Red John

Aye mate, sold a while back. Thanks for asking. I haven't mastered the pictures thing for this site - I can email easy enough. The Charleville, doglock musket, and blunderbuss pistol all sold. The brass turn-barrel boxlock is still around. Thanks aye, John

Aye, message sent as well! m' obliged-

. . . somedays I'm lucky to remember my own name let alone where I . . . and it's probably better that way . . . just saying, mates . . .

Aye, found this link for cotton Lions and Castles Royal flag, but still looking for a real cloth - not polyester - Burgundian Cross / Spanish Saltire (red rough cross on white background). Looks like a good flag: http://www.iamericasflags.com/products/spainish-lions-and-castles-sewn-cotton-3x5-flag.html#.UXHgZ77D_IV

Ahoay Mates! I've got several flint, blackpowder pistols on offer if anyone is interested. Can send photos on request, can't manage to hang any on this site! I'm a reenactor so all these are quality, I don't suffer the cheap stuff. But it's time to let some go - I don't have time to use my 'daily shooters' let alone these 'special' ones. And gotta move soon too. So my loss your gain hopefully. All unique finds and only handled to check the actions and keep them oiled. Finely-crafted, US hand-made, authentic snaphaunce pistol, all iron/silver mounts, true highest quality. Period 'concealed carry' pistol, but so fancy you want to show it off. Or at least I do. Never fired but ready to go. Overall length 9" or so. Really can't say enough good about this one. Good enough for a museum, but a real shooter, brand new. Asking $650 OBO. Blunderbuss pistol with flip-bayonet, all highly polished iron with dark stained stock, lock works great, frizzen sparks great, vent not drilled, Indian manufacture but a full class higher quality than the brass-barrel, lighter stock ones seen everywhere - this is the only steel and dark stock one I've seen. Engraved triggerguard and escutcheon (ready for engraving initials, etc.) on wrist. Same size as ones seen elsewhere, just better make. Asking $425 OBO. French Charleville Queen Anne style pistol, cavalry or navy, with belt hook, looks never fired to me but I didn't buy it new. Beautiful brass and iron, with case-hardened hammer, excellent wood-to-metal fit. Asking $400 OBO. Reproduction CJS Perrys of London. Excellent quality, not like the other Indian makes seen out there. Great polished iron/silver mounts, engraved, grotesque mask buttcap, excellent lock action and frizzen spark. Dark stock, looks great with the high polished silver iron, not cheap like the light-color stocks out there. Vent not yet drilled, never fired. Asking $400 OBO. Also thinking about parting with my steel blunderbuss/coach gun, dark stock, highly polished gun, perfectly matches the CJS Perry and Blunderbuss pistol above, Indian make, vent not drilled, excellent quality but I'd tune the lock if I was going to shoot it regularly. Frizzen sparks great. A bit smaller and lighter than the usual brass ones with the lighter stocks you see around - very handy! Fine enough to be a gentleman's / captain's blunderbuss! $550 or OBO. Again, photos on request, offers entertained. All new, never fired, with possible exception of the Charleville only because I didn't buy it new - but even it looks new. All for sale elsewhere so may be gone soon. If you PM me I'll give a phone number you can call to discuss, PM with email address for photos. Paypal, MO, Check, whatever is ok, maybe trade too, could use a good period tent, camping or sea gear, other weapons, etc., just depends. Many Thanks! yours, aye- John

Added a Perrys of London "CJS" model to the lot. Indian make, vent not drilled, excellent dark wood oil finished stock, way better quality than the ones with the lighter colored stocks I've seen. Of course not a custom-crafted American build that costs thousand(s), but definitely one of the best affordable reproductions I've seen Can send photos if desired. Will include a belt hook too. Lock works great, good hammer swing/travel, good trigger action. All polished steel on very dark oiled wood, very fetching. Fancy sideplate with cutouts. Engraved lock, hammer, triggerguard; metal inlay behind breech suitable for engraving your initials! Excellent Captain's quality firelock! Asking $450, will entertain offers. Added a Colt 1860 Army too, original, matching numbers, 1863 manufacture, but I doubt anyone here is interested in that one! Got these for sale locally too, so might be gone before long. Trades might be entertained on all of these too, just let me know. Thanks! Aye-

