Captain Jim

I know that Amanjira AKA Freebooter Jack (Orlando area) brought 10 pyrates down this year and has tentatively promised 12 for next, including his parents, and that he, at the least, intends to camp. Now that's recruiting! Another thought here. Should participation in daily camp activities be limited to those who are actually sleeping in the Fort? I am of the opinion not. While increasing the actual number of tents and campers is important I think that anyone who wants to play but does not have a taste for canvas houses should be allowed. If they have put in the effort to assemble good period garb and have the desire to help with any of the above listed activities they should be allowed to participate but with strong encouragement to set up tents in the following year.

Next time I'm laying up a new anchor rode for my aircraft carrier, I'll think of these.

Let’s start off with a quick statement about the ultimate goals of the 1720 camp and the method we want to employ to achieve those goals. The Goal is to create a setting representative of a careening camp circa 1720. Within this camp we would like to demonstrate sailorly pursuits that could conceivably have been pursued ashore during the repairing of the ship. These may include marlinespike work, other knot-work, rigging, cooking, fire starting, sewing (sails and clothing), casting pistol balls, music/singing, use of boarding weapons, black powder demonstrations and sleeping off a drunk (Patrick has dibs on this one) among other things. Wenching and rhum drinking will be reserved for after dark. Picking a specific year (1720) will help to define what your character would know about pyrates and pyracy at the time. We can then speak to the public in character as if we were speaking from personal knowledge. We can, for instance, talk about Mary, Anne and that dolt captain of theirs, Rackham, as if we knew them personally. Very hush-hush you know as we don't want to hang with them. Introduce the fact that pyracy isn't as easy as it was before the English started cracking down. Picking a year late in the Age allows all who have assembled a kit to use it as early- and mid-Age styles would conceivably have still been in use. I pyrated the following from William: "Year one (2007): Strong encouragement towards period appropriate gear, but with a mindset on recruitment first. We must increase our overall numbers for the sake of the festival. Quantity first. Then Quality in the near future. Please choose people who show the enthusiasm to work and play well together. "Also, as always, an emphasis should be made on group discussions leading up to and during PIP of 2007. Ongoing education through group and individual exploration of period texts and archeology, but leaning towards enthusiasm before perfection. Those with a marked understanding of period clothing should always encourage new attendees to take pride in a carefully selected kit, while maintaining their enthusiasm to a sometimes costly hobby. "Year two (2008): Correction of gear through instruction and alteration. Open encouragement to change non-period gear in preparation for a living historical camp in 2009. A few added restrictions on very obvious and inaccurate portrayals or camp gear. An added emphasis towards regular attendees on improving their personal kits. Hands on workshops in the form of sewing circles, craftsman workshops, etc. Open invitation to sutlers of period accurate wares. "Recruitment should continue year to year, and like discussion and education, it should never be replaced. "Year three (2009): A code of appropriate clothing based on the discussion, alteration and education from the previous two years. Possible judging prior to event through a selected, hand-picked circle of attendees. "This is a porposal open to alteration. This allows us three years to perfection with a set goal in mind and a level of accuracy to climb to by degrees. Perhaps fours or five years might be necessary, but goals both short term and long term will vastly improve the outset of the festival. "Education and recruitment should be the watchwords of every year. New people. New kit." So there you have it.

The only area for which we are proposing minimal 1720 standards will be on our own little 1720 camp, a very small part of the whole affair, where we would like to do skill demonstrations, answer questions about the GAoP, pose for photo-ops and recruit new pyrates to the greater world of pyrate reenacting. So there is lots of room at PiP for pyrates of all stripes within the years and standards that Harry has set. As Patrick has said, good, honest attempts at period dress should be honored and then improved on, either on the spot or for next year. He also noted that neither one of us are done with development either. I plan to sew an entire kit this year as up to this point I’ve been “store buying” my stuff, all except my hat. Its all cotton and machine sewn with fall-front slops, all of which I plan to bring as extras and loaners. So basically I am at the desirable minimum, but just for our little corner of the world. Patrick is a bit beyond that, but I’m catching up. However, the stuff that I have will work if I don’t have time to create all-new kit. Moreover everything that I have is readily available and fairly affordable. But, starting now, anyone with a few hours of time each week can finish an entire kit by next year (351 days, to be exact.) Meanwhile, in order to reduce the confusion, we will now start a separate 1720 Camp thread dedicated to and limited to that 1720 camp. Any guidelines or standards that we agree on here are for this camp only and do not affect anyone else attending PiP insomuch as they adhere to Harry's time frame. Anyone who wishes to join us in the attempt to recreate a 1720 careening camp is welcome. Help will be offered to all who want it and constructive ideas wanted from all who offer. In the coming days we will establish our desired minimum standards. The sooner that we accomplish this the better, as it will give us all time to hone our skills, create our kits and work out the myriad details needed to create the camp.

