Stynky Tudor

Arr Capt.Cat, I see the cannon ball be shot over to me court now. As soon as we start getting week-ends with out so much rain, we should make plans.

Ahoy there Black Peral and Jacko, welcome to this here board.

Capt. William, I might just take you up on joining the Seadogges list serve and thanks you for the kind welcome aboard.

Aye, work in progress pictures be good enough fer now. Avast, get that scanner fixed or replaced, it would be neat to see those diagrams as well.

Arr Pirate Suliel welcome aboard, and that be a fine pirate coat of arms, skull and crossed swords you have there on yer web page. Any examples of that there exploding produce?

Arr Capt. Flint, thanks fer letting me know about that there wheellock program on the History Channel, I must have just missed it. Do you have any pictures of said flintlock? Do you have a web link fer Deer Creek Industries?

Arr Jarmaica, Having worked a little in entertainment, I understand what it is to miss one’s mark, not come in on cue and have nothing happen as scheduled or according to plan. The intension of my comment was not meant to be grousing and was just meant as a comment. As for getting involved and lending support, I couldn’t agree with you more. Even though we had left our tricornes at home, in our none period Elizabethan Sea Dog garb we were stopped several times for picture opportunities, directions to the bathroom and asked about the day’s scheduled events. Looking to get more involved, we all got a kick out of people talking to us as though we worked for the festival, we were just taken back by it a bit. In fact at one point when we had wandered a ways from the festival, I found my 13 year old daughter giving driving directions to a family in search of the festival. Like I said, we all had a blast and will definitely go again next year.

Aye, piracy has been happening long before recorded history to be sure. My point wasn’t that piracy started with the Elizabethan Sea Dogs, but was just my opinion as to what time frame in history I think should be considered the “Golden Age of Piracy” while also lending support to the relevance of pirate costumes at renaissance period festivals.

Arr Capt Weaver, I've got a strong interest in wheellock weapons myself. I've only done a basic search on the internet for them and like kits, haven't had much luck finding more than a couple sources though. There be a program or two on the History Channel about early firearms, but they always seem to gloss over the wheellock, going straight from hand held cannons to the flintlock. Would mind taking some "in process" pictures of your wheellock construction and sharing them with the board, or at least me if no one else is interested? And wow, that book sounds amazing! Any chance you can tell us what the title is? I would love to see copies of the diagrams?

Aye Capt. William, New Orleans be a fine place to form a pirate'n crew. Do you already be part of a crew presently? Or just be looking to form one in memory of brother Laffite?

Great Cat! Got any ideas on what we should to do next? The Virginia Renaissance Faire in Ladysmith is just finishing up it's last week-end, this week-end. With all the rain, the faire site has been pretty muddy and with more rain predicted... I hope it's not a total wash for the organizers. (no pun intended) I know there be a Renaissance Festival in Maryland sometime in the summer, maybe we can meet up there. Oh hell that's too long to wait, we should just make plans to meet somewhere.

Thanks :-P

Well technically Virginia isn’t landlocked either, but I do be inland a fer bit, just north of Harrisonburg and JMU. According to Map Quest, I be at least a couple or three hours away from the Chesapeake, Alexandria, Baltimore and the like. Being originally from California, sitting in my carriage for stupid amounts of time doesn’t seem undoable when done in the name of fun. After a spy of CaptCat’s profile, I see that the crew of the Matriarch be in Alexandria, Virginia as well. We should all attempt a sort of gathering of our own, maybe a point in between.

Obviously I can’t write a coherent sentence either... Anyway, you know what I ment. Ah ha! I found thee edit button and fixed me typeo in me previous post.

Pirate Charity, I see a lot of posts here that reference clothing patterns and it looks like a couple people have even hijacked your thread and started talking about hats. ( Now people, please try and stay on topic *sigh* ) Ok, if you’re looking for some great visual reference, there’s always the classic pirate drawings and paintings of Howard Pyle. I’ve done a internet search but, can’t seem to find a good one-stop repository of his images online. Some time ago, I a saw a great coffee table type picture book of his works, it was awesome and out of my budget. At the time I just thought that I would go back and pick it up later or maybe wait to see it on remainder, well I think we all know how that turned out. The couple books that I have purchased of Howard Pyle’s works have been disappointing. The graphic plates look horrible, poor quality black and white reproductions, dark, muddy halftones that look like bad Xerox copies. You should also check out NC Wyeth, he was a student of Howard Pyle and did some great pirate themed paintings as well. If you’re looking for something a bit more accessible, I think the “Elite” books series of Sea Dogs, Buccaneers and Pirates, illustrated by Angus McBride are great. Unfortunately, there’s only a small handful of MacBride’s illustrations in each book. I still think they are well worth it, if not for the illustrations then for the history and information. In fact Osprey publishing, has a whole slue of related period books. http://www.ospreypublishing.com/ Elizabethan Sea Dogs 1560-1605 http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_deta...e=S0153~ser=ELI Buccaneers 1620-1700 http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_deta...e=P9123~ser=ELI Pirates 1660-1730 http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_deta...e=P7066~ser=ELI

