles and sketch scenarios help make for a more interesting event. I'd say where two or three Mercury crew members are gathered at an event, there the Mercury be. More to point with regard to you question, Mercury crew member Silas Thatcher is based out of St. Louis. You might get in touch with him to find out which events he attends to get an idea what is going on near you.

Her who? If you're talking about a wife or someone, I suppose so. My notes are concerned with what the surgeon did, not the patient's family, so I couldn't say with any certainty. I don't know if they diagnosed any other diseases by tasting urine, but the study of urine is a whole separate medical art. It was something usually done by the physicians, not the surgeons. (The physicians were much higher on the medical totem pole than the surgeons.) I did find a sort of quick and dirty summary of examining urine in one surgical manual, but since it probably wouldn't have been something done on a ship unless the surgeon had some previous experience with that art, I didn't read it. None of the sea surgeon manuals talk about it in the treatment descriptions and that one I mention is the only land surgeon manual where I've noticed it. I have lots of books that I want to read, so I tend to skim or skip things that don't seem germane to my research.