The only area for which we are proposing minimal 1720 standards will be on our own little 1720 camp, a very small part of the whole affair, where we would like to do skill demonstrations, answer questions about the GAoP, pose for photo-ops and recruit new pyrates to the greater world of pyrate reenacting. So there is lots of room at PiP for pyrates of all stripes within the years and standards that Harry has set. As Patrick has said, good, honest attempts at period dress should be honored and then improved on, either on the spot or for next year. He also noted that neither one of us are done with development either. I plan to sew an entire kit this year as up to this point I’ve been “store buying” my stuff, all except my hat. Its all cotton and machine sewn with fall-front slops, all of which I plan to bring as extras and loaners. So basically I am at the desirable minimum, but just for our little corner of the world. Patrick is a bit beyond that, but I’m catching up. However, the stuff that I have will work if I don’t have time to create all-new kit. Moreover everything that I have is readily available and fairly affordable. But, starting now, anyone with a few hours of time each week can finish an entire kit by next year (351 days, to be exact.) Meanwhile, in order to reduce the confusion, we will now start a separate 1720 Camp thread dedicated to and limited to that 1720 camp. Any guidelines or standards that we agree on there are for that camp only and do not affect anyone else attending PiP insomuch as they adhere to Harry's time frame. Anyone who wishes to join us in the attempt to recreate a 1720 careening camp is welcome. Help will be offered to all who want it and constructive ideas wanted from all who offer.

Hawkyns, yer a gruff ol' bear, but we still respect your input. While we may be taking a different tack than you would, I think we all have the same goal, authenticity. Check in from time to time to see how this shakes out. We may see you down there yet.

Before hollow masts any hoisting was done by blocks attached to the mast, crosstrees, etc. sheaves are the actual "wheel" that is the heart of the pulley. Built into the mast there are no other parts but the sheave and the axle or pin.

OK, I'll shut up for a while and let Harry take this one. (But the short answer is "yes")

We have simply got to talk about your Halloween set up. I have tentatively volunteered my house for use as a haunted house for this year as a benefit for the Myakka City Community Center. I need ideas, cheap ideas at that.

I knew that the "no-tent" rule would never fly, more in jest than anything. Still, it is the least expensive way to go and can serve to open up the possibilities for those who can't afford a ready-made tent. Or who aren't sew-crazy like Patrick and hand sew their own sail. Or who just want to carry the careening scenario to its extreme. On with the show. Two camps it is, with liberal reference and respect to all of the history in between.

And since pulleys on early ships would almost certainly have been universally enclosed within wooden cheeks, they would universally have been called blocks. Works for me.

I'd say we do allow canvas tents that look right (not nylon dome tents)... ) Yes I knew that would be the case, but still it would be nice to get away from tents altogether for our scenario. As it is, I am going to engineer some doors or front enclosure for the Oar House for the privacy. Also a shower enclosure to set up, at appointed times and for the use of all, around the beach showers. Maybe then my wife will accompany me next year.

Yo, heard that. I need hemp rope for blocks and hemp canvas for a squaresail(?) and slops for next year. Price 'em right and I'm yours.

No one is probably going to show up to camp inside the fort that isn’t familiar with this forum so they should know what they are getting into and make some effort to look period. So if they are way off still, we’ll help them out with loaner gear. Or Kass can sell them a basic kit off the rack (Kass?). I agree let them play, but the camp must have a minimum standard. To begin, there is that tent question. Obviously no nylon. (Rusty had a bivy sack to sleep in and it disappeared each morning. Come to think of it Rusty disappeared each night. Hmmm…) Since this is supposed to be a careening crew, do we allow tents at all, or should all shelter be made of readily available boat supplies, canvas, rope, iron spikes etc.? Radical, perhaps, but an interesting idea. Rusty plans to bring a pulling boat and tarp over that next year. The way we set up camp costs next to nothing, tent-wise, so there is really no reason not to buy a cotton drop cloth and join us. For a makeshift ground cloth a sheet of plastic under another drop cloth. Not really period but neither are the fillings in your teeth; No one is going to look at either of those places (I hope.) Or you can make one with linseed oil and turpentine like Patrick and I have. Stakes, poles and the like can be borrowed from the fort or purchased at Home Depot and donated to the fort when you fly home. Hotels in KW cost $350 and up a night. A four night stay is $1400. Staying at a campground costs $40-$50 a night, plus a rental car or cab fare to the fort, $400. Canvas, rope and stakes to make a careening camp $70, tops, and you can purchase it when you get here if need be. Spend the money you save over camping outside the fort or on hotel bills ($330 to $1330) on period kit. You have 352 days left, so get cracking. Kass’s operators are standing by.