I really want to see some images of your salvaged-converted cowboy hats, I’m real intrigued with the possibilities. I’ve been a bit frustrated with the slouch hat blanks that I’ve made into Caviler, Tricorne and flat brimmed pirate hates. Though I really like the quality of the Jas. Townsend hat blanks, for a colors other than black, I’ve also bought slouch hat blanks from Lady Mac Snood’s and Blockade Runner. The slouch hats from Jas. Townsend and Lady Mac Snood’s are great and are pretty consistent in quality. With a boiling pot of water, a hot iron and a sprits I can pretty much get them to do bend to my will. The Blockade Runner slouch hat blanks vary though. From felt that’s thick and hard to work with to thin felt that can be pulled apart if one stretches or works them too much. These blanks aren't bad for those who really want hard for their hats. Trust me, what you see in the picture isn't what you get. If you can’t tell already, I’m a little obsessed with hat making… What I really want are felt hat blanks that have brims larger than the usual 4-5 inches. I did some research, bought some hat blocks/hat forms and figured that I would just have to make my own felt hat blanks. Of course that’s easier said than done, making felt from wool is hard work. Say, has anyone tried making a pirate hat out of a Mexican style sombrero? Here's some links to the places I mentioned, sorry for duplication: Jas. Townsend & Family http://www.jastown.com/ http://www.jastown.com/hats/hb-902.htm Lady MacSnood http://www.snoods.com/ http://www.snoods.com/hats.html Blockade Runner http://www.blockaderunner.com/ http://www.blockaderunner.com/Catalog/catpg16.htm

Aye Capt WE, That be a fine avatar picture whether ye trying to appear sexy or not. In my avatar picture I was trying to look sexy but everyone just sees to laugh.

CaptCat, my apologies for implying that you aren’t already involved in these sort of events. Since I don’t really know you or to what extent you are or aren’t involved, it was wrong for me to include you.

Aye Capt. William, though the practicalities of our geography does make for an unlikely crew association, be it reenactor, actor, performer or otherwise, I here be looking to go on account. And if there be any other landlocked Sea Dawgs in Virginia or in the surrounding unknown parts and also be interested in forming a pirate group, please feel free to contact me.

Wow, these are some great ideas! I really like the idea about pillaging old cloth from bed sheets, blankets and the like. Thrift shops rule! Do any of you have a camera, scanners or digital camera? It would be great to share examples of the work. I actual made a couple pairs of over the knee pirate breechs that tie around the waist. I made them out of an old IKEA canvas couch cover that was stained, ripped and needed to be retired. Since the fabric was a brightish cyan blue, I bleached the material a few times. After I had sewn everything together they were still on the bright blue side. So I boiled them and boiled them and boiled them in a combination of tea bags and brown clothes dye. Aside from setting the dye into the fabric, boiling them seemed to break down the fibers a bit so the material wasn’t so stiff. The idea was to make them look as though they were made out of sail cloth. And I need to modify the design, the waist should ride up a bit higher and the legs flare out a bit. I was thinking I would post a picture of them but, realized that I must have gotten rid of them, we moved across country about a year ago. If anyone is interested, I’ll formalize the simple pattern and make it available on the web.

Oh, I love the Syke's Sutlery's web site! I just wish I could afford everything I want from there, a bandolier, a dozen or so bottles, a matchlock rifle, a rifle stand. But fer now I'll just have to be happy with replica pistols. I have been thinking about turning some faux bottles on the lath...

Actually, I remeber back when, I really miss the sound of Celts yelling "make way" and pushing through the crowd... Sigh

Cat, I couldn't agree with you more! In fact Pirate Molly was just saying earlier today how The Tortuga Mutineers really made the event, setting up the mood and adding a lot of character. Cascabel, Raven, Braze and your fellow Mutineers are a credit to you professions. And Cascabel I get your meaning, Capt. Cat and I should get off our pirate arses, get involved and make events like these better.

Great, thanks for fixing the photot album MacVox! Sorry to have buggered it up again. Anyway, I've got everything tidied up on my end now and I've reposted all the images I have worth sharing from the Black Beard Festival. Enjoy

I don't know, this all just sounds so silly. Now granted, the common view that the "Golden Age of Piracy" started in the 1700's but, if you look back at history, it really seemed to start in the mid 1500's with the Elizabethan Sea Dogs. Pirates or Privateers such as Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake, raided Spanish outposts in the “New World” and the gold ships on their way back to Spain, not to mention Grace Granuaile O’Malley’s pirating off the coast of Ireland about the same time. And piracy didn’t stop after Queen Elizabeth’s rule, it just continued on into the mid 1800’s. As for the rigid Renaissance Faires, we just leave our tricorn hats at home and wear something period. Our replica blunderbuss and pistol are Wheel Lock type, invented in the mid 1500’s. Though they would have been to expensive make and repair to be very popular, they are of the same period. We are just attendees though and I think we’re looking to get more involved.