Sir Eric

Awesome! I had "Ghost of the Treasure Guard!" I'm more an "accidental" pirate, really. I started attending faire with what I thought was more "free lance" type garb... but people seemed to simply assume I was a pirate, and I started hanging out with the other pirates, and then I guess I was sorta assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Hey... no reason to bring Great great Pa into this conversation!! Nah... just kidding. I'm German thru and thru. I don't think they have Ren faires in Germany. I could be wrong. They do have an AWESOME repretory theatre that still uses 17th century stage machines... I'll try to remember and scan a few pics if anyone is interested.

Ah... when I get's me one tied on mates... ...I be lookin' for some lovely to hang onta... ...not simply fer the plunderin... ...I likes to cuddle a bit furst, doncha know? Rolls her up in an embrace, huggs the Jesus outta her... ...kisses her wherever she like ta be kissed... ...happy to takes me time, hopin' she's happy to take hers... ...hopin' she takes hers slow as she can manage. Fer there be no hurry nor no worry... alls the same when the cock crows. Where some men whither, this man stands tall. (I have it on good authority, doncha know?) A few shots o' rum and I'm bloody Cassanova, or so I be'n told. I have no reason to disbelieve the rumor.

I'm not completely sure what me user name means... other than me given name be Eric, and apparently at some point or another I perform'd some deed whot got a title confirm'd on me. Not sure what that were... as the devil's watchin' I must'a been dead drunk when I done it, 'cause I have no recollection of the events in question.

Oh, I don't know... you decide...

More than you might think. The crowd attending Ren faires is more and more educated year by year. Thing is, those who know what the heck is going on are the ones most likely to call you out in the middle of your show, and therefore are the most dangerous of the lot. That's why those of us who don't conform 100% to period garb and kit must be prepared for the inevitable... that one history buff looking for the slightest mistake in what we wear. "That pistol wasn't invented until the 1820's!" Kinda disrupts the whole show when yer supposed to be pre-1650 an all. Just ignore the heckler? Ya can't do that mate... gives him the win. Ya gotta have a reply. I usually reply with something along the lines of ... "SHADDUP!!" Anyway... more in line with the whole title of the thread here... I once was chased for about 75 yards or so by a fella with a pink kilt... and I shudder to think what woulda happened had he'da caught me!!

Haven't seen Jarhead... was in the Army for 6 years, and one thing I'll tell ya for sure... my hand does NOT miss the feel of a rifle. Frankly, I cant see how anyone who has seen another human fall at the oppostie end of that weapon could ever think of missing it.

Ah, if only she'd give us the chance....

Blackjohn... sorry for any unintentional insult mate. I have absolutely EVERY respect for people who do their utmost to be precise to a period... it takes a LOT of hard work and dedicated research to pull off. What I meant by that term is somebody who goes out of their way to put down or ridicule those of us who aren't as accurate. I apologize for using it in a broad and general sense. I shall be more carefull in the future. Now... what's a farb?

There most definately ARE garb nazis out there in the Rennie world... a few faires that do "jury" participant garb etc. The bottom line always seems to be more about fun than education, and faires want to make a profit at the end of the day. Pirates are immensely popular these days (there are more and more pirate performing groups popping up everywhere, it seems... not a bad thing) and some of those pirate acts are the most popular shows at particular faires. In our area, The Jolly Rodgers out of Kansas City are probably the main reason many people go to the KC faire, and on the tent circuit out here The Pirate Comedy show headlining lots of small events... pirates are hot. Problem is, if you garbed as a pirate of the renaissance, I don't think many patrons would recognize you as a pirate. They'd probably think you were a peasant. Sometimes you have to give the patron something they're going to recognize... they recognize the GAoP style. (Or should I say the Hollywood version of the GAoP style?) I say give the paying customer what they want! And then steal it from them.