Ahoay Mates! Circumstances being what they are, I am parting with several of my period weapons. Perfect chance to get outfitted with some new iron before the pirating season gets going! I have a brand-new Doglock Musket, straight from MVT and never fired, the one with the nice curved droop stock (called something "a vache" I think) like a French fusil and the successor to the club-butt long arms. Iron mounted, correct squared off frizzen, flat lock plate, flat buttplate. Excellent handling. Period correct for 17th-18th Century, incl. GAoP and earlier. Asking $650. Original, not reproduction, all-brass (all brass incl. lock and barrel) boxlock turn-barrel pistol, flint, with a safety even. Excellent condition, shiny brass but not "stupid cleaned" just taken care of, barrel screws on and off perfectly, wood grip in excellent condition, feels great in the hand. Best part is it's a 'real' weapon - approx. 9" overall, with a 4.25" turn-off barrel. You don't see these in all-brass very often, and I've never seen another one with a long barrel like this one. Lock functions perfectly. Asking $700. Reproduction Charleville pistol, excellent condition, appears never fired, model 77. Has belt hook, case hardened colours on hammer, frizzen, trigger excellent. Wood to brass to steel fit excellent. Queen Anne type internal lock. Excellent balance and handling. Best reproduction of these I've seen. Asking $425. Will entertain offers. I haven't mastered posting photos here yet, but you can see them on GB or message me and I'll forward some. I know these aren't cheap, but they are top quality and the two reproduction ones haven't even been fired - one I know hasn't, the other sure has no sign of it. They are for sale online and locally. I'll be listing more stuff from clothes to other weapons from time to time - need to clear the decks around here! Och, if anyone is interested in a nice steel-barrel blunderbuss, with dark stock, I might part with it too. Never fired it - time to let it go. Thanks all! yours, aye- John

Aye, thanks mate. Will do. But not sure I can pay NPS prices! Will also get up with Cap'n Mac, too - thanks again! yours, aye-

Errr . . . let's see . . . no one from the Pub, but, some others born today, um . . . Albert Einstein? pirate? no . . . Casey Jones? pirate? no . . . Billy Crystal? NOOOO . . . umm, MIchael Caine? pirate? umm, close!

Ahoy Mates- Anyone know where I might could find a real fabric Spanish burgundy cross flag (Spanish colonial flag)? The castles and lions flag would be good to find too, but the main one I am looking for is a good real fabric reproduction of the red saltire type Spanish colonial flag, the kind that flies over the old Spanish forts in FL and PR, etc. Thanks! aye- John

Probably about the time someone realized that it's really, really hard to keep count of how many you had left when they are all rolling around in a pile in the bottom of yer box . . . and maybe for those that didn't like fumbling with a pile and wanted an easy grab . . . and maybe for the leadership types that didn't like the "ill disciplined" look of a pile in a box . . . and maybe for the same leadership types who wanted to ensure "ammunition discipline" and accountability for all rounds issued . . . and, probably very likely, for those in a "less kinetic" environment . . . maybe when the sergeant decided he needed to give orders to flip the cartridges over every so often to ensure the salt petre didn't all stick to one end - or one side if laying in the bottom of a box - like you had to do with the barrels of powder back then . . . to make sure it stil went 'bang' when it was supposed to . . . or maybe some combination of some or all the above . . . Which is probably about mid to late 1600s for the French, about the same for the Spanish, and the English, who relied on ships not fortresses, a wee bit later . . . . . . me, all I can think of is "my God, I've only got ten rounds???" . . . now let me count the ten dudes that are going down ... and keep a look out for number 11 . . . Just me, no cites in hand to offer up . . . but I'll keep checking . . . Yours, aye-

Aye, there was something came out of the hearings today, that I heard on the radio, that one of the inspectors or surveyors at the shipyard in Maine or somewhere that did some repairs on the ship this summer said the frame was rotted and that the [someone responsible - owner, captain, not sure] refused to get it fixed. I can't find a decent update on line but maybe it will be out tomorrow. Me, while it sounds reasonable that the frame on a ship like that could be in bad shape, if it were completely rotted like the commentator was making out, I can't see anyone setting sail to certain failure that they knew would happen. I have to think it wasn't as bad as that but might have been worse than thought by whoever said don't fix it - assuming all of the story is true. Anyway, none of the photos of the sinking show a complete structural failure, but then the 'water coming in between the planks'reported by the First Mate might have been aggravated by a poor condition frame without having a complete frame failure. I hate getting news in bits; I look forward to the final report, or at least a summary of it all. yours, aye-

Aye Mitch! Please count me in, festival and encampment both. Now to all ye within the sound of my voice! I'm telling ye, ye will have a fine time with the Swansborough folk, and there's nothing like a true coastal barrier island in the same state it was in when Teach himself walked the shore . . . yours, aye- John

What am I eating right now? um, a few crackers, old style ship's biscuit, slightly softened in a bit of whisky and water, and of course, a bit more whisky and water for good measure . . . oh, wait, that wasn't the question, was it? . . . oh! reading, was it? well, there's a label on the bottle . . .