This is a rope bound or rope stropped block: Illustration found here. You should also take a look here. The ones Dorian posted are iron stropped or bound. In both cases other ropes/blocks are attached by the stropping. On the rope ones the rope also serves to keep the axle from backing out. Often there is a plate of brass over the ends of the axle openings to prevent this as well, often times decorative (I have no pictures of that though.) With the rope ones the weight of the axle is borne by the wooden cheeks. With the iron ones the axle rests internally on the iron stropping and the wooden outer cheeks help to prevent chafe and snagging on sails.

The smoke and fire guys were spot on, as was the guy with the cannon (mostly.) I think that sutlers should play along. Less renn-fair costumes.

I imagine that this is not a problem for other reenactment groups, in that a whole regiment of folks don't show up to a Civil War reenactment and want/expect to take the field or even expect to be invited to participate. And come equipped with blades and black powder weapons, no less. At pyrate gatherings all kinds of folks show up ranging from the rediculous to the sublime and sometimes both extremes at the same time. An example: Obviously she has no place in any attempt at an authentic camp (except maybe after dark...OK, ok, Bad Pyrate) But this is the starting point for a great deal of our patrons and potential recruits: Hollywood and Vine. So how do we get them from there to here when there is so far away? Other reenactors recruit from folks interested in history while we recruit largely from a group hooked on the imagined romance of the sea and Errol Flynn...I mean Johnny Depp (letting my age show again...). We must do it by having fun and showing them that there is more to pyracy than Hollywood and Depp, and that reenacting pyracy is even more interesting and enjoyable than an occasional Hollywood night out, the bonus being that they don't even have to give up the Hollywood/Halloween aspect. But if we are clear up front then they will understand that they can't continue to bring Hollywood to camp. Accuracy is good and should be the ultimate goal. Eventually when we recruit someone at PiP or another camp we can set them on the path to the dark side with a whole year to prepare and more resources and connections than most of us had at the beginning. We can keep them from making the expensive mistakes in kit that we made and make the whole learning process more enjoyable. Eventually when the camp has reached a high level of authenticity and a certain sustainable mass we will have to clamp down and start refusing camp space to folks who have shown no effort to adhere to the standards. But as William and Hurricane have both said, now is not that time. Eventually, inevitably but not yet.

As always, William nails it on the head. An excellent plan.

Keystone, as in Kops?

Welcome lass. 'Tis good that scurvy bilge rat Spike is doing his job. I'll take ye up on that drink, a Barbados rum and lime, if ye please. Don't miss PiP next year.

I kind of like Speedwell. Tiburón = Shark in Spanish.....I don't think that an English crew would name their ship in Spanish...hold on...unless to terrify Spaniards..thought of that in mid sentence. Possibility. Callenish, next year will be better.

I like the rope-bound ones as well, I just couldn't exclude iron bound. I'll go with rope also because my 'smith skills are still developing. Meanwhile, in all my years at sea I have never heard a pulley called anything other than a block, including an individual single sheave variety. That of course is the sea lexicon which has been known to conflict with the lubber version. You know, port (larboard in our period) and starboard instead of left and right, stern not rear, below instead of downstairs, head and not bathroom, deck and not floor, cabin sole and not floor etc. Although the "casing" part of the difinition would seem to indicate the sides (cheeks), not always present in openwork all-iron pulleys.

Now for something out of the blue: Pictures! Where is the album from Callahan? I'm dyin' here!

Simple question here. While standing rigging of this time was usually deadeye tackle, the tensioning devices used to set them up and to hoist cargo were block and tackle pulley combinations. The question is whether they were iron bound or rope bound in the late GAoP ca. 1720, or if both were being employed at that time. And yes, I know they are called blocks on a ship. Used pulley to help avoid confusion and interest the non-nautical. Planning to work some up for pyrate camp. Thanks in advance for your help and feedback, O Knowledgeable Ones.

I still think 1720, notwithstanding the handsome, lovely and always talented crew of the 'Dog. Gives us 16 more years of pyrates and their escapades we can talk about to the gathering horde of patrons. And it ties into the tryal. Most of the pyrates that were last to go down were active in 1720, so we can talk about the "successful" pyrates that were still working at that time. Generally I think that later is easier than earlier as we in camp can talk about how well things are going and yet hint at the growing threat to our livelihood that is the English navy. I also agree with Patrick that a “Pyracy 101” class primer in either the Twill or Pirates in Paradise sections is in order. An outline of the origins of the growth of pyracy in this time frame and highlights of the more famous pyrates along with an outline of the living conditions, articles, crew structure and contributions to history as they are now understood would be helpful so that we humble pyrates can talk to the patrons from the same page.