I took a fencing class once... does that count? It was a beginners class, and I didn't do too badly at it. I was really surprised tho how much pysical stamina it takes, and how hard it is on the backs of the thighs... you really have to condidition your muscles to stay in the proper stance. Gave it up because life became a bit too confusing and something had to go. Always kinda think I should get back into it. Hrm... maybe KSU has a fencing team?

That was great!

Caraccioli ... nice! That has got to be one of the worst things I've ever heard done to a human that didn't involve teeth. Ahh... but a little eye shaddow and a wry grin... the lasses seem to nevermind all that nastyness...

Thanks for the props :) Probably not... most likely I'd be rolling in mud and trying to sell chicken bones at faire. Pirate mythology may be innacurate, but it's enabled me to not have to get a "real" job in the summer, so my deepest thanks to Misters Flynn, Fairbanks JR. and Depp for turning those depraved, murderous rapists into smooth talking, devil-may-care Cassanovas. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I'll have to think on the pirate thesis... so many options it's hard to choose!

At the risk of sounding like a suck-up, great post Foxe! Okay, for what it's worth, I'm going to cut/paste the review I wrote of Cordingly's Under the Black Flag because it seems to have some bearing on the thesis kaizoku is suggesting... because it's more or less Cordingly's statement of purpose for the book. Warning... it's 800 words plus, and the footnotes cut/pasted as # symbols... titles of books and references did not transfer in italics etc... and it's late so I'm not into transcribing all of the foots and bracketing what should be italisized tonight. I'll be happy to do it tomorrow if anyone is really worried about it. The object of the review was to analyze the book, determine the authors' intent, and to either support his position or disprove it, and only this one book was under consideration... in other words, what sources did this author use and how did he use them. This is what I came up with. Enjoy or ignore... your option Oh, and just so you know, I scored 37 out of a possible 40 points on this project. Book Review: Under The Black Flag by David Cordingly For partial credit, History 112 Sir Eric (name changed to protect the guilty) The stated intention of David Cordingly's Under The Black Flag is to "...examine the popular image of pirates today, to find out where this image came from, and to compare it with the real world of pirates." # Cordingly draws his arguments from both historical and fictional sources, comparing and contrasting the romanticized view of pirates from literature with the factual accounts of their brutal and often short lives in an attempt to prove that pirates have attained an aura of romance that they do not deserve. Two of the earliest known historical accounts of sixteenth and seventeenth century pirates serve both as prime sources for Cordingly's book, and inspiration for the earliest writers of pirate fiction: Alexander Exquemelin's The Buccaneers of America (1678) and Captain Charles Johnson's A General History of the Most Notorious Pirates. (1724) Both books contain vivid details of famous pirates and provide the basis for characters in popular works of fiction such as Treasure Island and Peter Pan. Cordingly sites personal letters of both Robert Louis Stevenson and J.M. Barrie crediting Exquemelin and Johnson as major influences on their work. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the London stage was popularizing the image of pirates as "brave outlaws."# However, Cordingly uses the research of J.R. Parish and Jeffrey Richards to suggest it was Hollywood that fully established the current image of pirates. Epic adventures starring handsome men such as Errol Flynn and Douglass Fairbanks Sr. rescuing beautiful women in exotic locations have been cemented in public perception.# While many works of fiction have some basis in historical fact, Cordingly uses numerous sources to examine the truth behind common misconceptions. His research turns up no evidence of treasure maps.# Sparse evidence exists of wooden legs in Johnson's General History and a series of watercolors by caricature artist Thomas Rowlandson.# Of walking the plank Cordingly only sites one example from The Times of July 23, 1829, long after the Golden Age of Piracy had ended.# Charles Hill’s Notes on Piracy in Eastern Waters establishes that Captain Kidd was most likely the sole source of the concept of buried treasure.# Marooning, made famous by Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, was often practiced by pirates, however Cordingly proves that the custom is grossly misrepresented. Defoe’s novel was most likely based on the plight of Andrew Selkirk, chronicled in the journals of Buccaneer Captain Woodes Rogers.# Selkirk was not marooned, but accidentally left behind while searching for water. Islands that were used for marooning purposes tended to be a barren spit of sand devoid of any means of shelter or survival.# Utilizing Royal Navy records, Admiralty Court documents, newspaper articles and personal journals, Cordingly provides a picture of life among pirates that is far from the romantic images presented in fiction. There are some surprises; pirates were uniquely democratic in an age of monarchies. Pirate captains and officers were sometimes elected and deposed by majority vote. The course of the vessels and division of loot were decided by councils who drew up “articles” that also determined disciplinary measures, payment for loss of limb or eye in combat, and how any captured loot would be shared out. Cordingly draws on Exquemelin’s Buccaneers of America for a detailed examples of this teamwork,# and the application of such codes is sited in the journals of the pirate Basil Ringrose.# This apparent display of civility seems to have applied only to their own. The most gruesome details of life among pirates, Cordingly shows, are what romantic works of literature intentionally avoid. Accounts of murder, rape and torture are plentiful. The Calendar of State Papers: Colonial, America and West Indies provide Cordingly with tales of entire crews murdered, prisoners used as target practice and one especially horrid account detailing how Edward Low “...cut off the said Master’s lips and broiled them before his face.”# When monetary loot was not to be had, pirates would take anything of value, as The Deposition of George Barrow quoted by Cordingly from the Public Records Office demonstrates: “fourteen boxes of candles, and two boxes of soap... anchor and cable and several carpenters tools” were plundered from the sloop Content when she had nothing else to offer.# It is hard to imagine characters such as Lord Byron’s The Corsair settling for such a meager payoff. Movie directors and fictional authors never intended to show the reality of life among pirates, but to simply entertain. Cordingly’s claim that such works have contorted our perception of a social phenomena is clearly borne out by documents ranging from journals of those who traveled with pirates, the records of those who tried and hung them, and the efforts of historians who looked beyond myth and popular legend. Under The Black Flag easily meets the burden of proof in its intention of looking at those concepts, finding their sources and presenting the underlying truths. P.S... after cutting and pasting this item, I've noticed that a lot of the punctuation and formatting are not as originally written... so forgive me if it seems discordant.... I don't want to portray my history professor as a lenient fob who let's bad writting pass easily... cause he's actually a major hard-a** Cheers!

