Capt Thighbiter

Nuther funny story re: run cake. When i were married the first time, we brought back 'overproof' rum from Jamaica, warranted to be at least 180 proof. She made a rum cake shortly after that for a (new) family getogether and used that as the rum, aye, an liberally used it. All my young nephews and nieces LOVED it ( ages 7 and under) so much, they started sneaking into the pantry to take more, with the result that all of them were good'n plastered. New family rule - no rum cake for the wee ones!

THanks mate!

We are trying to identify this song, from Master and Commander, by the lyric sung in the movie, but no luck so far. Any one know the title of this tune? "Come all you bold young sailors, A warning take by me and never leave your happy home to sail the raging sea" Thanks mates!

NEVER put a finer grade of black powder into a cannon barrel. Yes, you get a bigger boom with FFF grade, thats because the finer the grade the quicker burning it is. Quicker burning means more pressure in the barrel. Using FFF is a good way to blow up your barrel. Depending on the bore size, either cannon grade F or at most FF for the smaller bores should be used. I suggest you peruse http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/vi...34756e50afc6f0c The cannon forum there. It has information on blank loads for various bore sizes, safe ignition methods, making cartridges and a host of other very useful information. I would also suggest you obtain a copy of "THe More Complete Cannoneer" by Switlik. Cannon are not small arms and need to treated with a LOT more respect. When small arms blow up, they rarely injur anyone else then the shooter. Cannon, however, can explode and spread fragments over a wide area. The key word with cannon is safety. Any one else care to give the First Mate here some advice, so we don't loose a new member of the form?

Likely it was a concious decision to use 'coals' in lieu of hot shot. Using hot shot was a known technique. But live coals looks much better on camera!

Thankee Bess! My compliments to Mr Henderson on a thundering well writ song.

I believe the Denex guns metal parts are all pot metal, ie cast zinc. Very soft.

Now, how about the Chords??

I have to say that the camps keep getting bigger and better every year we are there. You all out did yourselves! Great to see some of our old friends and to meet some of the folks from Pyracy (who had time to stop for 2 minutes and talk). We had a lot of fun Sunday 'branding' kids and some parents with the Pyracy P ( ink of course).

Just uploaded to The Brigands website, thebrigands.com are 4 new videos from the Blackbeard Festival and the Hudson Valley Mayfaire. Noteworthy in that these are rare all accoustic performances. Come on by , mates, and have a listen. Tunes include "Brandons Prelude" and "Mariner's Revenge" by the Decemberists

Vintage, Crudbeard, those are two nice looking castings. Good detail and definition. I'd be interested to know what the firing versions will be going for?

The Brigands cover 'Mariners Revenge" on our CD, "X". Different take on the great Decemberists tune. More salty, less like klezmer music.

THe question is: What is meant by a 'round hat' and when were they introduced, not on ship, but ashore?

An excellent resource for cannon purchase can be found on greybeardoutdoors.com forums, look in the cannon/blackpowder forum - they have an extensive list of most cannon makers in the US incuding some who do NOT advertise on the web ususally.

Ahoy Wages, One thing about mounting stuff to your car.... keep it as light as possible. We have a lot of stuff mounted on the Hellion, but all light weight and mounted so solidly that I believe the top of the van would tear off before anything came loose in an accident. Thats my (and will be yours) greatest fear. Turning a barrel out of pine shouldn't weigh much, but adding carriage etc.. well.

Hey Matt, for those pubbers that dont have the "P" badge, I have a really small P branding iron I made. At Renn faires, we use a stamp pad and 'mark' new crew members. I can give us all a nice P on the cheek!

We, The Brigands , perform 'Mariners' in a piratey fashion and less Klesmer like, in concert, an it's on our new CD, "X", too. My personal favs are songs that tell a story, an I always try to do that when writing an original song. Non-secular songs of the period have some distictive chord structures, and we try to emulate that too. But being an instrumentalist first, and a singer second, I love the old fiddle tunes that are still around. Devils Dream, a reel, ( aka Hell Amoungst the Yearlings), one of my favs, was at the height of its popularity in the early 1700's, and survives today. Any fiddler worth 'is salt knows at least couple of variations on the tune. Our version is on "Bloody Seamen".

bring rum. and more rum. the sat night sing at the pirate camp is awesome and not to be missed, unless it's for more rum.

DAM, Vintagesailor, that is NICE lookng mortar! Correctme if I am wrong but were not mortars always made with trunions on centerline? Its the long guns that originally had trunions below CL.

OK from what I have read now, it seems the trunions were placed lower then centerline because prior to the creation of trunion shoulders, placing the trunion lower increased the amount of metal in contact from the trunion to the barrel. Once cannon makers have figured out how to add shoulders the trunions started to migrate up to centerline. Also, putting the trunion at centerline reduced the the tendency of the barrel to want to 'flip' over. It also allowed the barrel to be flipped over in the carriage if the original top surface got too corroded from the elements and extending the life of the barrel. But as far as an exact date when the switch was made - impossible to say, as each country and cannon maker had his own idea of what worked best. THe best I can say is that by 1780 or so, most but not all trunions were being placed on centerline. Just to cloud the issue up - carronades have NO trunions and the pivot for the barrel was directly under it. From what I read, carronades had a wicked tendency to want to flip completely over, hence the wood and metal slides that were used with them. ` Dophins are just lifting rings made fancy, and they started to show up on cast barrels early on. Rare on iron gunsnot sure why, but likely due to casting limitations of the time. As cannon handling techniques improved, dolphins started to be left off. Again no hard dates for that.

Matt, your swords are soooo worth the coin, ever since I got mine at Blackbeard last year, it's a point of interest for almost every patron! Dam shame I can't win it at the Soiree... See ye on Fri nite!

Dam that was fast! I was going to have one of our followers PM you. Well what can you do, right? We have made our cake and now we must lie in it.

Now, if it was a SOAP and water anti-piracy cannon, I could see pirates being afeared of it........

A small vessel, as in " That damned Dutch-built hoy" A hoy was a small sloop-rigged coasting ship or a heavy barge used for freight. The word derives from the Middle Dutch hoey Precisely what it was like and what its use, changed with time. In the fifteenth century it might be a small spritsail-rigged warship like a cromster. Like the earlier forms of the French chaloupe, it could be a heavy and unseaworthy harbour boat or a small coastal sailing vessel. (Latterly, the chaloupe was a pulling cutter - nowadays motorized.) Principally, and more so latterly, the hoy was a passenger and/or cargo boat. From an English point of view, it was particularly one working in the Thames Estuary and southern North Sea in the manner of the Thames sailing barge of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the name originated in the Netherlands and from there, a slightly different vessel did the same sort of work in similar waters.

Nor are ye likely to. Good one Stynky