Aye, ye can mak them weeout any crosses or stitching or ribbons er ties or whatever, but they do tend to flop down once rain, ocean spray, and they otherwise get wet or humidity gets them and so on. And yes, sometimes ye may want a broad brimmed hat in bright sun or rain, even if it has a few holes here and there from there the ties go when she's all cocked up. And ye see, all tied up, why they make wonderful rain catchers, and even have a nice wee funnel right up front for when yer looking down at yer nice chart or tending yer fire or candle lantern or yer bedding or what have you that you really need to keep dry . . . But on a more serious note, there were the very visible ribbon x's and then straight ribbons and cockades and all the rest, and then, not so obvious in the old art, a lot of hats just had a wee bit of stitching of same-colour thread, not ribbons, although sometimes same-colour ribbons too, both purely for the purpose of not showing - particularly ones that had a nice cockade on one side and they didn't want anything on the other side to clash or take away from it. And of course the more plain and simple hats favoured by more conservative folks, less flashy types. All in All a bit of personal and fashion taste, political expression, et cetera, that did ebb and flow over the years.

Aye, thanks for the article. The USCG hearings began in Norfolk, VA, and I hear that the owner of the Bounty plead the 5th, that being everyone's Constitutional right to not incriminate ones' self. But the First Mate apparently testified at length, and gave great detail about the discussions prior to setting sail among the crew and with the Captain and about the preparations for the trip, etc. I can see why the owner might not want to talk - doesn't necessarily mean he's guilty of anything, but probably on the advice of his lawyers he doesn't want to say anything that other folks might try to use to sue him in court for money. I don't know for certain, but he may be facing that kind of thing already, who knows. I don't want to second guess anyone. I lament the loss of a great ship, her captain, and crewmember. And am thankful for the ones that survived, and for my and my son's chance to stand aboard her one last time this past Summer. And God Bless the US Coast Guard rescue swimmers, aviators, and crew.

Aye! of course there'd be charcoal aboard . . . the blacksmith, or whoseever's making presumptions of being one .. . would must be needing charcoal fer the wee forge on board for repairs and modifications of the iron parts so important even in the age of wood and sail . ..charcoal being not coal, mind ye, just hard wood properly burned once over and ready to go again and give ye fine heat and mak ye coals fer ye wee forge . . . But seriously, a small bit of good hardwood to fuel a small forge would, and did, go a long way to helping even an amateur blacksmith repair broken links, meld iron to iron, and so on. Amateur I say as most ship-board smiths would likely be only part-time, as their "day job" would be something more often needed, like sail making, cooking, carpentering, etc. But still critical nonetheless . . .like a sailmaker doubling as a surgeon's assistant, when it came time to close the wounds, with the stitching skills and all, while the doc moved on to the more needful cases . . . aye, thanks for your post, mate -

Aye Cap'n Jim, the fort is Fort Macon, just ways up the road from Bear Island at the tip of Emerald Isle, near Beaufort, NC. In fact, Fort Macon is just across the inlet from Beaufort, NC, where BlackBeard's Queen Anne's Revenge was foundered in the channel (and found a couple hundred years later, and much of it is now found in the state's museum in Beaufort). Stede Bonnet of course is intimately associated with Beaufort as well, and then a fair bit to the south of Bear Island is Southport, NC, at the mouth of the Cape Fear, where Stede had his final fight with the authorities, and home to another NC maritime museum (they have three spread out on the coast). And Swansboro itself is a nice seaport village. USMC base Camp Lejeune is nearby too, for those so inclined. So if you are thinking about Bear Island, a true pristine barrier island, while you're there, there's a LOT of other way-cool pirate history in the near area too. And then Ocracoke Island, by ferry, only a few hours away. Sounds like a great time, and I'm hoping to make it for an overnight or two meself. yours, aye-

Ugh! Your titanium-skilled friend couldn't take a size and a half off my dogs, could he? . . . Och well . . . I'm a 10 fer life I guess . . . but if I were an 8 1/2 . . . Thanks anyway Mate! Great deal - I'll let folks know . . . yours, aye John

I have not researched this exhaustively, but from what I have seen, for the period hats made of leather were in the 'cap' or 'helmet-ish' style, and wide-brimmed hats were rarely if ever made of leather. I've never seen one, though again, I haven't been especially looking for one either. The leather hats most common in the literature are ones like the rifleman's cap / sailor's cap (often trimmed in fur, cloth- or wool-covered, etc., and sometimes with a turned-up brim on the front or side - not too far off from a modern baseball-ish look if the brim was not turned). There is also the dragoon helmet style, usually with a higher crown and often with a small brim on the front, not turned up (this style mostly from later than the GAoP). Your premise about wire being available, etc., sounds reasonable, and there's no reason it couldn't be used with a wool or whatever hat for the same purpose. But I've never seen it and I tend to think it's a modern element. I'm also not sure where the broad-brimmed leather hats came from - having spent a good amount of time on both horseback, boats, and 'in the ranks', I've always thought leather one of the most impractical and uncomfortable things to make a hat out of, unless you needed it for skull protection for some reason. Glad to hear anyone's take on the historical pedigree of wide-brimmed leather hats- aye-