Long winded? How dare you... um... ... ah, okay... you're right. We've gotten way more serious about this topic than it probably merits... but what the heck? And... in that vein... Okay... so socialist pirates... I've done a little more relfection on the whole idea, and I've decided that even if pirates didn't actively pursue the idealism behind socialism, they kinda practiced it all the same. Booty taken went into a general fund, distributed evenly according to rank. No prize, no booty. That sounds like socialism in an extreemly general manner. All for one, one for all. Don't hold up your end of the bargain, you get tossed off the boat. No questioning of the authority in control, less you have the numbers to replace said authority. The pirate articles could be seen as a sort of socialist policy... health care and welfare at the expense of the whole without paying in (in a monetary sense.) I'm not saying pirates actively took a socialist ideology... but there may be an argument that they followed one even if they didn't know it. Discuss.

Conclusions do come at the end of a research project, but the thesis comes at the begining. Thesis: Pirate crews elected captains and other officers. Research: Sometimes, but not exclusively, and less frequently than at first thought. Arguments in favor of the thesis include examples A, B and C, arguments to the contrary of the thesis include examples D, E and F. And G. Oh, and H as well. Conclusion: While not all pirate crews elected captains and officers, there were those that followed a democratic selection process, making them even MORE unique and significant than if it were a general practice. kaizoku, you still have a valid research topic IMHO, as long as your thesis isn't "all" pirate captains were elected by their crews. However, history very rarely deals in absolutes. Have fun!

Dunno... but right now I think I can honestly lay claim to being the most land locked pirate of the entire demographic at this moment... from what I can see on that there map, tain't nobody farther from the sea than I be!