On the list quoted, I'd be tempted to say three Dutch - the Van Vorst from "New York" is probably from a family that was there when it was "New Amsterdam" or may be fully Dutch himself. Also, on the German thing, in the English Colonies (esp. Pennsylvania) the German immigrants were often called "Dutch" which was a mispronunciation of "Deutsch" and after a few repeats folks thought it meant actual Dutch not German. The Pennsylvania "Dutch" were nearly all German. Same for other colonies to a lesser degree, excepting of course the colony of NY and the surrounding areas. Sooo . . . methinks if anyone has a way-cool jaeger they really really want to use as part of their piratical persona . . . there you go ... just claim to be English Colonial "Dutch / Deutsch" and sail away with Bellamy or whomever . . .

Aye, in his case, the passage said it was shot from a cannon, so it was a cannon round, and I discussed it in that context. Normally 'partridge shot' would be just another name for 'bird shot' shot from a fowler or modern shotgun, that is, shot that was used to hunt partridges or other birds. If you say' partridge shot' people will think you are talking about a regular shotgun load because normally that's what it is. In his case it was the same type of 'scatter shot' just from a bigger gun, so I think that's why he called it that. Technically, if you name the round by what it was shot at, like you do with 'birdshot' or 'buckshot', I guess in his case it would be "human shot"! But 'scatter shot' sounds a lot better . . . Fair Seas to ye Mate, Aye-

Aye, "partridge shot" is essentially a bunch of balls fired in a mass, to take out lots of personnel at close range, much like a shotgun is used to take out a bunch of birds - hence the name 'partidge shot'. That name is pretty archaic, the name 'grapeshot' was used for a similar type of round, mostly in later periods, that consisted of a bunch of balls usually around 1" to 1 1/2" diameter and bound together like grapes. Another similar round was known in later periods as 'canister' (a can full of smaller balls, usually musket-size, or what-have-you bits of metal and so on, that spread out once fired). One could also do without the can, and just load the balls, etc.,, if you wadded them properly so they wouldn't roll out and would hold together long enough to exit the muzzle, much like a black-powder/muzzle-loading shotgun is loaded without modern cartridges. Both rounds were very effective on personnel formations, and used by land armies for that purpose; at sea they were used for the similar purpose of 'deck sweeping' of enemy personnel as well as to take out rigging, sails, etc. That kind of shot basically turns a cannon into a large shotgun - very effective and used all the way up through the late 1800's/early 1900's when artillery finally shifted from having a direct fire function on the battlefield (that is, shooting straight at something the gunner could see, like an advancing infantry line) to being pretty much exclusively an indirect fire weapon like today (that is, shooting in a higher arc over a longer distance at something that the gunner could not see directly but that forward observers told him was there, like enemy trenches or positions on the far side of hills and so on) that relied on 'shrapnel' and similar rounds for the anti-personnel effect. A similar type of shot in use today is known as 'buckshot' in modern shotgun terminology. Modern buckshot is usually a bunch of balls usually about an 1/8" to 1/4" diameter being used in a shotgun to take out deer or large-ish game instead of birds. This size of load, or a little larger, is likely very similar to the 'partridge shot' fired from cannon-sized guns back in the day, but more likely is they were just using a bunch of musket balls they had handy, and loading the cannon like a big shotgun. All the Best, Mate! yours, aye--

Happy Birthday and Boxing Day both! All the Best-

About 2/3ds the way through "Two Years Before the Mast", the journal of a young man from Boston, educated, heading out on a sailing vessel for California and the time he spent on ship, rounding the Horn, and up and down the coast of old Spanish Mission California. Great book starting out . . . a little slow at times now, but looks to be improving as he's getting back to sea again. Definitely well past the GAoP period, but a great sailing narrative, and some of the old California descriptions are probably not far off from the Spanish colonial settings in the late 1600's, early 1700's. Got it for free in the Kindle version b/c it's prior to 1920 and has no copyright. Not a big fan of e-books at all, but carrying one Kindle beats carrying a dozen hardbacks in your rucksack when you're traveling. And the free old books are cool, esp. when you are a guy like me who reads old books! Now riddle me this, I was thinking how, in the old days, oft times a well-placed Bible was known to save a man's life by stopping a lead ball or two . . . it was common enough to be referred to as being "wounded in the Testament" . . . now, in our day . . . say you had a nice kevlar cover for your Kindle . . . um . . . what would you call taking a round in that? . . . I reckon "damn lucky" for starters . . .