Percussionist here... traditional irish frame drum (bodhran) bones and other assorting things I can smack together and get a rythm going.

http://www.ambergris.co.nz/about.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris

Mission, I think you and I are actually on the same page. I don't believe for a moment that anyone read The Social Contract and said "Diderot and Locke are right! To hell with the Aristocracy and this silly form of government! A pirate's life for me!" I would think for most people (not all) that piracy would be a last resort ... after all, it wasn't exactly a mystery what happened to pirates if they got caught ... so there would have to be some kind of desperation behind turning to a life of crime, murder and other nastyness. I cannot argue that point. But, looking at the literacy rates listed in this thread and knowing that there most certainly were a few educated and enlightened individuals among pirate crews (Dampier, for example, would be a great example of an enlightened, educated man who applied the scientific principal) its fun to wonder what their politics and ideals were. Sure, pirate by neccessity, but what kind of conversations and arguments must they have had... think about it... can you imagine two pirates, one a former silk merchant and the other a former dirt farmer discussing economic politics? Hrm... I'm seeing a new script begining to form in my head here....

It was common practice for the "common" people to gather at chocolate houses, tea houses and other social gathering places to discuss the news and trends of the times... and indeed, to read outloud to each other popular literature of the day. No reason to doubt men at sea (pirates or no) would do the same thing... if you're stuck without wind for days on end, seems to me a natural way to pass the time. Books may have been expensive and hard to come by, but pamphlets and other periodical type writings were pretty popular, and contained LOTS of social commentary. Heck, a pirate could easily have read (or heard) mussings from Voltaire, Robspierre, Prime Minister Walpole or any other "illuminary" right beside critical commentary by the editors. One note... don't confuse "social change" with the idea of "socialism." Socialism is a political viewpoint, (or practice) where social change is an ever-present and ongoing fact of life. Luther nailing his thesis on the church door was not a "socialist" act, but it led to social change. 9/11 created social changes. Although, there probably were some socialist pirates... and I suspect they were all probably Dutch.

It wouldn't surprise me if here and there a pirate read (or had read to him) a little John Locke. :)

Great discussion! Okay, had to dig out my notes myself on this. It would seem that unemployment played a huge part in pirate activity (at certain moments in history) from what I've gleaned out of my research. Now, this is according to Cordingly, (say THAT five times fast) who is not a primary source, but the data he collected is indeed from primary sources... and since I don't have time to go dig around the Admiralty Court Archives this week... 73% of pirates convicted by the Admiralty courts between 1600 and 1640 described themselves as former mariners or sailors. 98% of pirates convicted in the 1720's claimed they were formerly of the Merchant or Royal navies, or described themselves as "privateers." (Cordingly, Under The Black Flag, p. 10) These numbers corrolate to cessation of hostilities between England and Spain, first in 1603, and again in 1715. (Cordingly, p. 192) So one might infer that not having a war to fight (and the privateering benifits associated with it) sailors turned to piracy to make a living. As to the "terrorist" lable... that's pure semantics. Not all criminals are terrorists, not all terrorists are criminals. Terrorism does not always rely on idealistic, religous or political motivation. (Just ask any kid who has to deal with a bully at school) That's kinda the realm of eye of the beholder and a syndrome called "Interest Induced Bias." To a certain point of logic, if you meet your ends by the use of terror, you're a terrorist. Certainly, pirates terrorized their victims once in a while. As to underlying social changes... I think it's safe to assume that the social changes that affected those on land would have affected those at sea. The ideas of the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Restoration, (the 3 "arrrrrs" of history) the Enlightenment, the scientific revolution, industrial revolution (started earlier than you might think)I think it's safe to say, all played a part in pirate life, thought we might not know exactly how.

Well, here's one each from the two shows I run around with... Ministry of Petty Offenses: And, the Pirates of Tortuga